YASSER RABEE
15/1/2011
11/B
Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies (e.g. lakes, rivers, oceans and
groundwater).Water pollution affects plants and organisms living in these bodies of
water; and, in almost all cases the effect is damaging not only to individual species and
populations, but also to the natural communities. Water pollution occurs when pollutants
are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies without adequate treatment to
remove harmful compounds.
Water pollution categories
Surface water and groundwater have often been studied and managed as separate
resources, although they are interrelated. Surface water seeps the soil to form ground
water. Sources of surface water pollution are generally grouped into two categories based
on their origin.
1. Point source pollution
Point source pollution
Point source pollution refers to contaminants that enter a waterway through a discrete
conveyance, such as a pipe or ditch. Examples of sources in this category include
discharges from a sewage treatment plant, a factory, or a city storm drain. The U.S. Clean
Water Act (CWA) defines point source for regulatory enforcement purposes.[8] The CWA
definition of point source was amended in 1987 to include municipal storm sewer
systems, as well as industrial stormwater, such as from construction sites.[9]
2. Non–point source pollution
Non–point source (NPS) pollution refers to diffuse contamination that does not originate
from a single discrete source. NPS pollution is often the cumulative effect of small
amounts of contaminants gathered from a large area. The leaching out of nitrogen
compounds from agricultural land which has been fertilized is a typical example. Nutrient
runoff in stormwater from "sheet flow" over an agricultural field or a forest are also cited
as examples of NPS pollution.
Contaminated storm water washed off of parking lots, roads and highways, called urban
runoff, is sometimes included under the category of NPS pollution. However, this runoff
is typically channeled into storm drain systems and discharged through pipes to local
surface waters, and is a point source. However where such water is not channeled and
drains directly to ground it is a non-point source.
Causes of water pollution
The specific contaminants leading to pollution in water include a wide spectrum of
chemicals, pathogens, and physical or sensory changes such as elevated temperature and
discoloration. While many of the chemicals and substances that are regulated may be
naturally occurring (calcium, sodium, iron, manganese, etc.) the concentration is often the
key in determining what is a natural component of water, and what is a contaminant.
Oxygen-depleting substances may be natural materials, such as plant matter (e.g. leaves
and grass) as well as man-made chemicals. Other natural and anthropogenic substances
may cause turbidity (cloudiness) which blocks light and disrupts plant growth, and clogs
the gills of some fish species.[10]
Many of the chemical substances are toxic. Pathogens can produce waterborne diseases
in either human or animal hosts.[11] Alteration of water's physical chemistry includes
acidity (change in pH), electrical conductivity, temperature, and eutrophication.
Eutrophication is an increase in the concentration of chemical nutrients in an ecosystem
to an extent that increases in the primary productivity of the ecosystem. Depending on the
degree of eutrophication, subsequent negative environmental effects such as anoxia
(oxygen depletion) and severe reductions in water quality may occur, affecting fish and
other animal populations
Groundwater pollution
Fertilizers and pesticides applied to crops eventually may reach underlying aquifers,
particularly if the aquifer is shallow and not "protected" by an overlying layer of
lowpermeability material, such as clay. Drinking-water wells located close to cropland
sometimes are contaminated by these agricultural chemicals. Point-source pollution
refers to contamination originating from a single tank, disposal site, or facility. Industrial
waste disposal sites, accidental spills, leaking gasoline storage tanks, and dumps or
landfills are examples of point sources. Chemicals used in agriculture, such as fertilizers,
pesticides, and herbicides are examples of nonpoint-source pollution because they
are spread out across wide areas. Similarly, runoff from urban areas is a nonpoint source
of pollution. Because nonpoint-source substances are used over large areas, they
collectively can have a larger impact on the general quality of water in an aquifer than do
point sources, particularly when these chemicals are used in areas that overlie aquifers
that are vulnerable to pollution. If impacts from individual pollution sources such as
septic system drain fields occur over large enough areas, they are often collectively
treated as a nonpoint source of pollution.
