Modules 43-45

Oil Pollution, Non-Chemical Water Pollution and Water Pollution Laws

Module Introduction:

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• Petroleum products are highly toxic to many marine organisms, including birds, mammals, and fish, as well as to algae and microorganisms that form the base of the aquatic food chain.
• Oil is a persistent substance that can spread below and across the surface of the water for hundreds of kilometers and leave shorelines with a thick, viscous covering that is extremely difficult to remove.
• When we think about water pollution, we most commonly envision scenes of dirty water contaminated with toxic chemicals.
• Though such scenarios certainly receive a great deal of public attention, there are other, less familiar types of water pollution.
• A country's water quality improves when its citizens demand it and the country is affluent enough to afford measures to clean up pollution and to take steps to prevent it in the future.

Module Introduction (Continued):

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• The many sources of oil pollution and then talk about some of the ways currently used to clean up oil and to reduce its harmful effects.
• Four types of nonchemical water pollution: solid waste, sediment, heat, and noise.
• The U.S. laws that protect water from pollution and ensure safe drinking water. We will also examine how laws in developing nations are changing to address water pollution.

Modules 43, 44 and 45

Additional Resources

• Bozeman: Water Pollution
• NRDC: Water Pollution
• PBS: How noise pollution from humans is wreaking havoc on U.S. wildlife
• Overheard: The Canary of the Sea

Essential Knowledge

7.8 Noise Pollution (Module 44)

• Noise pollution is sound at levels high enough to cause physiological stress and hearing loss.
• Sources of noise pollution in urban areas include transportation, construction, and domestic and industrial activity.
• Some effects of noise pollution on animals in ecological systems include stress, the masking of sounds used to communicate or hunt, damaged hearing, and causing changes to migratory routes.

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Essential Knowledge

8.1 Sources of Pollution (Modules 41, 42, 43, 57)

• A point source refers to a single, identifiable source of a pollutant, such as a smokestack or waste discharge pipe.
• Nonpoint sources of pollution are diffused and can therefore be difficult to identify, such as pesticide spraying or urban runoff.

8.3 Endocrine Disruptors (Modules 42, 44, 57)

• Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that can interfere with the endocrine system of animals.
• Endocrine disruptors can lead to birth defects, developmental disorders, and gender imbalances in fish and other species.

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Essential Knowledge

8.2 Human Impacts on Ecosystems (Module 43)

• Organisms have a range of tolerance for various pollutants. Organisms have an optimum range for each factor where they can maintain homeostasis. Outside of this range, organisms may experience physiological stress, limited growth, reduced reproduction, and in extreme cases, death.
• Coral reefs have been suffering damage due to a variety of factors, including increasing ocean temperature, sediment runoff, and destructive fishing practices.
• Oil spills in marine waters cause organisms to die from the hydrocarbons in oil. Oil that floats on the surface of water can coat the feathers of birds and fur of marine mammals. Some components of oil sink to the ocean floor, killing some bottom-dwelling organisms.
• Oil that washes up on the beach can have economic consequences on the fishing and tourism industries.

Essential Knowledge

8.2 Human Impacts on Ecosystems (Continued)

• Oceanic dead zones are areas of low oxygen in the world’s oceans caused by increased nutrient pollution.
• An oxygen sag curve is a plot of dissolved oxygen levels versus the distance from a source of pollution, usually excess nutrients and biological refuse.
• Heavy metals used for industry, especially mining and burning of fossil fuels, can reach the groundwater, impacting the drinking water supply.
• Litter that reaches aquatic ecosystems, besides being unsightly, can create intestinal blockage and choking hazards for wildlife and introduce toxic substances to the food chain.
• Increased sediment in waterways can reduce light infiltration, which can affect primary producers and visual predators. Sediment can also settle, disrupting habitats.
• When elemental sources of mercury enter aquatic environments, bacteria in the water convert it to highly toxic methylmercury.

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Essential Knowledge

8.6 Thermal Pollution (Module 44)

• Thermal pollution occurs when heat released into the water produces negative effects to the organisms in that ecosystem.
• Variations in water temperature affect the concentration of dissolved oxygen because warm water does not contain as much oxygen as cold water.

