"How Safe Is the Tap Water?"

As water flow either on the surface or under the ground, it collects microorganisms through its path. Most of the microorganisms are harmless, but some cause human disease. Layer of soil reacts as a natural filter and removes the majority of microorganisms from water. The longer the water moves, the more contamination absorbs by the soil particles. Statistics shows that over one billion people have lack of access to safe water supplies and 2.6 billion people have lack of access to adequate sanitation. About 3.2 million people lose their lives because of infectious diseases associated with water contamination. This is about 6% of all global death.

With the population and agriculture growth the waste discharges to the environment and particularly to the water has been increased during last decades. Bacterial densities in run-off from agricultural lands often exceed water quality standards. Several studies show that the bacterial indicator organisms in streams in US are proportional to the number of cattle and the area of pasture. Microbial infectious disease outbreaks demonstrate the fragility of barriers designed to protect public health. Our water treatment technologies have allowed us to practically eliminate the diseases that remain major causes of morbidity and mortality in other countries (like cholera, typhoid, and dysentery).

Although water treatment can kill most of the pathogens in drinking water and a concentration of 1 to 2 milligram of chlorine per liter in tap water can kill %99.9 of the pathogens, sometimes some disastrous failure in water treatment can happen. The most common waterborne disease in US is gastrointestinal illness. The US Centers of Disease Control have reported increasing incidents of waterborne infectious disease in the United States, and it’s estimated that 6 to 40 percent of all gastrointestinal illness in the United States may be waterborne origin. During the epidemic of Cholera in US in 1991, about 746,968 infected cases were reported, among which 6,448 died. Effective treatment of drinking water and sewage plus adequate personal hygiene habits, has contributed to a successful line of defense against the spread of cholera in the U.S. In 1993, a failure in water treatment in Wisconsin, Milwaukee, caused an estimated 400,000 cases of diarrheal disease and approximately 100 deaths. In 2000, in Walkerton, Ontario, 2,300 people were sickened and seven were died after heavy rain s compromised a municipal drinking water well and water treatment process failed. Fortunately these major problems occur very frequently. The most common waterborne contaminations sources are:

Agricultural runoff
Combined sewer discharges
Sanitary sewer overflows
Wastewater treatment plant discharges
Septic tank systems
Livestock operations such as dairy farms, feed operations, grazing.

Fresh water source on earth is very limited. Every day, we withdraw billions of gallons of fresh water from surface and groundwater sources. Since we all use water, we are all responsible for saving it. The two basic principles behind maintaining water resources are: conservation and protection. Doing simple things like turning off the tap when brushing your teeth, using fewer chemicals on your lawn or garden, or fixing a leaky faucet can add up to big savings in both the quantity and quality of the water we drink. There is no washing or cleaning detergent yet in existence that is completely harmless to the environment. All such chemicals contribute pollution to varying degrees. The best we can do is to use them in a reasonable and proper way and, preferably, buying those products labeled as being safer and containing environmentally friendly substances. While state governments need improvements in the regulation and protection of public drinking water supplies, the most important decisions affecting the quality of the drinking water are made by individuals. Cleaning up waterways, performing stream monitoring, voting for land-use policies that protect community water resources, all are individual actions that add up to a safer, more plentiful drinking water supply.