Waterworks Archive

How clean is clean and is it really important?

by Lyle V.A. Sendlein
Director
KWRRI, University of Kentucky

A question that is often asked is, how clean must the water, soil and the air be? At first this may seem to be a very simple question. Of course, all must be clean enough. But what is clean enough? To some, it must be as clean as Mother Nature or God made it. To some, it needs to be clean enough to support human activities. To most, it is not even an issue, because they rely on the federal and state governments to make it safe for their use.

As it turns out, clean is a complex issue. Characterizing the soil, water and air to determine what is "natural" for a given area is costly, for sure, and may not even be possible. Human activities have already altered the soil, water, and air from the pristine state, so determining what is natural really becomes more of a political question than a scientific one. What is important is that we do want human life to continue and thus need to make sure that the environmental factors important to continued human existence be determined.

Because there is uncertainty in determining what quantity of a particular chemical can be present in the soil, water, and air before it endangers human life, we must examine our past decisions and the process that establishes how clean the soil, water, and air should be.

Recently we have begun to place emphasis on protection of the ecological system to the same degree. How clean must the soil, water, and air be to preserve the ecological system? We think there is a link between all forms of life in the animal spectrum, which includes humans. Does this mean that our question of "how clean is clean" refers to animals as well? Conventional wisdom would say yes to that question. What do you think?

Last modified: December 5, 1996
Copyright © 1996 Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute
University of Kentucky