Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
9
Water Pollu
tion
This country's waterways have been transformed by
omission
. Without
beavers, water makes its way too quickly to the sea; without prairie dogs,
water runs over the surface instead of sinking into the aquifer; without
bison, there are no groundwater-recharge ponds in the grasslands and
the riparian zone is trampled; without alligators, the edge between the
water and land is simplified. Without forests, the water runs unfiltered
to the waterways, and there is less deadwood in the channel, reduc-
ing stream productivity. Without floodplains and meanders, the water
moves more swiftly, and silt carried in the water is more likely to be
swept to sea.
The beaver, the prairie dog, the bison, and the alligator have been scarce
for so long that we have forgotten how plentiful they once were. Beaver
populations are controlled because they flood fields and forests, while
wetlands acreage decrease annually. Prairie dogs are poisoned because
they compete with cattle for grass, while the grasslands grow more bar-
ren year by year. Buffalo are generally seen as photogenic anachronisms,
and alligators are too reptilian to be very welcome. But all of these ani-
mals once shaped the land in ways that improve water quality.
—Alice outwater (1996)
The Romans realized, as have every civilized people since, that living
in cities is impossible if the water supply is not reliably clean and fresh.
—Francis Chapelle (1997)
Introduction
Is drinking water contamination really a problem—a serious problem? The
answer to the first part of the question depends on where your water comes
from. As to the second part of the question, we refer you to a topic (or the ilm
based on the topic) that concerns a case of toxic contamination that you might
be familiar with—
A Civil Action
, by Jonathan Harr. The topic and ilm portray
the legal repercussions connected with polluted water supplies in Woburn,
Massachusetts. Two wells became polluted with industrial solvents, appar-
ently causing 24 of the town's children who lived in neighborhoods supplied
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