Water Pollution.
Publié le 11/05/2013
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Cryptosporidium in the water supply of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, sickened more than 400,000 people and killed more than 100.
H Thermal Pollution
Water is often drawn from rivers, lakes, or the ocean for use as a coolant in factories and power plants.
The water is usually returned to the source warmer than when itwas taken.
Even small temperature changes in a body of water can drive away the fish and other species that were originally present, and attract other species in placeof them.
Thermal pollution can accelerate biological processes in plants and animals or deplete oxygen levels in water.
The result may be fish and other wildlife deathsnear the discharge source.
Thermal pollution can also be caused by the removal of trees and vegetation that shade and cool streams.
III SOURCES OF WATER POLLUTANTS
Water pollutants result from many human activities.
Pollutants from industrial sources may pour out from the outfall pipes of factories or may leak from pipelines andunderground storage tanks.
Polluted water may flow from mines where the water has leached through mineral-rich rocks or has been contaminated by the chemicalsused in processing the ores.
Cities and other residential communities contribute mostly sewage, with traces of household chemicals mixed in.
Sometimes industriesdischarge pollutants into city sewers, increasing the variety of pollutants in municipal areas.
Pollutants from such agricultural sources as farms, pastures, feedlots, andranches contribute animal wastes, agricultural chemicals, and sediment from erosion.
The oceans, vast as they are, are not invulnerable to pollution.
Pollutants reach the sea from adjacent shorelines, from ships, and from offshore oil platforms.
Sewageand food waste discarded from ships on the open sea do little harm, but plastics thrown overboard can kill birds or marine animals by entangling them, choking them,or blocking their digestive tracts if swallowed.
Oil spills often occur through accidents, such as the wrecks of the tanker Amoco Cadiz off the French coast in 1978 and the Exxon Valdez in Alaska in 1992.
Routine and deliberate discharges, when tanks are flushed out with seawater, also add a lot of oil to the oceans.
Offshore oil platforms also produce spills: The second largest oil spillon record was in the Gulf of Mexico in 1979 when the Ixtoc 1 well spilled 530 million liters (140 million gallons).
The largest oil spill ever was the result of an act of war. During the Gulf War of 1991, Iraqi forces destroyed eight tankers and onshore terminals in Kuwait, releasing a record 910 million liters (240 million gallons).
An oil spillhas its worst effects when the oil slick encounters a shoreline.
Oil in coastal waters kills tidepool life and harms birds and marine mammals by causing feathers and furto lose their natural waterproof quality, which causes the animals to drown or die of cold.
Additionally, these animals can become sick or poisoned when they swallow theoil while preening (grooming their feathers or fur).
Water pollution can also be caused by other types of pollution.
For example, sulfur dioxide from a power plant’s chimney begins as air pollution.
The polluted air mixeswith atmospheric moisture to produce airborne sulfuric acid, which falls to the earth as acid rain.
In turn, the acid rain can be carried into a stream or lake, becoming aform of water pollution that can harm or even eliminate wildlife.
Similarly, the garbage in a landfill can create water pollution if rainwater percolating through thegarbage absorbs toxins before it sinks into the soil and contaminates the underlying groundwater (water that is naturally stored underground in beds of gravel andsand, called aquifers).
Pollution may reach natural waters at spots we can easily identify, known as point sources, such as waste pipes or mine shafts.
Nonpoint sources are more difficult torecognize.
Pollutants from these sources may appear a little at a time from large areas, carried along by rainfall or snowmelt.
For instance, the small oil leaks fromautomobiles that produce discolored spots on the asphalt of parking lots become nonpoint sources of water pollution when rain carries the oil into local waters.
Mostagricultural pollution is nonpoint since it typically originates from many fields.
IV CONTROLS
In the United States, the serious campaign against water pollution began in 1972, when Congress passed the Clean Water Act.
This law initiated a national goal to endall pollution discharges into surface waters, such as lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands, and coastal waters.
The law required those who discharge pollutants intowaterways to apply for federal permits and to be responsible for reducing the amount of pollution over time.
The law also authorized generous federal grants to helpstates build water treatment plants that remove pollutants, principally sewage, from wastewater before it is discharged.
Since the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, most of the obvious point sources of pollution in the United States have been substantially cleaned up.
Municipalsewage plants in many areas are now yielding water so clean that it can be used again.
Industries are treating their waste and also changing their manufacturingprocesses so that less waste is produced.
As a result, surface waters are far cleaner than they were in 1972.
In 1990 a survey of rivers and streams found that three-quarters of these waters were clean enough for swimming and fishing.
Cleaning up the remainder of these rivers and streams will require tackling the more difficultproblems of diffuse, nonpoint source pollution.
Congress first took up the nonpoint source problem in 1987, requiring the states to develop programs to combat this kind of pollution.
Since interception and treatmentof nonpoint pollution is very difficult, the prime strategy is to prevent it.
In urban areas, one obvious sign of the campaign against nonpoint pollution is the presence of stenciled notices often seen beside storm drains: Drains To Bay, DrainsTo Creek, or Drains To Lake.
These signs discourage people from dumping contaminants, such as used engine oil, down grates because the material will likely pollutenearby waterways.
Householders are urged to be sparing in their use of garden pesticides and fertilizers in order to reduce contaminated runoff and eutrophication.
Atconstruction sites, builders are required to fight soil erosion by laying down tarps, building sediment traps, and seeding grasses.
In the countryside, efforts are underway to reduce pollution from agricultural wastes, fertilizers, and pesticides, and from erosion caused by logging and farming.Farmers and foresters are encouraged to protect streams by leaving streamside trees and vegetation undisturbed; this practice stabilizes banks and traps sedimentcoming down the slope, preventing sediment buildup in water.
Hillside fields are commonly plowed on the contour of the land, rather than up and down the incline, toreduce erosion and to discourage the formation of gullies.
Cows are kept away from streamsides and housed in barns where their waste can be gathered and treated.Increasingly, governments are protecting wetlands, which are valuable pollution traps because their plants absorb excess nutrients and their fine sediments absorbother pollutants.
In some places, lost wetlands are being restored.
Despite these steps, a great deal remains to be done.
In the United States, the EPA is in overall charge of antipollution efforts.
The EPA sets standards, approves state control plans, and steps in (if necessary) to enforce itsown rules.
Under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), passed in 1974 and amended in 1986 and 1996, the EPA sets standards for drinking water.
Among otherprovisions, the SWDA requires that all water drawn from surface water supplies must be filtered to remove Cryptosporidium bacteria by the year 2000.
The law also requires that states map the watersheds from which drinking water comes and identify sources of pollution within those watersheds.
While America’s drinking water isamong the safest in the world, and has been improving since passage of the SDWA, many water utilities that serve millions of Americans provide tap water that fails tomeet the EPA standards.
The EPA has equivalents in many countries, although details of responsibilities vary.
For instance, the federal governments may have a larger role in pollution control, asin France, or more of this responsibility may be shifted to the state and provincial governments, as in Canada.
Because many rivers, lakes, and ocean shorelines are.
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