EWG also estimates that manufacturers contributed about 450 million additional pounds via sewage. In the 1940's, a billion pounds of synthetic chemicals were produced each year. By the 1980's, production was up to 500 billion pounds. And 1000 new chemicals are introduced each year. Yet the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act only addresses 100 contaminants.
Pesticides are another problem.
Two billion pounds of pesticides are used every year. That's eight pounds for every American. These pesticides enter water systems via disposal sites, animal waste, runoff, sewage, etc. State data and conducting its own tests, EWG found that a single glass of Midwestern tap water has three or more pesticides in it. Every spring, rains wash a substantial portion of those chemicals into the drinking water of 11.7 million people in the Midwest and Louisiana.