ABSTRACT
Water contains minerals, toxic and nontoxic inorganic and organic chemicals, particulate matter, and radiation. It is an important conduit through which these nutrients and contaminants enter and affect the human organism. Wells in polluted industrial and farm areas are contaminated by groundwater infiltration. Lake and ocean waters are contaminated by both rains and waste runoff oil spill, dumps, factory, farming, and industry. Interruptions in stream flow dramatically decrease sediment and nutrient transport to downstream stretches, reducing water quality and nutrient transport to downstream stretches, reducing water quality and impairing ecosystem health. All farm environmental management plans should allow for containment of substantial quantities of firewater and for its subsequent recovery and disposal by specialist disposal companies. Water treatment plants along the East Coast are struggling to recover from Superstorm Sandy, whose torrential rains washed tens of millions of gallons of raw or partially treated sewage into waterways.
