Water pollution 

is the contamination of water bodies (e.g. lakes, rivers, oceans and groundwater). Water

pollution occurs when pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies without
adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds.

Water pollution affects plants and organisms living in these bodies of water; and, in almost all cases
the effect is damaging not only to individual species and populations, but also to the
natural biological communities. Introduction

Millions depend on the polluted Ganges river.

Water pollution is a major global problem. It has been suggested that it is the leading worldwide cause of
deaths and diseases,[1][2] and that it accounts for the deaths of more than 14,000 people daily.[2] An estimated
700 million Indianshave no access to a proper toilet, and 1,000 Indian children die of diarrheal sickness every
day.[3] Some 90% of China's cities suffer from some degree of water pollution,[4] and nearly 500 million people
lack access to safe drinking water.[5] In addition to the acute problems of water pollution in developing
countries, industrialized countries continue to struggle with pollution problems as well. In the most recent
national report on water quality in the United States, 45 percent of assessed stream miles, 47 percent of
assessed lake acres, and 32 percent of assessed bay and estuarine square mileswere classified as polluted.
[6]

Water is typically referred to as polluted when it is impaired by anthropogenic contaminants and either does
not support a human use, such as drinking water, and/or undergoes a marked shift in its ability to support its
constituent biotic communities, such as fish. Natural phenomena such as volcanoes, algae blooms, storms,
and earthquakes also cause major changes in water quality and the ecological status of water.

Categories
Surface water and groundwater have often been studied and managed as separate resources, although they
are interrelated.[7] Surface water seeps through the soil and becomes groundwater. Conversely, groundwater
can also feed surface water sources. Sources of surface water pollution are generally grouped into two
categories based on their origin.

Point sources
Point source pollution - Shipyard - Rio de Janeiro.

Point source water pollution refers to contaminants that enter a waterway from a single, identifiable source,
such as apipe or ditch. Examples of sources in this category include discharges from a sewage
treatment plant, a factory, or a city storm drain. The U.S. Clean Water Act (CWA) defines point source
for regulatory enforcement purposes.[8] The CWA definition of point source was amended in 1987 to
include municipal storm sewer systems, as well as industrial stormwater, such as from construction sites.[9]

Non–point sources
Non–point source (NPS) pollution refers to diffuse contamination that does not originate from a single
discrete source. NPS pollution is often the cumulative effect of small amounts of contaminants gathered from
a large area. A common example is the leaching out of nitrogen compounds from fertilized agricultural lands.
Nutrient runoff in stormwater from "sheet flow" over an agricultural field or a forest are also cited as examples
of NPS pollution.

Contaminated storm water washed off of parking lots, roads and highways, called urban runoff, is sometimes
included under the category of NPS pollution. However, this runoff is typically channeled into storm drain
systems and discharged through pipes to local surface waters, and is a point source. However where such
water is not channeled and drains directly to ground it is a non-point source.

Groundwater pollution
See also: Hydrogeology

Interactions between groundwater and surface water are complex. Consequently, groundwater pollution,

sometimes referred to as groundwater contamination, is not as easily classified as surface water pollution.
[7]
 By its very nature, groundwater aquifers are susceptible to contamination from sources that may not
directly affect surface water bodies, and the distinction of point vs. non-point source may be irrelevant. A spill
or ongoing releases of chemical or radionuclide contaminants into soil (located away from a surface water
body) may not create point source or non-point source pollution, but can contaminate the aquifer below,
defined as a toxin plume. The movement of the plume, called a plume front, may be analyzed through
a hydrological transport model or groundwater model. Analysis of groundwater contamination may focus on
the soil characteristics and site geology, hydrogeology, hydrology, and the nature of the contaminants.
Causes
The specific contaminants leading to pollution in water include a wide spectrum of chemicals, pathogens, and
physical or sensory changes such as elevated temperature and discoloration. While many of the chemicals
and substances that are regulated may be naturally occurring (calcium, sodium, iron, manganese, etc.)
the concentration is often the key in determining what is a natural component of water, and what is a
contaminant. High concentrations of naturally-occurring substances can have negative impacts on aquatic
flora and fauna.

Oxygen-depleting substances may be natural materials, such as plant matter (e.g. leaves and grass) as well
as man-made chemicals. Other natural and anthropogenic substances may cause turbidity (cloudiness)
which blocks light and disrupts plant growth, and clogs the gills of some fish species.[10]

Many of the chemical substances are toxic. Pathogens can produce waterborne diseases in either human or
animal hosts.[11] Alteration of water's physical chemistry includes acidity (change in pH), electrical
conductivity, temperature, and eutrophication. Eutrophication is an increase in the concentration of chemical
nutrients in an ecosystem to an extent that increases in the primary productivity of the ecosystem. Depending
on the degree of eutrophication, subsequent negative environmental effects such as anoxia (oxygen
depletion) and severe reductions in water quality may occur, affecting fish and other animal populations.

Pathogens

A manhole cover unable to contain asanitary sewer overflow.

Coliform bacteria are a commonly used bacterial indicator of water pollution, although not an actual cause of
disease. Other microorganisms sometimes found in surface waters which have caused human health
problems include:

 Burkholderia pseudomallei
 Cryptosporidium parvum
 Giardia lamblia
 Salmonella
 Novovirus and other viruses
 Parasitic worms (helminths).[12][13]
High levels of pathogens may result from inadequately treated sewage discharges.[14] This can be caused by
a sewage plant designed with less than secondary treatment (more typical in less-developed countries). In
developed countries, older cities with aging infrastructure may have leaky sewage collection systems (pipes,
pumps, valves), which can causesanitary sewer overflows. Some cities also have combined sewers, which
may discharge untreated sewage during rain storms.[15]

Pathogen discharges may also be caused by poorly managed livestock operations.

