Water pollution causes a lot of problems for humans, animals andthe environment. Pollution levels are on the rise again despitestricter laws and regulations by the Environmental ProtectionAgency (EPA). One of the recent water pollution issues affectingAmericans is the closing of beaches as a result of polluted beachesand beach water. All across the United States many beaches on theoceans, bays and the Great Lakes were closed due to pollution beingwashed onto the beaches from neighboring cities and towns in theform of sewage, debris and other pollutants. Sewage spills andoverflows nearly tripled in occurrence in recent years and manyclosings were blamed on sewage. Because of the recent waterpollution issues regarding beaches, a Beach Protection Act wasrecently passed in the United States House of Representatives andis awaiting action in the Senate. This bill would increase federalfunds for the purpose of detecting sources of beach water pollutionand cleaning them up. People can do their part in keeping thebeaches and beach water clean by not littering, picking up trashand wastes, maintaining their septic systems, cleaning up aftertheir pets, putting plastic pants on babies and properly disposingof toxic household items as well as used motor oil and boatingwastes.Another one of the very important recent water pollution issuesaffecting the quality of water comes from giant livestock farms andfeedlot. These farms house hundreds of thousands of animals such aspigs, cattle, and chickens in relatively small areas and produce ahuge amount of waste. Pollution that results from these massivefeed lots seriously affects the health of humans as well as fishand the ecosystems around the farms. One of the recent waterpollution issues in regards to the giant feedlots revolves aroundthe huge amounts of nitrates that are dumped into the groundwater.High levels of nitrates in the drinking waters has a devastatingeffect on humans and leads to an increase in methemoglobinemia,also called blue baby syndrome, which can kill infants. Animalwastes also contain disease causing pathogens. This is a very oneof the most serious recent water pollution issues that we face as anation.Another very serious one of the recent water pollution issues isthe aging sewer system that leak sewage and wastes into the groundwaters. It is estimated that every year enough sewage is leakedinto the water systems around the world to fill the Empire StateBuilding and Madison Square Garden. In some counties in the UnitedStates sewers discharge untreated sewage into creek, rivers andlakes where children swim and play. Treatment plants are not ableto keep up with the flow of sewage and more than one billiongallons of sewage gets discharged into the environment as a result.Rain water also causes the sewers to overflow and sends them rightinto nearby rivers and streams affecting drinking water as damaginghealth to humans and animals alike.