Pointing Out Water Pollution
There ’ s nothing like a cold drink of water after playing outside on a hot summer day ! Water is a key natural resource for any person . We use water to drink , bathe , wash our clothes and even grow our food . Water is also vital to life in any ecosystem . Plants , animals and other organisms all need water to live .
In city ecosystems , nearby rivers , lakes , and oceans become the sources of water treatment systems that give us clean water . But , because of cities , these nearby water sources can get very dirty over time . This pollution can make people , animals and plants sick . It ruins the drinking water of animals like deer , raccoons and rabbits , and can cause the fish living in the water to die . It ’ s very important that we keep our water clean for a healthy ecosystem , but how can we do that ?
Pollution can come from many different sources and it is not always easy to identify exactly where it is coming from .
There are two types of pollution : “ point source pollution ” and “ nonpoint source pollution .” Point source pollution means you can point to the source of the pollution like a factory or a chemical plant . We know where the pollutants are coming from , where they are entering the water and what they are . We use this information to create laws that help to clean up our water sources . These laws tell us what pollutants may be emptied into the water and how much of those pollutants can be emptied at a time .