Water PollutionCobi Silverstein

Brendan KellyTodd Ryan

Definition

Water pollution is the pollution of water in rivers and lakes.

Causes: Some causes of water pollution are sewage and wastewater, marine dumping, industrial waste, radioactive waste, oil pollution, underground storage leakages, atmospheric deposition, global warming, and eutrophication.

Causes

Marine dumping: The dumping of litter can cause major problems in different bodies of water. Different items can cause ocean animals to die which could affect the food chains and ecosystem. Also, different items take different amounts of time to degrade in water.

For example: “Cardboard – Takes 2 weeks to degrade. Newspaper – Takes 6 weeks to degrade. Photodegradable packaging – Takes 6 weeks to degrade. Foam – Takes 50 years to degrade. Styrofoam – Takes 80 years to degrade. Aluminium – Takes 200 years to degrade. Plastic packaging – Takes 400 years to degrade. Glass – It takes so long to degrade that we don’t know the exact

time.”  

http://www.water-pollution.org.uk/marine.html

Examples

Ecological impacts: When there is pollution in the water, it could affect an entire ecosystem. If the water pollution causes the population of some animals to decrease, it could start to cause competition between other animals. These animals rely on the animals that are getting killed by the pollution. For example, if sharks eat fish and the fish are killed by the pollution, the sharks could be fighting with other sharks to consume the fish.

  

http://www.water-pollution.org.uk/causes.html

Ecological Impacts

Industrial dumping is very dangerous and heavy metals can accumulate in the water it is dumped in.

When these metals enter the water they effect the marine life there and also the humans that eat them.

When humans eat the contaminated marine life can be effected by slow development, birth defects, and carcinogenic.

Industrial waste contains toxic waste which when dumped in water will cause health effects to the aquatic life, some effects are mild others are fatal.

Microbial pollutants come from sewage and when it enters the water it effects the aquatic life, this also can effect human life usually though drinking water.

http://www.water-pollution.org.uk/health.html

Potential Human effects

The main and existing problems with water pollution are that all of the pollutants will and do effect the plant and marine life in bodies of water. There are things being done such as fines for dumping in bodies of water and throwing you trash in body of water. Not enough is being done to prevent water pollution although the fines have helped.

      http://ezinearticles.com/?Water-Pollution-Problem

s:-A-Real-Issue&id=346771

Problems

Prevention Laws  These are laws that have been put into effect to prevent any water

pollution. “In Europe, there have been a number of laws enforced to protect

the surrounding ocean from marine dumping. In 1989, the dumping of industrial waste was terminated in all

countries in North-Western Europe, apart from the UK. Dumping was terminated in the UK in 1993.

In 1990, the dumping of sewage sludge was terminated in all countries in North-Western Europe, apart from the UK. Dumping was terminated in the UK in 1998.

Guidelines have been developed and are currently being reviewed regarding the dumping of polluted materials.

Dumping of nuclear waste in European waters has been terminated since 1986.”

This is what has been done so far to help prevent water pollution.  http://www.water-pollution.org.uk/lawsandconventions.html

Solutions

More bills can be passed with large fines. The laws or act could be enforced more to make people take the laws seriously making people think twice before throwing trash or dumping harmful chemicals into the body of water.

Be proactive and go pick up garbage. Raise awareness of the dangers of water

pollution.

Our solutions

The Smith Sound is a passage between Greenland’s and Canada’s northernmost island.

All energy in the food chain comes from the sun, which then goes to the produces, diatoms.

Then diatoms are consumed by Primary consumers, Shrimp. Next the primary consumers are eaten by secondary consumers, Ocean Sunfish. Soon, the sunfish are consumed by a tertiary consumer, smaller sharks, which will be

consumed by quaternary consumers, larger sharks. Larger sharks are the top predator in this food chain.

Food Web

The biotic factors in this environment are the predators in the food chain and humans.

The abiotic factors include water pH, light, nutrients, oxygen, temperature, and turbulence.

Biotic and abiotic factors

The water Cycle plays a big role in water pollution.

The water cycle will rain down and the rain will cause runoff.

This run off will carry pollution into a body of water thus causing water pollution.

The Water Cycle

Predator/ Prey- A larger shark eating a marlin.

Commensalism- The sun provide the diatom with energy, which helps it survive while the sun is unaffected.

