Water Pollution

Chapter 20
The Seattle, Washington Area, U.S.
 Lake Washington
 Sewage dumped into Lake
Washington from Seattle
 1955: Edmondson discovered
cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) in
the lake
 Algae grew, died, darkened waters,
foul smell
 Chief nutrient – phosphorus,
coming from the sewage treatment
plants
 Public pressure led to cleanup of
the lake
 New pollution challenges
Causes and Effects of Water Pollution

Water pollution causes illness and death in humans and

other species and disrupts ecosystems.

The chief sources of water pollution are agricultural

activities, industrial facilities, and mining, but growth in
population and resource use make it increasingly worse.
 Water Pollution Comes from Point and
Nonpoint Sources
 Water pollution : chemical,
biological or physical change
in water quality
 Point sources
• Located at specific places
• Easy to identify, monitor,
and regulate
• Examples
 Nonpoint sources
• Broad, diffuse areas Nonpoint sediment from
• Difficult to identify and unprotected from farms
control
• Expensive to clean up
 Water Pollution Comes from Point and
Nonpoint Sources
 Agriculture activities: leading
cause of water pollution
• Sediment eroded from the
lands
• Fertilizers and pesticides
• Bacteria from livestock and
food processing wastes
 Industrial facilities-inorganic and
organic
 Mining – disturbs the land

Point source
Water Pollution Comes from Point and
Nonpoint Sources
 Other sources of water pollution
• Parking lots-grease, toxic materials and sediments that
collect on their impervious surface
• Prevents rain from soaking in, worsens flooding-
• Human-made materials
• E.g., plastics – polymers break down very slowly
• Climate change due to global warming
• some areas get more precipitation than others
• Intense downpours flushes more harmful chemicals
• Prolonged drought reduces river flows that dilute
waste
 Harmful Effects of Major Water Pollutants

 Infectious disease organisms: contaminated drinking water

• 500 disease causing bacteria that can be transferred
from wastes of human and animal waste
 The World Health Organization (WHO)
• 3 Million people die every year, mostly under the age of
5, from drinking contaminated water
• 1.2 billion people have no access to drinking water
• Diarrhea caused mostly by polluted water – kills a
young child every 18 seconds
Major Water Pollutants and Their Sources
Common Diseases Transmitted to Humans
through Contaminated Drinking Water
 Testing Water for Pollutants…….
 Variety of tests to determine water quality:
 Coliform bacteria: Escherichia coli, significant levels,
found in fecal waste
• 100 ml of water no colonies for drinking
• 100 ml of should contain no more than 200 colonies
 Level of dissolved oxygen (DO) – excessive inputs of
oxygen-demanding wastes can deplete DO levels in water
 Chemical analysis – determine the presence and
concentrations of specific organic pollutants
Testing Water for Pollutants ……

 Indicator species
• Cattails from areas contaminated with fuels,
solvents
• Bottom dwellers (mussels) feed by filtering water
through their bodies
 Bacteria and yeast glow in the presence of a
particular toxic chemical, such as heavy metals,
carcinogens in food
 Color and turbidity of the water – sediment
measured by colorimeters and turbidimeters
Water Quality as Measured by Dissolved
Oxygen Content in Parts per Million
Major Water Pollution Problems in
Streams and Lakes
 While streams are extensively polluted worldwide by
human activities, they can cleanse themselves of many
pollutants if we do not overload them or reduce their
flows.
 Addition of excessive nutrients to lakes from human
activities can disrupt lake ecosystems, and prevention of
such pollution is more effective and less costly than
cleaning it up.
Dilution and Decay of Degradable,
Oxygen-Demanding Wastes in a Stream

Oxygen sag curve

Dilution
Biodegradation of wastes by
bacteria takes time
 Stream Pollution in Developed Countries

 1970s: Water pollution control laws have increased the

number and quality of waste water treatment plants
• Reduce or eliminate point sources of pollution
 Successful water clean-up stories
• Ohio Cuyahoga River, U.S.- flammable chemicals, burning
river for a week in 1969. clean today
• Thames River, Great Britain – 1950, flowing,smelly sewer,
today - clean
 Contamination of toxic inorganic and organic chemicals by
industries and mines
Individuals Matter: The Man Who Planted
Trees to Restore a Stream
 John Beal: restoration of Hamm Creek, Seattle, WA,
U.S. – 15 year clean up.

