Chapter 19- Guided Reading

Read: Case Study: Americas First River: A Success Story Summarize the story of the Hudson River and PCBs: PCBs are also known as polychlorinated biphenyls. This chemical is a carcinogen, which means that it is capable of causing cancer when it enters the human body. When it does enter the human body, the affects does not show right away unless that person was exposed to high concentrations of it. Generally, the PCBs would bioaccumulates within the human body. They travel through the food chain, and most of them can be found in water. The Hudson River contains a lot of this chemical, but people are still in the process of cleaning it out. Water Pollution 1.) How is water pollution defined? When something that was not there in the beginning go into the water, causing it to decrease its quality. 2.) What are some of the common water pollutants? Metals, thermal, fecal coliform, and sediment. 3.) What is the primary water pollution problem in the world today? Water pollution causes people to have undrinkable and unfishable water, which affects their daily life. 4.) How many people are exposed to waterborne diseases worldwide? More than one billion people are exposed to waterborne diseases worldwide. 5.) Name 3 sources of Surface Water and 3 sources of Groundwater Pollution from the chart Surface water: urban runoff, leaks from surface storage tanks, air fallout Groundwater: leaks from waste-disposal sites, leaks from buried tanks and pipes, saltwater intrusion into coastal aquifers A Closer Look 19.1: What is the Value of Clean Water to New York City? What is the main idea of this story? People should put more value into water because water is part of the ecosystem and water is needed in many daily life activities. Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) 1.) What is BOD and what are some sources of it? Biochemical oxygen demand. Some sources of it are dead organic matter, drugs, and organic chemicals. 2.) Where does approximately 33% of all BOD in streams come from? From agricultural activities. 3.) What about in urban areas (BOD)? In urban areas, it usually comes from sewer systems that contains storm water runoffs. 4.) What is the relationship between BOD and dissolved oxygen levels? (What happens when BOD is high?) When the amount of BOD increases then the dissolved oxygen levels decreases. 5.) Explain the 3 zones of BOD:

Pollution Zone: where a high BOD exists. As waste decomposes, microorganisms use the oxygen, decreasing the dissolved oxygen content of the water. Active Decomposition Zone: where the dissolved oxygen reaches a minimum owing to rapid biochemical decomposition by microorganisms as the organic waste is transported downstream. Recovery Zone: where dissolved oxygen increases and BOD is reduced

Waterborne Disease 1.) What is Fecal Coliform Bacteria and where does it come from? It is a bacteria that occur naturally in human intestines and are used as a standard measure of microbial pollution and in indicator of disease potential for a water source. Nutrients 1.) How do urban streams get high concentrations of Nitrogen and Phosphorus? They get high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus because of fertilizers, detergents, and products of sewage treatment plants. Eutrophication 1.) Define Eutrophication: the process by which a body of water develops a high concentration of nutrient. 2.) What is the solution to artificial or cultural eutrophication? People can use phosphate-free detergents, controlling nitrogen-free runoff from agricultural and urban lands. A Closer Look 19.2: Cultural Eutrophication in the Gulf of Mexico What is a dead zone and how is it created? A dead zone is where organic matter decomposes, oxygen is reduced and benthic community dies. This occurs after eutrophication occurs, phytoplankton increases but then they will eventually die off, which depletes the amount of oxygen in the water. Oil 1.) Which Environmental Act was created after the Exxon Valdez disaster? The Oil Pollution act of 1990 Sediment 1.) Why is sediment pollution considered to be a two-fold problem? It comes from erosion, which depletes a land resource at its site of origin, and it reduces the quality of the water resource it enters. 2.) What are some of the techniques employed by a sediment control program? Applying soil-conservation procedures to farmlands. Acid Mine Drainage 1.) Define Acid Mine Drainage and explain how it occurs:

 Water with a high concentration of sulfuric acid that drains from mines- mostly coal mines but also metal mines. It occurs when surface water or shallow ground water runs through or moves into and out of mines or tailings. 2.) What is the general equation for acid mine drainage? 4 Pyrite + 15Oxygen + 14Water= 4 Ferric Hydroxide (Fe (OH)3) + 8 sulfuric acid 3.) What site once designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as the nations worst hazardous waste site? In Tar Creek area of Oklahoma Surface Water Pollution 1.) 2.) 3.) What are some point sources of surface water pollution? Industries What are some non-point sources of surface water pollution? Runoffs What are the two approaches to dealing with surface water pollution? By reducing the sources and to treat the water to remove pollutants or convert them to forms that can be disposed safely

