Washington NatureMapping - Water Module: Water Quality & Quantity

Water Module

Water Quality

Water Quality
& Quantity

What Influences Water Quality

Human Disturbance

Pollution from Industry and Sewage

Industry has cleaned up much of their pollution sources. It is easier to find and fix those sources as they have a definite place or point of discharge into the water. This is called point pollution. Non-point pollution is harder to find as it is the little bit that each of us may contribute by chemicals coming off the roads from our car batteries or brakes, drainage from failing septic systems or lawn chemicals.

The EPA and the Washington Department of Ecology regulate pollution standards for industry and offer technical assistance and funds to encourage the use of better alternatives.

Runoff

Whether the pollutant is pesticides from a yard that mix with rain water and flow into a street drain, or livestock eliminations that seep into the field, they will ultimately meet up with water flowing to the sea. Those pollutants can include:

nutrients from point-source discharges (sewage treatment plants, factories, or stormwater collection systems) from non-point pollution sources like
- over-fertilization
  (commercial and residential)
  heavy grazing
  urban runoff
  erosion and sedimentation
  (from construction, farming or logging)
  failing septic systems
  rotting vegetation
  pet and animal waste -
  (urban, livestock, and natural - animal carcasses,
  wastes and bacteria from herds of large mammals
  or flocks of birds)
  
  toxics
  metals
  pathogens

Groundwater

The most severe threats to well water are caused by human actions. Pollutants can come from fertilizers and pesticides, septic systems, animal wastes, underground petroleum storage tanks, landfills, and the misuse and disposal of industrial, agricultural and home chemicals.

Contaminated ground water can have serious health and economic impacts on individuals and municipalities. Drinking contaminated ground water may cause serious health problems including nervous system, kidney and liver disorders, and cancer. The type of health problem depends on the type of contaminant. For example, nitrates pose a greater risk to infants than adults.

In 1985, more than 80% of the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund cleanup sites in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska involved water gone bad, as explained in a two page article (portions shown below). It has been 12 years since this article was written.

The Seattle Times, Friday, August 30, 1985

"Water Supplies Imperiled; Hazardous Wastes Taint Wells Across State"

The drinking water of one in every seven residents of the state now is believed to be threatened by hazardous wastes, according to the state Department of Ecology.

40% of the state's population -- including most rural residents -- wells and springs are the source of drinking water.

From Yakima to Skagit County, from Spokane suburbs to an area near the submarine base at Bangor, people are turning to authorities, demanding an answer to the questions: "How safe is my drinking water?"

Here are some of the cases that have alarmed urban and rural residents alike in recent years, making poisoned drinking water a prominent environmental concern of the 1980's: The suspected human carcinogen TCE has been found in drinking water from wells at homes between McChord Air Force Base and Fort Lewis.

Ethylene dibromide, also suspected of causing cancer, seeped into well water after a pesticide was injected into strawberry fields in Skagit and Thurston counties.
A chemical compound that results from the breakdown of the explosive TNT was found in a well just outside the Naval Submarine Base at Bangor on the Kitsap Peninsula.
Gasoline leaks at service station contaminated about 30 wells at two areas near Yakima.
Bacteria from septic tanks and small disposal-treatment systems at as many as 39,000 homes in the Spokane Valley infiltrated wells tapping an aquifer underlying the area. Spokane County says construction of a sewer system, now underway, should resolve the problem.

The Department of Ecology is now expanding efforts to prevent drinking water from becoming contaminated in the first place, including making it harder to get waste-discharge permits and regulating activities that have not been regulated in the past, such as storage of hazardous chemicals.

The costs of cleaning contaminated ground water can be staggering. In many cases, the water will not be usable again as a drinking water supply.

Non-native plants

The introduction of exotic plants and animals is one of the greatest environmental threats today. Non-native plants and animals often out-compete native species because there is no natural predators.

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