The Hidden Water We Use

Water Treatment Plant Early American settlers tookwater quality for granted. In lightly settled towns and villages inthe 17th and 18th centuries, people found clean drinking water innearby streams and lakes, as well as in wells they dug to accessgroundwater. However, as population densities increased in urbancenters, many water supplies became contaminated, and people fellill as a result of drinking the impure water. Today, in developing countries around theworld, disease-causing water-borne microbes and chemical contaminantssicken millions of people each year. In developed countries such as the United States, governmentagencies require that the approximately 160,000 water treatmentfacilities supplying drinking water nationwide meet strict safetyand quality standards. Public drinking water generallycomes to a treatment facility either from underground aquifers orfrom surface streams and reservoirs such as the one featured inthis video segment.