Groundwater Pollution 1.) 75 % of the 175,000 known waste disposal sites in the United States may be producing plumes of hazardous chemicals that are migrating into groundwater resources. 2.) What is bioremediation? A method of treating ground water pollution problems that utilizes microorganisms in the ground to consume or break down pollutants. 3.) What are the 5 important points about groundwater pollution? Some pollutants are lighter than water and thus float on the groundwater Some pollutants have multiple phases: liquid, vapor and dissolved Some pollutants are heavier than water and sink or move downward through groundwater The method used to treat or eliminate a water pollutant must take into account the physical and chemical properties of the pollutant and how these interact with surface water or groundwater Cleanup or treatment of water pollutants in groundwater is very expensive, and because undetected or untreated pollutants may cause environmental from entering groundwater in the first place 4.) What is saltwater intrusion of well water? As groundwater is removed near coastal areas, the subsurface outflow to the ocean decreases allowing saltwater to migrate inland. Wastewater Treatment 1.) Summarize how Septic Tank Sewage Disposal Systems work. The sewer line from the house leads to an underground septic tank in the yard. The tank is designed to separate solids from liquid, digest, and store organic matter through a period of detention, and allow the clarified liquid to discharge into the drain field from a piping system through which the treated sewage seeps into the surrounding soil. As the wastewater moves through the soil, it is further treated by the natural processes of oxidation and filtering. 2.) What happens during primary treatment of sewage?

 It removes large floating organic material from the raw sewage that entered the plant from the municipal sewer line. It enters the grit chamber which then removes sand and small stones. After that it goes into the primary sedimentation tank. 3.) What happens during secondary treatment of sewage? The most common treatment during the secondary treatment of sewage is known as activated sludge. That is when they use living organisms- mostly bacteria to consume organic material in the waste. After that the wastewater enters the final sedimentation tank, which is where sludge settles out. 4.) When is advanced wastewater treatment used? When both the primary and secondary wastewater treatment did not remove all of the pollutants that came from the sewage. 5.) What are some of the risks associated with Chlorine treatment of wastewater that is later discharged? It also produces minute quantities of chemical by-products, some of them have the potential of becoming hazardous to humans and other life forms. Land Application of Wastewater 1.) Explain the process of wastewater renovation and conservation cycle. It have to go through an initial filtrations for large object, primary anaerobic bed, and secondary anaerobic bed before actually getting reused. Wastewater and Wetlands 1.) How can applying treated sewage to wetlands be helpful to the wetland ecosystem? It is difficult to purchase traditional wastewater treatment plants. Water Reuse 1.) What is the difference between indirect and direct water reuse? Indirect water reuse is a planned endeavor. A direct water reuse is the usage of treated wastewater that is piped directly from a treatment plant to the next use. Environmental Laws Clean water act: seeks to clean up nations water to have drinkable and fishable waters Federal safe drinking water act: aims to provide all Americans with safe drinking water Water quality act: established national policy to control nonpoint sources of water pollution

How safe do you believe the drinking water is in your home? How did you reach your conclusion? Are you worried about low-level contamination by toxins in your water? What could the sources of contamination be? I think it is pretty clean because I get filtered water from a place that filters their water before selling it. I am a little bit worried about low-level contamination by toxins in my water, but it does not bother me to the point where I stop drinking it. The sources of contamination could be from the pipes that rusted over time. Read, Is Water Pollution from Pig Farms Unavoidable and answer the following: 1.) Why was pig farming such a controversy in North Carolina during this time? Pigs were dying from the contaminated floodwater 2.) What did pig farmers do with the pig waste? Why was this allowed?

 They used to put the pig waste into a pig-waste lagoon, but it over flowed so they dumped it into the New River estuary. People allowed that to happen because they did not think about the aftermath of the dumping. 3.) What is the lesson learned from North Carolinas Bay of Pigs? Do not dump pig poop into estuaries 4.) What legislation has been created as a result of this catastrophe? To ban construction or expansion of new waste lagoons and encouraged pig farms to treat pig waste to extract methane as an energy source. Study questions: 1.) Do you think outbreaks of waterborne diseases will be more common or less common in the future? Why? Where are outbreaks most likely to occur? No because I think that people can change. I think that the water would be cleaner in the future. These outbreaks are most likely to occur in less developing countries. 2.) How does water that drains from coal mines become contaminated with sulfuric acid? Why is this an important environmental problem? When the water flows into and out of tailings and mines. It is an important environmental problem because the water can leak out into the groundwater table. 3.) Do you think our water supply is vulnerable to terrorist attacks? Why? Why not? How could potential threats be minimized? I think that it is vulnerable to terrorist attacks because water can flow for thousands and thousands of miles, and it does not belong to anyone. Potential threats can be minimized. 4.) How would you design a system to capture runoff where you live before it enters a storm drain? I live in a cave so I do not need to worry about those things.