Historically, society has shown a great lack of interest in the protection of the environment and water resources in particular. For years, we were able to dump our wastes with little or no treatment back into the nearest watercourse. As long as there was enough dilution water, nature took care of our disposal problems.
As waste loads increased, the natural purification processes could no longer do the job with many waterways looking like open sewers.
In the last 50 years and more recently in most areas, society has realized that we must give nature a hand by treating wastes before returning them to the environment.
We have come to realize that treating our wastes properly not only protects the public’s health; it can also increase property value, protect wildlife and fish and allow many recreational activities to be enjoyed on the water or in the surrounding environment. Clean waterways aside from providing habitat for fish and wildlife contribute to the quality of life of nearby citizens.