This month is National Water Quality Month and when it comes to water, quality is the new clean. How do we know if water has “good” quality? Water quality is determined by looking at different characteristics of water, such as cloudiness (turbidity) or saltiness (salinity). By looking at certain characteristics, we are able to judge if water is of good enough quality for a certain use, such as for drinking! 

A reliable source of freshwater, such as a spring, may be of good enough quality for watering plants and animals, but likely doesn’t have high enough quality for drinking without treatment. In the United States, all drinking water is regulated and has to meet federally set standards. Water quality standards are important, because you can’t know if a water source is good by looking at it; you also can’t judge if water is safe to drink by where it comes from. Groundwater (such as well and spring water) can be contaminated with naturally occurring metals from rocks and nutrient runoff from farms. Rivers and streams can similarly face naturally occurring and man-made pollution.

One type of man-made pollution we are especially focused on at Clean Fairfax is plastic. Plastics (such as plastic bags and bottles) are a physical (and sometimes chemical) pollutant. Plastics can block stream flow and threaten the health of wildlife and their habitat when they degrade into tiny pieces, called microplastics. Stay tuned for more water quality tidbits this month– August 2021! In the meantime,check out the EPA’s page on how litter, like single-use plastic, impacts the world’s rivers and oceans.