 Planted trees

 Persuaded companies to stop dumping

 Removed garbage
Stream Pollution in Developing Countries

 Girl Sits on the Edge

of a Road beside a
Stream Loaded with
Raw Sewage in Iraq

Half of world’s 500 rivers

contaminated with sewage
Highly Polluted River in China
1/3 rd of China’s rivers
judged unfit for
agricultural use

2007 – ½ of the
population including
278 cities do not have
access to drinkable
water
Trash Truck Disposing of Garbage
into a River in Peru
Most streams passing
through urban or
industrial areas suffer
from severe pollution

Garbage also dumped

into rivers in some
places
India’s Ganges River: Religion, Poverty,
Population Growth, and Health

 350 million people live

in the Ganges Basin
• Religious custom
• Painted statues
• Global warming
• Gangotri Glacier
which is melting
• Seasonal river
that flows only
during the rainy
season
Low Water Flow and Too Little Mixing
Makes Lakes Vulnerable to Water Pollution

 Lakes and Reservoirs less effective at diluting pollutants

than streams, more vulnerable than streams
• Stratified layers
• Little vertical mixing
• Little of no water flow
• Flushing and changing of water in lakes and large
reservoirs can take from 1 to 100 years, days or
weeks for streams
• Concentration in food webs biomagnifiation
Cultural Eutrophication Is Too Much
of a Good Thing
 Eutrophication – natural nutrient enrichment of a
shallow lake, estuary, slow moving stream, from runoff
from plant nutrients-nutrients and phosphates
 Oligotrophic lake
• Low nutrients, clear water,
 Cultural eutrophication – humans activities accelerates
the input from agriculture ,animal feedlots, urban areas,
mining sites, sewage waste, some nitrogen by deposition
from the atmosphere
Cultural Eutrophication Is Too Much
of a Good Thing

 During hot weather or droughts

• Algal blooms- algae and cyanobacteria, thick growths
of water hyacinth, duckweed
• Dense plant colonies reduces lake productivity and
fish growth by decreasing the input of solar energy
required for photosynthesis
• When algae die, decomposed by aerobic bacteria
depletes oxygen in surface waters. Fish kills
• Excess nutrient input, anaerobic bacteria take over,
produce smelly, highly toxic hydrogen sulfide and
flammable methane
Cultural Eutrophication Is Too Much
of a Good Thing
 Prevent or reduce cultural eutrophication
• Remove nitrates and phosphates by advanced waste
water treatment
• Banning phosphates in detergents
• Soil conservation to control nutrient run off
• Diversion of lake water
 Clean up lakes
• Remove excess weeds mechanically
• Use herbicides and algaecides; down-side?
• Pump in air to prevent oxygen depletion
Revisiting Lake Washington and
Puget Sound

 Severe water pollution can be reversed

 Citizen action combined with scientific research
 Good solutions may not work forever
• Wastewater treatment plant effluents sent into Puget
Sound
 Now what’s happening?
• Puget Sound Partnership – healthy Sound by 2020
 Pollution in the Great Lakes

 1960s: Many areas with cultural eutrophication, particularly

Lake Erie-shallow
 1972: Canada and the United States: Great Lakes pollution
control program - $20 billion spent
• What was done?
 Problems still exist
• Raw sewage – 100 olympic swimming pool size
• Nonpoint runoff of pesticides and fertilizers
• Biological pollution – zebra mussels,180 alien species
• Atmospheric deposition of pesticides and Hg from coal
burning plants
 Pollution in the Great Lakes

 2007 State of the Great

Lakes report
• New pollutants-PCB’s
• Wetland loss and
degradation
• Declining of some
native species
• Native carnivorous fish
species (lake trout)
declining
• Ban use of toxic
chlorine compounds-
bleach (paper)
Pollution Problems Affecting
Groundwater, Other Water Sources
 Chemicals used in agriculture, industry, transportation,
and homes can spill and leak into groundwater and
make it undrinkable.

