water pollution

Types and sources of water pollutants

Water bodies can be polluted by a wide variety of substances, including pathogenic microorganisms,
putrescible organic waste, fertilizers and plant nutrients, toxic chemicals, sediments, heat, petroleum (oil),
and radioactive substances. Several types of water pollutants are considered below

Sources:
Water pollutants come from either point sources or dispersed sources.
1. A point source is a pipe or channel, such as those used for discharge from an industrial facility or a city
sewerage system.
o easier to control than dispersed sources, because the contaminated water has been collected and
conveyed to one single point where it can be treated.
2. A dispersed (or nonpoint) source is a very broad unconfined area from which a variety of pollutants
enter the water body, such as the runoff from an agricultural area.
o is difficult to control, and, despite much progress in the building of modern sewage-treatment
plants, dispersed sources continue to cause a large fraction of water pollution problems.
Domestic sewage
Domestic sewage is the primary source of pathogens (disease-causing microorganisms) and putrescible
organic substances.
 Because pathogens are excreted in feces, all sewage from cities and towns is likely to contain
pathogens of some type, potentially presenting a direct threat to public health.
 Putrescible organic matter presents a different sort of threat to water quality. As organics are
decomposed naturally in the sewage by bacteria and other microorganisms, the dissolved oxygen
content of the water is depleted. This endangers the quality of lakes and streams, where high levels of
oxygen are required for fish and other aquatic organisms to survive.
 Sewage-treatment processes reduce the levels of pathogens and organics in wastewater, but they do not
eliminate them completely (see also wastewater treatment).

Domestic sewage is also a major source of plant nutrients, mainly nitrates and phosphates.
 Excess nitrates and phosphates in water promote the growth of algae.
 When the algae die, oxygen dissolved in the water declines because microorganisms use oxygen to
digest algae during the process of decomposition.
 Anaerobic organisms (organisms that do not require oxygen to live) then metabolize the organic
wastes, releasing gases such as methane and hydrogen sulfide, which are harmful to the aerobic
(oxygen-requiring) forms of life.
 The process by which a lake changes from a clean, clear condition—with a relatively low
concentration of dissolved nutrients and a balanced aquatic community—to a nutrient rich, algae-
filled state and thence to an oxygen-deficient, waste-filled condition is called eutrophication.
 Eutrophication is a naturally occurring, slow, and inevitable process. However, when it is accelerated
by human activity and water pollution (a phenomenon called cultural eutrophication), it can lead to
the premature aging and death of a body of water.
Solid waste
The improper disposal of solid waste is a major source of water pollution.
 Solid waste includes garbage, rubbish, electronic waste, trash, and construction and demolition
waste, all of which are generated by individual, residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial
activities.
 In some places solid waste is intentionally dumped into bodies of water. Land pollution can also
become water pollution if the trash or other debris is carried by animals, wind, or rainfall to bodies
of water. Solid waste pollution is unsightly and damaging to the health of aquatic ecosystems and
can harm wildlife directly.
 Many solid wastes, such as plastics and electronic waste, break down and leach harmful chemicals
into the water, making them a source of toxic or hazardous waste.

Toxic waste
Waste is considered toxic if it is poisonous, radioactive, explosive, carcinogenic (causing cancer), mutagenic
(causing damage to chromosomes), teratogenic (causing birth defects), or bioaccumulative (that is,
increasing in concentration at the higher ends of food chains).
Sources of toxic chemicals include improperly disposed wastewater from industrial plants and chemical
process facilities (lead, mercury, chromium) as well as surface runoff containing pesticides used on
agricultural areas and suburban lawns (chlordane, dieldrin, heptachlor). (For a more-detailed treatment of
toxic chemicals, see poison and toxic waste.)

Sediment
Sediment (e.g., silt) resulting from soil erosion or construction activity can be carried into water bodies by
surface runoff.
 Suspended sediment interferes with the penetration of sunlight and upsets the ecological balance of a
body of water.
 it can disrupt the reproductive cycles of fish and other forms of life, and when it settles out of
suspension it can smother bottom-dwelling organisms.

Thermal pollution
Heat is a water pollutant because it decreases the capacity of water to hold dissolved oxygen in solution, and
it increases the rate of metabolism of fish.
 Valuable species of game fish (e.g., trout) cannot survive in water with very low levels of dissolved
oxygen.
 A major source of heat is the practice of discharging cooling water from power plants into rivers; the
discharged water may be as much as 15 °C (27 °F) warmer than the naturally occurring water.
 The rise in water temperatures because of global warming can also be considered a form of thermal
pollution.

Petroleum (oil) pollution

Petroleum (oil) pollution occurs when oil from roads and parking lots is carried in surface runoff into water
bodies.
  Accidental oil spills are also a source of oil pollution—as in the devastating spills from the tanker
Exxon Valdez (which released more than 260,000 barrels in Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989)
and from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig (which released more than 4 million barrels of oil into the
Gulf of Mexico in 2010).
 Oil slicks eventually move toward shore, harming aquatic life and damaging recreation areas.

Aquifer
The process of saltwater intrusion into a coastal aquifer depends on how much water has been removed from
the fresh water aquifer. Aquifers whose waters are periodically recharged are able to keep salt water from
intruding.

