15.15. Water Pollution

Water is considered polluted when it cannot be used for its intended purpose-drinking, recreation, farm­ing, or manufacturing. Pesticides and chemical fertilizers used by farmers and homeowners pollute streams, rivers, and ground water when they are transported by rainwater runoff. Sewage sludge and detergents add to water pollution near population centers. Strip mining of coal causes acid to run off into neighboring streams and rivers, and acid rain

adds to water pollution.

American industry uses enormous amounts of water in manufacturing processes. The wastewater may contain metallic solids, oils, acids, organic solids, or a variety of other pollutants. Some factories dis­charge heated water back into rivers. This is called thermal pollution.

A survey in 1970 revealed that 41 percent of the nation's water supply systems were delivering water ranging from "inferior" to "potentially dangerous." The Water Quality Improvement Act of that year made petroleum companies liable for most clean-up costs should oil spill into the water. It also strength­ened restrictions on pesticides in streams and ther­mal pollution caused by nuclear power plants.

Most significantly, the Water Pollution and Control Act Amendments of 1972 set a national goal to elim­inate pollution discharged into water. Both indus­tries and local governments had to clean up. If your town's sewer system was built parallel to a river in the 1970s, it was probably built on federal EPA orders with three-fourths paid with federal funds.

15.16. Land Pollution

Modern technology produces massive amounts of wastes. Unlike ordinary household and commercial garbage that can be safely discarded in open pits or other types of dumps, industrial wastes are often toxic (poisonous). The disposal of these wastes has created thousands of hazardous dump sites all across the United States. Wastes deposited at these sites have contaminated the land, air, and ground-water in the immediate area and threaten the health and well-being of those who live nearby.

In 1980 the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, or as it is more commonly known, "Superfund," was enact­ed. Superfund's principal goal was to provide for cleanup at sites where hazardous wastes had been abandoned, or where past disposal practices had contaminated the environment. Administration of the Superfund was put in the hands of the Environ­mental Protection Agency.

Between 1980 and 1986, the EPA surveyed some 21,000 dump sites for toxic wastes. Hundreds of dangerous dumps were identified and efforts to ren­der them safe have begun. Authorized funds for the cleanup amounted to $1.6 billion for 1980 to 1985 and $8.5 billion for 1986 to 1991. The Superfund for 1992 to 1994 amounts to $5.1 billion.

The Hanford nuclear weapons plant in the state of Washington is an environmental nightmare. Underground tanks have been leaking radioactive plutonium. In addition, some 200 billion gallons of hazardous wastes stored in unlined pits have been seeping into the groundwater. But Hanford is not subject to EPA regulation because it is federally owned, and the Superfund law exempts the federal installations. This was a terrible oversight, accord­ing to critics, because some of the nation's most haz­ardous waste sites are those located at its nuclear weapons plants and military installations.

There are 3,000 toxic sites at 17 nuclear weapons plants and 6,000 hazardous dumps located at 600 military installations around the country. The cost of cleanup has been estimated as high as $130 billion. Unfortunately, even if the federal government could afford the cost of the cleanup (which it cannot), some areas would have to be permanently removed from public or private use because no one really knows how to clean them up.