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Pollution The water pollution is a major environmental issue that US government as well as its citizens are concerned with. The effects of water pollution are varied. They include poisonous drinking water, poisonous food animals (due to these organisms having been exposed to toxins from the environment over their life spans), unbalanced river and lake ecosystems that can no longer support full biological diversity, deforestation from acid rain, and many other effects. These effects are, of course, specific to the various contaminants.
Maintaining our lakes and wetlands in its original state, have come under much threat, because of the process to which we refer as eutrophication. Eutrophication is accumulation of nutrients in a lake or landlocked body of water. This occurs naturally over many years but has recently been accelerated by fertilizer runoff from farms and sewage input. Algal blooms result and their decay removes dissolved oxygen, eliminating aerobic organisms such as fish, and may cause accumulation of sulphide in the water (1). In the light of Global Warming process, its not too hard to conclude that eutrophication of natural water reservoirs will proceed at ever increased speed, which will endanger peoples survival in many countries.
Even now, some African countries and India suffer the lack of drinking water. The rapid population growth only adds to this problem. Eutrophication can be remedied by either treating the symptoms or by eliminating the original cause (s). Banning phosphates in detergents is an example of eliminating or avoiding the pollutant to begin with. Probably a combination of several remedial approaches is necessary. Many of the chemicals that enter the water are, even in minute amounts, toxic to human, plant and animal life.
Pesticides, PCBs, and Pcp's (polychlorinated phenols) are typical examples. Pesticides are used in agriculture, forestry and homes. PCBs although no longer used in new installations, are still found as insulators in older electrical transformers, and Pcp's can be found in wood preservatives. The very qualities, which make them desirable for use are toxicity and persistence, for instance they make them so harmful to the environment. A pesticide is usually applied directly on the soil, or onto seeds that have been planted. Either way pesticides come in contact with soil.
Once on the soil several things can happen to the pesticide. The pesticides can be washed below the soils surface and be taken up by plants through there roots where it is stored in the plant. When other animals eat the plant they store the pesticide that was in the plant in there own body. The pesticide can also accumulate and move downwards from leaching into the water table. These pesticides can cause several problems, animals and humans can drink the contaminated water, in large quantities it can be harmful.
The pesticide can stay in the soil from a day to a year depending on the type of pesticide, the soil, and weathering conditions. Urban and agricultural runoff can often contribute substantial inputs of nutrients, leading to eutrophication. Agricultural runoff may contain pesticides, which are thought to have resulted in mussel mortality or die-offs. Degradable organic wastes like phosphor-based fertilizers and sewage are the causes for notification of fresh water ecosystems. Phosphate is a limiting nutrient for fresh water flora. Rising levels of phosphate result in an increase in plant growth.
This process is called eutrophication and is quite natural in lakes. The high biological productivity of a eutrophic lake leads to thick growth of water plants, algae blooms and - finally - a decrease of fish. Because pesticides are good examples of hazardous materials in our society, they affect everything that is around us: water, air, animals, plants, etc. The answer seem obvious here: people have to find a fine balance in using just the right amount of pesticides to help them, not harm them. A lesser usage of pesticides will result in decreasing levels of eutrophication, which in turn will help ground waters stay clear and pure.
Bibliography: Stockholm International Water Institute. web 22. 09. 04. The Application of the Endangered Species Act to the Protection of Freshwater Mussels: A Case Study. Contributors: Eric Bible - author.
Journal Title: Environmental Law. Volume: 32. Issue: 1. Publication Year: 2002. Page Number: 91 +. Poisoning the Fount of Life - Fresh Water Pollution and Its Consequences.
Contributors: Joachim Krautz - author. Magazine Title: Contemporary Review. Volume: 265. Issue: 1544. Publication Date: September 1994. Page Number: 144 +.
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) And Sewage Pollution Waste (SPW) MSW is usually referred to as trash or garbage. Paper is the predominant component of MSW. The order in decreasing percent is paper, yard waste, food wastes, plastics. Metals, glass and wood make up the remainder. Several MSW management practices, such as source reduction, recycling, and composting, prevent or divert materials from the waste stream.
Source reduction involves altering the design, manufacture, or use of products and materials to reduce the amount and toxicity of what gets thrown away. Recycling diverts items, such as paper, glass, plastic, and metals, from the waste stream. These materials are sorted, collected, and processed and then manufactured, sold, and bought as new products. Composting decomposes organic waste, such as food scraps and yard trimmings, with microorganisms (mainly bacteria and fungi), producing a humus-like substance.
