Written Statement –

Why should we care about water pollution? Water is a necessary resource for everyone in the world, and although it is a renewable one we are using it and polluting it at such rates that it is not going to be able to sustain us forever. Two main types of water pollution are point-source pollution and non-point source pollution. Point-source pollution is when the pollutant is dumped directly into the body of water, while non-point source pollution is when the pollutant There are processes to help clean polluted water but those are expensive and unnecessary if everyone does their own part. To help prevent water pollution we can turn off running water, flushing only things are supposed to be flushed down the toilet, using more environmental friendly products, not overusing pesticides and fertilizers, and not littering in water environments. Other causes of water pollution are sewage and waste, industrial waste, oil pollution, atmospheric deposition, marine dumping, radioactive waste, underground storage leakages, global warming, and eutrophication. The dangers of water pollution are that the water contains toxic material, it can spread infectious diseases, there is an increase in algae which is bad for the whole ecosystem and the pollutants in the water ruin its quality for drinking. The government agency for keeping water unpolluted is EPA, or the Environmental Protection Agency. However, they have a hard time controlling water pollution, and do not do enough to punish those who break the laws. There are many examples that show how awful water pollution can be. Onondaga Lake, Syracuse, New York, is arguably the most polluted lake in the U.S., the pollution started in the late 1800s when mining was a growing industry. Swimming in the lake was lost to pollution in the 1940s while fishing was gone by the 1970s. Water pollution has ruined many lakes the same way that it did with Onondaga Lake. Water pollution is a serious health concern, there have been many cases of people either drinking polluted water without knowing, or being forced to drink polluted water because they have no other option. There was pretty recent case in India where they found that the bottled water being made in India contained an unhealthy amount of pesticides and fertilizers. However, there were no laws in India indicating where the water had to be taken from to be put into the bottles. The companies creating the bottled water were either not doing enough cleaning or treatments of the water, or they were just completing ignoring treating the water at all. The amount in the water was much higher than the legal limit in every European country. For my local solutions, I decided to clean up the lake in my town called Brainerd Lake, and put up signs that said do not litter in the lake. Although water pollution is a major health concern, is damaging our ecosystems, and destroying all plants and animals, we as humans are not doing enough to try and save ourselves and our environment.