Environmental Health and World Health

The three basic uses for water in the United States are (1) municipal, the smallest; 12) agricultural, for irrigation; and (3) industrial, by far the largest. In 1960, industry consumed about half the available water, about 160 billion gallons a day; irrigation (about 43%),141 billion gallons; and municipalities ha mere 7%)  about 22 billion gallons. By 1980, according to some estimates, industry will be consuming about two-thirds of the 600 billion gallons a day then hopefully available, with 166 billion gallons going for irrigation (27%) and a mere 37 billion gallons for municipalities (6%).

The water challenge now before the nation is to complete as rapidly as possible engineering works necessary to capture 600 to 650 billion gallons of water a day, and funthe more to treat water in such a way that each gallon is usable at least twice. Water reuse is nothing new. The water of the Ohio River, for example, is used 3.7 times before it reaches the Mississippi. But water, to be reused, must be of suitable quality. Unfortunately, water-pollution control programs have not developed as rapidly as the need for them. As a result, at least in the United States, pollution has become the Number 1 water-resources problem.

What is Pollution?

Since water pollution is a far-reaching and increasing problem in environmental health in the United States, it will be worthwhile to go into some detail concerning what is meant by pollution and what is specifically causing it, as well as recommendations in some cases of what can be done about it. Pollution may be defined as anything that degrades the quality of water. Water becomes polluted, unsuitable for reuse, when overburdened with any of the following things:

1. Organic wastes. These are contributed by domestic sewage and industrial wastes of plant ant animal origin.
2. Infectious, disease-producing agents, also originating in domestic sewage ant some kinds of industrial wastes.
3. Plant nutrients which promote nuisance growths, such as algae and water weeds.
4. Synthetic-organic chemicals, such as detergents and pesticides, potentially toxic, the result of new chemical technology.
5. Inorganic chemicals and mineral substances. These result from mining, manufacturing, and oil plant operations. They interfere with natural stream purification, destroy fish, cause "hard water," and complicate water treatment processes.
6. Sediments, which damage hydroelectric operations, choke streams, destroy fish and spawn.
7. Radioactive pollution, from mining of radioactive ores and processing them; also from "fallout."
8. Temperature increases, from power plants and water impounding. Increased temperature may have harmful effects on aquatic life, may reduce water's capacity to assimilate wastes.

Water pollution in the United States is no longer a local affair. Long stretches of streams are degraded. Conventional waste treatments are hard pressed to hold the line against the sheer mass of biological and chemical pollutants entering their intakes. Sewage construction has not matched our population growth and movement. Coastal waters in 23 states are increasingly subject to pollution from waste discharges of coastal cities—a situation adversely affecting shellfishery, fin fishery, and recreational and waterfront property values - and are creating health hazards.