 There are simple ways and complex ways to purify

drinking water, but protecting it through pollution
prevention is the least expensive and most effective
strategy.
Ground Water Cannot Cleanse Itself
Very Well

 Source of drinking water

 Common pollutants
• Fertilizers and pesticides
• Gasoline
• Organic solvents
 Fills the porous layers of the aquifers
 Removal difficult and costly
 Pollutants dispersed in a widening plume
Ground Water Cannot Cleanse Itself
of Degradable Wastes Very Well
 Slower chemical reactions in groundwater due to
• Slow flow (0.3 m per day): contaminants not diluted or
dispersed effectively
• Less dissolved oxygen
• Fewer decomposing bacteria
• Colder water slows decomposition rates
 Can take decades to cleanse itself
• Slowly degradable wastes
• E.g., DDT
• Nondegradable wastes
• E.g., Pb and As
 Polluted air
Sources of groundwater
contamination
Hazardous waste
Pesticides injection well
and fertilizers
Deicing
Coal strip Buried gasoline
road salt
mine runoff and solvent tanks
Gasoline Cesspool,
Pumping station septic tank
well Water
Waste lagoon pumping well
Sewer
Landfill

Accidental Leakage
spills from faulty
casing
Discharge

Confined aquifer

Groundwater flow

Fig. 20-11, p. 542

Groundwater Pollution Is a Serious Threat

 China: many contaminated or overexploited aquifers –

huge population
 U.S.: FDA reports of toxins found in many aquifers
 What about leaking underground storage tanks:
• Gasoline
• Oil
• Methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE)
• Nitrate ions – infants under 6 months can get the fatal
“blue baby syndrome”
Case Study: A Natural Threat from
Arsenic in Groundwater

 Source of As in the groundwater – naturally occurring,

mining and ore processing
 Accepted standard -10 parts per billion
 140 million people in 70 countries have drinking water
with5-100 times that level
 Human health hazards:
• Cancer of Skin ,Lungs , Bladder
 2006 research: Rice University, TX, U.S.
• Purification system to remove As
Pollution Prevention Is the Only Effective
Way to Protect Groundwater

 Prevent contamination of groundwater

• Drilling monitoring wells to determine how far, in what
direction and how fast the contaminated plume is
moving
• Computer model projects future dispersion
• Develop and Implement strategy to clean up

 Cleanup: expensive and time consuming

 SOLUTIONS
Groundwater Pollution
Prevention
Find substitutes for
toxic chemicals
Keep toxic chemicals
out of the environment
Install monitoring wells
near landfills and
underground tanks
Require leak detectors on
underground tanks
Ban hazardous waste
disposal in landfills and
injection wells
Store harmful liquids in
aboveground tanks with
leak detection and
collection systems
Cleanup
Pump to surface, clean,
and return to aquifer
(very expensive)
Inject microorganisms
to clean up
contamination (less
expensive but still
costly)
Pump nanoparticles of
inorganic compounds
to remove pollutants
(still being developed)
Fig. 20-13, p. 545
 Ways to Purify Drinking Water

 Developed countries – people depend on surface water

 Water stored in a reservoir for several days- this improves
clarity and taste by increasing dissolved oxygen levels,
allowing suspended matter to settle
 Water pumped to a purification plant, treated to meet govt.
drinking water standards
 Japan- process sewer water into drinking water
 El Paso,Texas (USA), gets 40% -sewage water
 2007 – Orange County, CA – world’s largest plant to make
sewer water as pure as distilled water
• Used for drinking water, recharge aquifers
 The Life Straw: Personal Water
Purification Device

 Expose clear plastic

water to intense
sunlight
 Sun’s heat and UV kill
infectious microbes
_______________
Life star-filters
parasites, viruses
Protecting Watersheds Instead of Building
Water Purification Plants

 New York City water

• Reservoirs in the Catskill Mountains

 Protect the watershed instead of water purification plants

• Spend $1.5 billion
Using Laws to Protect Drinking Water
Quality
 1974: U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act
• Sets maximum contaminant levels for any pollutants
that affect human health
• Despite passage of The Clean Water Act (1972), the
UN estimates that 5.6 million Americans drink water
that does not meet EPA safety standards for one or
more contaminants
 Health scientists: strengthen the law
• ban toxic lead pipes
• enforce public notification about violating drinking
water standards
 Water-polluting companies: weaken the law
• eliminate national tests
 Is Bottled Water the Answer?
 U.S.: some of the cleanest drinking water
 Bottled water – per person consumption increased from 7.5
liters in 1976 to113 liters in 2006
• Some from tap water
• 40% bacterial contamination
• Government testing standards not as high as those for
tap water
• Fuel cost to manufacture the plastic bottles
• Recycling of the plastic – number of bottles thrown away
will circle the earth 8 times
 Growing back-to-the-tap movement
Major Water Pollution Problems Affecting
Oceans

 The great majority of ocean pollution originates on land

and includes oil and other toxic chemicals and solid
wastes, which threaten aquatic species and other wildlife
and disrupt marine ecosystems.

