Water Quality

Water Quality

Water quality is an essential part of environmental health and keeping the public free from bacteria, and diseases that could be infected in the water that could harm the population.

Coliform bacteria are bacteria that is abundant of harmless microorganisms that live in very big numbers within humans or warm blooded animals inside their intestines which help aid in the process of digestion of food. It is also found in plants and in soil. Coliform has many different types of forms, sixteen species of coliform is to be exact that can be found in humans/warm-blooded animals, plants and soil. Fecal coliform bacteria are a subgroup of coliform bacteria and seems to be the most popular type of coliform bacteria. E. Coli is one of the types of bacteria that can be harmful towards the population that can cause illness or an outbreak if you encounter it.

Ways to prevent having buildup of coliform bacteria in water is the process of how we retrieve water. Retrieving water from wells needs to be in a well that is constructed to standards that should almost little to none coliform bacteria. If any of this bacterium is found inside the well, the well must be inspected and completely cleaned out by a professional. With homeowners, they need to be careful that their water is not contaminated and their filters need to be cleaned and maintained regularly throughout the year so they do not ingest contaminated water which could be harmless or not.

Coliform standard is 5.0%^3 mg/L.

Turbidity is another water hazard among environmental health issues. Turbidity is a measure of how much either one material or more enters the water and makes it unclear or cloudy. Usually the items that cloud the water are sand, dirt, mud, clay, etc. The standard for turbidity is not available/ none. To find turbidity is shining a light through the water to see how clear the water or cloudy it is.

Cryptosporidium is contamination of parasites that are found in water. If you somehow intake the contaminated water there is many symptoms that come along with it, watery diarrhea, dehydration, weight loss, vomiting, nausea, fever, stomach cramps and lack of appetite. Standard for cryptosporidium is TT.

Giardia is microscopic parasite that you can get through contaminated water and causes an infection in your small intestines. This is a problem all over the world, lots of animals, such as dogs and cats frequently can get this infection. This contaminated water can be in pools, spas or bodies of water. The standard for giardia is also zero/TT.

Harmful algal blooms HAB cyanotoxins are usually found in lakes and oceans and are single celled organisms which are called phytoplankton’s. These phytoplanklotn’s can be deadly to animals and humans unfortunately.

Water quality is very important to the population because without water quality many of us could catch awful disease or die from not having clean water and  keeping our bodies safe.




http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/cryptosporidium/symptoms-causes/dxc-20272947

https://water.usgs.gov/edu/turbidity.html

http://web.mit.edu/watsan/methods_waterqualitystandards.html

http://www.odh.ohio.gov/-/media/ODH/ASSETS/Files/eh/Chemical-Fact-sheets/055-Total--Fecal-Coliform-Bacteria.pdf?la=en