 |  Environmental Science: A Global Concern, 7/e William P. Cunningham,
University of Minnesota
Mary Ann Cunningham,
Vassar College
Barbara Woodworth Saigo,
St. Cloud State University
Water Pollution
Chapter OverviewIt makes no difference whether a liter of water is consumed by use or is polluted to become unusable. In either case, the liter is no longer available. An important step in stretching our limited water supplies, then, is to avoid "using them up" by polluting them. Water pollutants create serious human health problems as well as significant disruption of ecological processes in aquatic systems. This chapter introduces you to the major types of water pollutants, their sources, and their effects.
Efforts to clean up our waters and to prevent further contamination have met with mixed success. You will learn about many examples in which water quality has improved over the years. You will also learn that there is much remaining to be cleaned up.
Reducing the amount of waste produced in the first place offers an exciting chance to reduce many kinds of water pollutants. Unfortunately, such an approach will not work for one of our most important wastes—human fecal material. The treatment of human sewage has claimed a large proportion of cleanup funds to date and will continue to do so. Cleaning up our waters is an expensive proposition. The cost to society of not doing so, however, is substantially higher.
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2003 McGraw-Hill Higher Education