 The key to protecting the oceans is to reduce the flow of

pollutants from land and air and from streams emptying
into these waters.
Ocean Pollution Is a Growing and Poorly
Understood Problem

 2006: State of the Marine Environment

• 80% of marine pollution originates on land
• Sewage
• Coastal areas most affected because of population
• Coast line of China choked with algae
 Deeper ocean waters………………
• Dilution , Dispersion , Degradation
 Ocean Pollution Is a Growing and Poorly
Understood Problem

 Cruise line pollution: what is being dumped?

• Perchloroethylene from dry cleaning, benzene from
paints and solvents
• Plastic garbage, waste oil
• US – illegal to dump, millions of dollars in fine, illegal
dumping at night
 U.S. coastal waters
• Raw sewage – colonies of viruses
• Sewage and agricultural runoff: NO3- and PO43-
• Harmful algal blooms – fish kills , bird kills
• Oxygen-depleted zones – 200 world wide – temperate
waters and land locked seas Ex. Baltic and Black Seas
A Red Tide ……………….

 Harmful algal blooms of

red, brown or green toxic
tides
 Release waterborne and
airborne toxins
 Damage fisheries, kill fish
eating birds, reduce
tourism, and poison
seafood
 60,000 Americans –food
poisoning
Industry Nitrogen Cities Toxic Urban sprawl
oxides from autos metals and oil Bacteria and viruses from Construction sites
and smokestacks, from streets and sewers and septic tanks Sediments are washed into
toxic chemicals, and parking lots contaminate shellfish waterways, choking fish and
heavy metals in pollute waters; beds and close beaches; plants, clouding waters, and
effluents flow into sewage adds runoff of fertilizer from blocking sunlight.
bays and estuaries. nitrogen and lawns adds nitrogen and
phosphorus. phosphorus. Farms
Runoff of pesticides,
manure, and fertilizers
adds toxins and excess
nitrogen and phosphorus.

Red tides
Closed shellfish Excess nitrogen causes
Closed beds explosive growth of toxic
beach Oxygen-depleted microscopic algae,
zone poisoning fish and marine
mammals.

Toxic sediments
Chemicals and toxic
metals contaminate
shellfish beds, kill
spawning fish, and Oxygen-depleted zone
Sedimentation and algae Healthy zone
accumulate in the tissues
overgrowth reduce Clear, oxygen-rich waters
of bottom feeders.
sunlight, kill beneficial sea promote growth of
grasses, use up oxygen, plankton and sea grasses,
and degrade habitat. and support fish.
Fig. 20-15, p. 548
 Oxygen Depletion in the Northern Gulf
Of Mexico
 Severe cultural
eutrophication
 Algal bloom
 Oxygen-depleted
zone(less than 2ppm)
 Over fertilized coastal
area
 Sewage treatment
 Preventive measures
• less fertilizer
• plant strips of forests
• improve flood control
• lower car emissions
Ocean Oil Pollution Is a Serious Problem

 Crude and refined petroleum

• Highly disruptive pollutants
• Crude oil –recovery 3 years; refined oil- 10 to 20 years
 Largest source of ocean oil pollution
• Urban and industrial runoff from land – 37%
• leaks in pipelines and oil-handling facilities
 1989: Exxon Valdez, oil tanker – 40.8 million liters spilled
into Prince William Sound
• $4 billion dollars in clean up costs, fines, damages
• 17 years later patches of oil remaining
 2002: Prestige, oil tanker- Spain, next 2 years leaked
twice as much oil
Ocean Oil Pollution Is a Serious Problem

 Volatile organic hydrocarbons

• Kill many aquatic organisms

 Tar-like globs on the ocean’s surface

• Coat animals

 Heavy oil components sink

• Affect the bottom dwellers
 Ocean Oil Pollution Is a Serious Problem

 Mechanical clean up procedures –

• floating booms, skimmer boats, absorbent devices such
as large pillows filled with feathers or hair
 Chemical Cleanup procedures
• bacteria to speed up decomposition
 Current cleanup methods can recover no more than 15%
from a spill
 Preventing Oil Pollution most effective
• Oil tankers with double hulls
• Ban ocean dumping of sludge and hazardous dredged
waste
• Regulate coastal development, oil drilling, oil shipping
 SOLUTIONS
Coastal Water Pollution
Prevention Cleanup
Reduce input of toxic Improve oil-spill
pollutants cleanup capabilities