Thermal pollution
Thermal pollution is the rise or fall in the temperature of a natural body of water caused
by human influence. A common cause of thermal pollution is the use of water as a
coolant by power plants and industrial manufacturers. Elevated water temperatures
decreases oxygen levels (which can kill fish) and affects ecosystem composition, such as
invasion by new thermophilic species. Urban runoff may also elevate temperature in
surface waters.
Thermal pollution can also be caused by the release of very cold water from the base of
reservoirs into warmer rivers.
Sewage
With over 8 billion people on the planet, disposing of sewage waste is a major problem.
In developing countries, many people still lack clean water and basic sanitation (hygienic
toilet facilities). Sewage disposal affects people's immediate environments and leads to
water-related illnesses such as diarrhoea that kills 3-4 million children each year.
(According to the World Health Organization, water-related diseases could kill 135
million people by 2020.) In developed countries, most people have flush toilets that take
sewage waste quickly and hygienically away from their homes.
Yet the problem of sewage disposal does not end there. When you flush the toilet, the
waste has to go somewhere and, even after it leaves the sewage treatment works, there is
still waste to dispose of. Sometimes sewage waste is pumped untreated into the sea. Until
the early 1990s, around 5 million tons of sewage was dumped by barge from New York
City each year. The population of Britain produces around 300 million gallons of sewage
every day, some of it still pumped untreated into the sea through long pipes. The New
River that crosses the border from Mexico into California carries with it 20-25 million
gallons (76-95 million litres) of raw sewage each day.
In theory, sewage is a completely natural substance that should be broken down
harmlessly in the environment: 90 percent of sewage is water. In practice, sewage
contains all kinds of other chemicals, from the pharmaceutical drugs people take to the
paper, plastic, and other wastes they flush down their toilets. When people are sick with
viruses, the sewage they produce carries those viruses into the environment. It is possible
to catch illnesses such as hepatitis, typhoid, and cholera from river and sea water.
Nutrients
Suitably treated and used in moderate quantities, sewage can be a fertilizer: it returns
important nutrients to the environment, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which plants
and animals need for growth. The trouble is, sewage is often released in much greater
quantities than the natural environment can cope with. Chemical fertilizers used by
farmers also add nutrients to the soil, which drain into rivers and seas and add to the
fertilizing effect of the sewage. Together, sewage and fertilizers can cause a massive
increase in the growth of algae or plankton that overwhelms huge areas of oceans, lakes,
or rivers. This is known as a harmful algal bloom (also known as an HAB or red tide,
because it can turn the water red). It is harmful because it removes oxygen from the water
that kills other forms of life, leading to what is known as a dead zone. The Gulf of
Mexico has one of the world's most spectacular dead zones. Each summer, it grows to an
area of around 7000 square miles (18,000 square kilometres), which is about the same
size as the state of New Jersey.
Waste water
A few statistics illustrate the scale of the problem that waste water (chemicals washed
down drains and discharged from factories) can cause. Around half of all ocean pollution
is caused by sewage and waste water. Each year, the world generates 400 billion tons of
industrial waste, much of which is pumped untreated into rivers, oceans, and other
waterways. In the United States alone, around 400,000 factories take clean water from
rivers, and many pump polluted waters back in their place. However, there have been
major improvements in waste water treatment recently. For example, in the United States
over the last 30 years, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has spent $70 billion
improving treatment plants that now serve about 85 percent of the US population.
Factories are point sources of water pollution, but quite a lot of water is polluted by
ordinary people from nonpoint sources; this is how ordinary water becomes waste water
in the first place. Virtually everyone pours chemicals of one sort or another down their
drains or toilets. Even detergents used in washing machines and dishwashers eventually
end up in our rivers and oceans. So do the pesticides we use on our gardens. A lot of
toxic pollution also enters waste water from highway runoff. Highways are typically
covered with a cocktail of toxic chemicals—everything from spilled fuel and brake fluids
to bits of worn tyres (themselves made from chemical additives) and exhaust emissions.
