4. Surface Waters and Underground Seas
OF ALL our natural res ources water has become the mos t precious. By far the greater
part of the earth’s s urface is covered by its enveloping s eas , yet in the mids t of this plenty we
are in want. By a s trange paradox, mos t of the earth’s abundant wate r is not us able for
agriculture, indus try, or human cons umption becaus e of its heavy load of s ea salts , and s o mos t
of the world’s population is either experiencing or is threatened with critical shortages. In an
age when man has forgotten his origins and is blind even to his mos t es s ential needs for
survival, water along with other resources has become the victim of his indifference.
The proble m of water polluti on by pes ticides can be unders tood only in context, as part of the
whole to which it belongs—the pollution of the total environment of mankind. The pollution
entering our waterways comes from ma ny sources: radioactive wastes from reactors,
laboratories, and hospitals; fallout from nuclear explosions; domestic wastes from cities and
towns; chemical wastes from factories. To these is added a new kind of fallout—the che mical
s prays applied to croplands and gardens , fores ts and fields. Many of the che mical agents in this
alarming mélange imitate and augment the harmful effects of radiation, and within the groups
of chemicals themselves there are sinister and little unders tood inte ractions , tra ns forma tions ,
and s ummations of effect.
Ever s ince chemis ts began to manufacture subs tances that nature neve r invente d, the problems
of water purification have become complex and the danger to us ers of water has increas ed. As
we have s een, the production of thes e s ynthetic chemicals in large volume began in the 1940s.
It has now reached s uch proporti ons that an appalling deluge of chemical pollution is daily
poured into the nation’s waterways. When inextricably mixed with domes tic and othe r was tes
dis charged into the s ame water, thes e chemicals s ometimes defy detection by the methods in
ordi nary us e by purification plants. Mos t of them are s o s table that they cannot be broken
down by ordinary proces s es. Often they cannot even be identified. In rivers, a really incredible
variety of pollutants combine to produce deposits that the sanitary engineers can only
des pairingly refer to as ‘gunk’. Profes s or Rolf Eliass en of the Mass achus etts Ins titute of
Technology tes tified before a congressional committee to the impossibility of predicting the
composite effect of these chemicals, or of identifying the organic matter resulting from the
mixture. ‘We don’t begin to k now what that is ,’ said Profes s or Eliass en. ‘What is the effect on
the people? We don’ t know.’
To an ever-increas ing degree, chemicals us ed for the control of ins ects , rode nts , or unwa nted
vegetation contribute to these organic pollutants. Some are deliberately applied to bodies of
water to destroy plants, insect larvae, or undesired fis hes. Some come from fores t s praying that
may blanket two or three million acres of a single state with spray directed against a single
ins ect pes t—s pray that falls directly into s treams or that drips down through the leafy canopy
to the fores t floor, the re to become part of the s low moveme nt of s eeping mois ture beginning
its long journey to the s ea. Probably the bulk of s uch contamina nts are the waterborne res idues
of the millions of pounds of agricultural chemicals that have been applied to farmlands for
ins ect or rodent c ontrol and have been leached out of the ground by rains to become pa rt of
the unive rs al s eaward move ment of wate r.