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oil spill issues
effect of acid rain on aquatic ecosystem
water pollution environmental effects
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As swans drift with the current on a secluded lake in upper Canada they think not of the water they are in but of dreams of the past and wants for the future. On the other hand, seals off the coast of Northern California fear for their lives every day of humans exploiting their natural habitat. Many things can endanger water born animals, and most all of these come directly from humans. The pollutants of water come from many sources both close and far away from the water body itself. Wastes of humans are the major cause of pollution in the water, such materials include sewage, chemicals among other notable items. First, the composition water: water is odorless, tasteless and a transparent liquid. Though in large quantities water appears to have a bluish tint, it maintains the transparent tendency when observed in smaller quantities. Water covers approximately seventy percent of the Earth's surface in the solid and liquid form. Pollutants can be carried over a great distance by combining with evaporating moisture, forming clouds and then the wind taking the clouds to the larger body of water. This process is called acid rain and it is a major source of water pollution. Acid rain has been a problem since the Industrial Revolution, and has kept growing ever since. With acid rain moving over to a fresh water body, the plants and animals could experience pollution that they never had to deal with before and they could possibly die for the sudden change without them having time to adapt, if this is possible. Clean water involves seclusion of lakes and hoping the acid rain does not reach these pure water supplies. Another major source of contaminating clean water are oil spills and how destructively they blanket the shoreline they come in contact with. Although offshore drilling expeditions contribute some to the devastating outcome, oil tankers are the superior enemies toward the water. One estimate is that for every one million tons of petroleum shipped one ton is spilled. The largest super tanker spill was in 1979 when 3.3 million barrels was spilled off the coast of France. The largest in the United States was the Exxon Valdez in the gulf of Alaska. On the night of March 24, 1989 the 987 foot Exxon Valdez ran aground in the gulf of Alaska spilling 260,000 barrels of oil. With the help of the forceful winds, the slick soon covered about 1,100 miles of shoreline, including many islands in the sound.
On the day of March 24, 1989 the oil tanker Exxon Valdez was afloat when it ran aground a reef in Prince William Sound, putting a gash in its hull. This gash bled out 11 million gallons of crude oil.
The Clean Water Act of 1972 (CWA) was originally the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948. The original objective behind this act was to “to prepare comprehensive programs for eliminating or reducing the pollution of interstate waters and tributaries and improving the sanitary condition of surface and underground waters.” (U.S Fish and Wild Life Service, 2013). Throughout the duration of this paper the various amendments and their effects will be discussed, those involved both on the side of support and opposition and what influenced the amendments to be made and passed.
I chose to look up the topic of water pollution. I discovered this topic by going through the themes of the sci-fi books we are currently reading. In the book Feed, by M.T. Anderson, one of the themes was environmental impact on humans so I based it off of that. This topic has always been something that I was curious about because I always wondered how water pollution affected fish. Not only does water pollution affect fish, but it also affects a lot of people. The water pollution of the Mississippi halts people from doing recreational activities like water skiing, tubing, and fishing. Before I started researching this topic, I knew that phosphorus runoff from fields affected the waters health. Some questions that I asked myself during my
The Exxon Valdez was the largest offshore oil spill in the U.S. until the BP oil spill. The Exxon Valdez spill released over 10 million gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean. The spill effected over 1,100 ...
Water pollution has had devastating effects on the environment, which include irreversible effects to the oceans ecosystem. People often underestimate the importance of the ocean. They don’t realize how much damage pollution has caused to the ocean and the thousand of creatures that inhabit it. Earth is a huge place, but resources are actually very limited and will not last forever; unless there is a balance. We must protect the resources we have in order for them to last into the next generation. Every time we throw away a plastic bottle, drive our cars, and even burn those millions of fossil fuels to operate all those huge factories, there is a chance it will pollute the ocean and eventually effect the way we live. There should be stricter laws regulating human pollution, in order to protect our oceans ecosystem.
Having a nice cold glass of water is taken for granted by many, yet that necessity can be a safety concern for others. From environment racism to lax governmental oversite the monitoring of water sources has become a hot issue. While Americans have some of the cleanest and safest water in the world, unsafe water is still found across the country.
