Water Pollution Notes:
- Contaminant: any constituent in the water deleterious to a particular end use regardless of its origin and whether it occurs in the watershed, source or in a water supply system
- Pollutant: any constituent in the water source deleterious to a particular end use that is of anthropogenic origin
-subset of contaminant
- Water pollution: any change of water quality harmful to organisms
Pollution of Streams and Lakes
Ocean Pollution
Groundwater Pollution
Drinking Water Quality
Waste Water Treatment
Water Legislation
- Point Sources: can be identified easily
- Nonpoint Sources: generalized sources
- Waterborne Bacteria: disease symptoms usually explosive emissions
- Sources of Pollution:
Oxygen Demanding Agents
Water-soluble Inorganic Chemicals
Inorganic Plant Nutrients
Organic Chemicals
Sediment or Suspended Material
Water-soluble Radioactive Isotopes
Heat
Genetic Pollution
- BOD: Biological Oxygen Demand
^ low oxygen results in death of sea life
- Heavy Metals:
- ^ water soluble
^ Combing with biomolecules
^ toxin
- Acid Rain: Acids fall from atmosphere
- Wet: Acid Rain
- Dry Deposition: acid Gases
- Acid rain formation: Gases react with atmosphere water
- Acid water dissolves nutrients
- Biomagnification: Increase of toxin levels through food chain
- Degradable: Easily decomposed
- Photodegradable: decomposed through exposure of light
- Biodegradable: decomposed though biological agents ie. Bacteria
- Industrial water pollution: thermal pollution for cooling purposes
- Waste Heat: more dangerous than other tangibles
- Hydrilla: Non-active aquatic plant
- Rivers are easy targets for pollution
- Ocean Pollution: coastal areas are most impacted
- 35% of U.S municipal sewage discharged at ocean waters
- Volatile Organics Compounds immediately kill
- Floating oil: Oil that floats causing many deaths
- Heavy Oil: sinks to bottom of ocean and kills
- Sewage Sludge: semi solid material left after sewage treatment
- Pointsource: easily identified
- Nonpoint source: generalized
- Plastic doesnt degrade
- Groundwater pollution is more dangerous than surface water
- Most drinking water is contaminated
- EPA set Maximum Contaminant levels for drinking water
- Stages of water Treatment
- Sewage Treatment:
- 1. Screening: removes coarse floating objects
- 2. Aeration: dissolve oxygen
- 3. pH correction
- 4. Coagulation and flocculation: Forms floc
- 5. Sedimentation:Floc settles and vacuumed off bed of large sedimentation tanks
- 6. Pre-chlorination and dechlorination: Kills algae
- 7. Filtration
- 8. Disinfection
- 9. pH adjustment
- Primary treatment: removed large objects
- 2nd treatment: stimulate aerobic degradation
- Teriary Treatment: recycled
- EPA recorded 700 contaminants
- Porter Cologne Act : provides aesthetic values