The water quality in the state of Iowa is drastically low at this time. Excessive nutrients have made their way into the waterways of Iowa. Those nutrients are what is affecting the quality of the water through the process of eutrophication, which is excessive nutrients in the waterways drastically affecting those waterways. The main culprits to blame for this occurrence are: agriculture, lawn maintenance, and wastewater treatment plants. The first culprit to blame for low water quality is agriculture and farming. In his article “Farming, Environmental Tug of War on North Raccoon River,” Mike Kilen (2017) claims, “Des Moines Water Works officials and some scientists say that agriculture practices have led to the high levels, principally from fertilizer that leaches into waterways.” The runoff from the fields is seeping into the state’s waterways. As the use of fertilizers increase the increase of nitrates in the water will increase. That increase is somewhat to …show more content…
In their article, “Why Iowa’s Nutrient Strategy Falls Short Against Water Pollution,” David Osterberg and Aaron Kline (2014) they insist, “Point sources of water pollution have a specific emission location such as the outfall pipe of a wastewater treatment plant.” Wastewater plants may also be at blame for Iowa’s poor water quality. The water from waste treatment facilities directly flows into streams and rivers in the state of Iowa. That water is contaminated with nutrients from the waste. Those nutrients are finding their way into Iowa’s waterways as they flow directly into the streams and rivers. Water from failed septic systems can be contaminated by indicator bacteria that originate there. That indicator bacteria makes it’s way into the waterways and worsens Iowa’s water quality. Past regulations that have been implemented have failed and it is very difficult for policy makers to establish new policies that will
Nitrogen and nitrates relate to Hypoxia via the process of eutrophication. Since Nitrogen is a limiting nutrient in most waters, the added input of nitrate causes massive growth in algae. The algae rapidly consume all available N, and once the nutrient is limited again, the alga dies en masse. As the alga decomposes, oxygen is depleted in the water. This lowers dangerously lowers the level of dissolved oxygen in the water, which harms living organisms in the area. Small organisms and organisms that are immobile or unable to escape low-oxygen areas are particularly vulnerable. Hypoxia and resulting “dead zones” are harmful to local fishing and shrimping industries and algal blooms hurt the tourism industry. Hypoxia has lead to a decrease of about 25% in the brown shrimp habitat, forcing shrimping operations further offshore. As the hypoxia issue continues to grow, negative human effects will only increase. Since nitrate runoff from ag. has been proven to be the dominant source of hypoxia, policies could be enacted to effectively deal with “point-source” pollution. This makes enacting environmental policy more easily adapted, possibly included in past policy such as the Clean Water Act.
In the early 1880s, Chicago was a bustling city on its way to becoming one of great cities in the world. There was a problem though. Horrible sanitation problems plagued the city. The Chicago River was virtually an open sewer covered with visible filth. Most of the river’s worst pollution came from homes and bathroom waste thought the city. “Bubbly Creek” was one of the worst branches of the river. It was filled with enough stockyard waste to equal the pollution from a sizable city. To further the problem, all of the contents of the river flowed into Lake Michigan, polluting Chicago’s drinking water causing a sever outbreak of water born diseases.
About 80% of the State’s surveyed freshwater rivers and streams have good water quality that fully supports aquatic life uses, 17% have fair water quality that partially supports aquatic life uses, and 3% have poor water quality that does not support aquatic life uses. Ten percent of the surveyed rivers do not fully support swimming. The major sources of impairment are agriculture (responsible for 53% of the impaired river miles), urban runoff (responsible for 16%), and construction (responsible for 13%). These sources generate siltation, bacteria, and organic wastes that deplete disssolved opxygen.
“Like a man who has been dying for many days, a man in your city is numb to the stench.” -Chief Seattle
The Chesapeake Bay is polluted with agricultural waste. We see things like 1.5 billion pounds of chicken waste that no one wants to take responsibility for. Ignoring standards, a waterway was tested for E. coli; the standard is 125 FCU/100ml of water. Yet this waterway’s level was at 48392 FCU/100ml. An industry that will go to great lengths to make sure that Congress doesn’t impose sanction against them.
