A Health Tutor

Surface Water Contamination Prevention Tips

When it rains and there is excess runoff water flowing into a reservoir or a bay, this runoff becomes surface water and it sits at the top or near the surface until it gets dispersed. If the water is contaminated, this could cause pollution. The last thing you want is for the pollution to spread to the rest of the water. If this reservoir provides water for drinking, this could put people at risk. Moreover, it could also put the environment at risk – the contaminated water could seep into the groundwater and cause a cycle of pollution. This is why environmental remediation is important, but also why you want to take certain measures to prevent the issue in the first place. Here are some surface water contamination prevention tips.

Make sure that you don’t put chemicals down your drain at home

you want to avoid putting paint thinner or other harmful chemicals that could actually pollute the groundwater down the drain. Much of that ground water will get washed into some kind of body of water. If you are working with these chemicals, you want to find an appropriate waste disposal location to get rid of these chemicals.

Make sure to avoid washing your car with harmful chemicals 

These chemicals will get washed off your car and will go down the storm drains. A lot of this water is sent into main water channels as runoff. If there is an excess amount of chemicals in this runoff, it will undoubtedly pollute and contaminate surface water. In fact, this is one of the main causes of surface water contamination – it just takes one household to stop the chain reaction. Hopefully, other households will take the same lead.

Make sure to encourage your community to test the groundwater 

You can contact a company like Microbial Insights Inc. to properly evaluate the number of microbes and other harmful properties in the soil. If there is a high saturation of these microbes, your surface water may be contaminated. If it is, you will have the evidence to support a search of the area. When it comes down to it, there could be many sources, but soon enough you will find it and you can take measures to stop the cause of the contamination.

Make sure that all rusty pipes are fixed

If you are overseeing a major reservoir and the pipes are rather rusty, this could cause polluted surface water. It will be important to replace these pipes if you want to prevent contamination. It may be difficult to lobby your community to replace these pipes, but it will be more than worth it.

Make sure that you don’t use too much water 

It takes heavy duty chemicals to keep the water clean, so the more water you use, the more chemicals there are. If your whole community is using too much water, there may be an influx of chemicals affecting the surface water. In the end, just like you want to set an example for not putting chemicals down the drain – you also want to set an example for shorter showers.

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