Chapter 19
Read: Case Study: America’s “First River”: A Success Story
Summarize the story of the Hudson River and PCB’s:
Water Pollution
1: How is water pollution defined?
-refers to the degredation of water quality
2: What are some of the common water pollutants?
-heavy metals, sediments, certain radioactive isotopes, phosphorus, nitrigen, sodium
3: What is the primary water pollution problem in the world today?
-It is the lack of clean disease free drinking water
4: How many people are exposed to waterborne diseases worldwide?
-several billion
5: Name 3 sources of Surface Water and 3 sources of Groundwater Pollution from the
chart (19.1)
-Urban runoff
-Agricultural runoff
-Air fallout to rivers, lakes, oceans
-GW
-Leaks from waste-disposal sites
-Leaks from buried tanks and pipes
-seepage from mine waste piles
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 of the story is talking about how the water is a source for many and how it was good water up to the point in which people have been performing action upon the land such a extracting natural gas
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)
1: What is BOD and what are some sources of it?
-This is biological oxygen demand and it is to measure the amount of oxygen consumed by microorganisms as they break down organic matter within small water samples it comes from sewer lines
2: Where does approximately 33% of all BOD in streams come from?
-They result from agricultural activities
3: What about in urban areas (BOD)?
-High levels as well because when it rains the high flow is unable to be handled by the water and then it is runoff overflows and untreated into streams
4: What is the relationship between BOD and dissolved oxygen levels? (What happens
when BOD is high?)
-when the BOD is high then the oxygen may be too low to be supported by the water to hold life
when high
-a pollution zone
-an active decomposition zone
-recovery zone
5: Explain the 3 zones of BOD:
* Pollution Zone: high BOD-microorganisms use waste when decomposed and decreases oxygen
* Active Decomposition Zone: where the dissolved oxygen reaches a minimum owing to rapid biochemical decomposition by microorganisms as the organic waste is transported downstream
* Recovery Zone: Where the dissolved oxygen increases
Waterborne Disease
1: What is Fecal Coliform Bacteria and where does it come from? Nutrients
-Its an indicator of disease potential
-it indicates that fecal material of mammals is present in the water
-waste water
1: How do urban streams get high concentrations of Nitrogen and Phosphorus?
-They are released from sources related to land use
-they are in high conditions due to some fertilizers, detergents, and products of sewege treatment plants
Eutrophication
1: Define Eutrophication: is the process by which body of water develops high concentrations of nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus
2: What is the solution to artificial or cultural eutrophication?
-involves ensuring that high concentrations of nutrients from human sources do not enter lakes and other 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?
-it is when their is low concentrations of dissolved oxygen in the water it is occurring when nitrogen cause cultural eutrophication
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 results from erosion which depletes a land resource (soil) at its site of origin and it reduces the quality of the water resource it enters
2: What are some of the techniques employed by a sediment control program?
-Applying soil-conservation procedures
-change to urbanized land
Acid Mine Drainage
1: Define Acid Mine Drainage and explain how it occurs:
-its water with high amount of sulfuric acid that drains from mines coal mines and metal mines
2: What is the general equation for acid mine drainage?
-Pyrite+Oxygen+Water > Ferric Hydroxide+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 area of Oklahoma
Surface Water Pollution
1: What are some point sources of surface water pollution?
-pipes and municipal sites
-sewer systems
2: What are some non-point sources of surface water pollution?
-land use
-climate
-hydrology
-topography
-native vegetation
-and geology
3: What are the 2 approaches to dealing with surface water pollution?
-To reduce the sources
-to treat teh wate to remove pollutants or convert them to forms that can be disposed off safely
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.
-755
2: What is bioremediation?
-Treatment may also be accomplished underground by microorganisms that consume gasoline
3: What are the 5 important points about groundwater pollution?
-some pollutants are lighter than water and float on the groundwater
-some pollutants have different phases
-some are heaver than water and sink down the groundwater
-to cleanup the water pollutants is expensive may cause environmental damage
4: What is saltwater intrusion of well water?
-When covering top layers then water needs to be extracted from deeper
Wastewater Treatment
1: Summarize how Septic Tank Sewage Disposal Systems work.
-They are where sewage is disposed
-the tank is designed to separate solid from liquid
-clarifies the liquid and disposed into drain field
-then treated and filtered naturally
2: What happens during primary treatment of sewage?
-raw sewage enters the plant from the municipal sewer line and first passes through a series screens to remove large floating organic material
3: What happens during secondary treatment of sewage?
-activated sludge> uses living organisms mostly bacteria
-enters the aeration tank where it is mixed with air, and with some of the sludge from the final sedimentation tank
4: When is advanced wastewater treatment used?
