Illegal Dumping-Contaminating Water Supply
Clean drinking water continues to be a challenge in certain cities in the United States when recurrent illegal-dump sites go unsupervised. Crews working for companies who use hazardous materials frequently will dump the liquid waste illegally near water wells, or into a drain that connects to the public water supply. Public water can also become contaminated when groundwater is carried over from other illegal dumping sites.
Sometimes the people dumping the chemicals are not intentionally committing a crime. This is when it is reasonable for Municipalities to educate the public regarding proper disposal of liquid wastes. Also, help local businesses become informed of exactly what materials are illegal to dump, when and why it is illegal to dispose of a certain substance, and when and where the legal sites are for proper disposal.
When people fail to follow the laws and health guidelines pertaining to appropriate waste disposal, legal action befits the circumstance. This could mean everything from an illegal dumping fine, down to suing the chemical manufacturer. If proper warnings are not clearly printed on product labeling, chemical companies who manufacture the hazardous substances dumped illegally could be held liable for this action, even if the waste product was not directly dumped by them.
Public health effects could include infertility in large numbers or cancer, and in some circumstances, there is an immediate poisoning— this all depends on the substance(s) that contaminated the water supply. This is an alarming public threat that continues to grow. If public hazards like this are not immediately identified and aggressively addressed, locals and other people who use that city’s water supply will face serious health consequences by no mistake of their own in the future.
Public hazards such as a contaminated water supply are very preventable, especially if the cause is a nuisance crime like illegal dumping at recurrent problem sites. When a city creates a strategy to prevent illegal dumping,, the nuisance will stop before a health hazard develops.
