Earth Day Network’s Urban Environmental Report (UER) includes over 70 sets of data that examine drinking and surface water conditions in urban areas, ranging from quality and compliance indicators to treatment and distribution factors to community right to know laws and regulations governing water quality.
Each year, up to seven million Americans become sick from contaminated tap water. As the U.S. urban population continues to grow, water supplies are strained with increasing loads of wastewater and storm water runoff laden with the signature pollutants of urban and sprawl areas that are dumped into waterways at a rate of 60 gallons per person every day.
New studies of urban and sprawl pollutants reveal additional threats to drinking water supplies from organic wastewater contaminants that come from pharmaceuticals, hormones, medications and other residues of consumer products that end up in the water supply. Many of these substances resist standard treatment regimes at wastewater treatment plants and at tap water treatment plants as well.
The system that was originally put in place for delivering safe and adequate supplies of drinking water in the United States is aging in ways that poses potential problems particularly for urban areas. Most water systems and distribution pipes will be reaching the end of their expected life spans in the next 30 years (although actual life spans may be longer depending on utility practices and local conditions). Old pipes can cause lead to leach into tap water, and outdated sewer systems can cause sewage and bacterial contamination to enter the water we drink.
Resources
Clean Water Action
http://www.cleanwateraction.org
The Campaign for Safe and Affordable Drinking
http://www.safe-drinking-water.org
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA)
http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/NPS/MMGI/Chapter4/ch4-2a.html
Extoxnet
http://extoxnet.orst.edu/faqs/safedrink/urban.htm
National Tap Water Quality Database
http://www.ewg.org/tapwater/findings.php
Clean Water Network
http://www.cwn.org
