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Drinking Water Contamination

There are various ways in which drinking water supplies can become contaminated. The two major sources for drinking water are surface water and ground water. About half of the nation's water supplies are provided by ground water (3:39). In rural areas, this figure is as high as 97 percent, because most of the water in those areas is obtained directly from the ground through wells (6:61). Both of these sources are subject to contamination. For example, surface water is contaminated by the chemicals, pesticides and other pollutants which are dumped into the nation's rivers and lakes. Ground water is contaminated by waste from landfills and also by leakage from hazardous-waste sites (6:61). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is aware of the "serious health risk" which is posed by this situation and has issued strict standards for the reduction of contaminants in drinking water (5:17). This decontamination is carried out in water-treatment plants through a process known as disinfection. At this time, there are three major methods for the disinfection of water: chlorination, ozonization, and the use of ultraviolet light (2:94). Chlorination, the most popular of these methods, involves the addition of chemicals into the water supply. This method of disinfection has shown many benefits since it was first introduced in the early 1900's. Specifically, it has "allowed us access to plentiful, fresh drinking water, and helped curtailed a host of diseases and ailments that were commonplace, even in North America, not long ago" (3:38). However, the process of chlorination has also created certain health problems of its own. For example, the process creates chemical byproducts which are known to cause cancer in laboratory animals.

In the 1850's, a British doctor named John Snow discovered that polluted water was responsible for the spread of cholera (4:74). By the end of the 1800's, scientists had learned that various othe...

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Drinking Water Contamination. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 06:17, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1683895.html