Common Causes of Drinking Water Pollution

Drinking water is vital for human life. Most people can go for days without food — hunger strikes ofup to 40 daysare well documented, some prisoners have lasted for up to 73 days without food, and the longest known fastlasted for over a year,但确实需要supplemen人问题ts. But water is a different story entirely. If the human body does not receive hydration, it rapidly begins to shut down. Though different people experience different responses to water deprivation, it's generally true that a person deprived of water wouldlast only about a weekor less in harsh conditions.

喝干净的水也很关键。然而，地球的优质饮用水供应正在减少。水污染是一个加速问题 - 一个惊人的问题世界上有80％的废水, for example, is currently dumped back into the fresh water supply without undergoing treatment first. Every year, unclean water使十亿人生病and kills 1.8 million.

幸运的是，我们可以采取措施帮助解决饮用水污染的问题。在下面，我们将讨论什么是水污染，布置一些常见的水污染物及其来源，并谈论个人可以做些什么来帮助防止水污染并确保自己的安全和健康。

什么是水污染？

水污染发生在污染物如chemicals, pathogens, waste, excess nutrients, or heavy metals enter the water supply. These harmful contaminants cause water quality to deteriorate. They might merely give the water an unpleasant taste or smell, or they might make it toxic to drink or swim in.

Water pollution generally has two types — point pollution and nonpoint pollution. Point pollution comes from a single source, such as when a factory discharges contaminated water directly into a waterway. Nonpoint pollution comes from several different sources, such as when floodwaters sweep over the land and pick up contaminants from different farms or factories. There's also transboundary pollution, which occurs when water pollution from one nation spills across its border into another.

Water pollution can affect both surface water and groundwater, making both types of water sources unsafe to drink.

地表水污染

Surface water is the water that covers the majority of the earth's surface — our oceans, rivers, lakes, ponds, and streams. Surface water from freshwater sources like rivers and lakes makes up the source for about61% of the waterAmericans use in their homes. But the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that a troubling46% of U.S. rivers and streamsare too polluted for humans to use as safe sources of water or even for recreation.

Groundwater Pollution

当降水渗入地球表面并聚集在含水层（一个天然的地下水库中）时，地下水会收集。剩下的40％左右没有从地表水中获得水的美国人，通常是从井中从地下水那里获得的。地下水尤其是化学径流对污染敏感，这可能使数十年来不适合使用的含水层，甚至几千年。

Main Causes of Water Pollution

一些主要因素导致水污染和受污染的饮用水。

Urban Centers

城市中心每天生产数千加仑的废水。在美国，废水在被释放前接受治疗，但是如果没有彻底处理废水，它仍然可以将污染物（包括有害病原体）释放到供水中。有故障的化粪池系统，泄漏的下水道线，泄漏的垃圾填埋场，草坪化学品，农药，宠物废物和家用清洁剂也可以通过径流或直接倾倒在水道上污染城市地区附近的水。

Industrial waste from factories or processing plants near urban centers also causes water pollution. Factories use and produce many toxic substances — lead, nitrates, asbestos, sulfur, and more — and when they dump their wastewater into lakes or rivers, water pollution is the result. Industrial runoff can also lead to an overgrowth of nutrients such as sulfites, nitrates, and phosphates — an overgrowth known as eutrophication — and promote the formation of toxic algae blooms, which can diminish oxygen levels and choke out other aquatic plant and animal life. Some of these blooms produce neurotoxins that are fatal to wildlife.

不断发展的城市中心通常是建筑项目的家园。这些项目通常涉及住宅或商业建筑，或者可能涉及基础设施项目，例如建造新道路或桥梁。无论哪种方式，化学溶剂以及其他污染物和碎屑都可以轻松从城市建筑地点洗涤并进入供水。

Deforestation

森林砍伐会导致土壤侵蚀，因为否则将土壤固定到位的树根系统的损失。如果地面含有污染物，例如家用化学物质或农药，则土壤侵蚀也会导致水污染。这些化学物质进入河流，湖泊和溪流，最终进入我们的供水，并损害当地的植物和野生动植物。

Even if the soil that washes into water contains no harmful chemicals, sedimentation itself can pollute the water supply. Too much sediment in the water decreases the amount of sunlight and oxygen available to aquatic species like fish. It can also kill fish larvae and collect in fish gills, ultimately leading to the death of the adult fish as well.

