Water pollution

Water pollution is a large set of adverse effects upon water bodies such as lakes, rivers, oceans, and groundwater caused by human activities.

Although natural phenomena such as photosynthesis and causing blanketing of the lake or river bed, in turn damaging ecological systems.

Pollutants in water include a wide spectrum of nutrients that were previously scarce. Even many of the municipal water supplies in developed countries can present health risks. Water pollution is a major problem in the global context. It has been suggested that it is the leading worldwide cause of deaths and diseases,^[1]^[2] and that it accounts for the deaths of more than 14,000 people daily.^[2]

Pollution

v • d • e

Air pollution

Particulate • Smog

Water pollution

Water stagnation

Soil contamination

Soil Guideline Values (SGVs)

Radioactive contamination

Actinides in the environment • Radiation poisoning • Radium in the environment • Uranium in the environment

Other types of pollution

Invasive species • Light pollution • Noise pollution • Radio spectrum pollution • Visual pollution

Inter-government treaties

Montreal Protocol • Nitrogen Oxide Protocol • Kyoto Protocol • CLRTAP

Major organizations

DEFRA • EPA • Global Atmosphere Watch • Greenpeace • National Ambient Air Quality Standards

Related topics

Environmental Science • Natural environment

Contaminants

Contaminants may include inorganic substances.

Some organic water pollutants are:

Insecticides and herbicides, a huge range of organohalide and other chemicals
Bacteria, often is from sewage or livestock operations
Food processing waste, including pathogens
Tree and brush debris from logging operations
solvents, from improper storage
DNAPLs (dense non-aqueous phase liquids), such as chlorinated solvents, which may fall at the bottom of reservoirs, since they don't mix well with water and are more dense
Petroleum Hydrocarbons including fuels (gasoline, diesel, jet fuels, and fuel oils) and lubricants (motor oil) from oil field operations, refineries, pipelines, retail service station's underground storage tanks, and transfer operations. Note: VOCs include gasoline-range hydrocarbons.
Detergents

Some inorganic water pollutants include:

Heavy metals including acid mine drainage
power plants)
Pre-production industrial raw resin pellets, an industrial pollutant
Chemical waste as industrial by products
phosphates
Silt in surface runoff from construction sites, logging, slash and burn practices or land clearing sites

Transport and chemical reactions of water pollutants

Most water pollutants are eventually carried by the rivers into the oceans. In some areas of the world the influence can be traced hundred miles from the mouth by studies using DDT. This is known as biomagnification which is occasionally used interchangeably with bioaccumulation.

The big gyres in the oceans trap floating plastic debris. The North Pacific Gyre for example has collected the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch that is now estimated at two times the size of Texas. Many of these long-lasting pieces wind up in the stomachs of marine birds and animals. This results in obstruction of digestive pathways which leads to reduced appetite or even starvation.

Many chemicals undergo reactive decay or chemically change especially over long periods of time in carcinogens themselves, undergo partial decomposition reactions, leading to new hazardous chemicals (including dichloroethylene and vinyl chloride).

soil contaminants. Groundwater that moves through cracks and caverns is not filtered and can be transported as easily as surface water. In fact, this can be aggravated by the human tendency to use natural sinkholes as dumps in areas of Karst topography.

There are a variety of secondary effects stemming not from the original pollutant, but a derivative condition. Some of these secondary impacts are:

Silt bearing photosynthesis in aquatic plants.
Thermal pollution can induce fish kills and invasion by new thermophyllic species

Sampling & Monitoring

Sampling water can take several forms depending on the accuracy needed and the characteristics of the contaminant. Many contamination events are temporal and most commonly in association with rain events. For this reason 'grab' samples can be used as indicators, but are often inadequate for fully accessing contaminant concerns in a water body. Scientists gathering this type of data often employ auto-sampler devices that pump increments of water at either time or discharge intervals.

Regulatory framework

In the UK there are common law rights (civil rights) to protect the passage of water across land unfettered in either quality of quantity. Criminal laws dating back to the 16th century exercised some control over water pollution but it was not until the River (Prevention of pollution )Acts 1951 - 1961 were enacted that any systematic control over water pollution was established. These laws were strengthened and extended in the Control of Pollution Act 1984 which has since been updated and modified by a series of further acts. It is a criminal offense to either pollute a lake, river, groundwater or the sea or to discharge any liquid into such water bodies without proper authority. In England and Wales such permission can only be issued by the Environment Agency and in Scotland by SEPA.

In the USA, concern over water pollution resulted in the enactment of state anti-pollution laws in the latter half of the 19th century, and federal legislation enacted in 1899. The Refuse Act of the federal Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 prohibits the disposal of any refuse matter from into either the nation's navigable rivers, lakes, streams, and other navigable bodies of water, or any tributary to such waters, unless one has first obtained a permit. The Water Pollution Control Act, passed in 1948, gave authority to the Surgeon General to reduce water pollution.

Growing public awareness and concern for controlling water pollution led to enactment of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972. As amended in 1977, this law became commonly known as the Clean Water Act. The Act established the basic mechanisms for regulating contaminant discharge. It established the authority for the United States Environmental Protection Agency to implement wastewater standards for industry. The Clean Water Act also continued requirements to set water quality standards for all contaminants in surface waters. Further amplification of the Act continued including the enactment of the Great Lakes Legacy Act of 2002.^[3]

References

^ Pink, Daniel H.. "Investing in Tomorrow's Liquid Gold", Yahoo, April 19, 2006.
^ ^a ^b West, Larry. "World Water Day: A Billion People Worldwide Lack Safe Drinking Water", About, March 26, 2006.
^ Public Law 107-303, November 27, 2002