Storm Water Ponds Storm waters are widely used in many different areas, even required in some. They are a vital tool that helps keep streams healthy. Storm water ponds are used to capture, control, and filter all kinds of runoff that could be from anything like parking lots to roof tops. The use of storm water ponds is essential to slow the flow of water down, filter out toxins, and improve the health of streams for aquatic life and for consumption purposes. All of that is in efforts to protect local streams. The way storm water ponds work, they collect runoff, of course, it then slows the water. This is done so that it will hold long enough to allow gravity to pull out sediments from the water and allows sunlight and biochemical systems …show more content…
One including, turbidity. This is when the water appears cloudy or almost muddy due to a variety of particles suspended in the water. One main cause of this is types of fish that search the bottom for food by stirring up the soil. Turbid water makes for not a lot of vegetation in the water which makes it that much easier for particles to be brought to the top. Another thing to watch out for is algae blooms. Algae is at its prime in water that is rich in nutrients, which is exactly what a storm water pond is between all the runoff that comes from maintained lawns and areas where there is animal waste. However, when algae become too prominent it blocks sunlight from reaching the bottom of the pond which stunts the growth of any kind of plant life. Plant life is one of the beneficial parts of a pond ecosystem. Algae bloom can also effect oxygen levels in a storm water pond. While storm water ponds are not known for their wide variety of aquatic life, it only goes down when instances like these …show more content…
They hold pollutants that could be exposed during swimming. Even low levels of pollutant exposure should be avoided. Ecosystems in these ponds can be somewhat fragile and very slim due to the amount of work that is going on through the pond. These ponds can easily be enjoyable for a nice place to sit but even then a pond may or may not turn green and be smelly during the summer heat. What matters is what the pond is doing to keep our streams healthy. There are more than 14,000 recorded storm water ponds in South Carolina. Experiments are run on these ponds by a multitude of people from University of South Carolina, or Clemson University. These ponds exemplify a new type of aquatic environment and are also known for Canadian geese which makes for highly experimental grounds. These ponds make for a little habitat for many types of species to thrive and for our streams to thrive as well. Our very own storm water pond, for example, is home to a fair amount of varieties of ducks and
Two of the dams were built to form stock ponds and for fire protection, Old Acres Farm Dam and Stanly Mann Dam (Dam, n.d.). Old Acres Farm Dam makes an impoundment and affects 16.18 miles of Lacey Creek (Fish, n.d.). Stanly Mann Dam also forms an impoundment while affecting 100.27 miles of unnamed, minor Genesee River tributaries.
Because of farm fertilizer, an excess quantity of nitrogen and phosphorus can be wash down becoming runoff into rivers. From this, marine algal blooms cause the water to turn green from the chlorophyll (Reed, 2011). Eutrophication then becomes a dilemma in the system causing either an increase of primary production or an expansion of algae. An enormous expansion of phytoplankton on the water’s surface is then established. At the same time the water column is also stratified, meaning things such as the temperature and salinity are not sync from top to bottom. The seasonal warm surface water has a low density forming a saltier layer above while the cooler and more dense water masses near the bottom layer is isolated from the top cutting off oxygen supply from the atmosphere (Overview, 2008).
Water management is one of the most critical environmental issues facing the Florida Everglades at this point in time. The everglades watershed originates in the central Florida Kissimmee River basin north of Lake Okeechobee. Summer thunderstorms would flood this region, the big lake, and extensive areas of everglades marsh. This created a shallow, wide river which flowed slowly south through the everglades to the mangrove estuaries of the Gulf of Mexico. The summer rains would then give way to a ...
The lake receives all of the storm runoff water from the land around it which is what causes the lake to be overrun with phosphorus. Phosphorus is actually considered a nutrient for the lake and is essential for the survival of a lot of the lake’s plant life. However, too much of the element impacts the biodiversity of the lake: there is a large increase in algae, which in turn, affects the rest of the life in the lake. Winnipesaukee Gateway lists more effects: decrease in water clarity, increased chlorophyll-a, increased cloudiness of the water, and decreased oxygen
Pennsylvania has the most acid rain in the country, so it is not a surprise if the creek was polluted, but it’s not. It could be because of limestone rocks, or rocks that neutralize pollution in waters. Are next experiment was a eutrophication Test. A eutrophication is an enrichment of an ecosystem with chemical nutrients typically compounds containing nitrogen, phosphorus, or both. In this test we took samples of water into clear measurable tubes. There is 3 things we tested with water, Phosphate, nitrate, and dissolved oxygen. Phosphates and nitrates are examples of polyatomic ion. Phosphates and nitrates are found in fertilizers and some detergents. We tested for them and we didn’t get big results, so we know that waters aren’t polluted. There was a lot of dissolved oxygen, which is good, because that is what fish need to
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.