Chemical and other contaminants

Muddy river polluted by sediment. Photo courtesy of United States Geological Survey.

Contaminants may include organic and inorganic substances.

Organic water pollutants include:

 Detergents
 Disinfection by-products found in chemically disinfected drinking water, such as chloroform
 Food processing waste, which can include oxygen-demanding substances, fats and grease
 Insecticides and herbicides, a huge range of organohalides and other chemical compounds

 Petroleum hydrocarbons, include oxygen-demanding substances, fats and grease

 Insecticides and herbicides, a huge range of organohalides and other chemical compounds
 Petroleum hydrocarbons, including fuels (gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuels, and fuel oil) and lubricants
(motor oil), and fuel combustion byproducts, from stormwater runoff[16]
 Tree and bush debris from logging operations
 Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as industrial solvents, from improper storage. Chlorinated
solvents, which are dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs), may fall to the bottom of reservoirs,
since they don't mix well with water and are denser.
 Various chemical compounds found in personal hygiene and cosmetic products
A garbage collection boom in an urban-area stream in Auckland, New Zealand.

Inorganic water pollutants include:

 Acidity caused by industrial discharges (especially sulfur dioxide from power plants)

 Ammonia from food processing waste
 Chemical waste as industrial by-products
 Fertilizers containing nutrients--nitrates and phosphates--which are found in stormwater runoff
from agriculture, as well as commercial and residential use[16]
 Heavy metals from motor vehicles (via urban stormwater runoff)[16][17] and acid mine drainage
 Silt (sediment) in runoff from construction sites, logging, slash and burn practices or land clearing
sites

Macroscopic pollution—large visible items polluting the water—may be termed "floatables" in an urban

stormwater context, or marine debris when found on the open seas, and can include such items as:

 Trash or garbage (e.g. paper, plastic, or food waste) discarded by people on the ground, along with
accidental or intentional dumping of rubbish, that are washed by rainfall into storm drains and eventually
discharged into surface waters
 Nurdles, small ubiquitous waterborne plastic pellets
 Shipwrecks, large derelict ships
Potrero Generating Station discharges heated water into San Francisco Bay.[18]

Thermal pollution
Main article: Thermal pollution

Thermal pollution is the rise or fall in the temperature of a natural body of water caused by human influence.
Thermal pollution, unlike chemical pollution, results in a change in the physical properties of water. A
common cause of thermal pollution is the use of water as a coolant by power plants and industrial
manufacturers. Elevated water temperatures decreases oxygen levels (which can kill fish) and
affects ecosystem composition, such as invasion by new thermophilicspecies. Urban runoff may also elevate
temperature in surface waters.

Thermal pollution can also be caused by the release of very cold water from the base of reservoirs into
warmer rivers.

Transport and chemical reactions of water pollutants

See also: Marine pollution

Most water pollutants are eventually carried by rivers into the oceans. In some areas of the world the
influence can be traced hundred miles from the mouth by studies using hydrology transport models.
Advanced computer models such asSWMM or the DSSAM Model have been used in many locations
worldwide to examine the fate of pollutants in aquatic systems. Indicator filter feeding species such
as copepods have also been used to study pollutant fates in the New York Bight, for example. The
highest toxin loads are not directly at the mouth of the Hudson River, but 100 kilometers south, since several
days are required for incorporation into planktonic tissue. The Hudson discharge flows south along the coast
due to coriolis force. Further south then are areas of oxygen depletion, caused by chemicals using up oxygen
and by algae blooms, caused by excess nutrients from algal cell death and decomposition. Fish
and shellfish kills have been reported, because toxins climb the food chain after small fish
consume copepods, then large fish eat smaller fish, etc. Each successive step up the food chain causes a
stepwise concentration of pollutants such as heavy metals (e.g. mercury) and persistent organic
pollutants such asDDT. This is known as biomagnification, which is occasionally used interchangeably with
bioaccumulation.

A polluted river draining an abandonedcopper mine on Anglesey

Large gyres (vortexes) in the oceans trap floating plastic debris. The North Pacific Gyre for example has
collected the so-called "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" that is now estimated at 100 times the size of Texas.
Many of these long-lasting pieces wind up in the stomachs of marine birds and animals. This results in
obstruction of digestive pathways which leads to reduced appetite or even starvation.

Many chemicals undergo reactive decay[disambiguation needed] or chemically change especially over long periods of
time in groundwater reservoirs. A noteworthy class of such chemicals is the chlorinated hydrocarbons such
astrichloroethylene (used in industrial metal degreasing and electronics manufacturing)
and tetrachloroethylene used in the dry cleaning industry (note latest advances in liquid carbon dioxide in dry
cleaning that avoids all use of chemicals). Both of these chemicals, which are carcinogens themselves,
undergo partial decomposition reactions, leading to new hazardous chemicals (including dichloroethylene
and vinyl chloride).

Groundwater pollution is much more difficult to abate than surface pollution because groundwater can move
great distances through unseen aquifers. Non-porous aquifers such as clays partially purify water of bacteria
by simple filtration (adsorption and absorption), dilution, and, in some cases, chemical reactions and
biological activity: however, in some cases, the pollutants merely transform to soil contaminants.
Groundwater that moves through cracks and cavernsis not filtered and can be transported as easily as
surface water. In fact, this can be aggravated by the human tendency to use natural sinkholes as dumps in
areas of Karst topography.
There are a variety of secondary effects stemming not from the original pollutant, but a derivative condition.
An example is silt-bearing surface runoff, which can inhibit the penetration of sunlight through the water
column, hamperingphotosynthesis in aquatic plants.