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You are here: Home Services Pollution Water pollution Pollution of groundwater rivers, lakes and streams. These facilities reduce the amount of pollutants such as pathogens, phosphorus, and nitrogen in sewage, as well as heavy metals and toxic chemicals in industrial waste, before discharging the treated waters back into waterways.
Big spills may dominate headlines, but consumers account for the vast majority of oil pollution in our seas, including oil and gasoline that drips from millions of cars and trucks every day. Moreover, nearly half of the estimated 1 million tons of oil that makes its way into marine environments each year comes not from tanker spills but from land-based sources such as factories, farms, and cities.
At sea, tanker spills account for about 10 percent of the oil in waters around the world, while regular operations of the shipping industry—through both legal and illegal discharges—contribute about one-third. Oil is also naturally released from under the ocean floor through fractures known as seeps. Radioactive waste is any pollution that emits radiation beyond what is naturally released by the environment.
Radioactive waste can persist in the environment for thousands of years, making disposal a major challenge. Accidentally released or improperly disposed of contaminants threaten groundwater, surface water, and marine resources. To put it bluntly: Water pollution kills. In fact, it caused 1. Contaminated water can also make you ill.
Every year, unsafe water sickens about 1 billion people. And low-income communities are disproportionately at risk because their homes are often closest to the most polluting industries. Waterborne pathogens, in the form of disease-causing bacteria and viruses from human and animal waste, are a major cause of illness from contaminated drinking water. Diseases spread by unsafe water include cholera, giardia, and typhoid.
Even in wealthy nations, accidental or illegal releases from sewage treatment facilities, as well as runoff from farms and urban areas, contribute harmful pathogens to waterways.
Meanwhile, the plight of residents in Flint, Michigan —where cost-cutting measures and aging water infrastructure created the recent lead contamination crisis—offers a stark look at how dangerous chemical and other industrial pollutants in our water can be. The problem goes far beyond Flint and involves much more than lead, as a wide range of chemical pollutants—from heavy metals such as arsenic and mercury to pesticides and nitrate fertilizers —are getting into our water supplies.
Children and pregnant women are particularly at risk. Even swimming can pose a risk. Every year, 3. In order to thrive, healthy ecosystems rely on a complex web of animals, plants, bacteria, and fungi—all of which interact, directly or indirectly, with each other.
Harm to any of these organisms can create a chain effect, imperiling entire aquatic environments. When water pollution causes an algal bloom in a lake or marine environment, the proliferation of newly introduced nutrients stimulates plant and algae growth, which in turn reduces oxygen levels in the water.
In certain cases, these harmful algal blooms can also produce neurotoxins that affect wildlife, from whales to sea turtles. Chemicals and heavy metals from industrial and municipal wastewater contaminate waterways as well. Marine ecosystems are also threatened by marine debris , which can strangle, suffocate, and starve animals.
Much of this solid debris, such as plastic bags and soda cans, gets swept into sewers and storm drains and eventually out to sea, turning our oceans into trash soup and sometimes consolidating to form floating garbage patches. Discarded fishing gear and other types of debris are responsible for harming more than different species of marine life.
Indirect sources of water pollution include contaminants that enter the water supply from soils or groundwater systems and from the atmosphere via rain. Soils and groundwaters contain the residue of human agricultural practices and also improperly disposed of industrial wastes. Types of water pollutants Pollutants can be of varying kinds: organic, inorganic, radioactive and so on.
In fact, the list of possible water contaminants is just too vast to be listed here. You may not redistribute, sell or place the content of this page on any other website or blog without written permission from the author Mandy Barrow. Homework Help. River Keyword Search. River Severn River Thames Many towns and factories are built near rivers so that they can use water from the river.
Pollution can be in a variety of forms: Rubbish like crisp packets, newspaper and bags. Green algae Factories Factories use water from rivers to power machinery or to cool down machinery. People People are sometimes careless and throw rubbish such as bottles and crisp packets directly into rivers.
Effects of pollution Pollution kills water plants and animals.
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