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Water pollution an essay
Water pollution an essay
Water pollution an essay
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It is scary but true. Water, one hydrogen and two oxygen, is a compound that life on Earth is completely dependent upon. A clean drinking water supply is imperative if life is going to continue. Without a supply of clean drinking water, life would cease to exist. Much of Earth’s water is contaminated with chemicals and more water is being polluted each day. The sad fact is that the pollutants are being dumped into the water by man himself. We are slowly, and knowingly, killing off our own kind.
Industrial processes all over the world are contaminating fresh water sources with biochemical waste. This waste makes its way into homes is causing unspeakable illnesses and in too many cases death. The predominant cause of death from people’s coming into contact with contaminated water is cancer. Clusters of cancer cases are appearing all over our country in towns and cities whose water supply has been contaminated by industrial carcinogens. The unsettling fact is that industrial companies know they are polluting the water, yet they deny their own guilt and keep on contaminating our natural resources. Numerous times industrial carcinogens have been proven to cause cancer in humans as well as animals in the laboratory. Sadly, without evidence that directly links companies to contamination, the technicalities of our judicial system set them free.
There are far too many hazardous chemicals that exist in the environment which are polluting our water. The most common, and perhaps most lethal, are polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. In Drinking Water and Health, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, accounts for PCBs as organic chemicals that are virtually undetectable by the human ...
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In the 1970s, engineers found contaminants in the local wells: Well H and Well G. They found suspected carcinogens including trichloroethylene (TCE) known to cause cancer. Families gathered after the Anderson family noticed the recurring events of a rare disease in a small town. Although Woburn had a history of industrial activity, the two major companies that contributed to the contaminants were W.R. Grace Co. and Beatrice Foods. The families sought help and went to a Boston lawyer, Joe Mulligan, and signed his firm. No one picked up the case due to not enough evidence, but Jan Schlictmann, who was a newcomer, picked up the Woburn case. Although advised to neglect it, he still looked into it. He joined with a non-profit firm who were seeking an environmental case like Woburn’s. They quickly filed a complaint against the two major companies.
In the document “How Tap Water Became Toxic in Flint , Michigan” by Sara Ganim the issue was that the residents could not get clean water from their taps . The state decided that they would save money and switch their water . As they switched , residents noticed that the water started to look funny and smell funny . Some thought it was sewage but it was really iron in the water . The Department of Environmental Quality was not treating the Flint River water with an anti-corrosive agent causing the water to have lead in addition to iron . The lead in the water lead to lead poisoning and several medical conditions .Due to all the health conditions the Doctors decided to take matters into their own hands . Patients reported having rashes and
Both Barnett’s claim that bottled water is not better than tap water (139-141) and Gleick’s claim that specialized water is not better than tap water (118-120) demonstrate that companies’ claims are unreasonable. Furthermore, consumers assume bottled water is better than tap water because they have the impression that tap water is dangerous because of the tap water incident in “2003 [where] 400,000 people [got] sick” from drinking tap water. One may wonder whether companies use this incident to remind consumers how dangerous tap water is with the way Gleick presents bottled water companies even after the tap water is taken care of. Because Gleick portrays the deception of advertisement from bottled water businesses, he makes it clear that Barnett hints that they are taking advantage of the case by informing consumers that their water is safer than tap water in an indirect, subtle way. However, Barnett ensures readers that tap water are safe to drink again after the incident by proving that both bottled water and tap water are equally safe to drink with a study she provides: The testing from Florida Trend (magazine brand) concludes that Publix brand bottled water and tap water both contains “0.020milligrams per liter [of] THMs (trihalomethanes)”, a “common byproduct…linked to increased risk of cancer” (139-140). Although other bottled water brands may not have
Humans need water. In a world that is overpopulated, we use a lot of water and other natural resources. Currently, in our world, clean water is getting scarce. Recently, for example, Flint, Michigan, had a water crisis. In early 2016, the water was discovered to be tainted with lead and other toxins. Long before that, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and Governor Rick Snyder along with his council, knew about the lead, but to save money for the city of Flint in early 2014 Snyder had changed the city’s water source to the Flint River which had corroded pipes, causing people of all ages to be sick from the high amounts of lead
No matter what, where, or who you are, water is a necessary component to keeping any organism alive. Although water is essential for life, in many places, clean drinking water is hard to find. There are many consequences to drinking contaminated water. Every year, three to five million people are attacked by water-borne diseases and over 100,000 of them die. One fatal disease that can kill within hours is cholera.