-when it is particuly important to maintain good water quality
5: What are some of the risks associated with Chlorine treatment of wastewater that is
later discharged?
-by products can be cancer associated
Land Application of Wastewater
1: Explain the process of wastewater renovation and conservation cycle.
-refers to the production of resources, including methane gas, as well as ornamental plants and flowers that have commercial value
Wastewater and Wetlands
1: How can applying treated sewage to wetlands be helpful to the wetland ecosystem?
-it is rich in nitrogen and phosphorus increases the production of plants and less cheap
Water Reuse
1: What is the difference between indirect and direct water reuse?
-inderect- is planned endeavor-
-direct-use of treated wastewater that is piped directly from a treatment plant to the next user
Environmental Laws
• 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 am not sure of how clean the water in my home is.I think that it is not very safe to drink due to the factors that contribute to it, yes the companies clean our water but maybe not all of he bad chemicals are extracted from the water. Tap water does not have the ph of 7 so its not pure water and its mostly basic. I am worried about the chemicals and components in the water because it can affect us on the long term.
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 pig farming was a controversy because it had already been a problem and because of the hurricane it caused much more damage when they were washed out
2: What did pig farmers do with the pig waste? Why was this allowed?
-the farmers were allowed to automated and very confining farms housing hundreds or thousands pigs, no limitation on the location of the farm because the pigs single produced 2 tons of waste per year
3: What is the lesson learned from North Carolina’s “Bay of Pigs”?
-is that we are vulnerable to environmental catastrophes caused by large-scale industrial agriculture
4: What legislation has been created as a result of this catastrophe?
-Clean water Act
-
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 because so many problems with water have been happening and we have been educating people about it less outbreaks will be likely to occur because not only are we being cautious but were putting Acts which can help us keep focus
2: How does water that drains from coal mines become contaminated with sulfuric acid?
Why is this an important environmental problem?
it becomes contaminated due to the chemicals mixed within it it is an environmental problem because it contaminates water and it is a source for many people
3: Do you think our water supply is vulnerable to terrorist attacks? Why? Why not? How
could potential threats be minimized?
-Yes it is potential for terrorist attacks because they can contaminate our water that can kill us slowly of faster than we can think of cleaning the water
-one way to reduce this is by helping the other countries and regulating what is in out water
4: How would you design a system to capture runoff where you live before it enters a
storm drain?
-i would design a system by having a pump or something in which the material travel to before entering the systems
Summarize the story of the Hudson River and PCB’s:
Water Pollution
1: How is water pollution defined?
-refers to the degredation of water quality
2: What are some of the common water pollutants?
-heavy metals, sediments, certain radioactive isotopes, phosphorus, nitrigen, sodium
3: What is the primary water pollution problem in the world today?
-It is the lack of clean disease free drinking water
4: How many people are exposed to waterborne diseases worldwide?
-several billion
5: Name 3 sources of Surface Water and 3 sources of Groundwater Pollution from the
chart (19.1)
-Urban runoff
-Agricultural runoff
-Air fallout to rivers, lakes, oceans
-GW
-Leaks from waste-disposal sites
-Leaks from buried tanks and pipes
-seepage from mine waste piles
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 of the story is talking about how the water is a source for many and how it was good water up to the point in which people have been performing action upon the land such a extracting natural gas
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)
1: What is BOD and what are some sources of it?
-This is biological oxygen demand and it is to measure the amount of oxygen consumed by microorganisms as they break down organic matter within small water samples it comes from sewer lines
2: Where does approximately 33% of all BOD in streams come from?
-They result from agricultural activities
3: What about in urban areas (BOD)?
-High levels as well because when it rains the high flow is unable to be handled by the water and then it is runoff overflows and untreated into streams
4: What is the relationship between BOD and dissolved oxygen levels? (What happens
when BOD is high?)
-when the BOD is high then the oxygen may be too low to be supported by the water to hold life
when high
-a pollution zone
-an active decomposition zone
-recovery zone
5: Explain the 3 zones of BOD:
* Pollution Zone: high BOD-microorganisms use waste when decomposed and decreases oxygen
* Active Decomposition Zone: where the dissolved oxygen reaches a minimum owing to rapid biochemical decomposition by microorganisms as the organic waste is transported downstream
* Recovery Zone: Where the dissolved oxygen increases
Waterborne Disease
1: What is Fecal Coliform Bacteria and where does it come from? Nutrients
-Its an indicator of disease potential
-it indicates that fecal material of mammals is present in the water
-waste water
1: How do urban streams get high concentrations of Nitrogen and Phosphorus?
-They are released from sources related to land use
-they are in high conditions due to some fertilizers, detergents, and products of sewege treatment plants
Eutrophication
1: Define Eutrophication: is the process by which body of water develops high concentrations of nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus
2: What is the solution to artificial or cultural eutrophication?