When it rains, these chemicals wash into drains and rivers. It is not unusual for heavy
summer rainstorms to wash toxic chemicals into rivers in such concentrations that they
kill large numbers of fish overnight. It has been estimated that, in one year, the highway
runoff from a single large city leaks as much oil into our water environment as a typical
tanker spill. Some highway runoff runs away into drains; others can pollute groundwater
or accumulate in the land next to a road, making it increasingly toxic as the years go by.
Oil pollution
When we think of ocean pollution, huge black oil slicks often spring to mind, yet these
spectacular accidents represent only a tiny fraction of all the pollution entering our
oceans. Even considering oil by itself, tanker spills are not as significant as they might
seem: only 12% of the oil that enters the oceans comes from tanker accidents; over 70%
of oil pollution at sea comes from routine shipping and from the oil people pour down
drains on land. However, what makes tanker spills so destructive is the sheer quantity of
oil they release at once — in other words, the concentration of oil they produce in one
very localized part of the marine environment. The biggest oil spill in recent years (and
the biggest ever spill in US waters) occurred when the tanker Exxon Valdez broke up in
Prince William Sound in Alaska in 1989. Around 12 million gallons (44 million litres) of
oil were released into the pristine wilderness—enough to fill your living room 800 times
over! Estimates of the marine animals killed in the spill vary from approximately 1000
sea otters and 34,000 birds to as many as 2800 sea otters and 250,000 sea birds. Several
billion salmon and herring eggs are also believed to have been destroyed.
Plastics
If you've ever taken part in a community beach clean, you'll know that plastic is far and
away the most common substance that washes up with the waves. There are three reasons
for this: plastic is one of the most common materials, used for making virtually every
kind of manufactured object from clothing to automobile parts; plastic is light and floats
easily so it can travel enormous distances across the oceans; most plastics are not
biodegradable (they do not break down naturally in the environment), which means that
things like plastic bottle tops can survive in the marine environment for a long time. (A
plastic bottle can survive an estimated 450 years in the ocean and plastic fishing line can
last up to 600 years.)
While plastics are not toxic in quite the same way as poisonous chemicals, they
nevertheless present a major hazard to seabirds, fish, and other marine creatures. For
example, plastic fishing lines and other debris can strangle or choke fish. (This is
sometimes called ghost fishing.) One scientific study in the 1980s estimated that a quarter
of all seabirds contain some sort of plastic residue. In another study about a decade later,
a scientist collected debris from a 1.5 mile length of beach in the remote Pitcairn islands
in the South Pacific. His study recorded approximately a thousand pieces of garbage
including 268 pieces of plastic, 71 plastic bottles, and two dolls heads
CONCLUSION
Clearly, the problems associated with water pollution have the capabilities to disrupt life
on our planet to a great extent. Congress has passed laws to try to combat water pollution
thus acknowledging the fact that water pollution is, indeed, a seriousissue. But the
government alone cannot solve the entire problem. It is ultimately up to us, to be
informed, responsible and involved when it comes to the problems we face with our
water. We must become familiar with our local water resources and learn about ways for
disposing harmful household wastes so they don’t end up in sewage treatment plants that
can’t handle them or landfills not designed to receive hazardous materials. In our yards,
we must determine whether additional nutrients are needed before fertilizers are applied,
and look for alternatives where fertilizers might run off into surface waters. We have to
preserve existing trees and plant new trees and shrubs to help prevent soil erosion and
promote infiltration of water into the soil. Around our houses, we must keep litter, pet
waste, leaves, and grass clippings out of gutters and storm drains. These are
just a few of the many ways in which we, as humans, have the ability to combat water
pollution. As we head into the 21st century, awareness and education will most assuredly
continue to be the two most important ways to prevent water pollution. If these measures
are not taken and water pollution continues, life on earth will suffer severely.
Global environmental collapse is not inevitable. But the developed world must work
with the developing world to ensure that new industrialized economies do not add to the
world's environmental problems. Politicians must think of sustainable development rather
than economic expansion. Conservation strategies have to become more widely accepted,
and people must learn that energy use can be dramatically diminished without sacrificing
comfort. In short, with the technology that currently
exists, the years of global environmental mistreatment can begin to be reversed.
