 |
||
|
Ground Water & Drinking Water |  |
 |
||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
What contaminants may be found in drinking water?
There is no such thing as naturally pure water. In nature, all water contains some impurities. As water flows in streams, sits in lakes, and filters through layers of soil and rock in the ground, it dissolves or absorbs the substances that it touches. Some of these substances are harmless. In fact, some people prefer mineral water precisely because minerals give it an appealing taste. However, at certain levels minerals, just like man-made chemicals, are considered contaminants that can make water unpalatable or even unsafe. Some contaminants come from erosion of natural rock formations. Other contaminants are substances discharged from factories, applied to farmlands, or used by consumers in their homes and yards. Sources of contaminants might be in your neighborhood or might be many miles away. Your local water quality report tells which contaminants are in your drinking water, the levels at which they were found, and the actual or likely source of each contaminant. Some ground water systems have established wellhead protection programs to prevent substances from contaminating their wells. Similarly, some surface water systems protect the watershed around their reservoir to prevent contamination. Right now, states and water suppliers are working systematically to assess every source of drinking water and to identify potential sources of contaminants. This process will help communities to protect their drinking water supplies from contamination, and a summary of the results will be in future water quality reports. for more information... ~ read a list of the drinking water contaminants that EPA regulates , including their sources in drinking water and their potential health effects. ~ How does arsenic get in drinking water? How do people use vinyl chloride? a set of fact sheets provides information on each contaminant that EPA regulates , including its tradename(s), areas in which it is commonly found, its possible health effects, etc. ~ Non-point source pollution, such as runoff from farmlands and urban stormwater, is one of the greatest threats to water quality today. To learn more about this threat, see EPA's Non-point source pollution site. ~ to learn about the source water assessment process in your state, visit EPA's local drinking water information web site, which will help you find the state's web site and source water protection coordinator. ~ to find information about locations where there are
substances present that may contaminate sources of drinking water
(for example, Superfund sites), visit EPA's Envirofacts
web site, where you can search by your location, zip code, etc. You can also use
the
Enviromapper function to plot the information that you find
on a map. Return to Drinking Water & Health: what you need to know
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
