SOURCE WATER CONTAMINATION RESOURCES

• Addressing Challenges Of PFAS: Protecting Groundwater And Treating Contaminated Sources

  Groundwater is a vital resource across the United States and throughout the world. Over 50 percent of people in the United States depend on groundwater for safe drinking water. Groundwater is also one of our most important sources of water for irrigation and food production.

• EPA Takes Major Step Toward Permanently Protecting Bristol Bay

  Thank you, EPA, for listening to tribes, communities, and supporters — and moving closer to forever stopping catastrophic projects like Pebble Mine.

• EPA Researchers Investigate Impacts Of Wildfires On Water

  According to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report, the world is getting warmer, and in the western United States, that translates into drought and significantly increased wildfire activity. In September 2020, western Oregon experienced unprecedented wildfires that dramatically affected people’s lives, infrastructure, and the environment, and impacted drinking water sources.

• Lake Stratification And Nanobubble Generators

  If you’ve ever jumped in a lake during the summer and felt warmer water on the surface and as you sunk deeper, you felt the cooler water at the bottom, you experienced the effects of thermal stratification. Though this is natural, imagine you go to jump in the lake and it has a thick layer of algae growing and it smells. Would you still jump in?

• Impact Of Congressional Ruling On PFAS

  The ability of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to contaminate everything in their wake and resist degradation in nature has propelled these “forever chemicals” into a serious public health concern over the past two decades, galvanizing calls for sweeping federal legislation.

• Temporary Bypass Helps City Of Auburn, New York, Divert Stream Water Safely And Efficiently

  The Owasco Outlet in Auburn, New York, is a waterway that flows from the north end of Owasco Lake through five counties before connecting to the Seneca River. Over time, portions of the Owasco Outlet were contaminated with coal tar. A byproduct of burning coal, the coal tar had been buried throughout the grounds of a former manufactured gas plant located along the waterway during the 1800s, eventually leaching into the surrounding sediment.

• The Ocean Is Full Of Tiny Plastic Particles — We Found A Way To Track Them With Satellites

  Plastic is the most common type of debris floating in the world’s oceans. Waves and sunlight break much of it down into smaller particles called microplastics — fragments less than 5 millimeters across, roughly the size of a sesame seed. To understand how microplastic pollution is affecting the ocean, scientists need to know how much is there and where it is accumulating. Most data on microplastic concentrations comes from commercial and research ships that tow plankton nets — long, cone-shaped nets with very fine mesh designed for collecting marine microorganisms.

• Implementing Granular Activated Carbon Systems: Important Design And Start-Up Considerations

  As granular activated carbon (GAC) is increasingly employed to treat PFAS, new practitioners can improve their results by knowing what to expect — thanks to data and experience acquired from prior installations.

• Treating Contaminated Groundwater: Advanced Iron Removal System

  The City of Belleville, Ontario was planning on re-developing downtown waterfront property into a public space containing a park and a green space. Unfortunately, the proposed site had a long history as an industrial site – initially for a coal gasification plant from 1854 to 1947 and then as a bulk oil storage facility from 1930 to 1990.

• Wildfires Are Contaminating Drinking Water Systems, And It's More Widespread Than People Realize

  More than 58,000 fires scorched the United States last year, and 2021 is on track to be even drier. What many people don’t realize is that these wildfires can do lasting damage beyond the reach of the flames — they can contaminate entire drinking water systems with carcinogens that last for months after the blaze. That water flows to homes, contaminating the plumbing, too. Over the past four years, wildfires have contaminated drinking water distribution networks and building plumbing for more than 240,000 people.