Water pollution is the world’s worst form of pollution. If you were to take a look into a glass of water it may look clear, but in reality millions of microscopic pollutants are floating through it. Most people believe that water pollution is an environmental problem where animals and plants can be affected, but water pollution is a major risk to people’s health. According to the NRDC “Dirty water is the world's biggest health risk, and continues to threaten both quality of life and public health in the United States.” (NRDC) Water pollution is continuously getting worse in the U.S. and over time it will become more and more harmful to anyone who drinks water or eats fish.
Water Pollution is everywhere in the United States. Some people think that because they are not in industrial areas that water pollution doesn’t affect them. This is completely untrue. Water pollution can affect you anywhere. The runoff from people above you meaning up the river system doesn’t always get filtered out. Also the water you drink could be taken from contaminated areas. A lot of the pollution is industrial but there are many different ways pollutants can enter our water. There are two different source types. The first is point source pollution. This is pollution that comes from a single source such as a factory. They are usually very harmful to human health, but they are easy to find and easy to regulate by the government. One type of point source pollution is chemical dumping into the water system by industrial plants. The second type is non-point source pollution. This is where a regions daily activity causes pollution. An example would be farms that use fertilizers cause runoff and can be harmful to marine animals. These are normally harder to locate and cause damage to our environment.
There are several major classes of water pollution. The first class is disease causing bacteria and viruses. This includes harmful and even deadly ecoli. The second is...