The New York Times video above explains that Newport, Rhode Island beaches become contaminated with human feces whenever it rains. Signs posted on the beaches warn of bacterial contamination after rainfall.

The problem in Newport – and in many other cities such as Boston, Chicago, and New York – is the outdated sewer systems become overwhelmed by storm water. Whenever it rains, sewage spills out.

In 2009 alone, the city of Newport flushed 70 million gallons of sewage into the harbor.

Nearly 40 years after the passage of the Clean Water Act, these water quality problems persist. The Newport waste water treatment plant has been illegally polluting the waterways since the Clean Water Act passed in 1972, yet they have never been fined by the EPA.

In the last 3 years, 9,400 of our country’s 25,000 sewage systems have dumped human waste or other hazardous materials into our waterways. But only 1 in 5 plants that break the law are ever fined.

Your water quality is in your hands. Avoid bacterial contamination with home water filters.

I don’t want to get into the controversial issue of whether or not man-made global warming is a real phenomenon. But one thing is certain: Rainfall has been increasing over the past few decades.

A few days ago I watched Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN as he explained how this increase in rainfall will affect our water quality. Here’s part of the transcript from CNN.com:

Dr. Gupta: NOAA data showed a 7 percent increase [in rainfall] annually since 1970. And this is from NOAA data, from the National Climactic Data Center. About a 7 percent increase annually overall. And also 14 percent increase with big rainfalls. Two-plus inches. So it’s raining more and it’s raining harder.

The problem, Brooke, is that you also have 1970s infrastructure as far as dealing with the extra water. So you have sewage pipes and storm water drains all sort of combining. And you can kind of see the problem there. You can get, you know, bacteria, parasites, viruses, all sort of into the drinking water.

And this isn’t just theoretical. It happened in Milwaukee where you had a huge rainfall like that and then the drinking water got contaminated. Four hundred thousand people got sick, 69 people died. So, you know, this is what happens when you have that sort of much water all mixing together.

CNN Guest Anchor Brooke Baldwin: So how do we protect ourselves from the nasty stuff, the bacteria? The diseases that you just mentioned? Because we need water.

Dr. Gupta: Yes, we need water. And I think part of this is going to be a message that, you know, our infrastructure has to improve over the last 40 years to deal with the extra water so we don’t have the co- mingling, if you will, of sewage and storm water. But you know, I think for the average person, there’s little things that they can think about. Heed warnings, for example, when it comes to, you know, swimming at the beach or a lake or something like that.

People can get pretty sick from swimming in contaminated water. Also use phosphate-free products. That’s fertilizer. Based on that same thing I was just talking about, that can wash into your ground water and cause real problems. Filter your water.

Baldwin: I was going to ask you. I got my water filter, am I safe?

Dr. Gupta: Yes. Yes…

Are you safe? Do you have a home water purifier? If not, invest in a home water filtration system today – just in case the infrastructure in your area breaks down and contaminates your drinking water. Be prepared, and be safe.

Today The New York Times reports that more than 20 percent of the nation’s water treatment systems have violated key provisions of the Safe Drinking Wate Act over the last five years, and since 2004 “the water provided to more than 49 million people has contained illegal concentrations of chemicals like arsenic or radioactive substance like uranium, as well as dangerous bacteria often found in sewage.”

Fewer than 6 percent of the water treatment systems that broke the law were ever fined or punished by state or federal officials.

Your water quality is in your hands. You cannot rely on regulatory agencies to deliver clean water to your tap. If you care about your health, start looking at home water purifiers.

The NYT analysis of data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows that Safe Drinking Water Act violations have occurred in every state in the past five years. To cite one example, drinking water tests in Ramsey, NJ, have shown illegal concentrations of arsenic (a known carcinogen) since 2004.

“Those figures are particularly worrisome, say researchers, because the Safe Drinking Water Act’s limits on arsenic are so weak to begin with. A system could deliver tap water that puts residents at a 1-in-600 risk of developing bladder cancer from arsenic, and still comply with the law.”

In some areas of the country, the amount of radium detected in drinking water was 2,000 percent higher than the legal limit.

Why are American citizens drinking chemicals that cause cancer?