-involves ensuring that high concentrations of nutrients from human sources do not enter lakes and other 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?
-it is when their is low concentrations of dissolved oxygen in the water it is occurring when nitrogen cause cultural eutrophication
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 results from erosion which depletes a land resource (soil) at its site of origin and it reduces the quality of the water resource it enters
2: What are some of the techniques employed by a sediment control program?
-Applying soil-conservation procedures
-change to urbanized land
Acid Mine Drainage
1: Define Acid Mine Drainage and explain how it occurs:
-its water with high amount of sulfuric acid that drains from mines coal mines and metal mines
2: What is the general equation for acid mine drainage?
-Pyrite+Oxygen+Water > Ferric Hydroxide+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 area of Oklahoma
Surface Water Pollution
1: What are some point sources of surface water pollution?
-pipes and municipal sites
-sewer systems
2: What are some non-point sources of surface water pollution?
-land use
-climate
-hydrology
-topography
-native vegetation
-and geology
3: What are the 2 approaches to dealing with surface water pollution?
-To reduce the sources
-to treat teh wate to remove pollutants or convert them to forms that can be disposed off safely
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.
-755
2: What is bioremediation?
-Treatment may also be accomplished underground by microorganisms that consume gasoline
3: What are the 5 important points about groundwater pollution?
-some pollutants are lighter than water and float on the groundwater
-some pollutants have different phases
-some are heaver than water and sink down the groundwater
-to cleanup the water pollutants is expensive may cause environmental damage
4: What is saltwater intrusion of well water?
-When covering top layers then water needs to be extracted from deeper
Wastewater Treatment
1: Summarize how Septic Tank Sewage Disposal Systems work.
-They are where sewage is disposed
-the tank is designed to separate solid from liquid
-clarifies the liquid and disposed into drain field
-then treated and filtered naturally
2: What happens during primary treatment of sewage?
-raw sewage enters the plant from the municipal sewer line and first passes through a series screens to remove large floating organic material
3: What happens during secondary treatment of sewage?
-activated sludge> uses living organisms mostly bacteria
-enters the aeration tank where it is mixed with air, and with some of the sludge from the final sedimentation tank
4: When is advanced wastewater treatment used?
-when it is particuly important to maintain good water quality
5: What are some of the risks associated with Chlorine treatment of wastewater that is
later discharged?
-by products can be cancer associated
Land Application of Wastewater
1: Explain the process of wastewater renovation and conservation cycle.
-refers to the production of resources, including methane gas, as well as ornamental plants and flowers that have commercial value
Wastewater and Wetlands
1: How can applying treated sewage to wetlands be helpful to the wetland ecosystem?
-it is rich in nitrogen and phosphorus increases the production of plants and less cheap
Water Reuse
1: What is the difference between indirect and direct water reuse?
-inderect- is planned endeavor-
-direct-use of treated wastewater that is piped directly from a treatment plant to the next user
Environmental Laws
• 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 am not sure of how clean the water in my home is.I think that it is not very safe to drink due to the factors that contribute to it, yes the companies clean our water but maybe not all of he bad chemicals are extracted from the water. Tap water does not have the ph of 7 so its not pure water and its mostly basic. I am worried about the chemicals and components in the water because it can affect us on the long term.
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 pig farming was a controversy because it had already been a problem and because of the hurricane it caused much more damage when they were washed out
2: What did pig farmers do with the pig waste? Why was this allowed?
-the farmers were allowed to automated and very confining farms housing hundreds or thousands pigs, no limitation on the location of the farm because the pigs single produced 2 tons of waste per year
3: What is the lesson learned from North Carolina’s “Bay of Pigs”?
-is that we are vulnerable to environmental catastrophes caused by large-scale industrial agriculture
4: What legislation has been created as a result of this catastrophe?
-Clean water Act
-
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 because so many problems with water have been happening and we have been educating people about it less outbreaks will be likely to occur because not only are we being cautious but were putting Acts which can help us keep focus
2: How does water that drains from coal mines become contaminated with sulfuric acid?
Why is this an important environmental problem?
it becomes contaminated due to the chemicals mixed within it it is an environmental problem because it contaminates water and it is a source for many people
3: Do you think our water supply is vulnerable to terrorist attacks? Why? Why not? How
could potential threats be minimized?
-Yes it is potential for terrorist attacks because they can contaminate our water that can kill us slowly of faster than we can think of cleaning the water
-one way to reduce this is by helping the other countries and regulating what is in out water
4: How would you design a system to capture runoff where you live before it enters a
storm drain?
-i would design a system by having a pump or something in which the material travel to before entering the systems