Final Year Project: Water Pollution

Urban areas have the potential to pollute water in many ways. Runoff from streets carries oil, rubber, heavy metals, and other contaminants from automobiles. Untreated or poorly treated sewage can be low in dissolved oxygen and high in pollutants such as fecal coliform bacteria, nitrates, phosphorus, chemicals, and other bacteria. Treated sewage can still be high in nitrates. Groundwater and surface water can be contaminated from many sources such as garbage dumps, toxic waste and chemical storage and use areas, leaking fuel storage tanks, and intentional dumping of hazardous substances. Air pollution can lead to acid rain, nitrate deposition, and ammonium deposition, which can alter the water chemistry of lakes.

Following is an overview of the problem, and some suggestions on how you can help keep storm drains clean.

Household Hazardous Waste

Pollution: Many household products we use daily contain toxic materials that can threaten public health and the environment. Drain and oven cleaners, paint thinners, and bathroom cleaners are just a few of the items we use that can cause serious health and environmental problems.

Solution:

Dispose of all unused household hazardous wastes at your local disposal site.
Use natural alternatives.

Fertilizers

Pollution: Fertilizers contain large amounts of chemicals that are good for lawns and plants when used properly. The main chemicals contained in fertilizers are nitrogen and phosphorus. These two chemicals can cause accelerated growth of aquatic plants in leading to oxygen depletion and large fish kills.

Solution:

If you spill fertilizers, sweep them up, do not wash them into the streets and storm drains.
Never apply fertilizers before a heavy rain is anticipated.
Do not over apply fertilizers. More application does not mean a greener lawn, it means more watering and mowing. Testing soil.

Pesticides and Herbicides

Pollution: Pesticides and herbicides contain toxic materials that pose both environmental and human health risks. Humans, animals, aquatic organisms, and plants can be severely threatened by these chemicals. The toxins found in pesticides and herbicides can runoff lawns and gardens into storm drains and streams whenever it rains.

Solution:

Minimize the use of pesticides and herbicides and use alternatives if possible.
Make sure that all directions and warnings are read before use.

Paint

Pollution: When improperly used, paint can poison people and animals. Lead is an especially harmful content of some paints.

Solution:

Donate your old paint to community groups.
Dispose of oil-based and lead paints at your local household hazardous waste collection site

Anti-freeze

Pollution: Anti-freeze can seriously deplete oxygen from water, and can be harmful to all plant and animal life, including humans.

Solution:

Recycle your used anti-freeze.
Do not mix used anti-freeze with any other material.

Motor Oil

Pollution: Motor oil can damage or even kill aquatic vegetation and animal life. An oil slick - contaminating two million gallons of drinking water - can develop from one quart of oil.

Solution:

Recycle your used motor oil.
Never pour used motor oil down a storm drain or onto your grass or driveway.

Street Litter and Plastic

Pollution: Large quantities of street litter ends up floating in streams, rivers and lakes. Street litter is often made of plastics. Plastics take hundreds of years to biodegrade and can be harmful to birds and animals who mistake them for food.

Solution:

Put litter into garbage cans, never throw it into storm drains or the street.
Recycle as much plastic and other materials as possible.

Yard Waste

Pollution: Yard waste can clog storm drains making it difficult to carry away excessive amounts of water during storms.

Solution:

Remove soil, leaves, and grass clippings form your driveway, street, or sidewalk.
Compost grass clippings and other plant waste.

Pet Waste

Pollution: If left on yards, pet waste can release untreated bacteria and other harmful materials into streams.

Solution:

Bury or flush pet wastes down the drain.

Water pollution can affect us:

Directly – through consumption or bathing in a polluted stream (that involve consumption of municipal water, as well as bathing in polluted lakes or beach water).
Indirectly – through the consumption of vegetables irrigated with contaminated water, as well as of fish or other animals that live in the polluted water or consume animals grown in the polluted water. This is many times more dangerous than being directly affected through consumption of water because some pollutants bioaccumulate in fish and living organisms (their concentration in fish could be several orders of magnitude higher than their water concentration). Additionally the toxins from the brown tide are strong and can travel via air affecting homeowners close to the beach.

Water may commonly be polluted by two main categories of pollutants (dissolved or suspended in water):

Chemicals – including natural or man-made (xenobiotics) chemicals that gets into a water body (dissolved or dispersed in the water) reaching concentrations of health concern; please note that similar with the case of air pollutants, the presence of such pollutants in water is not always obvious and may not be detected by our senses. Common problematic chemicals getting into water are pesticides, chlorinated solvents, petroleum chemicals, mercury, PCBs, dioxins and other persisting organic pollutants; as well as any of the tens of thousands of chemicals used in industrial processes.
Living organisms (as long as they are induced by human activity; please note that some waters unaffected by human activity may still be naturally polluted with some of these organisms – in which case, the caused diseases may not be seen as pollution diseases):

Pathogens – including a variety of living organisms (usually from animal waste) such as various species of viruses, bacteria, fungi and intestinal worms. Their presence in water, many times, remains unnoticed.
Algae – some types of algae are toxic and may overgrow due to the presence of nitrates and phosphates in runoff water (especially agricultural runoff); such overgrowth is usually referred to as “red tide” or “brown tides”. Their toxin may affect the food chain including fish and birds, and ultimately humans. Oxygen depletion in polluted water is another serious problem responsible for killing fishes. All over the world.

While the most common water pollution diseases involve poisoning episodes affecting the digestive system and human infectious diseases, water pollution may cause a large variety of health diseases including:

Infectious diseases caused by pathogens (usually microorganisms) from animal fecal origins, of which the most common occur in developing countries involving:

Typhoid
Giardiasis
Amoebiasis
Ascariasis
Hookworm

Diseases caused by polluted beach water including:

Gastroenteritis
Dhiarrhea
Encephalitis
Stomach craps and aches
Vomiting
Hepatitis
Respiratory infections

Liver damage and even cancer (due to DNA damage) – caused by a series of chemicals (e.g., chlorinated solvents, MTBE)
Kidney damage caused by a series of chemicals
Neurological problems - damage of the nervous system – usually due to the presence of chemicals such as pesticides (i.e., DDT)
Reproductive and endocrine damage including interrupted sexual development, inability to breed, degraded immune function, decreased fertility and increase in some types of cancers – caused by a series of chemicals including endocrine disruptors – which
Thyroid system disorders (a common example is exposure through perchlorate which is a chemical contaminating large water bodies such as Colorado River)
Increased water pollution creates breeding grounds for malaria-carrying mosquitoes killing 1.2-2.7 million people a year
A series of less serious health effects could be associated by bathing into contaminated water (i.e, polluted beach water) including: