Groundwater Contamination What kind of contamination is it? How can we clean it up? How did it get there? How does it hurt living organisms? Copy and Fill in the Frayer:

Groundwater Contamination What kind of contamination is it? How can we clean it up? How did it get there? How does it hurt living organisms? Groundwater pollution occurs when hazardous substances come into contact and dissolve in the water that has soaked into the soil. Hazardous material on the surface that infiltrates through the soil Liquid hazardous material that does not mix with water pools in the bedrock and contaminates water Contamination can affect water quality Contaminated water can affect the health of humans or organisms that drink or bathe in it Water can be pumped up, treated and then put back into the ground Try to contain contamination to a limited area Some natural processes can reduce contamination as water moves to the surface Once groundwater is polluted, it is very difficult and expensive to treat.

Groundwater contamination Video

Groundwater and health 2.5 billion people rely on groundwater throughout the world as their only water supply Once that water is contaminated, it is very difficult to clean Contaminated water can cause wide spread health problems for people, plants and animals

Disease cluster When a higher than expected number of people suffer from the same symptoms or disease EX: Cancer, high rate of miscarriages Disease clusters are associated with groundwater contamination Woburn’s Wells, Woburn, MA present No one has drank from this water since 1970 Nearby rivers have highly toxic sediment Love Canal, Niagara Falls, NY-1960s Chemical dump site contaminated water and soil EPA deemed it cleaned up in 2004

Hinkley, CA Between 1952 and 1966, PG&E used hexavalent chromium to stop corrosion in their plant Oscar award winning movie Erin Brockovich told this story The waste was sent out into unlined ponds and percolated into the groundwater supply The chromium affects an area that is 8 miles wide and 2 miles deep This affected almost all of the groundwater for the residents of Hinkley, CA Hear from Erin Brockovich

The higher ups at PG&E were aware of this and continued to dump even knowing it was making people sick Causes cancer and reproductive harm short and long-term exposures can lead to eye and respiratory irritation, asthma attacks, nasal ulcers, dermal burns, anemia, acute gastroenteritis, vertigo, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, convulsions, ulcers, and damage or failure of the liver and kidneys. Movie Clip: Health Issues In 1996, PG&E paid $333 million to residents of Hinkley for medical expenses, property loss and punitive damages As of July, 2014, there were still high levels of chromium in the groundwater

Getting better? Hexavalent chromium has spread throughout the groundwater in CA It has been detected in 2,475 groundwater sources As of now, only 15% is going to be cleaned up due to EPA standards being higher than what scientists deem “safe standards” of exposure to be EPA standard- 10ppb Scientists safe standard- 0.02ppb