California imports the majority of its water from a blend of waters from the Colorado River and State Water Projects. In its raw imported state, it is full of contaminants. The contaminants of water from the State Water Projects come mostly from pesticide and herbicides that are from agricultural runoff, wildlife and wastewater.
The Colorado River supplies are the most vulnerable to contamination from recreation and urban runoff, storm water and from the urbanization of the watershed. Several forces impact the Colorado River as it runs through the towns of farmland, mining sites and industrial use land.
Municipalities, which use various sources of blends of this water must be ever diligent to be able to treat the blend that is occurring at any particular point in time. The contaminants from inorganic and organic chemicals,microbials (viruses and bacteria),radioactive particles from radioactive contaminants,industrial wastewater, including petroleum byproducts and human wastewater all require different and specialized formulations for treatment.
The California Department of Health Services prescribes regulation, which limits the amount of certain contaminants that can remain in the water though some of the contaminants are known carcinogens in greater amounts. They must be reduced to levels that are not harmful.
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