How Does Water Quality Affect Water Supply?
There is a clear relationship between water use and water quality. The amount and kind of minerals and organic substances in water affect its suitability for certain uses and greatly affect the type of treatment required to make it usable. For example, most rural homes must have water softeners because the water in three of every four wells contains iron in concentrations >0.3 milligrams, enough to cause staining. One of the many uses of rivers and streams has been the assimilation, dilution, and transport of water-borne wastes, which has made the water unsuitable for most purposes unless it is treated. The quality of water varies regionally. For example, streamwater in northern Illinois is 15% harder than streamwaters in southern Illinois. Variations in the chemicals found in aquifers are quite large, with major differences between water quality of sand-and-gravel, sandstone, and limestone wells. Minerals in groundwater are contact-related and, therefore, a result of geology and resid
