Summary:
Water pollution remains one of the most visible and persistent signs of our impact on the natural world. Cleanup of some older pollutants has been offset by new contaminants that threaten freshwater ecosystems and foul our drinking water.
The sight and smell of grossly polluted waterways provided some of the original impetus to the environmental movement in the 1970s. Nearly a century before that, the dangers of polluted water to human health drove what became known as the "sanitary revolution" in Europe and the United States, emphasizing clean water supplies and sewer systems in cities. Today, despite progress in cleaning up waterways in some areas, water pollution remains a serious global problem, with impacts on the health of freshwater ecosystems and the human communities that rely on them for water supply.
The Changing Pollution Profile
Water pollution spans a wide range of chemical, physical, and microbial factors, but over the years the balance of major......
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Approximate Word Count: 1588
Approximate Pages: 7 (260 words per double-spaced page) |