5) One Federal study found 87% of the conventional sewage plants discharging excess pollutants. Even when the plants work well, they can't remove much nitrate, heavy metals or pesticides. (Prevention Magazine)

6) Gene Rosov, President of Water Test Corporation, a national water testing firm, says 20% of all water samples contain some kind of bacterial contamination and as much as 30% contain measurable lead.

7) In 1982 alone, there were 70,000 violations of drinking water standards by municipal water systems. And how many more have we had since then? (Readers Digest)

8) EPA revealed that dangerous chemicals are leaking out of as many as 16,000 landfills throughout the U.S., percolating down through layers of soil into the vast underground water reservoirs called aquifers. (Discover Magazine)

9) Thomas Maddock of the hydrology and water resources department, University of Arizona, says 'There's no doubt we have a time bomb on our hands'. The questions is how big the bang will be. (Discover Magazine)

10) Many of the 200 or so chemicals on the EPA's priority pollutant list cause cancer and other ailments...long-term exposure to even minute amounts of most organic chemicals endangers the public. (Discover Magazine)

11) So far, more than 700 organic chemicals have been identified in drinking water, and some of them are suspected cancer-causing agents. (Consumer Reports)

12) Trihalomethanes are created when chlorine reacts with decaying organic matter in the water. This group of four organic halides contaminates 90% of this country's drinking water. All four compounds including chloroform, banned as an anesthetic in 1976 are either known or suspected of causing cancer. (Consumer Reports)

13) Today a new specter looms over our reservoirs: cancer. There's considerable speculation that the rise in cancer deaths, now 20% for the nation as a whole, may be due in part to the pesticides, fertilizers and industrial wastes that increasingly find their way into our water supplies. (Readers Digest)

14) Might that drinking water contribute to the New Orleans high cancer rate - which has been 25% above the national average? The unanswered question shook up not only New Orleans but other cities whose water comes from rivers and lakes, places like Cincinnati and Evansville, where similar chemicals have been found. (Cincinnati Post)

15) An unpublished and previously unpublicized scientific study shows that despite official statements to the contrary, chemical elements in Cincinnati's drinking water may contribute to the city's high cancer death rate. (Cincinnati Post)

16) According to an OEPA report last year (1995) on water quality in Southwest Ohio, the lower part of the area has been established as having the worst water quality. (Cincinnati Post)

17) Despite improvements in both public and private water-treatment practices, there are still potentially harmful chemicals in 90% of the water we consume. (New Shelter Magazine)