1 / 35

Water Pollution

Water Pollution. Distribution of Water Reservoirs. Oceans 97%. Ice Caps and Glaciers 1.725%. Atmosphere 0.01%. Rivers, Lakes, and Inland Seas 0.141%. Soil Moisture 0.0012%. Ground Water 0.4 – 1.7%. World Water Supply. 97.200% salt water in the oceans

laith-welch
Download Presentation

Water Pollution

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Water Pollution

  2. Distribution of Water Reservoirs Oceans 97% Ice Caps and Glaciers 1.725% Atmosphere 0.01% Rivers, Lakes, and Inland Seas 0.141% Soil Moisture 0.0012% Ground Water 0.4 – 1.7%

  3. World Water Supply 97.200% salt water in the oceans 02.014% ice caps and glaciers 00.600% groundwater 00.009% surface water 00.005% soil moisture 00.001% atmospheric moisture

  4. Atm. -Ocean - Land Evap. - PPT - Runoff Water Cycle

  5. Point Source Non-point Source Water PollutionTwo major classifications

  6. Point Sources Single large source Can localize it to one spot Industrial Plants - Sewage pipes

  7. LUST - Leaky Underground Storage Tanks 22% of the 1.2 million UST are LUST Point Source - Example

  8. Non-point Sources Diffuse source or many smaller point sources Automobiles Fertilizer on fields

  9. Water Pollution: Many Forms • Disease: In developing nations, 80% of diseases are water-related. • Synthetic Organic Compounds • Inorganic Compounds & Mineral Substances such as Acids, etc. • Radioactive substances • Oxygen-demanding wastes • Plant Nutrients • Sediments • Thermal Discharges

  10. Examples of Polluted Waters

  11. A very personal look at water • What happens to your water before you drink it? • What happens to your water after you dispose of it? • Approximately 99% of Swedes are served by wastewater treatment plants, 86.5% of Germans, 74% of Americans, and 57% of Canadians.

  12. What constitutes quality drinking water? • Free of pollutants • Tastes good • Want Sodium Bicarbonate and Calcium Sulfate in same concentrations as found in saliva • 10 oC • As little chlorination as possible • Calcium & magnesium account for most water hardness, death rates (cardiovascular disease) higher in soft water areas than in hard water areas • Copper needed to absorb & metabolism iron, but >1mg/liter makes water unpalatable • Does taste correlate with presence of toxic compounds?

  13. Forms of Pollution – Details • Inorganic – acids, salts, toxic metals • One gram of lead in 20,000 liters of water makes it unfit for drinking. Lead is often found in the pipes of older homes • What is the safe drinking water limit for arsenic? For lead? How much does UA water supply have?

  14. Forms of Pollution – Details • Organic: sewage, pesticides, plastics, etc. • One drop of oil can render up to 25 liters of water unfit for drinking • One gram of 2,4 D can contaminate 10 million liters of drinking water! • One gram of PCBs can make 1 billion liters of water unsuitable for freshwater aquatic life!

  15. Acid Precipitation: When Air Pollution Becomes Water Pollution

  16. Acid Rain Effects – Aquatic Systems When the pH drops below 6.0 species start to die off. When one species dies, others that depend on it may as well

  17. How does this work? Cation Exchange on clay minerals Role of chemical weathering... Acid Neutralization

  18. How does acid kill the fish?One way is mobilizing metals • When all base cations are striped from soils • Acid now reacts with metals e.g. aluminum • Normally aluminum is immobile • below pH 5 - mobile aluminum • Fish breath in the water • Aluminum comes out of solution • Clogs gills - suffocate

  19. More Examples: Oxygen and Water • Biochemical Oxygen Demand – What does this mean? • Anything in the water that bacteria can break down. • Bacteria will use up oxygen in the water • Other aerobic organisms will die

  20. Oxygen and Water • What else can affect the amount of O2 in the water? • Temperature • Speed of water flow • Roughness of surface over which water flows

  21. Stories about particular pollutant forms: Oil • Both Point and Nonpoint Sources • Largest source of oil pollution is pipeline leaks and runoff • 61% ocean oil pollution river & urban runoff • 30% intentional discharges from tankers • 5% accidental spills from tankers

  22. Stories about particular pollutant forms: Detergents The nitrates in fertilizers promote excessive growth of algae and larger aquatic plants, causing offensive algae blooms and driving out sport fish. Phosphates are often thought to culprit, nitrogen is the “limiting factor” in most aquatic systems.

  23. Stories about particular pollutant forms: Sediments • THE largest form of water pollution • Erosion is source – we’ve sped up rate of erosion, e.g. during urban construction can lose up to 43 tons of topsoil/acre/year • Natural rates of erosion: leads to aquatic succession

  24. Succession in Aquatic Habitats Lake Sediments & Nutrients Accumulate Oligotrophic Eutrophic Low in nutrients High in nutrients Can sometimes see Methane gas bubbling up From sediments – process of decomposition

  25. Stories about particular pollutant forms: thermal pollution • 26% of all water in U.S. is affected by this • Up to a point of adding heated water, you can get thermal enrichment • Adding more heat, you get thermal pollution

  26. We can also have cold water pollution In many areas fish and Other river organisms are Adapted to relatively warm water. Building a dam results in very cold water released Downstream killing organisms and changing species

  27. A special case: Groundwater • What forms of pollution can affect groundwater? • All of them except thermal pollution! • Renewal time of groundwater is important • Rivers: 12-20 days • Soil Moisture: 280 days • Groundwater: 300 years

  28. Groundwater doesn’t stay in one place

  29. Oil Well Drilling & Groundwater

  30. Oil Drilling Protocols • Well must be cased from surface to below freshwater zone • Casing must also be for 150 feet above pay zone • Logging apparatus must be retrieved

  31. Oil Drilling Protocols • Drilling fluids must be disposed of properly – e.g. no Midnight Haulers • Any spills must be reported and cleaned immediately • Area will be subject to remediation efforts

  32. Identifying Sources of Pollutants to the Chesapeake Bay We are going to do the same analysis that scientists did in 1998 to determine what some of the major sources of pollutants were to the Chesapeake Bay

More Related