1. Environmental Issues
Julieanne Quigley- 2/2017

2. Our Water Resources Clean, fresh water is essential for life
People can only survive a few days without fresh water
One of the reasons why people live longer today than they did 200 years ago is access to clean fresh water and proper removal of sewage

3. Our Water Resources
Water is a renewable resource because of the water cycle
Water is cycled between land and the atmosphere continuously
About 70% of the earth’s surface is water. About 97% of the water is salt water and only 3% is freshwater
Of the 3% of freshwater, about 75% of it is frozen in the polar ice caps

4. Our Water Resources
Most large cities depend on surface water for their water supplies
Surface water is fresh water that is above ground in lakes, ponds, rivers and streams
Throughout history, human societies have flourished where surface water was abundant

5. Our Water Resources
All surface water is a result of rain, sleet or snow.
As rain falls and snow melts, water drains into rivers from mountain tops, hills, plateaus and plains.
The entire area of land that is drained by a river is known as its watershed.

6. Our Water Resources
River water is in such high demand, that disputes arise over it.
In the US for example, Arizona and California have fought over water rights to the Colorado River for a long time
Disputes over water happen all over the world

7. Our Water Resources
Conflicts between countries are particularly common when dams are built on rivers.
A dam is a structure built across a river or stream that prevents most of the water from traveling downstream
The water that is prevented from flowing collects behind the dam and forms a reservoir, or artificial lake

8. Our Water Resources
Dams can provide flood control and electricity, millions of people depend on dams for survival
Dams can damage the environment by destroying the ecosystem that is now flooded with water and ecosystems downstream of the dam are also destroyed because of loss of water. Dams also harm fish and other wildlife.

9. Our Water Resources
Not all of the water that falls to Earth as precipitation drains off in rivers and streams. Some of the water soaks into the ground, plants collect some water, but most of it seeps through the soil.
Water that seeps down into the soil is called ground water

10. Our Water Resources
Large amounts of groundwater may be stored in underground rock formations called aquifers.
Aquifers consist of rocks, sand and gravel with a lot of spaces in which water can accumulate.

11. Our Water Resources Aquifers take millions of years to collect water.
People are pumping out the water faster than it can be replaced, consequently, the water levels of many aquifers are beginning to drop rapidly.
Communities that depend on aquifers are starting to investigate other sources of water, before the water is all gone

12. Solutions to Water Shortages
There are numerous solutions to water shortages
Desalting the sea
Towing water
Water conservation
None of these solutions alone is enough

13. Solutions to Water Shortages
Desalting the sea- some coastal countries and communities are attempting to solve their water shortages by removing the salt from salt water in a process called desalinization.
Two main methods for desalinization are distillation and reverse osmosis

14. Solutions to Water Shortages
Distillation- heat is used to evaporate fresh water from the salt water, leaving the salts behind
Reverse osmosis, pressure is used to push the water through a semipermeable membrane that will not permit the salts to pass

15. Solutions to Water Shortages
Unfortunately both of these processes are too expensive to be sustainable.
New technologies someday may reduce the cost of desalinization and reverse osmosis

16. Solutions to Water Shortages
Towing- for years people have considered the possibility of towing water from one place to another to solve water shortage problems. One possibility is transporting icebergs, another is piping water from one place to another

17. Solutions to Water Shortages
Towing water has its own environmental issues. Towing icebergs requires a lot of fossil fuels for boats to move the icebergs. Moving water through large pipelines disrupts ecosystems and requires huge amounts of fossil fuels to create

18. Solutions to Water Shortages
Water Conservation- water goes around and comes around, its passage through the water cycle still takes time. The amount of usable fresh water that is available at a given time is limited, so people must do everything they can to use it wisely.

19. Solutions to Water Shortages
As more people realize that clean, fresh water is a precious and limited resource, they are doing more to conserve it.
More people are installing low flow faucets and shower heads, turning off tap water when brushing teeth, taking shorter showers, only washing dishes/doing laundry when the load is full, using water conserving toilets and not watering grass in the summer

20. Freshwater Pollution
Water pollution is the introduction of chemical, physical or biological material into the water that harms the quality of the water and affects the organisms that drink it and live in it

21. Freshwater Pollution Water pollution has two underlying causes:
Industrialization
Human population explosion
Both produce waste products that cannot be disposed of as fast as they are produced

22. Freshwater Pollution
Point pollution- pollution that is discharged from a single source, such as a factory, wastewater treatment plant or an oil tanker
Point pollution is relatively easy to regulate and control because it is easily identified, traced and stopped

