How is Water Made Safe to Drink?
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U.S. Agency Safeguards Water
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In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates public drinking water following the enactment of the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974. Since then, the EPA has implemented regulatory programs aimed at maintaining groundwater aquifers in municipalities throughout the country. EPA also has established standards in how municipal water supplies can be treated and tested. The EPA in recent years has cracked down on monitoring drinking water. Since 2006, water treatment plants have been required to monitor cryptosporidium, a parasitic disease in water that infects the intestines of mammals. Plant officials will be required to make improvements if they do not meet federal standards.
Fighting Cryptosporidium
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Treatment plants have adopted several techniques in recent years to fight cryptosporidium. Ultra violet systems are one such method. They are designed to transfer magnetic energy from a mercury arc lamp to an organism's genetic material. When the UV radiation penetrates the cell wall of an organism, it destroys the cell's ability to reproduce. Ozonation, a corrosive gas that eats away at organisms and kills them, is another method. A third technique, known as membrane filtration, traps cryptosporidium and prevents it from entering the water supply. One method that has long been used, chlorination, is being phased out because cryptosporidium has become immune to the treatment.
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Tips for Preventing Lead
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Another common contaminant in drinking water is lead. According to estimates, drinking water accounts for 10 to 20 percent of the overall environmental exposure to lead. Lead poisoning can be dangerous to people, especially young children. Traces of it in people have been linked to behavior disorders and intellectual deficits. Since the mid 1980s, the EPA also has been cracking down on lead levels in drinking water. Consumers can take several measures to reduce lead levels in drinking water. They include testing water regularly and taking proactive measures if levels are high, flushing faucets until water is cold and running water more frequently in newly built homes to reduce the presence of debris and particles in drinking water.
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