SOURCE WATER CONTAMINATION RESOURCES

• Water Being Pumped Into Tampa Bay Could Cause A Massive Algae Bloom, Putting Fragile Manatee And Fish Habitats At Risk

  Millions of gallons of water laced with fertilizer ingredients are being pumped into Florida’s Tampa Bay from a leaking reservoir at an abandoned phosphate plant at Piney Point. As the water spreads into the bay, it carries phosphorus and nitrogen — nutrients that under the right conditions can fuel dangerous algae blooms that can suffocate sea grass beds and kill fish, dolphins and manatees.

• The Microplastics And PFAS Connection

  Microplastics, small plastic particles with sizes ranging from 5 millimeters to 1 nanometer with various morphologies such as microfibers, fragments, pellets (nurdles), or microbeads, have received increasing attention, including upcoming statewide monitoring in California.

• Meeting Customer Demands For Clean Water At Bristol Water

  Bristol Water provides clean, fresh drinking water every day to approximately 1.2 million people in the city of Bristol and surrounding areas in the west of England. As part of taking inventory on ways to improve its service, Bristol Water undertook its largest ever program of customer engagement. This invited customers to participate in the decisions Bristol Water makes about the future of their water services.

• Understanding Public Perceptions And Demands Of Aquatic Resources Can Support Sustainable Management Practices

  Surface waters – such as rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs, estuaries, and coastal waters – are the primary types of aquatic resources that people interact with daily. As the global population continues to grow, demand increases for water resources. Scientists have long collaborated with government and local agencies to help manage these aquatic systems, and increasingly, researchers have been emphasizing the importance of treating our waterways as social-ecological systems. This view of systems recognizes the interconnected and resilient relationships between humans and nature. Understanding how individuals can positively interact and respond to water bodies over long periods of time would better support the sustainable management of aquatic resources.

• To Make Less-Harmful Road Salts, We're Studying Natural Antifreezes Produced By Fish

  Many people associate a fresh snowfall with pleasures like hot chocolate and winter sports. But for city dwellers, it can also mean caked-on salt that sticks to shoes, clothing hems, and cars. That’s because as soon as the mercury dips below freezing and precipitation is in the forecast, local governments start spreading de-icing salts to keep roads from freezing over. De-icing salts also do extensive damage to autos, infrastructure, and the environment.

• Are Wildfires Worsening The Water Contamination At Military Bases?

  Sixty-two. This is the number of California military facilities with a known or suspected per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) release, according to the California State Water Resources Control Board.

• Wastewater Nitrogen Is Causing Ecological Havoc, But The Necessary Innovative Solutions Exist

  The water quality damages associated with excessive nitrogen discharges to our surface and groundwaters that result in life-threatening harmful algae blooms (HAB), the loss of shellfish and finfish, and the degradation of our groundwater drinking water aquifers are now ubiquitous in the U.S. and worldwide. Wastewater nitrogen discharges are typically the elephant in the room when the sources of nitrogen are quantified. Septic nitrogen discharges, in particular, are the primary cause of water-quality/ecological degradation in many, especially coastal, areas.

• Plastic Pipes Pollute Drinking Water Systems After Wildfires; It's A Risk In Urban Fires, Too

  When wildfires swept through the hills near Santa Cruz, California, in 2020, they released toxic chemicals into the water supplies of at least two communities. One sample found benzene, a carcinogen, at 40 times the state’s drinking water standard. Our testing has now confirmed a source of these chemicals, and it’s clear that wildfires aren’t the only blazes that put drinking water systems at risk. In a new study, we heated plastic water pipes commonly used in buildings and water systems to test how they would respond to nearby fires.

• 50 Years Of Drinking Water Research

  For nearly 50 years, EPA scientists have done research to support drinking water standards and protect America’s drinking water. However, drinking water systems are increasingly facing new challenges, such as emerging contaminants in source waters that can adversely impact health, including algal toxins from harmful algal blooms (HABs) and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

• Filtration Of Invasive Zebra Mussels From Lake Michigan

  Zebra mussel protection of intake structure for chiller water line and new heat exchanger system.