Water Resource Issues Discussion

Find two (2) recent articles about water issues (2018 or sooner). You can look for things like water pollution, oil spills, sanitation issues, for example. Please focus on the issues of water as a resource. For each article, you are going to do the following.

  1. Start a new thread in the forum below where you write one FULL paragraph summarizing the article, and one FULL paragraph discussing what you think about the issue in your article. Please discuss the issue, and not the writing of the article. Please try to say something specific (not a general “I agree, it’s bad” sort of reply).
  2. Put a full citation in MLA format at the bottom of each of these posts. You can see how to cite in this format here:https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/ (链接到外部网站。)链接到外部网站。
  3. Post one reply to a classmate’s post that is 1-2 paragraphs long. Please make sure to read their summary and review, and then read their article as well. Make sure your reply is a FULL paragraph minimum for full credit. Do not reply to a review that used the same article as you.

3 posts total: 1 for each article you found (2 paragraphs each post), and 1 to reply to a classmate (1-2 paragraphs)

Reply to this post

The other Article I found was to the lead contamination, but involved tainted tap water. The article mentions 9-45 million Americans receive their drinking water from a source that is In violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act and most people at risk are those who live in rural, low-income areas. Although a water Economist, Maura Allaire, states the water in the U.S. has really safe water, contaminants still can crop up in some municipalities year after year which can cause the stomach flu, and chronic conditions, like cancer and neurological disorders. The article mentions that for 3 decades the EPA has been gathering data about water quality violations across the country. Allaire and her colleagues looked at the data and the health related water quality violations for 17,900 community water systems over a 34 year period. Although some were for elevated lead levels, but also violations for coliform bacteria . In 2015 nearly 21 million Americans, that’s about 6% were getting water from systems that violated health standards, and those numbers, looking back, increased from ’82-2015. The data showed more than a third of water systems had violations in multiple years and the most vulnerable were the low-income, rural counties getting hit the hardest. Based on the article Small water systems cant afford the latest and best treatment technology and sometimes cant afford a full time operator.

After reading this article I am so disturbed that we live in a world that treats some communities like 3rd world countries because of their economic class. Why is it that wealthier cities and communities can find the resources to help with issues like water systems but for the low income population there isn’t much. I am appalled that they are overlooked. I feel more efforts are needed to ensure everyone in the U.S. has access to safe drinking water. City and county officials need to work with the federal government, the water utilities companies, and public health departments to make safe drinking water a priority. I mean they need to look at what happened in Flint, Michigan, do they want a repeat of that crisis? I feel that federal investment in water infrastructure must continue and grow because they not only help build new systems but support and manage maintenance for long term goals for the sake of people. Safe drinking water should no longer be a luxury.

LanginFeb, Katie, et al. “Millions of Americans Drink Potentially Unsafe Tap Water. How Does Your County Stack up?” Science, 12 Feb. 2018, www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/02/millions-americans-drink-potentially-unsafe-tap-water-how-does-your-county-stack.