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/>.