Water Pollution in Virginia

For most of us, our drinking water comes from our rivers. We pump it, process it through a purification plant, and pipe it to our houses. Then we percolate it through coffee grounds, mix it with frozen lemonade, drown pasta in it for 8 minutes at a roiling boil, etc. We even shower in it. When we're done with the water, it's not "pure" anymore - but how clean was it before it came into the house?

There are chemicals in our water, natural and otherwise... where do they come from?
Some are there naturally, dissolved into solution as the rainwater percolates through the soil and as the groundwater interacts with the bedrock and soil. In southeast Virginia, the decaying organic matter in the Dismal Swamp watershed may interact with chlorine to create a high level of a chemical that could create serious health effects. Residents of the City of Chesapeake are claiming that miscarriages were caused by high levels of trihalomethanes (THMs) in the drinking water from the Northwest River Water Treatment Plant (see FAQ's).
Some chemicals have been introduced into the environment, or concentrated far beyond natural "background" levels. For example, rainwater that washes off a lawn, golf course, or soccer field that has just been fertilized will carry nitrates into the local streams and lakes. If someone dumps old motor oil onto a driveway, after changing the oil in their car, then that pollution will seep into the ground and contaminate the water. Plumes of gasoline and heating oil pollution have been mapped, showing the spread of the chemical from leaking undergroud storage tanks.

test well for contaminants at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge

Nitrogen and Phosphorous

When we put fertilizer on our lawn, golf course, or farm fields, we add valuable nutrients to the soil for plants to use in growing. Fertilizers advertised as "10-10-10" are advertising the relative percentages of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. (You might also see N-P-K on the bag, using the chemical symbols of those elements.)

However, too much of a good thing can create a problem. If you eat too much chocolate cake, your stomach will get upset. The same thing happens to the natural environment when we add too much of a nutrient than it can process. It's obvious that the pipes pouring effluent from factories and sewage treatment plants are threats to the environment, so state and Federal agencies enforce pollution limits set according to the Clean Water Act in particular.

If a rainstorm washes the fertilizer that we just spread on the lawn out into the gutter/ditch, those nutrients have been wasted. They will end up growing weeds in a ditch, or flow all the way to a stream and change its chemistry rather than help you grow grass or crops.

Water Pollution in Virginia

Nitrogen and Phosphorous

Stormwater Management in Virginia

Sewage Treatment in Virginia

Floodplains

Drinking Water in Virginia

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