Water Senior Project Proposal

The general theme is, “What the world will be like in 100 years?” Though at this point, I am thinking about focusing on what the world’s water will be like. I came across the following quote stated by Charles C. Johnson, “Everything that man himself injects into the biosphere- chemical, biological or physical- can ultimately find its way into the earth’s water.” I feel that I could possibly base a lot of the research that is needed as well as outline what one could expect from this project about water in the future. So I feel that I will focus on the conditions of the water quality in 100 years as well as different factors along with that. Different conditions that would most likely affect the water which I should probably look more in depth are: human growth population, waste rates and trends as well as water quality trends of the present. Through my project on water, I will want to portray how serious water quality is and how it is important to take care of it, but as a final note, I hope to find a way/ or plan of how to give hope to everyone about how to solve the issues.

My preliminary research has shown how the chemicals that humans are putting into the water is very bad, which cause many severe health issues (e.g. cancer). “About 14.1 million Americans routinely consume drinking water containing pesticides, including weed killers, atarzine, alachlor, and simazine…”2 Water has also been shown to become contaminated after being treated, just by being transported to homes through pipes and joints (may or may not be contaminated, but there is a chance). Many studies have been performed that show water quality has a direct correlation with human health. I also found how much water a human uses and needs to replace on average, which is approximately 2.3 liters each day. Another fact, “…at least 2,110 contaminants have been identified in the nation’s drinking water supplies… contaminants not regulated may be present in drinking water.” My research also found that vulnerability of surface water and ground water depends on natural factors as well as human activities. There are a few types of pollutant types and how they enter the water some of which are the following: point source, air, and eroded soil and sediment. Different types of pollutants are: microorganisms, bacteria, chemicals, sewage spills, pesticides and runoff. Water quality has become an important issue as the Nation’s population increases tremendously. 4 Overall, I found information that will help show how water is important to keep clean, though I feel I need more information about water quality trends over the years and more about waste rates.

Overall my thoughts on this research is that I am either saddened or disturbed. Sad because earth is slowly getting destroyed and that we are hurting ourselves. Disturbed by of all the different types of “identified” chemicals in water that we could be drinking. It makes me wonder how many more are not identified or controlled, in other words, what other contaminants could there be that are dangerous to our health and environment? I realized that it takes a balance of things to make sure water is clean and that actions must be taken for bad conditions to be improved. I also hadn’t realized that there is more than one way of contaminating the water by air, point source and erosion and sediment. The more I think about it the bigger and bigger the issue seems to become. Now I need to decide on where to focus my research I think.