Water Pollution Facts

Water covers more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface and is one of the primary resources for people, animals and the environment.

Here are a few interesting facts concerning water pollution.

• Over 80 percent of the time the causes of water pollution are by land-based activities.

• Polluted water is responsible for killing over one million sea birds, countless fish and 100,000 sea turtles and aquatic mammals every year. An additional 300,000 whales, porpoises and dolphins die each year after they become tangled in discarded fishing nets.

• Approximately 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, industrial waste and storm water get discharged into U.S. waters each year.

• According to the environmentalist group called American Rivers, approximately 46 percent of U.S. lakes and 40 percent of U.S. streams and rivers are polluted to the point that they are no longer safe for swimming, fishing or hosting marine life.

• U.S. factories release more than three million tons of toxic chemicals into the environment, much of which ends up in American water sources. Water pollution at home can be a serious problem but there are solutions.

• The American Rivers group estimates that 50 percent of the 1,200 species on the endangered species list and the threatened species list depend upon streams and rivers for their survival. During the course of the 1900s, 123 known species of freshwater fish, amphibians and invertebrates became extinct.

• The United States Environmental Protection Agency predicts that American rivers could return to super-polluted levels by the time 2016 rolls around.

• About 66 percent of the bays and estuaries in the United States are suffering from moderate or severe degradation. This is caused by eutrophication, an acceleration in algae growth triggered by extremely high levels of nitrogen and phosphorous. Excessive phosphorous and nitrogen levels are typically caused when industrial and human wastes are discharged into the ground water.

• Cities along the Chinese coastline release 50 to 60 million tons of untreated municipal waste into their water sources every single day.

• An estimated 14,000 people die each day because of polluted water sources. A majority of these deaths occur in developing countries where people drink water contaminated by untreated sewage.

• The Mississippi River carries about 1.5 million metric tons of nitrogen pollution into the Gulf of Mexico every year. This results in a hypoxic coastal dead zone about the size of Massachusetts.

• A huge island of trash floats in the Pacific Ocean. This trash dump is about twice the size of the state of Texas. Smaller trash dumps have been found in the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean as well.

• Biologists have discovered that seagulls have an average of 30 pieces of plastic in their stomachs at the time of their deaths.

• Approximately 90 percent of the floating materials found in the oceans are made out of plastic. These plastic pieces attract such toxic chemicals as PCBs and DDT, which are poisonous to aquatic life.

• Approximately one quarter of American beaches are closed or under advisory at least once a year because of varying types of water pollution.

• Oil spills devastate aquatic bodies with their pollutants, but only about 12 percent of the oil in our oceans comes from these spills. The other 88 percent enters the Earth’s oceans through drains and runoffs.

• Developing countries dump about 70 percent of their untreated industrial wastes into the people’s drinking water supply. About 2 million tons of human waste are released into water courses every single day.

• Water pollution causes a wide range of serious health issues, including typhoid, hookworm, diarrhea, cholera, hepatitis A and dysentery. Bathing or swimming in contaminated water can cause gastroenteritis, respiratory infections, Giardiasis and encephalitis. Long-term effects of exposure to water pollution include organ damage, neurological problems and various types of cancers.