Chapter 3 focuses on water quality and to my surprise there are so many toxins and carcinogens that can make their way into our drinking water and to some extent it is allowed! As a person who lives in America, I always just assumed that our water quality was fine. Like Thomas Belton, mentioned I basically took clean drinking water for granted. I figured that as a first world country, officials had it all figured out. I didn't consider what was done to the water to make it "safe" and the process the water endures before it reaches my tap.
From what I've learned, potable drinking water can be pulled from rivers, lakes, groundwater aquifers, and even seawater if the technology is available to remove the salt content (54). The water pulled from these sources is not readily available for drinking and must go through a filtration process to make it drinkable. The quality of the water when it is pulled determines how much treatment is needed to remove these water-borne contaminants. Many different contaminants were found in the supply and in their research of the Boonton Reservoir supply in 1982 , found Phthalates which are added to plastics to increase their flexibility and are present in other consumer products such as shampoos and children's toys. They are known to produce negative health effects in animal studies including testicular damage, liver injury, liver cancer, antiandrogenic activity, and terato- genicity (56). They are known to be toxic which is clearly seen through the animal studies. I don't understand why the officials who regulate our water or the FDA didn't remove or regulate their use. Officials try to find the easy way out by saying that a certain amount won't hurt, but how do they know in the long run or the fact that everyone's body is different and for people with a lower immune system, having these present toxins could be detrimental. In 1984, New Jersey amended the state drinking water Act (Amendment 280) adding other compounds and mandated the establishment of maximum contaminant levels for the contaminants in drinking water. Essentially saying that they will remove as many toxins as required which is really messed up. Our water is still contaminated, but only to a certain level. Is that suppose to make it better? NO! Officials used Chlorine to treat the water (again using the easy way out) and that too eventually backfired. The only way to have the cleanest water possible is a multi step filtration system and not just using the cheapest option, but really looking out for the people of America. "The future of water quality will require the multiple barrier method for supplying safe drinking water. This method relies on a multipronged battery of defenses to safeguard potable water, including source water protection, coagulation with sedimentation, filtration, and disinfection. It is highly unlikely that pathogens could get past all four barriers" (65). This is what needs to happen, but the question is will it? - I did some research and it looks like we do use the multi-barrier approach as of mid-early 2000s. It was a federal amendment that states adopted. In terms of my home state, Pennsylvania agreed to it in 2009.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Gabriella Brycea Junior at Seton Hall University studying Elementary and Special education with Environmental Studies. Archives
April 2018
Categories |