(Image of Moline, IL water treatment facility from the Quad City Times)When I first started learning about climate change I felt super overwhelmed, I knew I wanted to learn more about it, but I didn’t know where to start. Over the years, I have narrowed my interest in learning about climate change to focus on the issue of water quality. Water is one of the most essential resources for human life. According to the World Health Organization 2.2 billion people are living without clean water, that is roughly 1 in every 4 people that live on the planet that do not have access to clean water. As the population on Earth continues to grow, access to clean water will only become more difficult as population growth results in accelerated urbanization and the quantity of wastewater being generated will continue to increase globally. Proper water infrastructure that monitors and sanitizes water efficiently and effectively is the only way to combat water scarcity from happening in the coming decades. The Mississippi is the main water supply for Bettendorf, Davenport, Moline, Silvis and Rock Island where many of us live. Aside from the Mississippi being many of our main water sources, I’m sure at least one person here besides myself grew up swimming or boating on the Mississippi River, an activity I and many others looked forward to every summer, with some people still boating today. When I was around nine years old my family told me that the river was too dirty to swim in, and it wasn’t until recently that I learned that in 2013, shortly before my family stopped boating, that there was a suspicious green color found on the surface of the water in the Quad City area, many people called this color “John Deere Green” and suggested the pollution was caused from the company dumping old paint into the river. John Deere’s response was that they would never do such a thing and that the substance was algae. Whether or not it was John Deere, whatever was happening was damaging to the river and threatened river resources.
As much as water pollution isn’t a fun topic, it is vital for stakeholders to know what is happening to their water supply and participate in learning about their cities water treatment facilities along with understanding what is damaging their water supplies.
According to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study in 2018 they found that only one third of the nation's rivers and streams had healthy fish and biological communities with 46% of rivers and streams having elevated levels of phosphorus and nitrogen with the Mississippi River being regarded as one of the most contaminated rivers in the United States. The Mississippi is not only one of the most contaminated rivers in the country, but it is the largest river in the United States and third largest in the world, making its level of contamination even more important. The water quality of the Mississippi affects roughly ten state regional water supplies along with the Gulf of Mexico where the water dumps into, and many speculate the Mississippi is the main contributor of The Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico. I previously mentioned that the Mississippi has high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus, according to nature.org these chemicals come from lawns, sewage treatment plants, farm land and other sources along the river, and the chemicals create algae blooms that choke water from receiving oxygen which is essential for marine life to survive. Fish and other marine life are not able to survive without oxygen so they either migrate further into rivers or the ocean making the cost of fishing and fish increase or they die, ie dead zone. Seeing as how 40% of the fish that is consumed in the United States comes from the Gulf of Mexico, we should do our part in protecting the water and the marine life that we rely on.
Rainfall and flooding is one of the leading causes of water contamination because the chemicals from fertilizers used in farming, the pesticides many people use on their lawns, and the backup of sewage ends up in our rivers. Seeing as how we can’t control the level of rainfall, it’s important for people and farmers to consider what the use of chemical fertilizers is doing to our water supply and implement more environmentally friendly methods. It’s also important for cities to look into ways to prevent sewage backup from heavy rainfall that floods into rivers. According to chicago.gov one step in this direction is their $75 million dollar installation of inlet restrictor valves that shrinks water pipes to funnel and regulate the water from the street to the main sewer line. During heavy rain events, the smaller opening allows less water into the sewer system. This does result in the streets temporarily flooding, but it overall reduces the amount of contaminated water that enters peoples homes along with an overflow of sewer systems that would eventually flood into rivers. Overall, cities need to pay more attention to what investments they can make in their city policies and infrastructure to protect their water quality.
While I wouldn’t recommend people to fish or swim in the Mississippi, we are fortunate enough in the Quad City area to have water treatment facilities that invest in efficient and effective techniques to ensure our water quality is safe to drink, cook and clean with. The Moline water plant used to supply water to residents in Moline, East Moline, and Silvis treats about 17 million gallons of wastewater per day according to the city of Moline website. Using the double treatment technique of first running the water with rotating biological contactors and second anaerobic digestion which uses biological methods such as bacteria that consume the waste materials, they ensure their water is clean and safe for people to use, without the plant investing in chemicals to clean the water. Davenport had a reputation starting around the 2000’s for providing toxic water to its residents, and around 2015 they began investing in their water treatment facilities and are now considered to have some of the best equipment and techniques for cleaning water in the state of Iowa. According to the city of Davenport website they use conventional coagulation and settling processes with parallel superpulsator clarification followed by granular activated carbon filtration, with the filtration process being what the U.S. EPA regards it as one of the most effective treatment technologies for removing organic chemicals such as farm pesticides and industrial waste. Smaller and more rural communities like Carbon Cliff, Coal Valley and Eldridge need to begin investing in these effective methods as many of these cities use well water and have had their wells test high in chemicals such as arsenic, chloroform, and radium which are all linked to increasing the likelihood of cancer. We should all be aware of what is happening with our water supply and what larger practices lead to water contamination, and the more stakeholders are educated on their cities water treatment methods the easier it is to urge our cities to ensure we have safe water as it is essential to human life.
References: :
https://prairierivers.org/priorities/threats-to-drinking-water/
https://prairierivers.org/priorities/nutrient_pollution/
https://wisconsinwatch.org/2022/10/toxic-chemicals-in-mississippi-river/
https://semspub.epa.gov/work/07/30352860.pd
https://qctimes.com/news/local/swine-republic-author-to-speak-in-quad-cities-about-water-quality-issues/article_80557704-6928-11ee-9911-f36340edc5f9.html
https://environment.co/the-7-most-polluted-bodies-of-water-in-the-us/
https://water.org/our-impact/water-crisis/
https://www.who.int/news/item/18-06-2019-1-in-3-people-globally-do-not-have-access-to-safe-drinking-water-unicef-who
https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/priority-landscapes/gulf-of-mexico/stories-in-the-gulf-of-mexico/gulf-of-mexico-dead-zone/
https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/water/provdrs/engineer/svcs/blocking_rainwaterandpreventingsewerbackup.html#:~:text=Slowing%20the%20Flow&text=When%20the%20restrictor%20valve%20is,water%20into%20the%20sewer%20system.
