When you start pointing the finger of blame at certain industries claiming they cause water pollution, you need to turn it around so that it’s pointing at yourself instead. Back in the mid 20th century, industrial waste was the major cause of pollution, but as soon as the government passed numerous acts in the 1970s which forced them to clean up the way they disposed of waste materials, so now industry isn’t the main culprit it once was. The truth is you and I are the ones polluting our lakes, rivers, and streams, and until we take it upon ourselves to stop our dirty habits, the issue is only going to worsen.

The population in the US continues to increase by leaps and bounds. The pollution attributable to one individual may seem negligible, but once you have the contaminants placed into the water sources by huge numbers of people… Well, you can understand the problem. Your neighbor is out changing the oil in his car. Since he isn’t sure how to get rid of the previous oil, you see him throwing it down the storm drain. Your old car is leaking gasoline. You wouldn’t want it in your driveway, and that means you park the old heap out in the street where the gas leaks out and runs down the storm drain. You help your brother paint his bedroom, and watch as he goes out to the street to wash the brushes with turpentine.

You need to admit, these things happen all the time. Be it children throwing things down the storm drains in play, a restaurant getting rid of rancid cooking oil, or perhaps you yourself spraying bug sprays and fertilizer onto your lawn that can at some point wash off into the drains, it’s all adding to the issue of pollution in this country.

The damaging thing is, the majority of people aren’t even conscious of what they’re doing. Not enough people put something into a storm drain and consider where it goes. They’re just glad to get rid of it. However, beyond sight doesn’t mean that it is not causing issues inside the waterways. Water inside the drains runs to lakes, rivers, or streams, merges with other toxified water already originating from upstream, and then runs into bigger bodies of water, such as the Mississippi River and the Gulf coast of Louisiana. In the Gulf, these impurities are killing the aquatic life that resides there.

Water pollution is a problem that is going to continue to grow together with our increasing population. With experts forecasting water shortages by the mid 21st century, we all need to get serious now with cleaning up our major causes of water pollution such as through municipal water filtration or emergency water filter methods. If we don’t, what kind of a world are we going to leave to our little ones?