Essential Knowledge

8.9 Solid Waste Disposal (Modules 44, 51-54)

• Solid waste is any discarded material that is not a liquid or gas. It is generated in domestic, industrial, business, and agricultural sectors.
• Solid waste is most often disposed of in landfills. Landfills can contaminate groundwater and release harmful gases.
• Electronic waste, or e-waste, is composed of discarded electronic devices including televisions, cell phones, and computers.
• A sanitary municipal landfill consists of a bottom liner (plastic or clay), a storm water collection system, a leachate collection system, a cap, and a methane collection system.
• Factors in landfill decomposition include the composition of the trash and conditions needed for microbial decomposition of the waste.

Essential Knowledge

8.9 Solid Waste Disposal (Modules 44, 51-54)

• Solid waste can also be disposed of through incineration, where waste is burned at high temperatures. This method significantly reduces the volume of solid waste but releases air pollutants.
• Some items are not accepted in sanitary landfills and may be disposed of illegally, leading to environmental problems. One example is used rubber tires, which when left in piles can become breeding grounds for mosquitoes that can spread disease.
• Some countries dispose of their waste by dumping it in the ocean. This practice, along with other sources of plastic, has led to large floating islands of trash in the oceans. Additionally, wildlife can become entangled in the waste, as well as ingest it.

Oil Pollution�

• Petroleum products are highly toxic to many marine organisms, including birds, mammals, and fish, as well as to the algae and microorganisms that form the base of the aquatic food chain.
• One source of oil in the water comes from drilling for undersea oil using offshore platforms, but oil pollution can also occur through natural seeps in the ocean.
• Oil and other petroleum products can also enter the oceans as spills from oil tankers such as with the Exxon-Valdez Spill in Alaska (1989) and the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico (2010) also known as Deepwater Horizon.

There are natural and anthropogenic sources of oil pollution.

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Oil contamination in the ocean, both (a) in North America and (b) worldwide, comes from a variety of sources including natural seeps, extraction of oil from underneath the ocean, transport of oil by tanker or pipeline, and consumption of petroleum-based products.

Major Oil Spills

Exxon Valdez

• On March 24, 1989 the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of oil.
• The spill affected more than 1,300 miles of shoreline, with immense impacts for fish and wildlife and their habitats, as well as for local industries and communities.

Deep Water Horizon

• On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion, which killed 11 men, caused the rig to sink and started a catastrophic oil leak from the well.
• Before it was capped three months later, approximately 134 million gallons of oil had spilled into the Gulf, the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Remediation Strategies for Oil Pollution

Containment

Booms keep the floating oil from spreading, then boats equipped with giant oil vacuums suck up as much oil as possible.

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Chemicals

Chemicals break up the oil on the surface, making it disperse before it hits the shoreline.

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“The solution to pollution is dilution”

(it rhymes so it must be true, right?)

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Bacteria:

A particular bacterium consumes oil; scientists are currently trying to genetically engineer the bacterium to consume oil even faster. Also known as bioremediation.

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Remediation: the process of restoring an area to its original state following a disturbance or pollution event.

Booms

• Booms are floating, physical barriers to oil, made of plastic, metal, or other materials, which slow the spread of oil and keep it contained.

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The Outlaw Ocean

A great (optional) resource for understanding the impacts of society on the oceans is The Outlaw Ocean podcast which based on the book of the same name.

• Episodes #1-4 explore human rights issues and the lack of law enforcement on the oceans.
• Episode #5 (Waves of Extraction) covers overfishing and the environmental impacts of industrial fishing.
• Episode #6 (The Magic Pipe) explores the water pollution including intentional oil releases and plastic pollution.

This is probably beyond this course and the AP Exam, but still interesting and relevant!

Solid Wastewater Pollution

• Solid waste includes garbage and the sludge produced by sewage treatment plants.
• Garbage on beaches and in the ocean is dangerous to both marine organisms and people.
• In the United States the practice of dumping garbage in the ocean was curtailed in the early 1980s.
• The problem remains in many developing countries.