'Water pollution is any chemical, physical or biological change in the quality of water that has a harmful effect on any living thing that drinks or uses or lives(in) it. ' (Azeem 1). In Canada, most people live in the southern part along with many agricultural and industrial activities causing the worst cases of water pollution. Water pollution is caused by population growth and industrialization, but can be prevented if proper controls are taken into consideration to help reduce the discharge of waste materials. Water pollution has been a huge disadvantaging concern for humans as well as wildlife for over many decades, but can actually be prevented if attempted. Preventing waste materials from being dumped into lakes and rivers, controlling
More and more ways are being discovered to help treat water pollution around the world, but what needs to happen is to stop the pollution. Around the world water pollution is a definite obstacle; luckily South Carolina has everything it needs to make sure the local community household water is clean and sanitary for use. Lots of countries around the world have no access to clean water or the technology to filter their water. “Water pollution has increased in both developed and developing countries, undermining economic growth as well as the physical and environmental health and quality of life for billions of people” (Tortajada and Cecilia). In the local community water pollution has also continued to increase over the years, before 1970 all waste water was distributed directly into the Charleston Harbor. Because of this the harbor already had pollution even before people began to litter. Now polluting the Charleston Harbor is plastic bottles, Styrofoam, and many other man-made products people carelessly threw out their car windows or left on the grown. There are many more ways to clean the water and prevent pollution today than there were in from 1950-1970.
Also, the tourism industry loses about one billion dollars a year from polluted waters, in fishing and boating. (epa.gov, 2016) Nutrient pollution can be harmful to fish and often kills them, losing millions of dollars in commercial fishing. Moreover, people can play a role in nutrient pollution by the way they use their land. For Indiana, to lessen our contribution to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, we need to watch the way we use our land and resources (nature.org, 2016).
The Great Lakes provide almost half the water for the residents of Ontario. The Great Lakes also provides water to residents in Thunder Bay, Port Hope, Sault St Marie, Niagara and many parts of The United States to name a few. With 70% of the Earth covered in water only 0.1% of it is clean accessible drinking water. The Great Lakes plays a major role in helping to provide water for people that live near the American/Canadian border. However this resource is being mistreated. Water pollution is a growing problem in the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes is being contaminated by pollutants that are released for direct and indirect sources without proper treatment. This is causing the lake to being polluted with harmful chemicals. By identifying the cause we can take initiative to help conserve the Great Lakes and to help restore it to its natural beauty.
"Water Pollution." Current Issues: Macmillan Social Science Library. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 5 May 2014.
... (The Issues: Factory Farming, n.d.). Nutrients and bacteria from that waste can also contaminate waterways, disturbing the aquatic ecosystems.
Water, water everywhere and not a drop to spare. This is the reality – especially when regarding the amount of freshwater available. Fact: The earth contains only 3.5% freshwater. Fact: 98.8% of all freshwater is shielded from our grasp in glaciers or groundwater. Fact: Only 0.0003% of the Earth’s water is accessible for consumption. With such a minute quantity of freshwater available, the high amount of pollution contaminating this water is appalling. Water quality levels are decreasing, hurting us as well as the countless organisms depending on freshwater habitats to be safe homes. One of the main contaminants, nitrates, which spring from mainly manmade sources, are especially treacherous…
Today's waters are constantly being treated like sewage dumps or trash cans. We use them as garbage cans every day polluting the water more and more. "Pollution is often by way of rivers, drains and outflow pipes." Causing an outflow of sewage into our ocean waters. This is not only affecting the community but also the marine life and other sea creatures living in the ocean." This pollution includes human sewage and domestic waste water, factory outflows of acids and poisonous metals, engine oil from roadside drains and garages, farm chemicals washed off the land by rain, building-site rubble, nuclear waste from power plants, and oil from wells, refineries, and tankers." Stating that most of today's waste is from factory or factory ran products that shouldn't be polluting the water
I am particularly surprised how the agricultural industry inflicts these problems on themselves, by excessive use of sewage systems and pollutants which find their way to local rivers [Fig 1.]. The trophic state (i.e. the natural nutrition factors) and biodiversity of lakes and rivers are greatly effected by the main nutrients involved, nitrates and phosphates. The transition occurs mainly between a mesotropic state, with an average biological productivity to a eutrophic state where there is a larger production of organisms due to high nutrient concentrations. Tropical reservoirs in particular often become eutrophic.
Water quality is a complex term to evaluate. The health of a water ecosystem depends on so many variables. These parameters are each intertwined and connected. For simplicity there are several mainstream parameters that are used in conjunction with each other to determine the water s quality. These include: alkalinity, ammonia content, carbon dioxide, chlorine, nitrates, dissolved oxygen, phosphates, temperature, and turbidity. The most visible sign of poor water quality is reduced animal populations. Almost all animals will suffer if pollutants are in the water supply. There are several ways to lower pollution levels in water.