» About Water Quality
Clean water is critical for sustaining life, yet polluted water and inadequate sanitation kills at least two children every minute worldwide. And even in the United States, where wastewater treatment is relatively advanced compared to some other countries, many people take the flow of water in and out of their homes for granted. Where does it all go after we flush the toilet or pull the plug on the drain? What’s more, how does this used water get cleaned and safely find its way back into the environment?
The answer is your local wastewater treatment facility, which operates 24/7 to make sure your community’s wastewater is treated properly and released back into waterways such as lakes, streams, rivers, where it flows to one of the great oceans or lakes. It can also be used again along the way for irrigation, commercial or residential use, groundwater replenishment, and even drinking water, or it evaporates into the atmosphere and returns as rain in some other part of the world. Water is used over and over again, and thousands of water quality professionals around the world work to protect its quality and cleanliness.
For an easy-to-read description of how wastewater is treated, check out Following the Flow: An Inside Look at Wastewater Treatment, a full color booklet available at no charge.