Pollution of Water Ecosystem

Abe Konick

Dr. G

Science 8B

12-11-11

Pollution of Water Ecosystems

Do you enjoy drinking clean water, taking showers, or swimming in lakes, rivers, or the ocean? When you are doing these things, do you ever consider that our clean water sources are threatened by water pollution?  Water pollution is a major problem that we face today. Many of our daily activates depend on access and quality of water. This is particularly true in areas of high population density, lots of factories, or heavy agricultural. It is ironic that the same people who depend on water for life and business are also the major cause of increased levels of water pollution.

The term water pollution refers to the contamination of ground water, lakes, rivers, and oceans. This happens when biological, chemical, and a physical change in the quality of water causes harm to living things that drink, use it, or live within it. There are many sources of water pollution in the world today.  Water treatment facilities in many cities in the world are not adequate to treat water properly and in other places they simply can’t catch all the sources that are contaminating                                                                                                                                                               the water.

            Some of the many different types of pollutants can be very harmful. These include sewage, metals, and pesticides. Sewage impacts everyone on our planet because of billions of people living on the Earth. In developing countries don’t have regular access to clean water and basic sanitation facilities. The lack of good sewage disposal and clean water in these areas impacts them and results in 3-4 million deaths in children each year caused by pollutants in drinking water. In developed countries up until the late 1990’2 many ciites pumped raw sewage from toilets directly into nearby oceans and rivers. The problem with all this raw sewage is that it contains chemicals and carries viruses which impacts aquatic life.

           

            Another serious pollutant is metals, like lead and mercury. When these heavy metals are found in excessive amounts in drinking water, they cause severe damage to organs like the liver and kidneys, and the nervous system and are believe to lead to auto immune diseases. Lead is now restricted in some countries but was once used in gasoline. Batteries still contain mercury.  A well known example of mercury poisoning occurred in 1938 in Japan. A local factory dumped large quantities of mercury into the bay contaminating thousands of fish. Unfortunately, authorities did not discover the problem for ten years and, by then hundreds of people had died from eating contaminated seafood.

Pesticides are also a dangerous pollutant to bodies of water. Pesticides not only effect people, animals, and the environment on dry land, many of them find their way into our water systems. One of the reasons this is such a big problem is because of the extremely high volume of pesticides used around the world used for agricultural and personal use. One type of pesticide is a synthetic called Pyrethroid. It use has tripled in the past 3 years because it is so highly effective in damaging the nerves system and in killing a wide variety of pests. It is also highly toxic to aquatic life and reaches water systems through storm water run-off.

These threats jeopardize our precious water resources which cover over 70% of the Earth. As part of the developed world we need to consider focusing more on reducing pollutants, changing the way we use water and educating the world on how to protect their water resources.

One of the ways we can reduce sewage pollution (one of the biggest pollutant in the world) is to invest in improving outdated water treatment plants and to add treatment facilities where they are needed and where they are not currently in use. This requires stricter from local and national governments and following laws and guidelines for appropriate sewage treatment. People using septic tanks need to make sure they work properly so they don’t produce run-off that can contaminate water systems that are nearby.

Reducing water pollution cause by heavy metals is more complex. Much money and research has been invested in figuring out how to neutralize metals in water. Although many big companies now use a liming process but it is not optimal because it requires such high quantities of alkaline metals to increase and maintain pH values. An alternative to the liming process which is still under development for wide commericial use is something called chelating ligands. Chelating ligands need to be made easy to use and purchase so that companies will regularly use them to neutralize heavy metals.  It also means that companies need to take environmental responsibilities seriously.

Pesticides need to be better managed to reduce run-off in to water. For personal use we need to re-look at over using pesticides for killing household pests and consider alternative measures like sealing windows better, keeping our homes cleaner, and being okay with fruits and veggies less then perfect. In the agricultural industry, farmer must focus in the application methods and types of pesticides they use to reduce damage to our water supply.

In conclusion, all of us  can play a role in helping to protect our precious water resources. Governments can make better laws and enforce them, business can follow regulations and choose to be creative in finding ways to reduce water pollution, and people can make small changes in their everyday lives. If all three of these actions would be taken we could make great progress in cleaning and preserving our bodies of water.

           

Works Cited

"Chapter 4: Pesticides as Water Pollutants." FAO: FAO Home. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. <http://www.fao.org/docrep/w2598e/w2598e07.htm>.

"Clean Water : Water Pollution." The Chewonki Foundation. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. <http://www.chewonki.org/cleanwater/water_pollution.asp>.

"Heavy Metals - Lenntech." Water Treatment and Purification - Lenntech. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. <http://www.lenntech.com/processes/heavy/heavy-metals/heavy-metals.htm>.

Putatunda, Rita. "Ways to Prevent Water Pollution." Buzzle Web Portal: Intelligent Life on the Web. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. <http://www.buzzle.com/articles/ways-to-prevent-water-pollution.html>.

"Water Pollution Effects." Clean Funny Cartoons / Environmental Issues ... on Grinning Planet. 5 Dec. 2006. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. <http://www.grinningplanet.com/2006/12-05/water-pollution-effects.htm>.

"Water Pollution Guide." Water Pollution. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. <http://www.water-pollution.org.uk/>.

Research Experiment:  Depending on how the shape is, it will affect the speed of the reaction with  copper sulfate and the color of the solution.



