By Nathalia Teixeira / Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Collaboration.

The process of cleaning water so humans can use it is demanding. Organizations such as the Ohio EPA operate to certify the water quality is drinkable and usable for our daily tasks.

But as citizens, we are also responsible for how much water we waste and must be mindful of how water conservation is important for the environment.

The passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972 improved water quality. However, experts say improvements have stalled - and how much water we waste may make it harder to start improving again.

"We are really cautious about saying that water quality still doesn't have room for improvement," said Rich Cogen, executive director of the Ohio River Foundation.

Columbus supplies more than 51 billion gallons of water annually to 1.25 million people. The average person in the city uses about 112 gallons per day.

According to the U.S. EPA, the average American household uses more than 300 gallons of water per day.

"Household use of water, many times, is the way that most people will waste water," said Lydia Rose, an associate sociology professor at Kent State and environmental sociologist.

In 2014, 40 states told the federal government they expected water shortages in the coming decade. Rose said many of us no longer think of water as "precious," but humans rely on less than 1% of the water on the planet to support people and animals.

"We sometimes don't think of how precious this water is as a resource," Rose said. "There's only so much water on our planet. When we waste it, when we don't take care of it - in terms of making sure that sewage doesn't contaminate our waters - we can really run into some big problems in some communities where water is a scarce resource."

Cogen said the more water we use, the more wastewater we create.

Wastewater can take two forms: direct sanitary sewage from houses and offices; and stormwater runoff, which comes from streets and lawns and may contain pesticides, herbicide or pollution from vehicles.

That wastewater must be treated by utilities before it can then be discharged into our waterways. So, the cost and expense of treating water are proportional to the amount of wastewater we create.

"The way that converges - if we were to use less water in our homes and our businesses and they were able to treat and handle that lower volume of wastewater, then they would be better able also to treat the volume of water that they get in stormwater runoff or even the runoff from our lawns when we water our lawns," Cogen said. "So the less water we use can translate into better treatment at the utility of the wastewater that it receives."

The volume of wastewater the utility receives is not necessarily released to waterways in pristine condition. Instead, wastewater is allowed to be released into the waterway with small amounts of pollution, as long as it meets certain water quality criteria.

"If, in fact, we're able to use less wastewater and send less wastewater to that utility for treatment, then it will then discharge a lower volume of wastewater to the receiving water," Cogen said.

Cogen said that when it rains, then utilities may have to release some untreated wastewater because they can't handle both the wastewater and stormwater at the same time. These releases are known as combined sewer overflows.

"These combined sewer overflows are still very prevalent in many of our cities in the Ohio River watershed," Cogen said. "We're talking about billions of gallons a year flowing into these receiving waters."

The importance of water goes beyond individuals conserving water at home. Cities and builders need to manage the use of water when developing land as well, Cogen said.

"We have to be cognizant of the impact - the increased water usage and thereby increased wastewater discharge that we are asking our utilities to handle go hand in hand," Cogen said. "It's not to say that we should avoid development, but we... should be definitely redeveloping sites as opposed to developing new sites [of watershed]. We also could reduce the amount of water that we use through the implementation of better landscapes that require less water."

Cogen gave the example of Cincinnati, where some residents have torn out their lawns or begun relying on rainwater to water them. They also put in trees, bushes and plants that require less watering and less maintenance than a lawn would require.

Another example is installing more efficient showers and toilets.

"Technology has definitely improved over the last five or 10 years concerning toilets and showerheads," Cogen said. "People should take a look at those options, which are also cost-effective for them."

Even these small steps lead us to a more sustainable society, Rose said.

"The term 'sustainability' is really about making sure that we have what we need to survive in the long run and not overuse," Rose said. "If we're going to tie sustainability and water use together, we have to be mindful of how we're using water and where it is that we can conserve that water so that the next generations will have the water that they need, particularly in communities where water is very scarce."

At the state level, H2Ohio is a comprehensive water quality effort that was introduced by Gov. Mike DeWine in 2019 and is attempting to systematically address water issues that have been accumulating in Ohio for decades.

These issues include lead pollution from outdated water pipes and fixtures, dangerous algal blooms on Lake Erie brought on by phosphorus runoff from farm fertilizer, failing drinking water, wastewater, and household sewage treatment systems, and more.

"Each of these major issues impacts water quality in a negative way," Ohio EPA spokesperson Anthony Chenault said in an email. "By focusing on correcting these issues, water quality will continue to improve."

This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.


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Missouri's duck-hunting season runs through January, and many enthusiasts are concerned about how plentiful their future quarry will be because of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

It's been six months since the high court removed protections for most wetlands in the nation.

Zack Morris is the president of the Conservation Federation of Missouri and said the Sackett vs EPA case dealt with identifying which waters are protected under the federal Clean Water Act.