Effects of water pollution on groundwater and oceans

Groundwater—water contained in underground geologic formations called aquifers—is a source of
drinking water for many people. For example, about half the people in the United States depend on
groundwater for their domestic water supply.
 Although groundwater may appear crystal clear (due to the natural filtration that occurs as it flows
slowly through layers of soil), it may still be polluted by dissolved chemicals and by bacteria and
viruses.
 Sources of chemical contaminants include poorly designed or poorly maintained subsurface sewage-
disposal systems (e.g., septic tanks), industrial wastes disposed of in improperly lined or unlined
landfills or lagoons, leachates from unlined municipal refuse landfills, mining and petroleum
production, and leaking underground storage tanks below gasoline service stations.
 In coastal areas, increasing withdrawal of groundwater (due to urbanization and industrialization)
can cause saltwater intrusion: as the water table drops, seawater is drawn into wells.

oceans
their natural capacity to absorb pollutants is limited.
 Contamination from sewage outfall pipes, from dumping of sludge or other wastes, and from oil
spills can harm marine life, especially microscopic phytoplankton that serve as food for larger
aquatic organisms.
 Sometimes, unsightly, and dangerous waste materials can be washed back to shore, littering beaches
with hazardous debris.
 By 2010, an estimated 4.8 million and 12.7 million tons (between 5.3 million and 14 million tons) of
plastic debris had been dumped into the oceans annually, and floating plastic waste had accumulated
in Earth’s five subtropical gyres that cover 40 percent of the world’s oceans.
 Another ocean pollution problem is the seasonal formation of “dead zones” (i.e., hypoxic areas,
where dissolved oxygen levels drop so low that most higher forms of aquatic life vanish) in certain
coastal areas. The cause is nutrient enrichment from dispersed agricultural runoff and concomitant
algal blooms.
 Dead zones occur worldwide; one of the largest of these forms annually in the Gulf of Mexico,
beginning at the Mississippi River delta.

 Solutions
 Control of Water Pollution
 Chemical treatment  non-toxic
o Less stable chemicals in manufacture of insecticides
o Oxidation ponds to reduce radioactive waste
 Thermal pollution reduced by: cooling ponds, evaporative ponds, dry cooling towers
 Domestic and industrial waste stored in shallow ponds: natural decomposition by bacteria in sunlight
 Polluted water is reclaimed by sewage treatment and reused in industrial processes.
Three stages: primary secondary tertiary
o Primary: removes particular matter by sedimentation coagulation/flocculation filtration
disinfection
o Secondary: removes organic solids by: softening
o Tertiary: remove nutrients, pathogenic bacteria, and aeration to remove hydrogen sulphide
 Strict legislation

Water Logging and Salinity

 Water Logging: Crop root-zone deprived of proper aeration due to the presence of excessive moisture
or water content – saturation of soil with water (water table high)
 Salinity: accumulation of salts in soil impacting human and natural assets
Types of salinity:
o Primary - natural
o Secondary – anthropogenic (urbanization, agriculture)
Cause of water logging and salinization in Pakistan:
 High water table: (capillary action)
 Hot dry climate:
 Inadequate irrigation supplies:
 Inadequate Drainage:
 Seepage from canals:
 Over-irrigation of fields

Effects of water logging

 Creation of anaerobic condition in the crop root-zone
 Growth of water-loving wild plants
 Impossibility of tillage (the preparation of land for growing crops) operations
 Accumulation of harmful salts
 Lowering of soil temperature
 Reduction in time of maturity
Water logging and salinity in Pakistan:
 Affects 25% of irrigated lands
 Punjab and Sindh: 48% saline; 18% strongly saline
 3.0 million acres has become uncultivable
Each year, 0.1 million acres becoming affected.
Remedial Measures
 Primary method – permit 10-20% of the irrigation water to leach the soil, be drained and discharge
through an appropriate drainage system. Salt import = salt export. •
 Drainage: (channels, perforated pipes)
 Afforestation on saline waterlogged soil: (planting tolerant trees)
 Controlling the loss of water due to seepage form the canals
 Preventing the loss of water due to percolation from fields and field channels
 Quick disposal of rainwater
 Installation of lift irrigation systems: (Tubewells)
 Engineering approach (Drainage scheme)
 Reclamation approach (use of chemical amendments)
 Bio-saline approach (Re-vegetation of salt-affected lands using salt-tolerant crops.)

Drinking Water Quality

 It is a measure of the condition of water relative to requirements of human needs or purpose.

 Depends upon three things,
1. Dissolved oxygen
2. Bio-chemical oxygen demand
3. Chemical oxygen demand
1. Dissolved Oxygen
 Amount of oxygen dissolved in water  solution
o Oxygen enters from atmosphere and photosynthesis
o Concentration range of 4pm-8pm
o It will indicate quality of water
o DO<4  polluted water
2. Bio-chemical oxygen demand
 BOD is the dissolved oxygen needed by aerobic biological organisms to break down organic material
present in each water at a certain temperature over specific period of time.
 In water body BOD should be less.
3. Chemical Oxygen Demand
 Chemical oxygen demand measures the oxygen required to oxidize organic matter in water and
wastewater sample by the action of strong oxidizing agent.
 COD is directly proportional to water pollution.

WHO's Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality

 WHO's Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality, set up in Geneva, 1993, and are the international
reference point for standard setting and drinking-water safety. However, a country can either adopt these
standards or devise its own because these are not binding on any country.
 Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency finalized National Standards for Quality Drinking Water
in June 2008. These standards state that drinking water must be free of suspended solids, micro-
organisms, and toxic chemicals.