A recent paper published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences studied deforestation and its effect on access to clean water in Malawi, which has the highest deforestation rate in sub-Saharan Africa. The researchers found that a 1% increase in deforestation led to acorresponding 0.93% decreasein access to clean drinking water. A recent 14% increase in deforestation in Malawi led to a clean-water scarcity similar to the scarcity that would occur with a 9% decrease in rainfall across the country. And similar effects are evident around the world.

河水坝

According to the EPA, dams can cause increased water pollution. Of course, a river dam causes water to back up and accumulate — and if the water contains sediment or chemical contaminants, those contaminants back up and accumulate as well.

Dam construction can also lead to soil erosion and increased sedimentation of the river. The EPA recommends athree-part strategyto combat soil erosion—developing a plan to create as little soil disturbance as possible, diverting and creating barriers to runoff, and using sediment-capturing devices to keep sediment from washing away downriver. Using local vegetation as a barrier to runoff and sediment loss, such as with vegetative buffers and geogrids, is often part of an effective strategy. Tools and techniques such as bank shaping, branch packing, brush layering, runoff intercepts, retaining walls, sediment fences, and tree armoring are helpful as well.

Debris from construction or chemicals like adhesives used in the building of the dam may also wash into the river and flow toward residential faucets and showerheads. Construction managers on a new dam site should take care to keep these contaminants contained.

Wetland Destruction

When left undisturbed, wetlands act as a天然水过滤器. In the wetlands, plants' roots usually grow submerged in water, so the plants can take in some harmful substances and keep them out of the environment — much as plants take in carbon dioxide, use it for respiration, and give off oxygen as a byproduct. Wetlands also act as a buffer against storms and erosion.

But as human habitation encroaches on wetlands, wetland areas diminish, and their filtering and buffering capabilities diminish as well. Wetland destruction leads to erosion and more significant flooding runoff, both of which can spread contaminants far across the surrounding land. And a smaller area of wetlands can filter a much smaller volume of pollutants out of our environment.

湿地破坏通常恰好是人类建设的空间，建筑工地通常包含溶剂，粘合剂和其他化学物质，这些化学物质逃离并污染了附近的水道。如果湿地被摧毁以使炼油厂或管道为空间，那么漏油和水污染的风险也非常高。

Mining

煤矿矿井的数量增加rals and salts in the environment and produce contaminating byproducts such as metallic waste. These toxic byproducts easily wash away in the rain or leach into the groundwater. Either way, they soon end up in our water supply.Too much sodium在饮用水中可能对患有某些心脏病的人有害。硼对少量植物生命有益的硼可能对较高浓度的植物具有致命性。

Runoff from mines can also change the pH of the surrounding water, making it either more acidic or more basic. An excessive concentration of iron in water, for example, causes acidification and also lends the water a reddish color. It can stain a home's pipes and bathroom fixtures and even discolor fabrics in the laundry. Acidic water can easily corrode a home's plumbing, and basic water forms unsightly scale deposits.

农业

Agricultural runoff is a tremendous cause of water pollution — it is theleading cause of compromised water quality在美国。大多数非有机农场使用化肥和农药来提高产量。但是，这些肥料和农药可以随着春雨或洪水流入供水而流出。

Improper irrigation practices can also lead to contaminated runoff. The evaporation of irrigation water can lead to a high concentration of salts, and irrigation runoff often contains pesticides, fertilizers, and heavy metals.

Additionally, agricultural fertilizers often contain nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. These elements — nitrogen in particular – are some of the primary causes of the eutrophication process mentioned above. Nitrogen in water turns into nitrates, and nitrates can cause human health problems if consumed. Infants, in particular, are susceptible to a disease called methemoglobinemia — known colloquially as "blue baby syndrome" — which reduces oxygen in the blood to dangerously low levels. High levels of nitrates can also lead to a toxic overgrowth of algae in lakes and rivers.

Agricultural operations are also sources of animal waste. Particularly in feedlots, where pigs, sheep, or cattle crowd into one place to consume food, animal waste collects in concentrated amounts. According to the EPA, 238,000 U.S. ranches and farms are classified as feeding operations, and they generate500 million tons of manureannually. If runoffcarries this waste into the water supply，它可以引入有害病毒和细菌病原体，例如霍乱，贾第鞭毛虫和大肠杆菌。农民可以通过存储或处理垃圾无法泄漏到地下水或流入溪流和河流的地方来帮助解决此问题。

甚至牲畜放牧会导致水contamination. Overgrazing depletes the natural root system that helps hold soil in place. When this happens, the eroded soil washes into the water supply. This soil erosion can introduce herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers into the water supply and pollute it so that it becomes unsafe to drink.

