What are the diff types of water pollutants?
Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies (e.g. lakes, rivers, oceans, groundwater).
Water pollution affects plants and organisms living in these bodies of water; and, in almost all cases the effect is damaging either to individual species and populations, but also to the natural biological communities.
Water pollution occurs when pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds.
Causes of water pollution
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.
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.
Many of the chemical substances are toxic. Pathogens can produce waterborne diseases in either human or animal hosts. 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 a sanitary 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).
High levels of pathogens may result from inadequately treated sewage discharges. 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 cause sanitary sewer overflows. Some cities also have combined sewers, which may discharge untreated sewage during rain storms.
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, including fuels (gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuels, and fuel oil) and lubricants (motor oil), and fuel combustion byproducts, from stormwater runoff
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
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
Heavy metals from motor vehicles (via urban stormwater runoff) 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 (e.g. paper, plastic, or food waste) discarded by people on the ground, and that are washed by rainfall into storm drains and eventually discharged into surface waters
Nurdles, small ubiquitous waterborne plastic pellets
Shipwrecks, large derelict ships
Why are appex predators affected the most by pollutants and toxins in their environment?
What does this mean to you?
Here in California, mercury oozes into the streams because the entire state was once a cinnabar mine. Once the mercury is in the streams, it is consumed by small insects and then it is converted to highly toxic methyl mercury via their gastric juices. Now then, birds eat the insects and the methyl mercury is transformed into hydrocyanic methyl mercury due to their pancreas. Next, a small rodent, or feline, eats the bird. The hydrocyanic methyl mercury is converted within the intestines to cytochrome P450 cesium 137 hydrocyanic methyl mercury. At the very top of the food chain sits the mighty California electric S-35 limpet, the greatest and most dangerous apex predator of all time. They eat small cats & birds and therefore consume all the nasty toxins. It is very bad for their tummy! BLEACK. In conclusion, the mighty California electric S-35 limpet should stick to eating insects, or go vegan.
What does that mean for us? This was a question my Biology teacher asked. He gave us a "hint". You are what you eat. Please help me.
Apex predators are at the top of the food chain. pollutants and toxins get concentrated in these apex predators.
Overly simple example (and quite possibly not realistic….):
shrimp eat plankton (5000 a day)
fish eat shrimp (20 a day)
seals eat fish (10 a day)
polar bears eat seals (2 a day)
A polar bear therefor eats the equivalent of 2×10x20×5000=2.000.000 plankton a day.
Now, if the plankton absorbs a little bit of pollution, the polar bear will eat 2 million times that amount of pollution.
Considering WE are apex predators, the same happens to us…… pollutants and toxins get concentrated in us.
PLZ HELP ME!!!! i need the help..i have looked everywhere and cannot find out how they filter the water…
Surprised no one answered. One reason is the high level of biological activity, which consumes organic pollutants and inorganic fertilizing compounds. When it dies, the pants and bacteria that consumed these pollutants settles to the bottom and gets buried in place, rather than migrating downstream, effectively removing the nutrients and pollutants from the system.
Furthermore, because wetlands are low flow zones, solids settle out and become buried, removing a large proproportion of any contaminants that migrate as or with solids.
I need to know for my science project!
Acid rain is rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic. It has harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infastructure. Acid rain is mostly caused by human emissions of sulfur and nitrogen compounds which react in the atmosphere to produce acids
Acid rain" is a popular term referring to the deposition of wet (rain, snow, sleet, fog and cloudwater, dew) and dry (acidifying particles and gases) acidic components. A more accurate term is “acid deposition”. Distilled water, which contains no carbon dioxide, has a neutral pH of 7. Liquids with a pH less than 7 are acidic, and those with a pH greater than 7 are basic. “Clean” or unpolluted rain has a slightly acidic pH of about 5.2, because carbon dioxide and water in the air react together to form carbonic acid, a weak acid (pH 5.6 in distilled water), but unpolluted rain also contains other chemicals.[1]
H2O (l) + CO2 (g) → H2CO3 (aq)
Carbonic acid then can ionize in water forming low concentrations of hydronium ions:
2H2O (l) + H2CO3 (aq) CO32- (aq) + 2H3O+(aq)
The extra acidity in rain comes from the reaction of primary air pollutants, primarily sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides, with water in the air to form strong acids (like sulfuric and nitric acid). The main sources of these pollutants are industrial power-generating plants and vehicles.
A coal one :] im doing it for science homework, and i dont understand anything i search on the internet.
They emit CO2 and some CO along with other things. These are considered greenhouse gases. But depending on the other things mixed in with the fossil fuels it is not uncommon for considerable amounts of sulfates (especially in the case of coal which you specified), nitrates, phosphates, to be released into the atmosphere. These compounds can be very detrimental to the ecosystem because when they come into contact with water vapor, which is plentiful in our atmosphere, they form acidic solutions. Sulfate forms Sulfuric acid ( a stong 2-stage acid), Nitrate forms Nitric acid ( a strong monoprotic acid), and phosphate forms Phosphoric acid ( a weak polyprotic acid.) These acids can then fall to earth in the form of acid rain, which can be very taxing on the environment. The greenhouse gases and acid radicals are just 2 groups of pollutants and there are several more, but these seem to be the most controversy stirring of coal power plants.
Anyone know any of those gases or pollutants that harm human health and/or the environment? I’m looking for some that are directly related to waste, so like landfills, gases produced by burning waste and dumping waste in water. Anything helps.
Landfills are usually called Model Landfills and that will help you search.
It depends on the class of landfill.
A Class I is the most hazardous (other than weapons and nuclear waste. ) Where human trash and garbage are dumped is a class I. Think of all the things that you have put in a trashcan, or seen in a trashcan, or know goes into trash….Yucky. Now, rain on that, freeze it, heat it, thaw it.You have leachete. Liner and drains are built into every class 1 LF to keep leachete from hitting ground or water supplies.
A Class 4 is the least hazardous. It is usually untreated wood and old concrete. There is a small amount of chemicals, but class 4’s are usually lined w/ 2′ of clay materials.
There is everything in-between.
The gas that is formed on landfills is called methane. Waste Management has converted many of their sites to energy production. Methane is even converted to liquid for fuel in the heavy equipment that is part of the Landfill, Sanitary Landfill, Solid Waste Authorities etc.
How were these levels determined? Who sets these levels?
I can’t find any websites that talk about this :/ sooo please if you just give me a website thats really all I need.
Seach for "National Ambient air quality Standards" (NAAQS)
SO2: 0.14 ppm averaged over 24 hr period
NO2: 0.053 ppm averaged over 1 year period
CO: 35 ppm averaged over 1 hr period
O3: 0.075 ppm averaged over 8 hr period
PM2.5: 35 microgram/m^3 averaged over 24 hr period
(PM2.5 means Particulate Mater of 2.5 micrometer or less in size.)
please help! i have to write an essay on this.
The top of the food chain usually consumes a lot of pollutants from having eaten so many "contaminated" samples. It’s like being continuously exposed to something that is ok in small amounts.
In particular into a local stream and what effects would the pollutants have on the fish? I’ve done the other parts to the question and found about the other industries but this one has me stumped any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks 
In North America I would say that any water used in the processing or cleaning of any food plant needs to be treated through a lagoon or community sewage process they cannot just use the water and release it directly into a water source.Possible pollutants would be warm water fish like cold water to survive cold water has a higher oxygen content,unused and used food debris from processing,chemical additives for colouring and flavouring and preservatives,cleaning agents,lubricating and oils from the maintenance of equipment.