Background Information: In Copper Sulphate solution you have Copper ions (and Sulphate ions). When you add Aluminum foil to the solution, the metal Aluminum will transfer electrons to the Copper ions, and Aluminum ions will be formed instead. That is why you see a hole in the aluminum. If the material such as Aluminum foil has a bigger surface area it will be able to absorb more of the solution.

Hypothesis:  I predict that the larger the surface area the faster the reaction will happen with the copper sulfate.

Material:

• copper sulfate
• 3 (2cm by 2cm) square Aluminum foil
• test tubes
• graduated cylinder
• safety glasses
• scissors
• ruler
• cuvitte
• colorimeter
• computer
• pencil and paper (to record results)

Procedure:

1. First get 3 (2cm by 2cm)  sizes of Aluminum foil
2. First square u roll into a ball as tight as possible, second square you fold it as many times as u can, the third square you leave alone.
3. Then you put 10 mL in 3  test tube
4. Insert the the 3 different aluminum foil shape into the 3 different test tubes
5. Then let it set for 30 minutes
6. after 30 minutes put each solution into a cuvitte
7. put each cuvitte in the colorimeter
8. Record your results according to how much light gets through
9. Repeats steps 1-8 as desired

Shape of aluminum foil:	% of how much light gets through
None	76.93%
Ball shape	83.60%
Compact square shape	79.60%
regular square shape	90.00

Pure copper sulfate: 76.93%
Ball:83.60
Compact Square: 79.60
Regular Square:90.00

Conclusion: My hypothesis was correct the aluminum foil which had the largest surface area had the fastest reaction. I measured it by how much color was coming through. I'm predicting that since had a little more gaps it helped the reaction go faster. Pure copper sulfate had 76.93% of light going through it, the ball shaped head 83.60% if light going through it, the compact square had 79.60% if light going through it, and the regular ( un-touch Aluminum foil) had 90% of light going through. If I were to do this experiment again i would do 2-3 more tests to get a more accurate result.


Further Inquiry: Next time I would see if water temperature would affect the reaction. Adding more copper sulfate would that take more time for the reaction or faster. If I increased the temperature it might have had a faster reaction. If you put more of the solution it might take longer.

Chemical Reaction Lab

Chemical Reactions Lab

Problem:  The signs of a chemical reaction that has taken place is when the color changes, gas is released, change in temperature, and Precipitate.

Materials:  

·         4 small plastic cups

·         Eyedroppers

·         Test tubes

·         2 plastic spoons

·         Tongs

·         Matches

·         Sodium carbonate (powder)

·         Graduated cylinder, 10 mL

·         Aluminum foil, about 10-cm square

·         Dilute hydrochloric acid in a dropper bottle

·         Copper sulfate solution

·         Sodium carbonate solution

Procedure:

           Baking soda + vinegar: Add a teaspoon of backing soda and then about 8 drops of vinegar in a test tube and record your results.

Copper sulfate +Sodium carbonate solution: Add a teaspoon of Copper sulfate into a test tube and 8 drops or sodium carbonate solution and record your results.

Zinc piece + HCl: Add one piece of Zinc ( size of a small pebble ) into a test tube then add 8 drops of HCl and record your results.

Calcium Chloride + Sodium Carbonate: Add a teaspoon of sodium carbonate into a test tube and then add 8 drops of Calcium Chloride and record your results.

Copper sulfate + Aluminum foil piece: Add 20 drops of copper sulfate and then drop in the Aluminum foil piece and record your results. You may have to wait awhile before you see change.

Starch and Iodine: Add a teaspoon of starch and then add 8 drops of Iodine and record your results.

Reaction	Observation before reaction	Predictions	Observation during reaction	Observation after reaction
Backing soda (soda carbonate) + Vinegar	Its in powder form	It will bubble	It fizzed (released gas)	It dissolved and it settled
Sugar + Heat	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Copper Sulfate + Sodium carbonate solution	It is baking soda powder and liquid	BOOM	It fizzed (released gas)	It precipitate, settled, and dissolved
Zinc Piece + HCl	Pebble of Zinc and liquid acid	Bubbles	fizzes slowly	Aluminum foil turned into copper (red color)
Calcium Chloride + Sodium Carbonate	Separate substances	BOOM	fogginess	precipitate
Copper sulfate + Aluminum foil piece	Foil and liquid	POOF	Blue color fading and bubbles surround foil	Blue color fading/ and turned black
Starch    + Iodine	liquid on top, powder on bottom	BOOM	Started dissolving together	Dissolved and when H2O was added it turned purple

Analyze and Conclude:

1. The results of the reactions were slightly different from the predictions we had because a lot of them predictions were things such as, "It will explode" and a lot of the things did not explode.
2. We new the reactions was over because the fizzing had subsided and the sodium carbonate had dissolved into the vinegar and had become a new solution.
3. The product was a liquid and we knew because we saw the end product.
4. The end result in part 3 was a liquid with precipitation which were small pieces of solid so it was a mixture with solid particles.
5. We used sight to to tell the outcome of the reaction We could use instruments to maybe tell the different properties of the end result of the reactions.

  

   

We did an experiment in science consisting of candy. We used different types of candy to represent different atoms. Then show it was ionic or covalent bond. This picture represent different compounds made from the different candy's I used in this experiment and the best part was eating it at the end

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