Water, water every where, and not a drop to drink.
The water situation in flood ravaged southern Louisiana may not be quite as desperate as these famous lines from The Rime of the Ancyent Mariner by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, but Louisiana is again bringing attention to the stability of water conditions around the nation. And while most of the focus of the flood damage is rightly on the 100,000 people who have been displaced from their homes, the local and federal officials also work to groundwater remediation equipment for help containing other situations. In fact, different environmental remediation services will be needed as these Louisiana communities deal with the factories and manufacturing plants and ground water reserves that have also been affected by the unimaginable amounts of rain last month.
Water Quality Continues to be a Concern of Americans Across the Country
From the schools that returning to session in Flint, Michigan, to the schools that are struggling to find a way to open in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, water is a continued concern. Whether it is the use of groundwater remediation equipment after a flood threatens a major reservoir or it is concern about the stability of aging water pipes throughout the nation, water is everyone’s concern.
In a time when farmers use increased levels of insecticides that leak into the country’s water sources and corporations illegally dump dangerous toxins into the oceans, it is no wonder that Americans sometimes stress about the quality of the water that is available to them to drink and use for bathing and cooking. Groundwater remediation equipment, for instance, is often necessary before even homes in the country can drill a new well that will provide water from human consumption. Far from the efforts of city water treatment plants, country living often requires both testing and decontamination from groundwater remediation equipment.
Water Levels Around the Globe Continue to Concern Environmentalists
A mere 3% of Earth?s water is fresh water. The rest is water that citizens of the world use and reuse on a nearly daily basis. In fact, access to clean water, more than almost anything else, often determines the health of an entire nation and the future of its people. For years, scientists have continued to approach the problem of providing safe drinking water to people around the globe. And while many advancements have been made in many locations, the safety of the groundwater available to livestock and for industrial facilities is a grow ing concern as well.
Did you know, for instance, that ground water accounts for over 95% of the America’s available fresh water resources? This means that ground water is the drinking water source for half the people in this country. And while this may have been comforting a century ago, the increasing number of factories in American have often come at the expense of the quality of our groundwater. In fact, over 80% of the most serious hazardous waste sites in America have negatively impacted the quality of nearby ground water. Caused by the 16,000 chemical spills that occur from trucks, trains, and storage tanks on a yearly basis, the groundwater we depend upon is increasingly vulnerable. These spills often occur when materials are being transferred and in most cases require some kind of ground water remediation technology for the clean up.
Alarmingly, as many as 14.6% of wells tested contain levels of one or more pesticides above the minimum reporting limit set in a government survey. And without increased awareness and accountability, there is no reason to think that this percentage will go down. In fact, many fear that it will go up.
Continued advancements in water filtering systems and ground water remediation systems may help lessen an increasingly worsening and desperate situation. Consumer awareness, however, also must play a part in individuals who demand that politicians do something about the increasingly alarming state of this nation’s, and the world’s, water reserves.
Emergency situations like this summer’s historic flooding in Louisiana may bring the need for water concerns and advancements to the forefront for a time, but environmentalists warn that is should not take a natural disaster for American’s to realize the safety of the world’s water sources.