Water Facts
As the "universal solvent", water tends to dissolve and absorb everything it touches. Here are a few of the ways water interacts with pollutants in the environment and the effect they have on water quality:
Carbon Dioxide, Smoke, Sulfur - dust, industrial emissions, carbon dioxide, spores and smog may be absorbed by water droplets.
Acid Rain - atmospheric water vapor mixes with sulfur from industrial emissions,
lowering pH and increasing water's capacity to dissolve other substances.
The water vapor falls back to earth as rain, sleet, hail or snow.
Calcium, Hydrogen Sulfide, Iron, Magnesium, Sodium, Radioactivity - as
it seeps through the ground, water picks up traces of these substances.
TCE, PCB, Trihalomethanes
Runoff into rivers, lakes and underground aquifers
located near industrial sites have led to contamination of water supplies
by these
carcinogenic solvents.
Fungicides, Herbicides, Insecticides
These substances enter the water supply through the interaction with
agricultural byproducts, fertilizers, insecticides and other
man-made wastes.