1. Water Pollution
TEST

2. What is water pollution?
Any chemical, biological, or physical change in water quality that has a harmful effect on living organisms or makes water unsuitable for desired uses.

3. How do we measure water quality?
Fecal coliform test – measure number of colonies of coliform bacteria present in a 100 ml sample of water
WHO recommends a coliform count of 0 colonies/100 ml for drinking water
EPA recommends a maximum of 200 colonies/100 ml for swimming water

4. Figure 19-2 Page 485

5. BOD test – Biological oxygen demand
The amount of oxygen demanding wastes in water
The amount of dissolved oxygen needed by aerobic decomposers to break down the organic materials in a certain volume of water
Take a sample of the effluent – aerate it
Run a DO test
Put the sample in the dark at 20 0 for 5 days
Run another DO test
The difference is the BOD

6. Use chemical analysis Hach kits
Determine the presence and concentrations of most organic and inorganic chemicals that pollute water

7. Use Indicator species to monitor water pollution
Can analyze tissues of organisms found in water
Can also make a count of the number of different types of organisms and this will give you an indication of water quality.

8. Water Quality Do (ppm) at 20˚C
Good
8-9
Slightly
polluted
6.7-8
Moderately
polluted
Heavily
polluted
Below 4.5
Gravely
polluted
Below 4

9. Freshwater streams and rivers
Water that flows that recover fairly rapidly from degradable oxygen-demanding wastes and thermal pollution
Does this by a combination of dilution
“dilution is the solution to pollution”
And bacterial decay
This works as long as the stream is not overloaded with pollutants and something does not reduce the flow of the stream (damming, drought, etc.)

10. Breakdown of degradable wastes depletes dissolved oxygen
This reduces or eliminates populations of organisms with high oxygen requirements until the stream is cleansed of wastes

11. Time or distance downstream
Clean Zone
Decomposition
Zone
Septic Zone
Recovery Zone
Clean Zone
Normal clean water organisms
(trout, perch, bass,
mayfly, stonefly)
Trash fish
(carp, gar,
leeches)
Fish absent, fungi,
sludge worms,
bacteria
(anaerobic)
Trash fish
(carp, gar,
leeches)
Normal clean water organisms
(trout, perch, bass,
mayfly, stonefly)
Types of
organisms
8 ppm
8 ppm
Dissolved oxygen
Oxygen sag
Concentration
Biological oxygen
demand
2 ppm
Direction of flow
Point of waste or
heat discharge
Time or distance downstream
Oxygen sag curve

12. Time and distance for a stream to recover depend on
Volume of stream
Flow rate
Temperature Ph
Can also get an oxygen sag curve from thermal pollution

13. Good news/Bad news
Laws passed since 1970’s have increased number of wastewater treatment plants
Industry is required to clean up their waste or be fined
Still have fish kills and drinking water contamination
In developing countries there is little waste treatment

14. Rivers provide many ecological services Major threats to rivers are
Pollution
Disruption of water flow
overfishing
River pollution
Killer algae

15. SOURCES OF POLLUTION POINT NONPOINT
DISCHARGE POLLUTANTS AT SPECIFIC LOCATIONS
PIPES, DITCHES, SEWERS
CAN BE:
Factories, sewage treatment plants, mines, oil tankers
EASY TO IDENTIFY, MONITOR, AND REGULATE
NONPOINT
CANNOT BE TRACED TO A SINGLE SITE OF DISCHARGE
CAN BE:
Acid deposition, runoff from lawns, farms, logged forests, golf courses, ets
DIFFICULT TO IDENTIFY SOURCE AND CONTROL
EPA ESTIMATES THEY ACCOUNT FOR 64% OF POLLUTANTS ENTERING STREAMS AND 57% IN RIVERS

16. Which would the following be?
Municipal sewage treatment plant?
Pesticide runoff from farms
Sediment runoff from a construction site
Dyes from a textile mill
Sediment runoff from logging
Oil spill from a leaking pipeline
Dioxin from a paper mill
Mining runoff
Groundwater contamination from a landfill
Waste oil from a do-it-yourselfer oil change poured in a ditch
Thermal discharge from a power plant

17. Which would the following be?
Municipal sewage treatment plant? point
Pesticide runoff from farms non-point
Sediment runoff from a construction site - nonpoint
Dyes from a textile mill -point
Sediment runoff from logging – non-point
Oil spill from a leaking pipeline - point
Dioxin from a paper mill - point
Mining runoff – non-point
Groundwater contamination from a landfill – non-point
Waste oil from a do-it-yourselfer oil change poured in a ditch - point
Thermal discharge from a power plant - point

18. Pollution of freshwater lakes
Dilution does not work as well as in running water
Often contain stratified layers with little mixing
Have little flow – can take up to 100 years to flush a lake or reservoir
Ponds contain small volumes of water
Much more vulnerable to pollution by: plant nutrients, oil, pesticides, and heavy metals
Can kill bottom life, fish and birds

