The Willamette River, looking north from the Harrison Street Bridge in Corvallis. Photo by Chris Branam, Oregon State University. CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED (No changes made)
According to oregonlive.com, in 2011 the “Big Pipe Project” was completed causing there to be only an average of four overflows in winter and once every three summers. Before the project, sewage overflowed in the river about 50 times a year.
Problems Water Pollution Can Cause To Human Health
According to uniteforchange.com different types of water pollution can have bad effects on human health and the environment. Two problems it can cause are the quality of water and spread of diseases. With bad water quality it can lead to a water shortage and contaminated water can contain harmful bacteria which can cause illnesses.
According to medicalnewstoday.com and Drinking-water (who.int), it is said that about 2.2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water services. With that, around 785 million people do not have the basic drinking water services. In 2021 about two billion people lived in countries with high levels of water stress which means they have less than the amount of water required. This is expected to be a bigger problem in other regions because of climate change and population growth. In 2022 about 1.7 billion people around the globe will use a drinking source that was contaminated with feces. Microbial contamination of drinking water is the result of contamination with feces poses the greatest risk of drinking water safety.
Pollution Affecting The Nature Around
Water pollution is not only a problem for humans but is also a problem for the nature around it. When fish are exposed to harmful chemicals that are found in bodies of water, it can make it harder for them to survive. Fish that are exposed to this bad water have to work 30 percent harder to stay alive than those who are not according to uniteforchange.com with the fish having to work harder it will make them have less energy available to support the important things they need to do to survive according to cbc.ca.
Another thing that has been polluting the ecosystem is plastic. Humans produce about 1.4 billion tons of waste each year. With that 10% of comprise plastics. Because of the widespread use of plastics, experts estimate that 4.8-12.7 million tons of waste enter the ocean each year. According to clean water.org, plastic remains can kill or injure fish, seabirds and marine mammals. Plastic pollution has impacted about 267 species around the world. That includes 86% of sea turtle species, 44% of seabird species and 43% of marine mammal species.