Separate sewage and

storm lines
Ban dumping of Use nanoparticles on
wastes and sewage sewage and oil spills to
by ships in coastal dissolve the oil or
waters sewage (still under
development)
Ban ocean dumping of
sludge and hazardous
dredged material Require secondary
treatment of coastal
Regulate coastal sewage
development, oil
drilling, and oil
Use wetlands, solar-
shipping
aquatic, or other
Require double hulls methods to treat
for oil tankers sewage
Fig. 20-17, p. 551
Dealing with water pollution ………….

 Reducing water pollution requires preventing it, working

with nature to treat sewage, cutting resource use and
waste, reducing poverty, and slowing population growth.
Reduce Surface Water Pollution from
Nonpoint Sources
 Reduce erosion
• Keep cropland covered with vegetation
 Reduce the amount of fertilizers that runs into surface
waters and leaches into aquifers
 Plant buffer zones of vegetation between cultivated fields
and nearby surface waters
 Use organic farming techniques – use manure for
fertilizer
 Applying pesticides when needed – Integrated Pest
Management
 Tougher pollution controls for US livestock operations
• convert waste to natural gas , biodiesel
• extracting chemicals fro manure to make plastic/cosmetics
Laws Can Help Reduce Water Pollution
from Point Sources

 1972: Clean Water Act

 1987 Water Quality Act form the basis of US efforts to
control pollution of the country’s surface waters

 EPA: experimenting with a discharge trading policy

which uses market forces to reduce water pollution in the
US – a permit holder can pollute at higher levels if it buys
credits from someone who is polluting at a lower level

 Pollutants may build up in areas where credits are

bought regularly
U.S. Experience with Reducing Point-
Source Pollution

 Numerous improvements in water quality

• water quality for US citizens increased from 79-94%
• Fishable and swimmable streams increased from 36-60%
• amount of topsoil lost was cut by 1 billion tons annually
• Sewage treatment plants increased from 32-74%
• Wetland loss decreased by 80%
 Some lakes and streams are not safe for swimming or
fishing – 45%
 Treated wastewater still produces algal blooms
 Gasoline storage tanks leaking
 High levels of Hg, pesticides, and other toxic materials
in fish
 Manhole cover
(for cleanout)
Septic tank
Gas
Distribution box
Scum
Wastewater
Sludge
Drain field
(gravel or
crushed stone)

Vent pipe
Perforated pipe
Septic Tank System with a large drainage field. Sewage
pumped into a settling tank where grease and oil rise to the
top and solids fall to the bottom and are decomposed by
bacteria
Fig. 20-18, p. 553
Sewage Treatment Reduces Water Pollution

Wastewater or sewage treatment plants

• Primary sewage treatment
• Physical process which uses grit tanks and
screens to remove large particles, solids settle
• Secondary sewage treatment
• Biological process where aerobic bacteria remove
90% of dissolved and biodegradable organic waste
• Tertiary or advance sewage treatment
• Bleaching, chlorination,UV –
• special filters to remove phosphates and nitrates
 Primary Secondary

Chlorine
Bar screen Grit chamber Settling tank Aeration tank Settling tank disinfection tank

To river,
lake,
Sludge or ocean
Raw sewage Activated sludge (kills bacteria)
from sewers

Air pump

Sludge
digester

Disposed of in
landfill or ocean
or applied to
Sludge drying bed cropland,
Primary and Secondary pasture, or
Sewage Treatment rangeland

Stepped Art
Fig. 20-19, p. 554
Improve Conventional Sewage Treatment

 Peter Montague: environmental scientist

• Remove toxic wastes before water goes to the
municipal sewage treatment plants
• Reduce or eliminate use and waste of toxic chemicals
• Use composting toilet systems

 Wetland-based sewage treatment systems

Ecological Waste Water Purification by a
Living Machine
 John Todd: biologist

 Natural water purification

system
• Sewer water flows into
a passive greenhouse
• Solar energy and
natural processes
remove and recycle
nutrients
• Diversity of organisms
used
Sustainable Ways to Reduce and Prevent
Water Pollution

 Developed countries
• Bottom-up political pressure to pass laws

 Developing countries
• Little to reduce water pollution
• China : ambitious plan