19. Biological magnification
Water
ppm
Herring gull
124 ppm
Phytoplankton
ppm
Herring gull eggs
124 ppm
Zooplankton
0.123 ppm
Lake trout
4.83 ppm
Rainbow smelt
1.04 ppm
Biological magnification

20. Cultural eutrophication
Eutrophication – natural nutrient enrichment of lakes
Cultural eutrophication – accelerating the input of plant nutrients to a lake
Caused by nitrate and phosphate – containing effluents
Causes algal blooms and fish kills
Can be prevented by: advanced wastewater treatment, bans on phosphates in detergents, soil conservation to reduce run-off
Clean-up – remove excess weeds, use herbicides and algicdes, aerate lakes and reservoirs

21. Groundwater pollution
Sources: storage lagoons, septic tanks, landfills, hazardous waste dumps, deep injection wells
We also store gasoline, oil, solvents, and hazardous wastes in metal underground tanks that can leak over time
High health risks in drinking water – mainly from petrochemicals, organic chlorides, pesticides, arsenic, lead, and fluorine

22. Cannot cleanse itself Moves very slowly
Does not have many decomposing bacteria
Cold temperatures slow down chemical reactions that decompose wastes
Degradable wastes take hundreds to thousands of years to clean up
Nondegradable wastes never clean up.
We don’t know the extent of groundwater pollution

23. How to protect groundwater
Monitor aquifers near landfills and underground tanks
Require leak detection systems for underground tanks
More strictly regulate disposal of hazardous wastes
Store hazardous liquids above ground

24. Ocean pollution
Oceans are the ultimate sink for much of our waste that we produce
Mainly affected are the coastal areas
More people live there
Developing countries dump sewage and industrial wastes in without treatment

25. What happens…
Humans get ear infections, sore throats, respiratory disease and gastrointestinal disease
Algal blooms are caused by nutrient run-off
Deplete the dissolved oxygen and get OXYGEN DEPLETED ZONES – aquatic life dies or moves

26. What do we dump?
DREDGE SPOILS- materials from bottoms of harbors and rivers – often contain toxic metals etc.
SEWAGE SLUDGE – leftover from wastewater treatment
LONDON DUMPING ACT – 1972
100 countries agreed not to dump highly toxic pollutants and radioactive wastes in the open sea

27. Oil in the ocean
Crude petroleum and refined petroleum are accidentally or deliberately released
Released during normal operation of offshore wells
Washing tankers and releasing oil water
Pipelines and storage tank leaks
Much comes from land (about %)
About 10% comes from atmosphere from smoke from oil fires

28. Effects VOC’s kill at once
Other chemicals coat feathers and fur – animals lose natural insulation and buoyancy and drown or die from hupothermia
Some smothers bottom dwellers and kills them or makes the unfit for human consumption

29. How to clean up: MECHANICAL METHODS: CHEMICAL METHODS: FLOATING BOOMS
SKIMMER BOATS
ABSORBENT PADS
CHEMICAL METHODS:
COAGULATING AGENTS - CLUMP
DISPERSING AGENTS – BREAK UP SLICKS

30. PREVENTING & REDUCING SURFACE WATER POLLUTION
NONPOINT SOURCES:
REDUCE FERTILIZER RUNOFF BY USING SLOW RELEASE FERTILIZERS
PLANT CROPS WITH ALTERNATING ROWS OF ROW CROP AND NITROGEN-FIXING PLANTS
PLANT BUFFER ZONES BETWEEN CROPS AND WATER SOURCE
USE PESTICIDES ONLY WHEN NEEDED NOT AS A PREVENTATIVE
CONTROL RUNOFF FROM FEED LOTS
PRESERVE RIPARIAN ZONES AND CREATE NEW ONES
REDUCE SOIL EROSION BY REFORESTING WATERSHEDS

31. REDUCING POINT SOURCES – THE LEGAL APPROACH
CLEAN WATER ACT – SURFACE WATERS
MAKE THEM ALL SWIMABLE, FISHABLE, AND DRINKABLE
BEFORE THIS MANY CITIES EVEN IN THE U.S. STILL DISCHARGES THEIR WASTE INTO WATERWAYS OR MINIMAL TREATMENT
MAIN GOAL WAS TO IMPROVE WASTEWATER TREATMENT

32. GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS GOOD
Has improved wastewater treatment facilities and more people have them
Has reduced topsoil runoff
Has reduced wetland loss
About 44% of lakes are still unsafe for fishing and swimming
Animal wastes pollute most of our rivers
Much toxic waste is dumped illeagaly each year
Many lake fish are not safe to eat
We are still losing much of our wetlands.

33. Discharge trading policy
1995-EPA
Put into effect as a pilot program in 2002
Allows water pollution sources to pollute as higher levels than allowed in their permits by buying credits from permit holders with pollution levels below their allowed levels!