Water Quality
The water of the Great Lakes and surrounding areas are the primary source of drinking water for people who live in the Great Lakes basin. The average adult drinks 1.5 liters of water a day. Communities across the Great Lakes use basin water for drinking, bathing, and other household uses. this water is obtained from a variety of suppliers, both public and private. Public suppliers provide water that is drawn from either surface water (including Great Lakes and/or surrounding waters), groundwater, or a combination of these sources.
A variety of contaminants can adversely impact drinking water, including microorganisms (e.g. bacteria, viruses, and protozoa, such as Cryptosporidium). Microbial contaminants, such as viruses and bacteria, may come from sewage treatment plants, septic systems, agricultural livestock operations, and wildlife. The assurance of safe drinking water in the U.S. continues to be a challenge as a result of emerging and newly recognized contaminants, more sensitive and specific detection methods, better investigations, and more public awareness. The occurrence and control of microbial pathogens, including viruses and parasites, have been of particular interest. It is now clear that the coliform indicator bacteria do not always provide the necessary measure of microbiological safety of water, especially with respect to viral and parasitic pathogens (NRC, 2001; Craun, 1990; Craun et al., 2001). Both drinking water and recreational waterborne outbreaks, as well as the recognition of other potential waterborne pathogens have been on the increase in recent years (Figure 2, Lee et al., 2002; LeChevallier et. al., 1999). Some individuals or groups, particularly children and the elderly, may be more sensitive to contaminants in drinking water than the average person (Health Canada, 1993).
The Safe Drinking Water Act amendment of 1996 required the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to identify new chemicals and microorganisms for potential regulation every five years. The Contaminant Candidate List (CCL) is based on information about known and suspected health risks and the occurrence of the contaminant in water and includes 13 microorganisms including several enteric viruses, organisms originating form sewage as well as the Blue Green algal toxins, many of which are resistant to traditional treatment processes (Balbus et al., 2002; LeChevallier et al., 1999a; 1999b).
Read details on one GLERL project related to Great Lakes water quality:
Distributed Surface-Substrate Hydrology using LBRM