This affects the quality of upcoming duck hunts. Morris said without thriving wetlands, the sport won't be able to carry on.

"It's hard to say how many of those unprotected wetlands are going to be plowed under or how fast," said Morris, "but that's certainly, I think, a reality that we'll face is significant wetland loss over the next 10 years or so and declining duck numbers as a result. "

Wetlands are also the primary habitat for 200 at-risk plants and animals in the state.

Morris said most of the ducks that migrate through the Midwest on the central or Mississippi flyways hatch in small pothole wetlands in North and South Dakota, Iowa and Canada.

Duck habitat is expected to decline for the U.S. portion.

Conservation groups in Missouri say protecting the wetlands is now up to state agencies.

Dana Ripper is co-founder and executive director of the Missouri River Bird Observatory and said wetlands are critical to Missouri's way of life and Missourians need to reach out to their legislators to gain protections.

Ripper said wetlands protect us from flooding and provide us with clean drinking water. They are key for fish and the millions of ducks and shorebirds that migrate through the state annually.

"They are some of our most biodiverse ecosystems here in Missouri - all throughout the Midwest," said Ripper. "They also provide water filtration. We have had devastating floods just in the last 15 years or so. And our wetlands are really important for helping to mitigate the effects of flooding. "

As many as 127 million acres of wetlands existed when settlers arrived on this continent. Today, more than 50% of those wetlands are gone - and without protection, thousands of acres will be
lost each year in the United States.

Of the original 2.4 million wild acres of forested lowlands in southeast Missouri, less than 60,000 acres, or 2%, remain today.




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States like Illinois are dealing with the fallout of a Supreme Court decision made earlier this year.

In May, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively removed federal protections for over half of the wetlands across the country. The case, Sackett v. EPA, dealt with which waters are protected under the federal Clean Water Act. Conservation groups said in Illinois, protecting the wetlands is now up to state agencies.

Paul Botts, president and executive director of the Chicago-based Wetlands Initiative, said the problem needs a congressional fix, but it is unlikely to happen soon.

"Congress, of course, is completely melted down and dysfunctional now, and this issue just simply is not going to rise to the top and cut through the partisan divide that we have," Botts acknowledged. "The chances of the Clean Water Act being updated are just pretty close to nil."

As Botts put it, the Clean Water Act is the reason Illinois waters are no longer on fire or used as open sewers. The landowners from the original case call the ruling a "victory for property rights."

Botts contended both of the state agencies dealing with wetlands in Illinois have a poor track record. He fears many of the state's pristine waterways will return to the poor condition they were in 50 years ago.

"We have an Illinois EPA, and then of course, we have our state Department of Natural Resources," Botts outlined. "Both of those agencies are starved for staffing resources, frankly, to carry out programs and to do things like issue permits in a prompt manner so that landowners can get an answer."

For almost 30 years, the rule the high court overturned served as the underpinning of the Clean Water Act. Along with investments made in wastewater treatment, Botts noted the safeguards afforded by the law resulted in enormous benefits for people and communities. Today, he fears conservation groups will be unable to keep up with the decline of waterways.

"Audubon estimates that tens of millions of acres have been made newly open to development by the Sackett ruling," Botts stressed. "It's just an estimate; it would be years of work to try to go around and use state wetlands inventories to figure out an exact figure."


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An Arizona water expert said the state faces a challenging situation with the Colorado River being overallocated, compounded with what she calls a historic drought.

Kathryn Sorensen, director of research at the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University, said Arizona's water system is in distress.

She explained access to water from the Colorado River depends on what she called a "hierarchy of water rights." Certain Native American communities and farmers enjoy "senior rights," while other towns and cities have to get by with less.

Sorensen noted Arizona is blessed to have significant groundwater aquifers, so management of these aquifers is paramount.

"The water was laid down over tens of thousands of years, and it isn't annually renewed at any significant rate," Sorensen pointed out. "If you pump too much of it, you're basically 'mining' that groundwater and depleting it, meaning that there will be less available for future generations."

While Arizona has taken significant steps to conserve water, Sorensen said the work and innovation must continue, from improving use of reclaimed water to finding ways to augment water supplies. In a poll earlier this year, Arizonans said they believe the state should be doing more to regulate groundwater consumption, as well as prioritizing conservation and restoration projects.

As Arizona continues to grow, Sorensen stressed water demands are much more closely related to land use than to population growth, with the agricultural sector using about 70% of the state's water. She said some crops require as much as six acre-feet of water per acre of farmland. An acre-foot of water equates to about 326,000 gallons.

"Whereas urban developments actually use much less water, probably more like one to two acre-feet per acre," Sorensen stated. "So ironically, as our population has grown and we have converted what used to be farmland into urban uses, there has been a sort of natural water savings."

She added in the future, experts predict Arizona will be hotter and drier, so it is important to understand land use choices are meaningful and will have a direct impact on water availability.


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