TOXIC CHEMICALS AND DRINKING WATER

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Without dangerous chemicals in our watersupplies ... life itself might continue to be
possible.

As William Ashworth so aptly put it in his book Nor Any Drop to Drink (see MOTHER NO. 79, page 190 for an excerpt from that volume), "We are not destroying our water; but we are rendering it unusable, which amounts to the same thing." And clearly, one of the greatest threats to our ability to assure ongoing and adequate supplies of clean water is the increasing presence of toxic elements and compounds in those precious resources.

In order to understand the scope of the problem, it's necessary to realize that the General Accounting Office (GAO) has stated that 43% of community water systems in the U.S. violated safe drinking standards in 1981. Now many of those problems no doubt were biological in nature, but at least as many likely involved a toxic metal or chemical. Worse yet, of the 146,000 recorded violations, only 16,000 were properly reported to the public (as is required by law). And lest country folk feel too secure with their private wells, Cornell University reported last year that approximately 39,000,000 rural citizens are drinking unsafe water. And, of that sample, 17% reportedly were exposed to dangerous concentrations of the extremely toxic heavy metals lead and cadmium.

Of course, many people are aware of the well-publicized water quality problems that have cropped up in some parts of New Jersey and were created by leaks from hazardous waste dumps. But the lack of publicity given to other contaminated wells hides the fact that water pollution is playing no regional favorites. From the 39 wells closed in the San Gabriel Valley in California because levels of trichloroethylene (TCE, a carcinogen and toxicant) reached 600 parts per billion (PPB) ... to nitrate contamination from fertilizer runoff and feedlot leaks in Nebraska ... to a well in Pennsylvania that was actually measured at 27,300 PPB of trichloroethylene, water pollution is a national (indeed, a worldwide) problem.

WHERE DOES YOUR WATER COME FROM?

In general, potable water is extracted either from surface supplies (lakes and rivers) or from ground water (which lies below the earth's surface and either rises by hydrostatic pressure — as in artesian wells — or must be pumped out). These two sources interact in sometimes complicated ways: Ground water, for instance, may help to fill lakes and rivers ... or the lakes and rivers may slowly recharge ground-water supplies. The mapping of such exchanges is probably best left to trained hydrologists, but there are a few important basic differences that you should understand.

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