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Lesson 3 Water Pollution

This document provides an overview of water pollution including its causes, effects, and categories. It discusses major categories of water pollutants such as those that cause health problems like infectious agents and organic/inorganic chemicals, as well as those that cause ecosystem disruption like sediment, plant nutrients, oxygen-demanding wastes, and thermal pollution. Specific examples are given for each category. The sources, effects, and examples of various types of water pollution like eutrophication, acids and bases, oil spills, sediments, and thermal pollution are described.

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30 views4 pages

Lesson 3 Water Pollution

This document provides an overview of water pollution including its causes, effects, and categories. It discusses major categories of water pollutants such as those that cause health problems like infectious agents and organic/inorganic chemicals, as well as those that cause ecosystem disruption like sediment, plant nutrients, oxygen-demanding wastes, and thermal pollution. Specific examples are given for each category. The sources, effects, and examples of various types of water pollution like eutrophication, acids and bases, oil spills, sediments, and thermal pollution are described.

Uploaded by

jisas cries
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Lesson 3: Water Pollution

In this lesson you will learn about water pollution, its causes and effects, categories, and
ways to manage waste water sources.

Learning Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
∙ Identify the various effects of environmental pollution and describe the engineer's role in the
manipulation of materials and resources.
∙ Identify the sources of pollution and discuss how to control them

Major Categories of Water Pollutants


Category Examples Sources

A. Causes Health Problems

1. Infectious Agents Bacteria, viruses, parasites Human and animal excreta

2. Organic Chemicals Pesticides, plastics, Industrial, household, and farm


detergents, oil and gasoline use

3. Inorganic Chemicals Acids, caustics, salts, metals Industrial effluents,


household cleansers,
surface runoff

4. Radioactive materials Uranium, thorium, Mining and processing of


production, natural sources cesium, iodine, radon ores, power plants, weapons
B. Causes Ecosystem Disruption

1. Sediment Soil, silt Land erosion

2. Plant Nutrients Nitrates, phosphates, Agricultural and urban


ammonium fertilizers, sewage manure

3. Oxygen-demanding wastes Animal manure and Sewage, agricultural runoff,


plant residues paper mills, food processing

4. Thermal Heat Power plants, industrial cooling

Source: (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2015)


Eutrophication
- Oligotrophic (oligo = little + trophic = nutrition) – rivers and lakes that have clear water and low
biological productivity.
- Eutrophic (eu + trophic = truly nourished) – waters that are rich in organisms and organic
materials. Eutrophication is an increase in nutrient levels and biological productivity. - As with
BOD, nutrient enrichment sewage, fertilizer run -off, even decomposing leaves in street gutters
can produce human-caused increase in biological productivity called cultural eutrophication.
This can also result from higher temperatures, more sunlight reaching the water surface, or a
number of other changes.

Source: Batangas News, 2015

Calumpang River with eutrophication


Source: Andal, 2019

Calumpang River with eutrophication

- Acids and Bases - Acids are released as by-products of industrial processes, such as leather
tanning, metal smelting and plating, petroleum distillation, and organic chemical synthesis.

- Coal mining is an especially important source of acid water pollution.


- Where soils are rich in such alkaline material as limestones, atmospheric acids have little effect
because they are neutralized.
- Aquatic damage due to acid precipitation has been reported in about 200 lakes in the
Adirondack Mountains of New York State and in several thousand lakes in eastern Quebec,
Canada.
- Game fish, amphibians, and sensitive aquatic insects are generally the first to be killed by
increased acid levels in the water.
- If acidification is severe enough, aquatic life is limited to a few resistant species of mosses and
fungi.
- Increased acidity may result in leaching of toxic metals, especially aluminum, from soil and
rocks, making water unfit for drinking or irrigation, as well.
- Human activities may themselves reduce natural recharge, so ground water consumed may not
be replaced, even slowly.

Organic Pollutants
- Include drugs, pesticides, and other industrial substances

Oil Spills
- On July 3, 2020, an oil spill from a power barge in Iloilo City due to an explosion and the oil
reached Guimaras.
Source: Yap, 2020

Iloilo oil spill


Sediments
- Erosion and runoff from croplands contribute about 25 billion metric tons of soil, sediment, and
suspended solids to world surface waters each year.

Source: Slavikova, 2018

Sediment erosion in coastal area


Thermal Pollution
- Raising or lowering water temperatures from normal levels can adversely affect water quality
and aquatic life.

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