Can you imagine a world where clean water does not exist anymore? Can you imagine going to your kitchen and seeing black water instead of clear coming out of the faucet? Would you still go to the park if the rivers, lakes, and oceans would turn the color of oil and pollution? Would you still take your kids to see the fish and other living species if they were no longer living and floating belly up? How much would you pay to get the clean rivers, lakes, and oceans back? How much would it cost to get the living organisms living again in the rivers, lakes, and oceans? Maybe it is hard to imagine this world today because it is not as bad, water is not black, and living organisms don’t float bellies up when you walk by, but if we don’t think of the long run consequences of our polluting way of life today this horrible world won’t be so hard to imagine. Water covers about 70% of the Earth’s surface. It is the most valuable natural resource we have. For the most part all living organism require water to live, without water we would not exist. Water pollution is a very huge problem. By polluting our rivers, lakes, and oceans we are harming our planet. Organisms are dying at a very disturbing rate. Our drinking water has become greatly affected as well. There are a variety of causes of pollution they include sewage, fertilizers, wash off deposits, pathogens, petroleum, radioactive substances, heat, and other. The enormous accidental petroleum spills are an important cause of pollution especially along shore lines. Off-shore drilling operations contribute to the pollution pool. Certain statistical estimates state that for every million tons of oil transported one ton gets spilled. This paper will concentrate on oil s...
Drinking water quality was not a concern until the last century when the use of chemicals was greatly expanded. Chemicals are used to kill weeds, insects, and other pests. Chemicals are typically sprayed on an area and are designed not to harm the crop, grass, or other plants that you want to remain. This mass application procedure allows much-unutilized chemical to soak into the soil and eventually leach into the ground water. If applied right before a rain, the chemical can also be washed into rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water. The first widespread problem with chemicals in the water was with the chemical DDT. Fish in rivers and lakes first picked up DDT. These infected fish where then eaten by eagles and hawks which as a result laid eggs that could not hatch. This caused a dramatic reduction of numbers in these populations and almost caused the extinction of the Bald Eagle, our national bird. In the 70?s and 80?s there was an explosion of new chemicals on the market that had not been tested for environmental problems. These chemicals are the basis of most management systems in agriculture today and they are also harming the water that we all need for survival.
The Clean Water Act was created to restore and support the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters by preventing point and nonpoint pollution sources. (Clean Water Act (CWA), 2014) The first law that addressed water pollution was the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948. Then the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948 was then amended in 1972 and became known as the Clean Water Act. (History of the Clean Water Act, 2014)
The original goal of the Clean Water Act was to eliminate the discharge of untreated wastewater from municipal and industrial sources and thus make American waterways safe for swimming and fishing (the use of surface water for drinking purposes is covered under separate legislation, the Safe Drinking Water Act). Toward this end, the federal government provided billions of dollars in grants to finance the building of sewage treatment facilities around the country. The Clean Water Act also required businesses to apply for federal permits to discharge pollutants into waterways, as well as to reduce the amount of their discharges over time.
Water Pollution is a current issue that has serious consequences; it progresses everyday in our lakes, oceans, rivers and other bodies of water.
“Water pollution affects plants and organisms living in these bodies of water. In almost all cases the effect is damaging not only to individual species and populations, but also to the natural biological communities.” (Conserve-Energy-Future) Rivers, streams, canals, lakes, and oceans are receptacles for every imaginable kind of pollution. Even though water has the capacity to break down or dissolve many materials, especially organic compounds, pollution in our bodies of water are becoming a large problem. Pollutants such as metals, plastics, and some chlorinated hydrocarbons remain in the water and can make it poisonous for most forms of life. Even biodegradable pollutants can damage a water supply for long periods and the life forms within the water start to suffer damage due to pollution.
All living organism depends on water and its quality. Human activities and the ways we use our river and streams and the land around affect the quality of the water we drink, cook with, and use for recreational opportunities (Erwin, Hamilton, 2002). It also affect the health and diversity of aquatic plants and animals and the beauty of our rivers and streams (Erwin, Hamilton, 2002). Many rivers and streams are significantly polluted all around the world (Lenntech, 2016). Industries and cities, agricultural and domestic activities are three major sources of pollution that are usually concentrated along the rivers(Lenntech, 2016). According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the main sources of water pollution are industrial waste with harmful
Every year over 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage and waste is dumped into America’s freshwater lakes. It has been proven that over one million mammals and sea birds have been victims to man-made water pollution in the United States alone. Within them, some of our most valued animals such as fish, penguins, and whales have become endangered and even extinct due to both direct and indirect causes. The concept of safe water is slowly decreasing and freshwater organisms are the primary targets. Despite the fact that over 80 percent of water pollution is caused by domestic sewage, many people are unaware of their contributions towards the destruction of our freshwater ecosystems. The destruction of fresh water ecosystems is mostly caused
Water pollution is also a major thing in the world because almost 60% of it is fishes. It occurs due to several factors; the industrial waste dumped into the rivers and other water body’s cause am imbalance in the water leading to its severe contamination and deaths. And the infamous Global warming is the emission of greenhouse gases particularly CO2 is leading to global warming.