What is water pollution?

Water pollution occurs when harmful substances—often chemicals or microorganisms—

contaminate a stream, river, lake, ocean, aquifer, or other body of water, degrading water quality
and rendering it toxic to humans or the environment.

This widespread problem of water pollution is jeopardizing our health. Unsafe water kills more
people each year than war and all other forms of violence combined. Meanwhile, our drinkable
water sources are finite: Less than 1 percent of the earth’s freshwater is actually accessible to
us. Without action, the challenges will only increase by 2050, when global demand for freshwater
is expected to be one-third greater than it is now.

What are the causes of water pollution?

Water is uniquely vulnerable to pollution. Known as a “universal solvent,” water is able to
dissolve more substances than any other liquid on earth. It’s the reason we have Kool-Aid and
brilliant blue waterfalls. It’s also why water is so easily polluted. Toxic substances from farms,
towns, and factories readily dissolve into and mix with it, causing water pollution.

Here are some of the major sources of water pollution worldwide:

Agricultural
A small boat in the middle of a body of water that is a deep, vibrant shade of green
Toxic green algae in Copco Reservoir, northern CaliforniaCredit:Aurora Photos/Alamy
Not only is the agricultural sector the biggest consumer of global freshwater resources, with
farming and livestock production using about 70 percent of the earth’s surface water supplies,
but it’s also a serious water polluter. Around the world, agriculture is the leading cause of water
degradation. In the United States, agricultural pollution is the top source of contamination in
rivers and streams, the second-biggest source in wetlands, and the third main source in lakes.
It’s also a major contributor of contamination to estuaries and groundwater. Every time it rains,
fertilizers, pesticides, and animal waste from farms and livestock operations wash nutrients and
pathogens—such bacteria and viruses—into our waterways. Nutrient pollution, caused by excess
nitrogen and phosphorus in water or air, is the number-one threat to water quality worldwide and
can cause algal blooms, a toxic soup of blue-green algae that can be harmful to people and
wildlife.

Sewage and wastewater

Used water is wastewater. It comes from our sinks, showers, and toilets (think sewage) and from
commercial, industrial, and agricultural activities (think metals, solvents, and toxic sludge). The
term also includes stormwater runoff, which occurs when rainfall carries road salts, oil, grease,
chemicals, and debris from impermeable surfaces into our waterways
More than 80 percent of the world’s wastewater flows back into the environment without being
treated or reused, according to the United Nations; in some least-developed countries, the figure
tops 95 percent. In the United States, wastewater treatment facilities process about 34 billion
gallons of wastewater per day. These facilities reduce the amount of pollutants such as
pathogens, phosphorus, and nitrogen in sewage, as well as heavy metals and toxic chemicals in
industrial waste, before discharging the treated waters back into waterways. That’s when all
goes well. But according to EPA estimates, our nation’s aging and easily overwhelmed sewage
treatment systems also release more than 850 billion gallons of untreated wastewater each year.

Oil pollution
Big spills may dominate headlines, but consumers account for the vast majority of oil pollution in
our seas, including oil and gasoline that drips from millions of cars and trucks every day.
Moreover, nearly half of the estimated 1 million tons of oil that makes its way into marine
environments each year comes not from tanker spills but from land-based sources such as
factories, farms, and cities. At sea, tanker spills account for about 10 percent of the oil in waters
around the world, while regular operations of the shipping industry—through both legal and
illegal discharges—contribute about one-third. Oil is also naturally released from under the ocean
floor through fractures known as seeps.

Radioactive substances
Radioactive waste is any pollution that emits radiation beyond what is naturally released by the
environment. It’s generated by uranium mining, nuclear power plants, and the production and
testing of military weapons, as well as by universities and hospitals that use radioactive
materials for research and medicine. Radioactive waste can persist in the environment for
thousands of years, making disposal a major challenge. Consider the decommissioned Hanford
nuclear weapons production site in Washington, where the cleanup of 56 million gallons of
radioactive waste is expected to cost more than $100 billion and last through 2060. Accidentally
released or improperly disposed of contaminants threaten groundwater, surface water, and
marine resources.

Categories of water pollution

To address pollution and protect water we need to understand where the pollution is coming from
(point source or nonpoint source) and the type of water body its impacting (groundwater, surface
water, or ocean water).

Where is the pollution coming from?

Point source pollution
When contamination originates from a single source, it’s called point source pollution. Examples
include wastewater (also called effluent) discharged legally or illegally by a manufacturer, oil
refinery, or wastewater treatment facility, as well as contamination from leaking septic systems,
chemical and oil spills, and illegal dumping. The EPA regulates point source pollution by
establishing limits on what can be discharged by a facility directly into a body of water. While
point source pollution originates from a specific place, it can affect miles of waterways and
ocean.
Nonpoint source
Nonpoint source pollution is contamination derived from diffuse sources. These may include
agricultural or stormwater runoff or debris blown into waterways from land. Nonpoint source
pollution is the leading cause of water pollution in U.S. waters, but it’s difficult to regulate, since
there’s no single, identifiable culprit.

Transboundary
It goes without saying that water pollution can’t be contained by a line on a map. Transboundary
pollution is the result of contaminated water from one country spilling into the waters of another.
Contamination can result from a disaster—like an oil spill—or the slow, downriver creep of
industrial, agricultural, or municipal discharge.

What type of water is being impacted?

