pollution needs resolution

     Water Pollution

Dirty water is the world's biggest health risk, and continues to threaten both quality of life and public health in the United States. When water from rain and melting snow runs off roofs and roads into our rivers, it picks up toxic chemicals, dirt, trash and disease-carrying organisms along the way. Many of our water resources also lack basic protections, making them vulnerable to pollution from factory farms, industrial plants, and activities like fracking. This can lead to drinking water contamination, habitat degradation and beach closures.Fish, birds and wildlife depend on clean water, just as people do.Water pollution is any contamination of water with chemicals or other foreign substances that are detrimental to human, plant, or animal health. These pollutants include fertilizers and pesticides from agricultural runoff; sewage and food processing waste; lead, mercury, and other heavy metals; chemical wastes from industrial discharges; and chemical contamination from hazardous waste sites. Worldwide, nearly 2 billion people drink contaminated water that could be harmful to their health.

major causes

• oil pollution
• marine dumping
• industrial waste 
• ratioactive waste
• sewage and wastewater                                                                                            

     

ways to reduce pollution

Since 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency has protected public health by setting and enforcing standards to protect the quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink.

But there is more to do. Many older power plants and industrial facilities enjoy loopholes that allow them to pollute at much higher levels than their cleaner counterparts. To protect public health from these dirty plants, we need the EPA to set standards that level the playing field by requiring all plants to meet the same cleaner standards. And since Congress failed to pass legislation to address global warming pollution, that job falls to the EPA.

However, polluters and some business organizations are pressuring members of Congress to stop the EPA from doing its job of protecting public health by rolling back existing public health laws like the Clean Air Act and blocking needed clean air and clean water protections.

Some key public health standards now under attack:

Standards to Reduce Toxic Power Plant Air Pollution
Establishing standards to reduce toxic pollution from the thousands of power plants nationwide could save as many as 17,000 lives a year, prevent respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and reduce the exposure of children to mercury and lead.

Health Standards for Smog (Ground-Level Ozone)
We could save up to 12,000 lives per year and prevent tens of thousands of cases of respiratory and heart disease by tightening national smog pollution standards.

Standards to Reduce Toxic Industrial Air Pollution
We could save approximately 5,000 lives per year and prevent thousands of cases of respiratory and heart disease by reducing toxic air pollution from industrial plants.

Reducing Global Warming From Cars and Light Trucks
Improving emissions performance in cars and light trucks would reduce heat-trapping carbon pollution that causes global warming while saving consumers billions of dollars and cutting oil use.

Reducing Global Warming From Medium- and Heavy-Duty Trucks
The first-ever standards to cut carbon dioxide emissions and improve fuel efficiency in medium- and heavy-duty trucks would reduce global warming pollution, save 500 million barrels of oil over the lifetimes of the trucks sold during model years 2014 to 2018 and save truck operators $49 billion over the life of the vehicles.