Dicisions In Paradise

Water and Air Pollution in the United States

Other planets have sunlight, but the Earth is the only planet we know that has air and water. Without air and water, the Earth would be unable to sustain life. A diverse community of plant and animal life has thrived on this planet for millions of years, sustained by the sun and supported by the water and air. Water and air are undoubtedly the Earth's most precious natural resources in existence. However, these life providers are being destroyed and taken advantage of in the United States. Wasteful and uncaring humans are killing what is the very cause of their existence. There is little value placed on the most important parts of being.

Comprising over 70% of the Earth's surface, water is part of the essentials of life. Without the seemingly invaluable compound comprised of hydrogen and oxygen, life on Earth would be non-existent: it is essential for everything on the planet to grow and prosper. Although humans recognize this fact, there is still disregard to it displayed by polluting our rivers, lakes, and oceans. Subsequently, humans are slowly but surely harming the planet to the point where organisms are dying at a very alarming rate. In addition to innocent organisms dying off, drinking water has become greatly affected as is the ability to use water for recreational purposes. In order to combat water pollution, humans must understand the problems and become part of the solution.

Everyone needs air in order to breathe. In the days before the proliferation of large cities and industry, natures own systems kept the air fairly clean. Wind mixed and dispersed the gases, rain-washed the dust and other easily dissolved substances to the ground and plants absorbed carbon dioxide and replaced it with oxygen. Air pollution is nothing new. Ever since the discovery of fire, less-than-desirable substances have been vented into the air. Air pollution is

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addition of harmful substances to the atmosphere resulting in damage to the environment, human health, and quality of life. One of many forms of pollution, air pollution occurs inside homes, schools and offices, in cities, across continents and even globally. Air pollution makes people sick, it causes breathing problems and promotes cancer, and it harms plants, animals, and the ecosystems in which they live. Some air pollutants return to earth in the form of acid rain and snow, which corrode statues and buildings, damage crops and forests, and make lakes and streams unsuitable for fish and other plant and animal life. Pollution is changing the earth's atmosphere so that it lets in more harmful radiation from the sun. At the same time, our polluted atmosphere is becoming a better insulator, preventing heat from escaping back into space and leading to a rise in global average temperatures. Scientists predict that the temperature increase, referred to as global warming, will affect world food supply, alter sea level, make weather more extreme, and increase the spread of tropical disease. Most air pollution comes from one human activity: burning fossil fuels, natural gas, coal, and oil.

Years after Americans first awakened as a whole to the pollution in their midst, it is clear that important progress has been made in cleaning up the country's air and water. Companies like General Electric (GE) can no longer dump carcinogenic chemical waste into rivers, as GE did for many years from its factories along the Hudson River. New technologies are enabling power plants to generate electricity while producing less harmful emissions. Urban areas have reduced smog and ground-level ozone through the phase-out of leaded gasoline and the introduction of cars and trucks that emit far less pollutants than those on the road just ten or fifteen years ago.

The reduction in obvious sources of pollution--the factory funneling toxins into the

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town river or the neighborhood hazardous waste site--may have lulled the public into a sense of complacency. The big culprits are largely under control, but pollution is also caused by less visible sources that are difficult--and costly--to contain. Examples include runoff from urban sewer systems, animal waste from farms, toxic gasoline additives leaking into groundwater, and ozone-depleting chemicals used for refrigeration. Because the sources of pollution have grown simultaneously more complex and less visible to the public, mustering support to further reduce pollution is difficult.

There are a few solutions that can help the issue of pollution diminish. Clean water regulations should be strengthened. Essentially all surface water in the United States is polluted, much of it from industrial waste and the discharge of municipal sewage. Over the past few decades, such sources of pollution, known as point sources (Understanding Point Source and Non-point Source Pollution, 2005, para. 2), have been substantially reduced as a result of stricter regulations. The nation's waters still have not met quality goals, however, mainly because other sources of pollution-- known as non-point sources (Understanding Point Source and Non-point Source Pollution, 2005, para. 6)--have yet to be curbed.

Clean air regulations should be enforced to protect the environment and public health. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued national air quality standards setting tighter limits on ground-level ozone (smog) and fine particles (soot) under the Clean Air Act. Many industries, including chemical and trucking companies, opposed the new regulations and sued the EPA on the grounds that they would be too costly to implement. In February 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of the EPA, affirming the EPA's authority to set national air quality standards solely on the basis of health considerations.

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The Supreme Court unanimously rejected industry arguments that federal officials must balance costs of regulations against the benefits of clean air Tuesday, February 27, 2001. The ruling states the law does not require the government to consider the financial cost of reducing emissions when it sets air quality standards. Interestingly, all nine justices agreed on the result of the ruling, although sometimes for different reasons. The justices ruled against industry arguments that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) overstepped their legislative authority when it set tougher standards for ozone and soot in 1997, but found the EPA misinterpreted a section of the Clean Air Act (CAA) in implementing new ozone rules (Johnsen, 2001, para. 1-2).

In 1990, Congress passed the Clean Air Act Amendments