Groundwater pollution
When rain falls and seeps deep into the earth, filling the cracks, crevices, and porous spaces of
an aquifer (basically an underground storehouse of water), it becomes groundwater—one of our
least visible but most important natural resources. Nearly 40 percent of Americans rely on
groundwater, pumped to the earth’s surface, for drinking water. For some folks in rural areas, it’s
their only freshwater source. Groundwater gets polluted when contaminants—from pesticides
and fertilizers to waste leached from landfills and septic systems—make their way into an
aquifer, rendering it unsafe for human use. Ridding groundwater of contaminants can be difficult
to impossible, as well as costly. Once polluted, an aquifer may be unusable for decades, or even
thousands of years. Groundwater can also spread contamination far from the original polluting
source as it seeps into streams, lakes, and oceans.

Surface water pollution

Covering about 70 percent of the earth, surface water is what fills our oceans, lakes, rivers, and
all those other blue bits on the world map. Surface water from freshwater sources (that is, from
sources other than the ocean) accounts for more than 60 percent of the water delivered to
American homes. But a significant pool of that water is in peril. According to the most recent
surveys on national water quality from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, nearly half of
our rivers and streams and more than one-third of our lakes are polluted and unfit for swimming,
fishing, and drinking. Nutrient pollution, which includes nitrates and phosphates, is the leading
type of contamination in these freshwater sources. While plants and animals need these
nutrients to grow, they have become a major pollutant due to farm waste and fertilizer runoff.
Municipal and industrial waste discharges contribute their fair share of toxins as well. There’s
also all the random junk that industry and individuals dump directly into waterways.

Ocean water pollution

Eighty percent of ocean pollution (also called marine pollution) originates on land—whether
along the coast or far inland. Contaminants such as chemicals, nutrients, and heavy metals are
carried from farms, factories, and cities by streams and rivers into our bays and estuaries; from
there they travel out to sea. Meanwhile, marine debris—particularly plastic—is blown in by the
wind or washed in via storm drains and sewers. Our seas are also sometimes spoiled by oil spills
and leaks—big and small—and are consistently soaking up carbon pollution from the air. The
ocean absorbs as much as a quarter of man-made carbon emissions.

What are the effects of water pollution?

On human health
To put it bluntly: Water pollution kills. In fact, it caused 1.8 million deaths in 2015, according to a
study published in The Lancet. Contaminated water can also make you ill. Every year, unsafe
water sickens about 1 billion people. And low-income communities are disproportionately at risk
because their homes are often closest to the most polluting industries.

Waterborne pathogens, in the form of disease-causing bacteria and viruses from human and
animal waste, are a major cause of illness from contaminated drinking water. Diseases spread by
unsafe water include cholera, giardia, and typhoid. Even in wealthy nations, accidental or illegal
releases from sewage treatment facilities, as well as runoff from farms and urban areas,
contribute harmful pathogens to waterways. Thousands of people across the United States are
sickened every year by Legionnaires’ disease (a severe form of pneumonia contracted from
water sources like cooling towers and piped water), with cases cropping up from California’s
Disneyland to Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

A woman washes a baby in an infant bath seat in a kitchen sink, with empty water bottles in the
foreground.
A woman using bottled water to wash her three-week-old son at their home in Flint,
MichiganCredit:Todd McInturf/The Detroit News/AP
Meanwhile, the plight of residents in Flint, Michigan—where cost-cutting measures and aging
water infrastructure created a lead contamination crisis—offers a stark look at how dangerous
chemical and other industrial pollutants in our water can be. The problem goes far beyond Flint
and involves much more than lead, as a wide range of chemical pollutants—from heavy metals
such as arsenic and mercury to pesticides and nitrate fertilizers—are getting into our water
supplies. Once they’re ingested, these toxins can cause a host of health issues, from cancer to
hormone disruption to altered brain function. Children and pregnant women are particularly at
risk.

Even swimming can pose a risk. Every year, 3.5 million Americans contract health issues such as
skin rashes, pinkeye, respiratory infections, and hepatitis from sewage-laden coastal waters,
according to EPA estimates.

On the environment
In order to thrive, healthy ecosystems rely on a complex web of animals, plants, bacteria, and
fungi—all of which interact, directly or indirectly, with each other. Harm to any of these
organisms can create a chain effect, imperiling entire aquatic environments.
When water pollution causes an algal bloom in a lake or marine environment, the proliferation of
newly introduced nutrients stimulates plant and algae growth, which in turn reduces oxygen
levels in the water. This dearth of oxygen, known as eutrophication, suffocates plants and
animals and can create “dead zones,” where waters are essentially devoid of life. In certain
cases, these harmful algal blooms can also produce neurotoxins that affect wildlife, from whales
to sea turtles.

Chemicals and heavy metals from industrial and municipal wastewater contaminate waterways
as well. These contaminants are toxic to aquatic life—most often reducing an organism’s life
span and ability to reproduce—and make their way up the food chain as predator eats prey.
That’s how tuna and other big fish accumulate high quantities of toxins, such as mercury.

Marine ecosystems are also threatened by marine debris, which can strangle, suffocate, and
starve animals. Much of this solid debris, such as plastic bags and soda cans, gets swept into
sewers and storm drains and eventually out to sea, turning our oceans into trash soup and
sometimes consolidating to form floating garbage patches. Discarded fishing gear and other
types of debris are responsible for harming more than 200 different species of marine life.

Meanwhile, ocean acidification is making it tougher for shellfish and coral to survive. Though
they absorb about a quarter of the carbon pollution created each year by burning fossil fuels,
oceans are becoming more acidic. This process makes it harder for shellfish and other species to
build shells and may impact the nervous systems of sharks, clownfish, and other marine life.