Other practices address those materials that require disposal. Landfills are engineered areas where waste is placed into the land. Landfills usually have liner systems and other safeguards to prevent groundwater contamination. Combustion is another MSW practice that has helped reduce the amount of landfill space needed. Combustion facilities burn MSW at a high temperature, reducing waste volume and generating electricity. EPA has ranked the most environmentally sound strategies for MSW.
Source reduction (including reuse) is the most preferred method, followed by recycling and composting, and, lastly, disposal in combustion facilities and landfills. Currently, in the United States, 30 percent is recovered and recycled or composted, 15 percent is burned at combustion facilities, and the remaining 56 percent is disposed of in landfills. MSW has an energy content that is recoverable, making it suitable and valuable for combustion. In fact, when garbage is burned in a waste-to-energy facility, there is rarely a need to add supplemental fuels to maintain combustion. Of all types of garbage, plastics release the most energy per unit of weight. Plastic accounts for only about 8 percent of the MSW burned, but it already provides about 34 percent of the energy liberated from combustion.
Surprisingly, wood and paper account for relatively little of the liberated energy. Compared with combusting most carbon-based fuels, such as oil or coal, waste is a clean power source. A modern waste-to-energy facility generates less sulfur and nitrogen oxides both precursors to acid rain - than do most existing coal- and oil-fired power plants. Even when compared with natural gas, energy from waste looks good, emitting fewer nitrogen oxides and only slightly more sulfur oxides. That is why people must balance these environmental benefits into their management choices. With the exception of glass and metal, all principal components of MSW contain chlorine.
The vast majority of materials, whether natural or manufactured, contain chloride or chlorine. Even vegetative matter contains chloride at levels that range from 200 to 10, 000 ppm, so burning yard waste will release some chlorine into the environment. Although this is far less than the 400, 000 ppm of chlorine emitted by polyvinyl chlorides, it is important to recognize the variety of sources for this ubiquitous chemical. Removing chlorinated plastics from MSW bound for burning will indeed reduce the chloride concentrations in the raw gas of an incinerator. However, such reductions will likely be insufficient to allow a waste combustor to operate without acid-gas emission controls, or to result in any material difference in dioxin formation and emission. This significant physical evidence must inform policy choices regarding the viability of plastics combustion in waste-to-energy plants.
Raw Sewage Waste (RSW) or Sewage Pollution Waste (SPW) refers to human raw sewage which is defined as the mixture collected from all tub, sink and toilet drains as shown in the following schematic diagram. It is interesting that the same water received by us for drinking purposes is used to flush waste down the tub, sink, and toilet. Sewage waste is composed of 99. 9 % water and 0. 1 % waste matter. The core issue involves separation of raw sewage from drinking water supplies or at least to sterilize water that may be contaminated with sewage. It is evident that an important step in sewage treatment is final disinfection.
As it becomes clear from the above information, both wastes are present on planet at the moment. It is also clear that people have to take care of their living place and try to prevent formation of wastes as much as it is possible. On the other hand, humans, as well as any other life-forms cannot exist without producing some kind of waste. MSW is the waste that is very much a product of our civilization and progress.
We now have to work on the ways of continuing the cycle and transforming this waste into something not dangerous and useful. SPW, on the other hand, is the more natural waste because it is mainly composed of water. Water can also be recycled and made pure and usable again. Our planet is very polluted with all kinds of wastes. However, Msw's are more dangerous and non-desirable for us than the Spw's due to their non-organic structure and complexity of their recycling. The pollution events that are linked to MSW and RSW are: 1.
disease carried by water; 2. smelly landfills; 3. toxic wastes contaminating surface and ground water; 4. oversupply of nutrients entering waterways; To conclude this, we can say that even though it seems like there are way too many corresponding issues to our environmental problems, they still need to be solved one way or another and the sooner its done the better. There is a certain point, beyond which we cannot allow things to deteriorate.
Our government and governments of other countries must come up with strategy of how to prevent future poisoning of nature. Measures needs to be taken immediately and they need to be drastic if we want them to work... Bibliography: web Is Combustion of Plastics Desirable? Contributors: Kevin Fletcher - author, Bruce Piasecki - author, David Rainey - author. Magazine Title: American Scientist. Volume: 86.
Issue: 4. Publication Date: July-August 1998. Page Number: 364 +. The World's Water Woes: Pollution, Population and Waste Are Creating Dangerous Water Scarcities throughout the Globe. Contributors: Don Hinrichs en - author. Magazine Title: International Wildlife.
Volume: 26. Issue: 4. Publication Date: July-August 1996. Page Number: 22 +.
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Research essay sample on Reduce The Amount Nitrogen Oxides
