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Kyle Fox

Professor Riley

English 1201

25 May 2019

As Water Scarcity rises and more contaminants enter our drinking water supply, will it take

much stricter water safety and usage regulations to ensure safe human consumption?

Water is something that really fascinates me. It has the power to destroy civilization such

as in tsunamis and hurricanes, and it also can be extremely beautiful, such as taking the form of

waves crashing onto the shore or the current of a tranquil stream. Most of all though, water is the

key to life, and without it, nothing would exist. Access to clean and plentiful water is affected

hugely by where you live, and by how the government dictates water usage and control policies.

It’s evident that most third world countries struggle with water supplies, whereas first world

countries such as the United States seemingly have a plentiful supply of clean drinking water.

As an environmental science student specializing in water science at Ohio State, I have

already been exposed to some of the problems that our world and our country is having with

water. I chose this topic because I want to learn more about the water scarcity and water quality

issues we are experiencing in the United States. I have a passion for nature and our environment,

and I believe that if we can’t even provide clean water to our citizens, we are really failing as a

society. This is a topic that inspires a passion within me, as well as a deep-seated curiosity to find

out how we can solve the issues that are emerging surrounding water in our country.

Overall, I think this topic has a lot of potential in terms of the routes that can be taken to

find solutions to our water issues in the United States. It is a topic that is extremely relevant

today and can be debated from multiple different sides about what the best solution will be. I
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have already done some research related to water scarcity in one of the classes I took this past

semester for a poster project. The research that I did was based on a global scale, and I think that

narrowing my research down to just the United States will help me dig deeper and gain a greater

understanding for my topic. I believe that solving water scarcity and contamination issues in the

United States will require much stricter government regulations. I think new technology will

help, but I think we must enact legislation that limits water usage on households, corporations,

agriculture, etc., as well as controls dumping, and waste removal to try and control the

contaminants that are entering our water supply. I know that pharmaceuticals, oil from fracking

sites, and leaking from landfills all contribute to contamination within our water supply. The

EPA has a certain standard that they consider clean drinking water, and it’s debatable if the

standard they set is safe for human consumption. On top of water contamination, water scarcity

is really becoming a threat due to overuse in households, industries, and agriculture. The

American West is facing a big scarcity threat due to a naturally arid climate, increasing drought,

and increasing demand for water.

I’d really like to learn more about the standards that the EPA uses to designate safe

drinking water. I’d like to find scientific based facts that show the possible harmful effects of

certain levels of contaminants in the water, as well as all the different contaminants that regularly

pollute our water and their individual effect on health. Also, I want to learn more about the

technology that is being created to purify our water, and I want to investigate whether it is

sufficient enough to help solve the problem. I’d like to also investigate the current policies that

we have in place for water usage and protecting our water and see how this could possibly be

improved to ensure our water supply is plentiful and of good quality for future generations.

Overall, I’d like to gain a greater understanding of the causes of our water scarcity and pollution
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and investigate the pros and cons to different proposed solutions in order to determine the best

way to deal with this crisis.