1. Water Pollution: Quantity and Quality

2. What is Water Pollution?
any physical (temperature, oxygen), chemical (mercury), or biological (disease, sewage) change to water that adversely effects its use by living things

3. Cuyahoga River, Ohio November 1952
Some river! Chocolate-brown, oily, bubbling with subsurface gases, it oozes rather than flows. "Anyone who falls into the Cuyahoga does not drown," Cleveland's citizens joke grimly. "He decays.” Time Magazine, August 1969
November 1952

4. Groundwater Pollution

5. Types of Water Pollution
Measured in:
Percent (%)
Parts per thousand (‰)
Parts per million (ppm)
Parts per billion (ppb)
Biological
Chemical
Physical

6. Biological Water Pollution
Direct (microbes in water):
Typhoid, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis…
Infectious Disease (Pathogens)
Oxygen-Demanding Waste
Entamoeba histolytica

7. Biological Water Pollution
Indirect
(Water breeding carriers): malaria, yellow fever,
west nile virus…
Infectious Disease (Pathogens)
Oxygen-Demanding Waste
The treehole mosquito (Aedes triseriatus) transmits the virus that causes La Crosse encephalitis.
Treehole mosquito
(carried La Crosse ensephalitis)

8. Water Borne Disease www.assignmentpoint.com
The map shows the percentage of diseases caused by unsafe water. India and Africa have abysmal showing, while US and Europe provide far safer water to it's citizens.

9. U.S. Water Borne Disease

10. Coliform Test Detection: Solutions: Sewage treatment Immunization
-$13 billion to immunize all world’s Children against 6 major diseases
(US spends $31 billion/year on beer)

11. Biological Water Pollution
Infectious Disease (Pathogens)
Oxygen-Demanding Waste

12. Dissolved Oxygen Added by: turbulent water and photosynthesis
Removed by: Increased temperature (exsolution) and respiration/decomposition
Good: > 6 ppm (mosquitoes can survive in 1 ppm) (also measured in % of maximum - Good = 60-80%)

13. Dissolved Carbon Dioxide
Added by: respiration/decomposition & weathered rock
Removed by: Increased temperature (exsolution) and photosynthesis
Good: 1-10 ppm (usually about 1 ppm)

14. Oxygen Sag

15. Measuring DO and other chemical properties

16. Chemical Water Pollution
Nutrients (Fertilizers)
Toxic Inorganic Materials
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP’s)
Nitrogen, phosphorous

17. Eutrophication & Blue Baby Syndrome
Dissolved inorganic nitrogen in Baltic Sea

18. Nitrates Typically: 0.1-4 ppm Unpolluted usually below 1 ppm
Sewage pollution increase up to 20 ppm

19. Chemical Water Pollution
Heavy metals
mercury,lead, tin…
Super Toxic Elements
Arsenic, selenium…
Acids, salts, chlorine
Radioactive Isotopes
Nutrients (Fertilizers)
Toxic Inorganic Materials
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP’s)

20. Arsenic in U.S. Waters

21. Some We Will Measure Copper
natural, fungicides, insecticides, copper pipes
can be lethal to some at 0.1 ppb, algae – 1-10 ppb, fish 500ppb
water standard 0.3 ppm
Acidity (pH)
normal (rainwater is usually a little acidic)
>9 – harmful to fish (inc. salmon)
<5.5 releases metals in seds, bacteria die and organics don’t decay
<5 insects die and fish eggs don’t hatch
<4 lethal to adult salmon

22. Some We Will Measure Salinity Saltwater 3.5% Freshwater 1-500 ppm
usually >100 ppm is bad for freshwater organisms
>250 ppm tastes salty (max for drinking water)
Total Dissolved Solids
(Ca,Mg,Hco3, NH4, NO3, PO4, SO4, Na, Cl, Na, K)
from dissolved rock, fertilizer, urban runoff, irrigation, acid rainfall
“watchdog” – high numbers or rapid changes may indicate problem
typically ppm
Drinking water must be below 500 ppm

23. Chemical Water Pollution
Nutrients (Fertilizers)
Toxic Inorganic Materials
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP’s)

24. Artificial Chemicals

25. The Dirty Dozen

26. Physical Water Pollution
Sediment
Thermal Pollution
Solid Waste
Yellow River, China
Chattahoochee River, GA

27. Measured in: Normal levels: 1-50 NTU Drinking Water: 0.5-1 NTU
NTU (Nephelometric Turbidity Units)
Normal levels: 1-50 NTU
Drinking Water: NTU
Visible: >5 NTU
Higher during storms

28. Physical Water Pollution
Causes:
industry
dams
removal of vegetation
Sediment
Thermal Pollution
Solid Waste
Optimum – Fish 5-20°C (salmon <12°C)

29. Physical Water Pollution
Sediment
Thermal Pollution
Solid Waste

30. Pollution Sources: Point Source
Sewage pipes
Leaky gas tanks
Industrial sites
Injection wells

31. Pollution Sources: Nonpoint Source
Agriculture (soil, fertilizer,pesticides)
Urban runoff (from pavement)
Construction sites
Air Pollution