Competition- A lancet fish and a tuna compete for food which is a squid.

Symbiotic relationships

In our project, we reached out to the community by going to Echo Lake.

At Echo Lake we took pictures and got water samples. There was some pollution or garbage on river banks, but when we

took water samples, we learned that the water was very clean. The pH was 6.8, which is very similar to the tap water, which pH

was 6.9. This made it a very suitable place for aquatic life.

Community Outreach

If the water had been polluted then there would had been a big difference in the water.

The pH would have been more acidic and the water would have been unsuitable for any life.

There also most likely would have been pollution in the water. The water would have also been undrinkable. There would have also been a discoloration of the water, most likely cloudy

and muggy, not clear.

What if…

If the water had been polluted, then a possible solution would have been to have clean ups of the lake, hoping to reduce the pollution and hoping to make it suitable for life.

Then fines should have been put into effect. This would prevent any future dumping and would help

keep the lake clean and free from pollution.

Solution to the What if…

We took a survey of 14 people in class and these are the results.

What are Your views on water pollution? A. Very important 11 Students B. Somewhat important3 students C. Not important 0 students

Water pollution survey

What would you do to prevent water pollution? (Choose as many as you want)

A. Be proactive and go pick up garbage 2 Students

B. Try to have the government start a law which forces people/ dumping companies to pay a fine each time caught polluting the water 8 Students

C. Raise Awareness 7 Students

D. Do nothing at all 4 Students

Water pollution Survey

3. Have you ever tried to prevent water pollution? A. Yes 6 Students B. No 8 Students

Water pollution Survey

4. Do you think enough is being done to prevent water pollution?

A. Yes 0 Students B. No 14 Students

Water Pollution Survey

From our survey we found that many students agree that not enough is being done to prevent water pollution. We found that many students have not tried to prevent it either, but wish to do so. We also found that most people think water pollution is very important and something must be done to prevent it.

Water Pollution Survey

The main goals of our solution are to be proactive and to help save underwater wildlife.

Milestone goals to reach main goal: Be proactive and go pick up garbage. Try to have the government start a law which forces people/

dumping companies to pay a fine each time caught polluting the water.

Raise Awareness. There is no timetable for the project it depends on how

productive the community is. If the community works diligently and locate a certain area,

such as a small lake or river, it can be pollution free within a year or possibly less.

Strategic solution plan

Our plan provides participants with incentives because as you can see from our survey many people want to help out the community and its underwater water life.

It is worth their while because it will look nice in the community, it is a nice attraction, and it could possibly provide a new water source.

Good role models to get people to participate are Brendan Kelly and Cobi Silverstein.

They are well known and respected members of the community and have much experience in preventing water pollution.

The repercussion for not following the plan are that the lake will still be polluted.

Strategic solution plan

In our plan we will have many volunteers help clean up the body of water while also raising awareness about water pollution.

We will also try to get the government to pass more laws preventing water pollution.

Strategic solution plan

Our plan could join with biodiversity. Cleaning up water pollution could help conserve

biodiversity in lakes and rivers. By cleaning up the water pollution, the species of

fish living in these bodies of water will not be disrupted by pollution and allow them to live freely.

Strategic solution plan

The plan works because it has been done before. Trash causes water pollution and since the water

cycle brings trash in and out of the water because of run off, we can help out that body of water by collecting the trash when it comes to shore.

The data collected to support it is when we went to Echo Lake and picked up the minimal garbage there. This shows that it can be done and it can be effective.

Strategic solution plan

Our plan is realistic for small bodies of water, such as Echo Lake. In a larger body of water it would be very difficult to do it and it would take a greater amount of time.

We would focus on Echo Lake as our body of water to clean up. It is small and can be cleaned up in no time.

Strategic solution plan

There are no economic limitations in this plan because it is just volunteer work where this is very little to no money involved.

Strategic solution plan

The plan is somewhat creative because there is 3 different parts to it.

The parts are: Be proactive and go pick up garbage. Try to have the government start a law which

forces people/ dumping companies to pay a fine each time caught polluting the water.

Raise Awareness. The plan is pretty standard and we are not

thinking outside the box, but it only matters how effective it is.

Strategic solution plan

Once Echo Lake is pollution free, we can try to raise awareness throughout the county, encouraging the clean up of more lakes and rivers.

Strategic solution plan