Unit 8 Water Pollution PDF

**8.0 introduction: Less developed Countries** - Half of the world's 500 major rivers are polluted - Untreated sewage - Industrial waste - Water often used for human activities **8.0 Introduction: More-developed Countries** - **1970s** -- water pollution control laws - Suc...

**8.0 introduction: Less developed Countries** - Half of the world's 500 major rivers are polluted - Untreated sewage - Industrial waste - Water often used for human activities **8.0 Introduction: More-developed Countries** - **1970s** -- water pollution control laws - Successful water clean-up stories - Ohio Cuyahoga River, U.S. - Thames River, Great Britain - Contamination of toxic inorganic and organic chemicals by industries and mines - 1\. The Ganges River (India) - Industrial, raw sewage - Diseases and illnesses are prevalent when it comes to metals - 2\. the Citarum River, Jakarta, Indonesia - Trash is the main pollutant in this river - Workers move the trash away from areas near the river - 3\. The Yellow River, China - Raspatory illnesses and cancers from the polluted water - 4\. The Sarno River (Italy) - Industrial - Agricultural - Liver cancer caused by the pollution in this river - 5\. The Buriganga River (Bangladesh) - Dyes go into rivers and pollute it, taking away the ability to smell - Lung damage, kidney failure, premature deaths, loss of smelling sense - Industrial - **Cultural eutrophication** - Nitrates and phosphates from human sources - Farms, feedlots. Streets, parking lots - Fertilized lawns, mining sites, sewage plants - **During hot weather or droughts** - Algal blooms - Increased bacteria; anaerobic bacteria - More nutrients - Prevent or reduce cultural eutrophication - Remove nitrates and phosphates - Diversion of lake water - Clean up lakes - Remove excess weeds - Use herbicides and algaecides - Pump in air - **1960s** -- many areas with cultural eutrophication - **1972s** -- Canada and the United States Great lakes pollution control program - **Decreased algal blooms** - **Increased fishing catches** - **Better sewage treatment plants** - Problems still exist - **Raw sewage and biological pollution** - **Nonpoint runoff of pesticides and fertilizers** - **Atmospheric deposition of pesticides and Hg** - **Spring and summer** -- huge inputs of nutrients from Mississippi River basin - Depletion of dissolved oxygen of Gulf of Mexico's bottom layer of water - **Contains little marine life** - **Disrupts nitrogen cycle** - The gulf of Mexico\'s annual dead zone **8.1 What are the causes and effects of water Pollution?** - Water pollution causes illness and death in humans and other species, and disrupts ecosystems - **Sources** - Primarily agricultural activities, industrial facilities, and mining. - Growth of both the human population and our rate of resource use makes it increasingly worse Water pollution comes from point and Nonpoint Sources - **Water pollution** - Change in water quality that can harm organisms or make water unfit for human uses - **Point sources** - Located at specific places - Easy to identify, monitor, and regulate - **Nonpoint sources** - Broad, diffuse areas - Difficult to identify and control - Expensive to clean up **Leading causes of water pollution** - Agriculture activities - Sediment eroded from the land\'s fertilizers and pesticides - Industrial facilities - Inorganic and organic chemicals - Mining - Erosion and organic chemicals **8.2 Major water pollutants have harmful effects** - Infectious disease organisms - Contaminated drinking water - An estimated 1.6 million people die every year mostly under the age of five - Typhoid - Guinea-worm disease - Cesspool often break, leak or overflow, sending dangerous microbes **(Pfiesteria piscicida)**, nitrate pollution and drug-resistant bacteria into water supplies - Disease Comes from hogs - Nuclear - This thermal pollution forms a barrier which alters the aquatic balance, changes the habitat for fish, plants, and parasites, and causes fatal heat shock in billions of passing fish - **Sediments** - Heavy metals include **lead, mercury, chromium, cadmium, and arsenic** - Methyl mercury toxic to most living organisms - Chemical plant in **Minamata Bay, Japan,** released mercury in 1938 - First reported ecological changes in 1950 - By 1953 humans poisoned - Neurological disorder Major water pollutants have harmful effects -- Heavy metals - **Mercury** - **Arsenic** - **Lead** **Lead poisoning** - Lead buildup in the body causes serious health problems **Symptoms:** headaches, irritability, reduced sensations, aggressive behavior, difficulty sleeping, abdominal pain, poor appetite, constipation, anemia - You can tell that you got lead poisoning by the appearance of your wrist bones - Your lead intake should be **0 percent** **8.3 pollution in streams and lakes** - Streams and rivers around the world are extensively polluted - However, they can cleanse themselves of many pollutants if we do not overload them or reduce their flows - Adding excessive nutrients to lakes from human activities can disrupt their ecosystems, and prevention of such pollution is more effective and loss costly than cleaning it up **8.5 water sustainability** - **Safe drinking water act** - Set maximum contaminant levels for any pollutant that affect human health - **Health scientists** - Strengthen the law - **Water-polluting companies** - Weaken the law **There are many ways to purify drinking water** - Reservoirs and purification plants - Process sewer water to drinking water - Expose clear plastic containers to sunlight (UV) - The LifeStraw - **PUR** -- chlorine and iron sulfate powder - Bottled water can be useful but expensive - The U.S and Canada has some of the world's cleanest drinking water - Bottled water less regulated than tap water - Use of bottled water can create environmental problems