The Chesapeake Bay is polluted with agricultural waste. We see things like 1.5 billion pounds of chicken waste that no one wants to take responsibility for. Ignoring standards, a waterway was tested for E. coli; the standard is 125 FCU/100ml of water. Yet this waterway’s level was at 48392 FCU/100ml. An industry that will go to great lengths to make sure that Congress doesn’t impose sanction against them.
“Water is the driving force of all nature.” Leonardo da Vince once said. Water is a huge part of life, and everything that lives requires water to make it through its days on earth. A lot of people think that the world has massive amounts of water available for use; therefore, most roll their eyes when conserving water is mentioned. After all, 71% of the earth’s surface is made up of water. However, the truth is that only 2.5% of that is clean, drinkable water, and two-thirds of that percentage is unavailable because it is stuck in ice caps and glaciers (water). The water ordeal in America is bigger than many realize, and the United States needs to begin looking at how we can solve this issue. The U.S. needs to acknowledge the impending dangers and help the states that are already suffering by putting water conservation methods in place and investing money into research for alternatives.
the more people there are in the world the more water pollution there is going
On September 12, 2013, environmental groups filed a law suit against Duke Energy for their inability to properly clean up toxic ash, which has caused the pollution of Sutton Lake and severe groundwater pollution in the surrounding area (WWAY). In particularly, the environmental group claims that, “coal ash pollution threatens to destroy the fishery of Sutton Lake and is moving to the groundwater wells that supply the drinking water for the nearby by community.”
Residents in Flint, Michigan can not get clean water from their tap waters. It started off as a project to switch from lake Huron, which they paid the city of Detroit For to the flint river it was only supposed to last two years. After that they noticed the water would smell and taste funny it was the color brown it turned out to be iron that was in the water. state officials told residents that everything was fine, even the former mayor drank the water to make the point that it was all okay. It wasn’t okay Flint residents say they were kept in the dark for 18 months until finally a local doctor stepped up and wanted to prove the water they had was bad for the residents. It was tough at first the state would say she was causing near hysteria.They
Finally, I ask myself: “If I was to whistle-blow, would I want this to become universal law?” The direct part of this question is easy, as a compassionate person with character, I would always want to protect communities from harmful ground water. The underlying question is what needs to be examined. Would I want everyone to whistle-blow for a similar situation? How certain am I? The company agrees that there is a strong possibility that the tanks are leaking harmful chemicals into the ground. I feel because the possibility is strong, whistle-blowing is
Phillips, Michael. "Searching for the Truth in a True Story." Chicago Tribune. 08 Oct. 2013: n. page. Web. 8 Apr. 2014.
Water is on of the most precious natural resources that exist on our planet. “It is delivered from the atmosphere in the form of rain, snow, hail, fog, and condensation and returns to the atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration” (Hannigan 1969). Although many of us love activities that have to do with water, we disregard it and pollute out rivers, lakes and oceans. Slowly but surely we are going to harm out planet till no return. Protecting and conserving nature will secure a better future. 71% of earth is covered with oceans. Sounds like a lot right? Imagine ...
According to CQ Researcher’s Cooper “More than a billion people around the world lack access to safe drinking water and their numbers are growing”(Water Shortage). Is it fair that so many people must go without water while thousands of gallons are wasted here in the United States? Cooper in addition commented that “unlike the vast majority of natural resources water often is seen as a free commodity like the air we breathe” (Water Shortage). Without seeing water as something worth conserving, we literally pour away our most valuable resource. We can not afford this; water shortages already ravage the majority of the world: “If per-capita water consumption continues to rise at current rates, humans will take more than 90 percent of all available fresh water by 2025, leaving only 10 percent of the earth’s fresh water for all animals and plants on the planet” (Cooper, Water Shortage). Even the water that is available to humans is often not clean enough to safely drink: “Outbreaks of cholera and other waterborne diseases kill 10 million people each year” (Cooper, Water Quality). Cooper acknowledged that“1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water...
“Water is the lifeblood of this planet. Every time a good is bought or sold there is a virtual exchange of water. Every time we interact with water, we change it, redirect it, or otherwise alter its state. We have never learned how to efficiently manage water.”(Cluckie, 2009) Ian Cluckie, Professor of Hydrology and Water Management, emphasizes the fact that humans can’t survive without water. Although water is a renewable resource that can replenish under hydrological cycles, our intervention has interrupted its natural cycle causing its supply to decrease.(Cluckie, 2009)