Environmental concerns and sustainable living never really worried me until I heard how bad the water quality was in Athens. It's a major problem here, and one that goes widely unaddressed. People trust that the water that comes out of the tap is pure and regulated, but this is often not the case. The Environmental Working Group compiles data from 47,667 drinking water utilities and 20 million test results into a massive database where you can search the water quality test results from just about any provider in the nation.
According to them, the City of Athens had 12 unsafe pollutant categories in the water system, seven above safe levels in their last test. I took the data from EWG and compiled it into an infographic showing the pollutant levels relative to their safe amount.
All of these chemicals are disinfection byproducts which means they most likely come from the City trying to clean the water. Ironic. They also found nitrates, which come from fertilizer runoff and leaking septic tanks, and barium, which comes from drilling and mining runoff. Both were below health limits though.
1 comment:
I wish I could drink fresh mountain spring water all the time but being a college student forces most of my hydration to come via the sink. I'm surprised that more people haven't tapped into this issue yet.
I'm out of the dorms, but, now looking back on it, there was at least one substantial problem with the water quality each year that I was in them. I remember everyone having to buy bottled water just to brush their teeth and everyone just being smelly in general. Interesting times.
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