地下存储和管道泄漏

One of the all-too-common causes of water pollution is leaks from fuel storage and transport. As companies transport liquid petroleum products through underground pipelines, environmentally devastating leaks may occur at any point of the journey.

The Keystone Pipeline oil leak of 2019, which spilledmore than 378,000 gallons of crude oilinto North Dakota, is just one notorious example of these leaks. Though it did not affect drinking water quality because the spill area was not a drinking water source, it sent contaminants flooding into North Dakota's wetlands, leaving residuesthat will likely lingerfor years to come. A similar leak near a water source could contaminate drinking water for thousands of people.

Corrosion or repeated use can also damage underground storage containers (UST), allowing contaminants to cause soil and groundwater pollution. One pinprick-sized hole in a UST candischarge up to 400 gallons of fuela year, and a single gallon of leaked petroleum can contaminate up to 1 million gallons of water.

水污染的影响

Water pollution has highly detrimental effects on human health and the environment. Let's take a closer look at some of the damage it can cause.

人类健康影响

Illnesses such as giardia, cholera, hepatitis A, Legionnaire's disease, schistosomiasis, and typhoid often spread through contaminated drinking water. Many of these illnesses cause gastrointestinal symptoms, some severe. Globally, contaminated drinking water造成485,000腹泻有关的死亡every year.

In the United States,大约有720万人生病every year because of contaminants in their drinking water. For example, the EPA reports thatbetween 8,000 and 18,000 peopleper year become hospitalized from Legionnaire's disease, a respiratory infection caused by contaminated aerosols in piped water systems.

水污染的不利健康影响通常不成比例地影响低收入社区, as well. Sources of water pollution are more likely to be located close to their homes, and these communities often have aging water infrastructures.

Environmental Effects

Contaminated water has devastating effects on the environment. A small change in water quality can have ripple effects through an entire complex ecosystem, affecting everything from tiny microorganisms to algae and plants to fish and wildlife.

One common environmental result of nutrient pollution in water sources is algal overgrowth. When agricultural pollution sends excess nutrients running off into the water supply, algae thrive on them and begin to proliferate. They consume most of the oxygen in the water, choking out fish and other aquatic species. Some algae alsoproduce neurotoxins that can be deadlyeven for large species like sea turtles and whales.

Contaminants from municipal and industrial wastewater are harmful to the environment, as well. Wastewater often contains heavy metals and chemicals that are toxic to plants and animals. They may also interfere with reproductive abilities. Studies have found that improper disposal of hormonal birth control — flushing it into the water supply — can鱼的生殖能力降低, for example. Alternatively, they may sicken or kill wildlife, reducing biodiversity and leaving a contaminated habitat behind.

Pollutants like pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and heavy metals like mercury often make their fatal way up the food chain, accumulating in the bodies of large predators like eagles with every small fish they eat.

How Can I Help Prevent Water Contamination?

水污染是一个严重的问题，但是即使在家里，每一一点预防都会有所帮助。您可以通过采取一些简单步骤来帮助防止水污染：

1. 拿起宠物废物：Picking up pet waste helps guard against the transmission of bacteria and viruses into the water supply.


2. 在安全距离距离水源的安全距离处行走：Try to walk your pets in grassy or wooded areas rather than along riverbanks or near ponds. That way, even if pets' waste transmits harmful pathogens into the ground, they won't contaminate sources of drinking water.


3. Minimize the use of harsh pesticides and herbicides:Try to use natural, nontoxic methods instead, such as growing plants that insects avoid or minimizing the accumulation of pest food sources.


4. Use phosphate-free soaps and detergents:Using phosphate-free soaps and detergents helps keep an overabundance of nutrients from leading to algae blooms in our water supply.


5. Use appliances sparingly:有效利用洗碗机和洗衣机至关重要。仅当这些设备充满时，才能使用这些电器，这意味着您会使用较少的洗涤剂，这意味着从废水中流出的污染物较少。


6. Have your septic system professionally inspected:专业检查有助于确保您的化粪池系统不会将废物泄漏到环境中。


7. Support sustainable agriculture:If you have local organic farms in your area, buying some of your food from them is a great way to reduce the environmental impact of your consumption. You'll get fresh, locally sourced foods, and you'll know they kept their local water supply free from pesticides and herbicides. Supporting free-range operations where animals are not confined to feedlots also helps protect the water supply from concentrated animal waste.


8. Use a water filtration system:Even if you can't prevent all contaminants from getting into the local drinking water, you can still keep your home's water safe and refreshing. A water filtration system helps reduce the number of contaminants in your water so you'll always have great-tasting and healthy water to drink.

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