Carcinogens aren’t the only problem. In New York state, over 200 water treatment systems have been delivering water with illegal levels of bacteria since 2004. Only 3 of those systems were penalized for their violations.

Government officials say that enforcing the Safe Drinking Water Act is simply not a high priority.

“There is significant reluctance within the EPA and Justice Department to bring actions against municipalities, because there’s a view that they are often cash-strapped, and fines would ultimately be paid by local taxpayers,” said David Uhlmann, former head of the environmental crimes division at the Justice Department. “But some systems won’t come into compliance unless they are forced to, and sometimes a court order is the only way to get local governments to spend what is needed.”

An anonymous enforcement official from the EPA said, “I proposed drinking water cases, but they got shut down so fast that I’ve pretty much stopped even looking at violations. The top people want big headlines and million-dollar settlements. That’s not drinking water cases.”

Scientific research shows that each year 19 million Americans become ill due to parasites, viruses, and bacteria in drinking water. Research also indicates that the increase in breast cancer, prostate cancer, and other cancers are tied to the pollutants in drinking water.

Nearly one-third of the drinking water supplies in the United States come from underground streams and springs originating in caves or passing through them, according to a recent article in Environmental Health News.

“People need to be aware that there’s a subterranean ecosystem and that what happens on the surface impacts these unique ecosystems in a very real way,” said David Culver, a biologist at American University. “When caves are threatened, the threats almost always come from surface activity.”

Beacon Cave in West Virginia has been contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from an old electric manufacturing plant above the cave. The PCBs now contaminate the water of the Bluestone River, which supplies drinking water for several towns on the Virginia-West Virginia border.

“The problem is extensive and it’s serious,” said Tom Aley, an expert in groundwater hydrology and president of the Ozark Underground Laboratory in southwest Missouri.

The world-famous Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky was contaminated with raw sewage from a nearby hotel.

Dirt runoff from logging operations – which likely contains diesel fuel and other petroleum products – is flowing into Whispering Canyon Cave at Tongass National Forest in Alaska. The runoff contaminates drinking water downstream as well as the salmon.

Twin Cave in Oklahoma has been contaminated with 48 different compounds, including banned insecticides chlordane and DDT. Officials suspect that people have been illegally dumping waste into a nearby sinkhole.

“There’s this perception we live on top of an infinite filter and that what you dump on the ground will somehow be cleaned up,” said Aley.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case. All those dumped and spilled chemicals end up in our drinking water.

Polluted water in caves endangers not only our drinking water but also the wildlife in caves. Many cave animals are now on the endangered species list because of poor water quality.

Aley said that these endangered animals should serve as a warning sign to people who drink the same water: “If pollution is killing off the snails and arthropods, that ought to be an appropriate warning to the people who also make use of that water. If they can’t live well and prosper, why should we expect people who use the same water to live well and prosper?”

Luckily, we humans have the option of using home water filters to remove dangerous chemicals from our water before we drink it.

Earlier this month, MSNBC reported on an important news story: bottled water is less regulated and often more contaminated than tap water. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Environmental Working Group (EWG) recommend that bottled water companies should disclose the same information provided by municipal water suppliers. Bottled water is regulated by the FDA, while tap water is regulated by the EPA.

“Consumers may not realize that many regulations that apply to municipalities responsible for tap water do not apply to companies that produce bottled water,” said Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich.

For example, the FDA has not set regulations for DEHP, a phthalates, but the EPA limits the level of phthalates in water supplies.

A GAO report found that “consumers often believe that bottled water is safer or healthier than tap water.” But that’s usually not the case. Bottled water is often more contaminated than tap water, in terms of chemical and biological pollutants. Plastic bottles can leach dangerous chemicals like BPA and phtalates into the water.

Richard Wiles of the EWG thinks that consumers should know where their water comes from, how it’s treated, and what is found in it. Currently, most bottled water companies do not supply this information, and the FDA does not require them to do so.

“If the municipal tap water systems can tell their customers this information, you would think that bottled water companies that charge 1,000 times more for this water could also let consumers know the same thing,” said Wiles.

Concerned about your water quality? To be safe, invest in a home water filter along with reusable glass bottles or stainless steel bottles that won’t leach poisonous chemicals into your water.