23. Freshwater Pollution
Nonpoint Pollution is pollution that comes from many sources rather than a specific site.
Nonpoint pollution reaches bodies of water via streets and storm sewers
It can come from anywhere: homes, lawns, farms, highways and almost any other land surface you can think of

24. Freshwater Pollution
When it rains, any polluting material flows through storm sewers into water ways.
The accumulation of small amounts of pollution adds up to a huge pollution problem
The EPA estimates that 96% of the polluted bodies of water in the US were contaminated by nonpoint sources.
Educating the public will be the most effective way to reduce this sort of pollution

25. Freshwater Pollution Sources of Point Pollution in the US:
23 million septic tank systems
190,000 storage lagoons for polluted waste
9000 landfills
About 2 million underground storage tanks containing pollutants such as gasoline and oil
Thousands of public and industrial wastewater treatment plants
Sources of Nonpoint Pollution in the US
Highway construction and maintenance: eroding soil and toxic chemicals
Storm-water runoff from city and suburban streets: oil, gasoline, dog feces and litter
Pesticides from the 112 million hectares of cropland
50 million tons of fertilizer applied to crops and lawns
10 millions tons of dry salt applied to highways for snow and ice control

26. Freshwater Pollution
An entire ecosystem may suffer the effects of water pollution. Consider a river ecosystem… soil tainted with toxic pesticides may wash into the river. This soil settles into the river bottom and some of its toxins enter the bodies of small organisms. A hundred of these organisms may be eaten but one small fish, a hundred of these small fish are eaten by a big fish, an eagle may eat 10 big fish… each organism stores the toxins in its tissues and it is passed and multiplied through the food chain.

27. Freshwater Pollution
Bioaccumulation is when toxins are passed through the food chain from one organism to the next. Each level of the food chain has more toxins in it than the level before.
This bioaccumulation can be harmful to human health and cause cancer, heavy metal poisoning and have reproduction and nervous system issues

28. Freshwater Pollution
Eutrophication is when organisms die and decompose, releasing nutrients to the water
Artificial Eutrophication is when the natural process of eutrophication is accelerated when inorganic nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen get into the water because of fertilizers

29. Freshwater Pollution
Phosphorus and nitrogen cause excessive growth of algae. These algae blooms remove oxygen from the water. Fish and other water living organisms suffocate and die.

30. Freshwater Pollution
Thermal Pollution is when excessive amounts of heat are added to a body of water. This happens when power plants and industrial plants use water from lakes and rivers to cool their machines. They bring in the cool water, run it through the machines and then return it back to the river too hot.

31. Freshwater Pollution
Thermal pollution can cause massive fish kills when the water gets too hot for the fish to tolerate.
Hot water cannot hold as much oxygen as cooler water, so aquatic organisms are suffocating

32. Freshwater Pollution
The Clean Water Act of 1972 states that we need to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the nation’s waters.
Many point pollution issues were solved in 1972, but our water suffers from nonpoint pollution issues today.

33. Ocean Pollution At least 85% of ocean pollution comes from land.
Pollutants enter the rivers as runoff, and the rivers carry the polluted water to the ocean
Pollutants are also dumped directly into the oceans, especially by ocean ships

34. Ocean Pollution
Accidental large oil spills are an issue, like the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989
Oil pollution in the seas comes from smaller events also. Boats and ships have small leaks and spillage add up to cause large environmental effects

35. Ocean Pollution
Plastic is also a significant ocean pollutant because it doesn’t break down easily. When plastic fishing lines are discarded into the sea, marine mammals are strangled. Turtles and birds accidently eat plastic bags, the plastic six-pack rings strangle fish and birds.

36. Ocean Pollution Prevention:
Laws help regulate or prohibit the what goes into the oceans.
Laws prohibit the discharge of oil and plastic into the ocean
US has laws against ocean dumping
Many countries have laws against toxic dumping near runoff sites
Unfortunately, it is hard to monitor every boat, and the ocean is paying the price

37. Ocean Pollution
The Pacific Garbage Patch is a giant island of garbage that has collected in the center of the Pacific Ocean due to water currents. This island of plastic and garbage is an ecological disaster and no country is taking accountability for the issue, so it just sits there

38. Ocean Pollution
Unlike rivers, which are easy to determine which country owns them… no one really owns the oceans.
International law has permitted nations to exercise complete control over waters within 3 miles of their coastline, but the open ocean belongs to no one.