What percentage of rivers and lakes are polluted?
Nearly 40 percent of lakes, rivers and streams in the United States are too dirty for fishing and swimming in spite of major federal efforts to combat water pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency reported in a two-year study released Thursday.
What percentage of lakes are polluted?
“Approximately 40% of the lakes in America are too polluted for fishing, aquatic life, or swimming.” “Each year 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, stormwater, and industrial waste are dumped into US water.”
How does pollution affect rivers and lakes?
Pollution affects water quality in lakes and other freshwater resources around the globe. Because lakes drain a large surrounding landscape, they reflect the processes and actions that operate around them. When chemicals are spilled, they can drain into nearby streams and be transported downstream into lakes.
Why is the river polluted?
Atmospheric deposition of contaminants pollutes soil and water bodies. Contaminated groundwater seeps into rivers, and contaminated rivers recharge groundwater aquifers. Fluxes of water, sediment, solutes, and even organisms carrying contaminants within their tissues create vectors to disperse pollutants.
What are some statistics about water pollution?
Every day, 2 million tons of sewage, industrial, and agricultural waste is released into water all around the world. This is the equivalent of the weight of 6.8 billion people. Infectious waterborne diseases are the number one killer of young children all around the world.
What are the statistics of pollution?
Each year 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, stormwater, and industrial waste are dumped into US water. While children make up 10% of the world’s population, over 40% of the global burden of disease falls on them. More than 3 million children under age five die annually from environmental factors.
How do lakes get polluted?
Physical. Physical pollutants to lakes and streams include materials such as particles of soil that are eroded from the landscape or washed from paved areas by flowing water. Another type of physical pollutant is heat that may be discharged from an industrial source, or runoff from hot surfaces in warm weather.
How are rivers being polluted?
Sources of pollution If large amounts of fertilizers or farm waste drain into a river the concentration of nitrate and phosphate in the water increases considerably. Algae use these substances to grow and multiply rapidly turning the water green. This massive growth of algae, called eutrophication, leads to pollution.
How are rivers getting polluted?