Pollution Of Lakes And Other W Essay, Research Paper

Pollution of lakes, rivers, streams, and oceans has been killing land and water animals for years. Water pollution kills all kinds of animals every year. The EXXON VALDEZ oil spill near anchorage Alaska caused over 3,000 otters to die, 36,000 different kinds of seabirds were killed and over 100 eagles. The Exxon Valdez spilled over 11 million gallons of crude oil in 1989 because of somebody’s carelessness. Oil spills are one of the worst types of pollution. They happen most often in the ocean and then get spread around by tides and currents where they enter streams and rivers and cover everything. They kill life and pollute more in a short amount of time than pesticides and human waste combined in about 1 year. Human waste is when people dump their excretions in the water and have sewer lines leading to water, which also pollutes a lot (little streams lead to big streams). Human waste is also when we dump garbage in the ocean because we cannot find places to dump it on land. Water pollution was originally caused by need of space to dump trash. I can say that the major sources in general that cause water pollution are Municipal, Agricultural, and Industrial. The dumping of garbage was caused by the lack of space in landfills. Instead of recycling some people started dumping the trash in the water, however that slowed down in 1956 when the Federal Water Pollution Control Act was created. Dumping slowed almost to a halt in 1977 when the Clean Water Act was created. But, it still happens. Company’s still dump waste in the ocean, streams, and rivers even though it is against the law. Since at least 1993, the gas industry has known that manometers were a potential source of environmental problems. In a 1993 study conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Gas Research Institute in Chicago, it warned that manometers, which are used at wellheads to measure gas pressure and at metering sites, are a potential serious problem because of the toxicity of mercury. Every couple of years, you have to clean out the manometers and put new, fresh clean mercury in them. It was cheaper to dump out the mercury than to try and recover it. But that was in the old days, law forbids dumping now. There has been ongoing investigations in Chicago and worldwide, and the EPA is worried old meters and gas lines are leaking more mercury then we think. This is another way water is polluted, through water running and picking up toxic materials as they go, and there are several others. Radioactive Waste is a very serious problem polluting the lakes and oceans. Submarines release some radioactivity into the water. At least 20 nuclear bomb carrying U.S. subs are at sea 24 hours a day, each ready to fire on virtually any target in 15 minutes. One U.S. Trident submarine carries the explosive power of 1,000 Hiroshima bombs. The locations of these subs are the most closely guarded of secrets. There are already five nuclear powered submarines on the floor of the world’s oceans. Two of them are American and three are Russian. Each is leaking radioactivity into the ocean and, ultimately, into the food chain and the web of life. So for we have been lucky enough that none of these subs reactors have let their poison out yet. And we are still building more! Nine nuclear submarines are under construction in the U.S. alone and more have been ordered. I doubt that many people realize how dangerous these subs are. In the United States, industry is another greatest source of pollution, accounting for more than half the volume of all water pollution and for the most deadly pollutants. Some 370,000 manufacturing facilities use huge quantities of freshwater to carry away wastes of many kinds. The waste-bearing water, or effluent, is discharged into streams, lakes, or oceans, which in turn disperse the polluting substances. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported to Congress in 1996 that approximately 40% of the nation s surveyed lakes, rivers, and estuaries were too polluted for such basic uses as drinking supply, fishing, and swimming. The pollutants include grit, asbestos, phosphates and nitrates, mercury, lead, caustic soda and other sodium compounds, sulfur and sulfuric acid, oils, and petrochemicals. Numerous manufacturing plants pour off undiluted corrosives, poisons, and other noxious byproducts. The construction industry discharges slurries of gypsum, cement, abrasives, metals, and poisonous solvents. Another pervasive group of contaminants entering food chains is the polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) compounds, components of lubricants, plastic wrappers, and adhesives. In yet another instance of pollution, hot water discharged by factories and power plants causes so-called thermal pollution by increasing water temperatures. Such increases change the level of oxygen dissolved in a body of water, thereby disrupting the water s ecological balance, and killing off some plant and animal species while encouraging the overgrowth of others. There are plenty other ways that we pollute and polluting is such a crime, legally and morally. Maybe someday we can control our selves and it ll be a better day. Until then, well we will see!

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