Chapter 19: Guided Reading
Read: Case Study: America’s “First River”: A Success Story
Summarize the story of the Hudson River and PCB’s:
The Hudson River contains 100+ tons of PCBs that are potentially dangerous to humans.
They are a known carcinogen and can cause liver defects. The hudson river is known
for poisoning the animals around it through bioaccumulation in the food chains.
Water Pollution
1: How is water pollution defined?
A state of degraded water quality.
2: What are some of the common water pollutants?
- Heat
- Fecal coliform
- Sediment
- Radioactive isotopes
3: What is the primary water pollution problem in the world today?
It is the problem of keeping our water quality at a clean state.
4: How many people are exposed to waterborne diseases worldwide?
About several billion people have been exposed.
5: Name 3 sources of Surface Water and 3 sources of Groundwater Pollution from the
chart (19.1)
3 sources: surface water
- oil spills
- sediment spills
- urban runoff
Ground water
- Seepage source from agriculture
- seepage source from spills
- leaks of waste sites
A Closer Look 19.1: What is the Value of Clean Water to New York City?
What is the main idea of this story?
The main idea is that many people need to stop under-rating ecosystem benefits.
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)
1: What is BOD and what are some sources of it?
Biological Oxygen Demand.
It comes from the sources such as pathogens, dead organic matter and organic chemicals.
2: Where does approximately 33% of all BOD in streams come from?
It comes from agriculture.
3: What about in urban areas (BOD)?
These areas rise the BOD of the streams.
4: What is the relationship between BOD and dissolved oxygen levels? (What happens
when BOD is high?)
High BOD results in levels of dissolved oxygen that are not capable of life.
5: Explain the 3 zones of BOD:
* Pollution Zone: High BOD that can barely support life.
* Active Decomposition Zone: Low Dissolved oxygen levels.
* Recovery Zone: There is a high level of dissolved oxygen but the BOD is lower.
Waterborne Disease
1: What is Fecal Coliform Bacteria and where does it come from?
It is a measure and potential indicator for disease potential.
Source: Fecal Materials
Nutrients
1: How do urban streams get high concentrations of Nitrogen and Phosphorus?
These high concentrations come from agriculture runoff, sewage waste, and treatment plants.
Eutrophication
1: Define Eutrophication:
When microorganisms receive a high does of nutrients rapidly growing in population.
2: What is the solution to artificial or cultural eutrophication?
It is to make people not let their runoffs of agriculture and waste reach the bodies of water.
A Closer Look 19.2: Cultural Eutrophication in the Gulf of Mexico
What is a dead zone and how is it created?
A zone of high concentration of dissolved oxygen creating a place deadly of sea life. It is due to cultural
eutrophication using up all of the water.
Oil
1: Which Environmental Act was created after the Exxon Valdez disaster?
Oil Pollution Act.
Sediment
1: Why is sediment pollution considered to be a two-fold problem?
- It takes a land resource and depletes it
- The quality of water is degraded.
2: What are some of the techniques employed by a sediment control program?
One technique is to minimize on-site erosion control.
Acid Mine Drainage
1: Define Acid Mine Drainage and explain how it occurs:
It is the water with a concentration high of sulfuric acid. Fools Gold disseminates into
sediment touching the water and oxygen, The result is sulfuric acid.
2: What is the general equation for acid mine drainage?
4 pyrate
+150 oxygen
+14 water
=4 Ferric Hydroxide
+8 sulfuric acid
3: What site was once designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as the
nation’s worst hazardous waste site?
Tar Creek, Oklahoma.
Surface Water Pollution
1: What are some point sources of surface water pollution?
Pipes coming from :
- Industrial
- and municipal sites
2: What are some non-point sources of surface water pollution?
Runoff coming from the general public waste.
3: What are the 2 approaches to dealing with surface water pollution?
- reduce sources
- Treat waters to a form able to be disposed.
Groundwater Pollution
1: _______% of the 175,000 known waste disposal sites in the United States may be
producing plumes of hazardous chemicals that are migrating into groundwater resources.
75%
2: What is bioremediation?
Using microorganisms to clean waste.
3: What are the 5 important points about groundwater pollution?
- Some Pollutants are weigh less than water
- They go though different phases
- Some can be heavier than water and sink
- Remember physical/chemical properties of each pollutants
- Damages towards the environment
4: What is saltwater intrusion of well water?
When the salty water if the subsurface moves into the well.
Wastewater Treatment
1: Summarize how Septic Tank Sewage Disposal Systems work.
The tanks first sort solids and liquids. Organic matter is stored. All the clean water will be moved into the
drain field. The water full of waste is cleaned through the processes of filtering and oxidation.
2: What happens during primary treatment of sewage?
3: What happens during secondary treatment of sewage?
The sewage is moved through screens filtering our the sewage and will enter the girt chamber and
sedimentation tank where matter will make sludge.
4: When is advanced wastewater treatment used?
When the first two treatments don't take out most of the sewage.
5: What are some of the risks associated with Chlorine treatment of wastewater that is
later discharged?
It can be cancerous.
Land Application of Wastewater
1: Explain the process of wastewater renovation and conservation cycle.
Waste water is moved though gardens moving into the environment at the end.
Wastewater and Wetlands
1: How can applying treated sewage to wetlands be helpful to the wetland ecosystem?
It is effective for mining and ground waters leaking from landfills. It can also help in stormwater runoffs
and municipal wastewater.
Water Reuse
1: What is the difference between indirect and direct water reuse?
- Indirect: moved through multiple sites reused for agriculture and municipal purposes
- Direct: Directly from treatment site to the water usage.
• Make sure to memorize the following laws:
• Clean Water Act
• Federal Safe Drinking Water Act
• Water Quality Act
How safe do you believe the drinking water is in your home? How did you reach your
conclusion? Are you worried about low-level contamination by toxins in your water?
What could the sources of contamination be?
I think my water at home is safe and has no level of contamination of water at all. This is due to the large population
of the city seeing that somebody would have already complained if there were.
Read, “Is Water Pollution from Pig Farms Unavoidable” and answer the following:
1: Why was pig farming such a controversy in North Carolina during this time?
The bacteria from the dead pigs would move into the ground and surface water.
2: What did pig farmers do with the pig waste? Why was this allowed?
Waste was placed in a pit due to the lack of incinerators.
3: What is the lesson learned from North Carolina’s “Bay of Pigs”?
Everyone is susceptible to disasters of the environment from the industries.
4: What legislation has been created as a result of this catastrophe?
To ban making of waste lagoons and make pig farmers keep their pig waste treated.
Study Questions:
1: Do you think outbreaks of waterborne diseases will be more common or less common
in the future? Why? Where are outbreaks most likely to occur?
I think they are less common due to technology rising. They will most likely occur in the more poor
countries as they can't afford better tech.
2: How does water that drains from coal mines become contaminated with sulfuric acid?
Why is this an important environmental problem?
Minerals from coal mine that come in contact with water create the acid. It is important because
it can runoff into our large bodies of water where food chains exist.
3: Do you think our water supply is vulnerable to terrorist attacks? Why? Why not? How
could potential threats be minimized?
Not in our communities because I would think that a large city like San Diego would have a high security system.
Attacks can be minimized if we regularly check our water qualities.
4: How would you design a system to capture runoff where you live before it enters a
storm drain?
I would place screen filters around my area where it releases into the storm drain.