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water quality

05/13/2018 / By Edsel Cook

Tap water in Fayetteville, North Carolina tainted with carcinogen, new analysis reveals

The good news for Fayetteville, North Carolina is that there is no GenX in their public drinking water supply despite the nearby presence of the Chemours chemical plant. The bad news is that their tap water showed high levels of another cancer-causing chemical called 1,4-dioxane, an article in The Fayetteville Observer stated. The Public Works […]

05/05/2018 / By Edsel Cook

The Great Lakes’ biggest problem: Decades’ worth of pollution has altered the fish

In the 1960s, the Cuyahoga River became infamous for becoming so polluted that it regularly caught fire. Now it suffers a different, subtler kind of water pollution. Decades of discharging chemicals into the waters of the Great Lakes have altered the hormones and metabolism of fish found in the Cuyahoga and two other rivers, according […]

04/04/2018 / By Lance D Johnson

170 million Americans may have toxic levels of radium in their tap water

A dangerous radioactive element could be lurking in your tap water. It’s odorless, invisible, and tasteless but it’s affecting up to 170 million Americans every day. This naturally occurring carcinogen leeches into the water supply from deep rock aquifers and is not filtered out of the water before it heads to your tap. Radium-226 and Radium-228 are now measured […]

03/17/2018 / By Michelle Simmons

Watershed wetland complexes mitigate excess nitrates from fertilizer run-off, preserving water ecosystems

A study published in the journal Nature Geoscience provides new understanding on the efficiency of wetlands within a watershed in mitigating harmful chemicals in rivers and streams. A team of researchers from the University of Minnesota looked at effective strategies on reducing nitrate at the landscape scale. In conducting the study, the research team used […]

03/11/2018 / By Zoey Sky

Storm water runoff heavily contaminated by city pollution, compromising the immune systems of fish, damaging their ability to survive

In the winter of 2015, members of Jennifer McIntyre’s team drove all the way up to Seattle to take samples of stormwater by the Highway 520 bridge across Lake Washington. McIntyre, a researcher from Washington State University, made sure that they had samples whenever it rained during the eight-week period. McIntyre’s team made 25 trips in […]

02/19/2018 / By Zoey Sky

Tracking wastewater is difficult: Artificial sweeteners turn out to be reliable chemical markers

No one really thinks twice about the wastewater generated by sinks and toilets, but a team of Canadian scientists has recently discovered an unusual way to track the water “to ensure it doesn’t end up in unwanted places.” John Spoelstra, a research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, says that artificial sweeteners “are very specific […]

02/15/2018 / By Frances Bloomfield

City in Alabama sees spike in cancer cases – scientists say it may be from water contaminants

Between 2013 and 2017, the town of Fruithurst in Cleburne County, Alabama, has had eight leukemia diagnoses. Four of those cases were boys under 18 years of age, one of whom has since passed away. Figures have shown that the people of Fruithurst – who number no more than 280 residents – have a greater […]

02/12/2018 / By Frances Bloomfield

Wild rice is the “canary in the coal mine” for lakes and streams – Researchers use it to track water quality

Determining the health of a lake or a stream could be done by looking for the presence of wild rice. According to a team of researchers from the University of Minnesota, wild rice is to these bodies of water as a canary is to a coal mine. Their sensitivity to their surroundings is an indicator of […]

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