Essay On Pollution In Water

For over 50 years, one of the key problems with living in southeast Georgia is the amount of pollution in our waters. The ocean waters we swim in have toxins dumped into it daily, increasing bacteria levels, making the waters unfit to swim in or eat fish from. There are several factors that affect our waters, such as the pulp paper mill industry. Paper mill companies are partially to blame for the pollution in our oceans, streams, rivers, and lakes. Fifty-three percent of the rivers and streams in the U.S assessed by the EPA remain too polluted for swimming, fishing and drinking. The government has established some Acts to help clean up the waters, but we need to also do our part to help the situation.

With twelve pulp mills, eight panel and engineered-wood product mills, 97 saw mills and 73 other types mills currently operating statewide, the paper production industry generates roughly $20 billion in annual revenue for Georgia and create thousands of jobs for Georgians. Industrial companies, such as pulp paper companies, dump millions of pounds of toxic chemicals into America’s lakes, oceans, rivers and streams each year threatening our health. The discharge of toxic chemicals into our waterways poses a threat to the environment and human health. Toxic chemicals can accumulate in fish, riverbeds and the water column

Some advantages of recycling paper include saving energy, water and landfill space. Recycling paper reduces greenhouse gas emissions and the recycled fiber is viable, cost-saving resource for making new paper products. Compared to generating pulp from trees and other plants to make paper products, using recycled paper pulp uses less energy and water. If you recycle a ton of paper, it saves enough energy equivalent to the energy needed to power the average U.S home for six months and saves about 7,000 gallons of