Beaver ponds generally slow the water flow from drainage areas and alter silt deposition, which creates new habitat. During drought conditions, beaver ponds create water holes for livestock and wildlife, particularly wood ducks. However, their engineering feats cause problems when they flood homes, roads and croplands, dam canals, drainages and pipes, which inhibits water control, girdle and fell valuable trees and flood valuable trees, causing them to die after prolonged flooding.
Storm Water Drainage: This is simply the water from rain, melted snow, etc. draining into
The water quality of the UHS creek is excellent. But even though the UHS has an excellent water quality, it doesn’t mean that all creeks have excellent water quality. Humans can negatively impact water quality in several ways. One of them is by farm runoff. Farmers sue pesticides and fertilizers on their crops. When it rains, these chemicals are washed into nearby rivers. This increases nitrates and phosphates in the water. Algae use these chemicals to thrive. They block sunlight to other living organisms in the creek, which need sunlight in order to survive—like photosynthesis. When the high number of algae dies, bacteria thrive on the dead algae and use all of the oxygen in the water. Because of this, many animals living the creek die. This entire process is known as eutrophication. Another common human source of pollution in creeks is factory runoff. Some factories use water to power machinery or cool machinery down. When this water is put back in the river it contains harmful chemicals. Also, the water is sometimes warmer than the rest of the river and lowers dissolved oxygen in the river and upsets the balance of life in water. (http://www.lenntech.com/rivers-pollution-quality.htm)
Even though Michigan is known for being the Great Lakes State, the state also has many other inland lakes and rivers. Throughout my schooling, I have learned that in Michigan, you are always within 6 miles of a body of water. Both lakes and rivers are constantly being bombarded with ice and wave movement which causes the shorelines to erode as well as displacing soil particles (“Shoreline Erosion,” 2012). The erosion causes the shapes of shorelines to constantly be changing. The transportation and deposition of soil particles also alters the water and shorelines. The particles can build up in different areas of the lake. They can cover up plants and habitat that other
It’s common for businesses to have a roof with a low-slop because the are cheap to have installed, while also leaving room to install HVAC equipment for the building where it is out of sight. The issue with these types of roofs is that they are prone to having ponding water, which is standing water that can damage the roofing material. Here is what you need to know about having a low-slope roof and ponding water.
This is something that’s very important not only in Indiana, but the whole United States. Wetlands help to absorb certain excess organic and inorganic nutrients in the water. Some of the nutrients are “farm fertilizers and septic system runoff, filter sediments such as eroded soil particles, and trap pollutants such as pesticides and some heavy metals” (“Status of Wetlands in Indiana”). Once they absorb these materials, the plants and natural bacteria found in wetlands break up those chemicals to make it less harmful to people (“Protecting Indiana’s Wetlands”). These materials that I just mentioned can do lots of harm to the surface water and groundwater quality so wetlands do a good job of trapping those materials. Without wetlands, our water quality that we get out of the faucet would not only affect us in Indiana, but everyone else nationally as well. This could pose a huge problem if our water became
The lakes which have small algae propagation are called oligotrophic lakes. Accordingly the lakes which have large algae propagation are called eutrophic lakes. There are many factors to determine the algae propagation in a lake such as temperature, light, depth, size of the lake and nutrients from the surrounding environment, etc. In fact the Great Lakes were all oligotrophic lakes before industrialization. The factors such a size, depth and climate would keep the lakes cool and clear for a long-term. There is only a small amount of fertilizer and organic matters decompose from forest areas in the lakes at that time. Due to reduction of vegetation and thermal pollution, the temperature of many tributaries of the lake has been increased. Other than that highly concentrated city and agriculture makes a lot of nutrients and organic matter, such as inorganic phosphorus detergents and fertilizers, flowing into the lake increased nutrient content. In fact the increasing nutrients stimulate the growth of green plants such as algae. The plant will decompose after death and decomposition process consumes dissolved oxygen in the water. As a result some fish will died from lack of oxygen and the green plants will experience a highly growth resulting in the cloudy water which means increasing eutrophication process. Lake Erie has the highest biomass yield mainly because it is the shallowest water, the highest temperature of the lake so that it is the first and most serious eutrophication lake of the Great Lakes. The other reason is that the development of agriculture and the city in the earlier period reached a higher level. About 1/3 of the population of the Great Lakes area lives in Lake Erie region. This leads to the highly higher flow of contaminants to Lake Erie than any other lakes. It is generally agreed that Lake Erie was dying In Canada and the United States. Water polluted warning signs are visible
Several parameters were sampled at each sample site. The sampled parameters at each creek and pond site were temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, discharge, bank stability, and vegetation plots. Tests for the presence of nitrates and phosphates were also conducted. In addition to these tests, samples of benthic macroinvertebrates were collected.
Above all, these organisms encourage the growth of algae, which absorb dissolved oxygen in the water essential for the survival of fish populations. Occasionally, the decomposition of newly-submerged biomass and sediment further reduce the water's oxygen content. Water sources can literally choke to death as a result of increasing human activity, such as industry and agriculture giving rise to increased nutrient loading.