This year World Water Day is focusing on preservation of groundwater. Often overlooked, groundwater is an essential channel for water within ecological systems and pollution that taints it can have a wide reaching, and devastating effect.
Standing on a Water Resource
Groundwater is the water stored beneath the ground. While it’s commonly understood that this water nourishes the environment it’s also one of the most important water sources for humans. In the US 51% of the population gets their drinking water from groundwater sources and in rural communities specifically, this can rise as high as 99% of drinking water.
There’s also the groundwater that we eat. When plants and crops sink their roots into the ground they are connecting with water stored beneath ground level.
Water is very important to the survival of life on Earth and groundwater supplies are particularly prevalent as part of that process.
The contamination of groundwater can have devastating effects.
Points of Groundwater Pollution
How does groundwater become contaminated? There are two main types of contamination, Diffuse Pollution and Point Source Pollution.
Diffuse pollution is the most common contamination for groundwater. It’s the result of many micropollution events within an area that contaminate the shared aquifer where the groundwater is stored. Often this is the result of poor infrastructure that leads to the leaking of harmful material.
Point source pollution is a bigger contamination, from a single source, or multiple sources in a single location. These can often be the results of industrial sites that are outputting waste material that either hasn’t been treated prior to removal or areas where maintenance has not kept up with usage.
What Can We do to Protect Groundwater?
One of the fundamental ways in which industrial locations can prevent contamination of groundwater sources is to treat waste before it leaves a facility. There is little a facility can do about leaky infrastructure in the local area, but they can make sure that what they output is neutralized, so that if it does leak, it doesn’t cause harm to the environment.
Systems like BioAmp already accentuate a natural solution to waste water problems. Computer controlled microdosing of a powerful army of friendly bacteria, keep internal systems clean, prevent buildup and don’t taint groundwater.
The breakdown of harmful organic elements prior to leaving the site mean that water outputted from the system poses dramatically less risk to the external natural environment. In addition the bacteria that leave the site pose no additional risk in the way that some chemical products do.
It’s not just bacterial approaches that matter. More responsible products that remove harmful components, while preserving results, are a part of every facility’s drive for sustainability. Cleaner waste is better for the water on our planet, better products do more to preserve resources and improve outcomes.
At NCH, we believe in success through science. Our dedicated team of over 40 chemists are committed to creating products that minimise or eliminate the environmental impact of human activity. It’s not just on World Water day that the friendly bacteria from the BioAmp makes sure the water beneath our feet is clean, it’s every day . We continually assess what we do to improve sustainability and we’re proud to support the sustainability of other organisations through what we offer.
Get in touch with your local team of experts to find out more; visit our contact us page to fill in our online form. Alternatively, call us on +44 (0) 1902 510200 or email customer.services@nch.com
