Water Pollution in the Midwest
Overview
The paper discusses the issue of water pollution in the Midwest. The Midwest constitutes of several states including Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota. Given the interconnectedness of the waterways, it is challenging to alleviate water pollution completely. However, it is possible to put in place specific measures that can be quintessential in the protection of waterways and minimize the pollution to manageable levels. Indeed, there exist relevant policies put in place to manage point-source of pollution such as effluents and wastes from manufacturing companies that are measured as they are discharged off pipes and other identifiable industrial equipment. However, the federal government has failed to monitor and regulate non-point pollution sources such as farm run-offs in rural areas, urban parking lots, and suburban loans.
In essence, runoffs pollute the waterways with impurities such as phosphorus, excess nitrogen and other precarious materials that are detrimental to the environment, especially marine life and end users such as humans. Indeed, this is the case in the Midwest whereby every state has some level of non-point pollution. As such, the pollutants from the runoffs form ephemeral gullies that join with the drainage pathways to streams, rivers, aquifers, and other waterways. As a result, widespread contamination of drinking water happens, especially during precipitation. The formation of the gullies and channels that carry fertilizers, manure, and other sediments is attributed to the erosive action of the runoffs. As a result, the pollution has become a major issue and environmental challenge in the Midwest following the total failure of the 1985 Federal Farm Bill that created a pact between farmers and the taxpayers to prevent erosion and curb pollution from runoffs in exchange for farm subsidies (Cox and Rundquist, 2018). As such, the health outcomes of the Midwest citizens have been put at risk.
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Effects of Human Activities
The main activity of the Midwest community is farming, a concept that historically existed in the region since the pre-colonial period. As such, farming has since evolved to involve the use of additives such as fertilizers to improve the yield, quality, and quantity of the products. To this end, following constant activity on these farms and the application of the fertilizers, two major environmental issues have cropped up in the Midwest, soil erosion and water pollution from runoffs. The EWG has identified the two undesirable issues through satellite imagery as excessive and worsening on the highly erodible land meant to be covered by the 1985 pact. Besides, as Cox and Rundquist posit, the situation has deteriorated in the croplands not covered by the pact.
Biotic and Abiotic Components
As described earlier, during precipitation, small ephemeral gullies and channels are formed through erosion. As a result, fertilizers, manure, and other unnatural sediments are carried along by the runoffs to waterways. The satellite images of the eroded lands show land that is characterized by the gullies and channels. The pollutants seep into the ground to the aquifers and the waterways through runoff and end up in taps as drinking water thus resulting and increasing the risk of bladder, kidney, ovarian, and colon cancers. Subsequently, the interaction between the water and phosphorous from the fertilizers results in algal blooms and other organic matter that further react with disinfectants and other water utilities to form harmful byproducts such as TTHMs.
Other than the associated risk of bladder cancer in humans, the TTHMs have been deemed to increase the risks of kidney, intestinal, and liver tumors in animals. The interaction of these components has also resulted in an increased risk of pregnancy issues such as miscarriages, neural tube defects, low birth weight, and cardiovascular defects. According to EWG's study on tap water, the data revealed that the water supplies in 1647 small communities in the farm country such as the Midwest are contaminated with TTHMs with levels 75 times higher than California’s one-in-a-million cancer risk level (Cox and Rundquist, 2018).
Energy Flow and Material Cycle
As cities grow, energy flow and material cycle increase through human socioeconomic activities of transferring and transforming food, energy, goods, and services (Decker et al., 2000),. As such, the Midwest energy flow and materials cycle can best be described by the following images
Here animals include humans within the Midwest community.
In the figure above, releases to the environment include the fertilizer materials or products and other unnatural sediments. Recycling of the water refers to processes such as water treatment and disinfectants, which as described earlier react with algae resulting from phosphorous interaction with water to form TTHMs. As Decker asserts, water is the ultimate solvent transporting waste products out of the mechanical, biotic, abiotic systems presented in the image above. In this regard, its contamination has resulted in unnatural cycle materials where the impurities and pollutants are constantly recycled, and attempts of purification lead to detrimental byproducts such as TTHMs.
On the other hand, the TTHMs absorbed in plants consumed by animals or consumed directly from the water sources by humans through tap water and animals affects the natural energy flow. In essence, this consumption results in health conditions such as cancers that disrupt the energy making system in animals, humans, and plants essential for life sustenance. Furthermore, the quality of energy thereby transferred by these affected organisms is low and insufficient. With continued persistence, the cycle could break down replacing the energy with diseases and other epidemics.
Effects on Humans
Soil erosion from the runoffs degrades, deforms, or scars the landscape thereby affecting the beauty of the land and cultivation of crops. Physiologically, the TTHMs from the pollution increase the risks of medical conditions such as cancers of the bladder, colon, and kidneys. Genetically, the children born to parents who consume the polluted water develop cardiovascular defects as well as neural tube effects. Fundamentally, the long-term exposure to the pollutants in the water could change or directly alter the Midwest population’s gene pool structure thereby transferring the faulty DNA or genes to their offspring. This could lead to susceptibility to certain health conditions such as cancer or increased stress levels among the population. However, there are no observable evolutionary evidence or changes to the Midwest community. In lieu, the noticeable change is the adaptation to purchasing bottled clean water for consumption.
Solutions and Recommendations
Indeed, the water pollution as described in the discourse has a great potential of resulting in adverse effects to the population. As such, the farmers in both the highly erodible croplands and the ones not covered by the 1985 pact should plant grass strips along the farms to curb the formation of gullies from erosion that act as pollution pathways, especially in Illinois. In addition, since the runoffs and erosion accrue from precipitation, constructing watersheds within the community will be pivotal in reducing the runoffs and thereby pollution. Also, authorities in the Midwest community through the Congress should revisit and strengthen the conservation compact of 1985 and if need be repeal and specify more stringent and rigorous measures to conserve the Midwest environment, especially the waterways. This can be achieved through revitalizing the Farm Bill to provide incentives to the farmers and landowners to increase their efforts towards environmental protection and conservation in exchange for the farm subsidies. Nonetheless, for the farmers to be eligible for the subsidies, they must show their efforts in healing the ephemeral gullies and maintain a buffer of 50 feet between cropland and waterways.
References
Cox, C. & Rundquist, S. (2018). Polluted Runoff: A Broken Promise Threatens Drinking Water In The Heartland. EWG. Retrieved from https://www.ewg.org/research/polluted_runoff
Decker, E. H., Elliott, S., Smith, F. A., Blake, D. R., & Rowland, F. S. (2000). Energy and material flow through the urban ecosystem. Annual review of energy and the environment , 25 : 685-740. Retrieved from http://biology.unm.edu/fasmith/Web_Page_PDFs/Decker_et_al_2000.pdf
