Warning: The following pictures graphically illustrate the seriousness of the world’s water pollution problem. These photos are not only from developing countries or nations with lax pollution control laws, half are from the U.S., prompting an important question: What’s in your water?
1. San Juan County, Colorado
Yellow mine water pools at the entrance to Gold King Mine in San Juan County, Colorado. In August of 2015, wastewater breached an earthen dam constructed by U.S. EPA workers and contaminated the Colorado River into New Mexico.
2. Refugio State Beach, California
An otherwise beautiful sunset highlights an oil slick along the coast of Refugio State Beach, California, after a pipe burst on May 19, 2015.
3. Buriganga River, Bangladesh
A mixture of industrial chemical waste, household waste, medical waste, sewage, dead animals, plastic, and oil contaminate the Buriganga River, one of Bangladesh’s most important waterways.
4. Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China
Over 10,000 dead fish were discovered in a Shenzhen park close to a drain depositing sewage into the small lake.
5. Indonesia
A child plays amidst the waste and garbage contaminating an Indonesian river.
6. Santa Barbara, California
Two men attempt to save an oil-covered bird after a ruptured pipeline released thousands of gallons of oil along the Santa Barbara coastline in May of 2015.
7. Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
Another heart wrenching image from China. Here a child swims in water where pollution sparked an explosive algae bloom.
8. Fracking Waste Pit, Texas
The contents of this fracking pit are thought to have contaminated Denton Creek, which provides drinking water for Dallas/Fort Worth.
9. Alberta, Canada
A satellite picture of waste from the Alberta Oilsands water pollution.
10. Kingston, Tennessee
The failure of an ash sludge storage cell in 2008 spread 5.4 million cubic yards of the sludge over 300 acres of land and water in Tennessee, causing excessive levels of lead and thallium in local water.
Water pollution, sadly, is a global problem that no nation including our own has managed to avoid. As concerned citizens, we can lobby for better water protection policies while protecting ourselves from polluted water with point-of-entry filtration systems.
We can beat water pollution.
Resources
Image 1 and 2
http://www.techinsider.io/water-pollution-contamination-reuters-world-2015-10
Image 3
http://www.sos-arsenic.net/english/environment/leatherindustry.html
Image 4
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/dead-pigs-rivers-blood-shocking-photos-water-pollution-china-1459222
Image 5
https://umweltverschmutzung.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/trinkwasser_dw_wiss_278755p.jpg
Image 6
http://quietmike.org/2015/05/22/santa-barbara-oil-spill-2015-edition/
Image 7
http://www.businessinsider.com/china-water-pollution-2013-3
Images 8
http://www.texassharon.com/2012/08/05/loopholes-for-fracking-industry-allows-contamination-and-climate-impacts/
Image 9
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/01/07/oilsands-pollution-government-study-alberta-lakes_n_2426652.html
Image 10
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/01/07/oilsands-pollution-government-study-alberta-lakes_n_2426652.html