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Sediment Pollution

• Sediment Pollution: A form of water pollution in which soil particles and sediment are suspended in water.
• 30 percent of all sediments in our waterways come from natural sources while 70 percent comes from human activities.

Problems with sedimentation:

• Suspension of soil particles cause waterways to become brown and cloudy, increasing turbidity (the measure of relative clarity of a liquid).
• Reduced infiltration of sunlight lowers productivity of aquatic plants and algae.
• Sediments clog gills and prevent aquatic organisms from obtaining oxygen.

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Thermal Pollution

• Thermal pollution: Nonchemical water pollution that occurs when human activities cause a substantial change in the temperature of water.
• Thermal shock: A dramatic change in water temperature that can kill organisms. 
• One common solution to thermal pollution at power plants is the use of cooling towers that release the excess heat into the atmosphere instead of into the water.
• Thermal pollution increases water temperature, which lowers DO and increases the metabolic rate of organisms which raises BOD, further decreasing DO.

Boundaries for the AP Exam

• Except for the concept of turbidity, the specifics of visual stream assessment are probably beyond this course and the AP Exam, focus on the big ideas!
• Specifics on the macroinvertebrates/epifauna and rainbow trout (e.g. species of epifauna, trout life cycle, etc.) are probably beyond this course and the AP Exam, but still interesting and relevant!
• You should understand more general concepts like how macroinvertebrates/epifauna and rainbow trout serve as indicator species.
• Indicator species are absolutely fair game on exams.

Visual Stream Assessment

• A stream is a complex ecosystem in which several biological, physical, and chemical characteristics interact.
• Changes in any one characteristic has cascading effects throughout the system.

Streams are evaluated visually on a number of factors:

• Odor, turbidity, surface coating and stream flow.
• Stream width, depth and velocity.
• Land use characteristics and litter concentration.
• Channel alteration, occurence of riffles (e.g. small rapids), streambank stability and riparian zone width.

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Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of water, caused suspended particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of water quality.

Riparian: Wetland ecosystems adjacent to rivers and streams.

Stream and Riparian Health

More complex streams/riparian zones are healthier:

• A mix of ecosystem types such as snags, submerged logs, undercut banks and stream velocities all help provide habitat for epifauna and fish species → higher biodiversity.
• Stream bottoms should be a mix of sediment, gravel, rocks and boulders to provide habitat for fish spawning and native aquatic plant growth.
• Vegetative growth improves habitat by expanding canopy cover, providing climate control, reducing water temperatures and improving dissolved oxygen content for sensitive, native species like trout.
• Wider riparian vegetation zones improve stream health by acting as a buffer to human activities and pollution including road salt.

Epifauna: animals living on the surface of the seabed or a riverbed, or attached to submerged objects or aquatic animals or plants. Also known as macroinvertebrates.

Macroinvertebrates and Stream Health

• Macroinvertebrates, particularly aquatic insects, serve as valuable biological indicators of stream health, reflecting the overall condition of the water body.
• The presence, absence, and diversity of indicator species like macroinvertebrates provide insights into water quality, habitat conditions, and the presence of pollution.

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Aquatic macroinvertebrates are small organisms that have no internal skeletal system and live part or all of their lives in water. They are ubiquitous in freshwater ecosystems around the world. They comprise a rich and diverse group of organisms that includes insect larvae, worms, snails, crayfish, and other crustaceans, such as clam shrimp, fairy shrimp, and water fleas. Also known as epifauna.

Conservation Spotlight:

Rainbow Trout

• Rainbow trout are an oxygen loving species and therefore inhabit cold streams and rivers since colder water holds more dissolved gasses than warmer water.
• They live on a gravelly bottom with enough vegetation that provides shelter.
• Because of their high water quality and habitat requirements, trout are valuable indicators of healthy aquatic ecosystems.

Indicator species are defined as species which can provide information on ecological changes and give early warning signals regarding ecosystem processes in site-specific conditions due to their sensitive reactions to them.

Noise Pollution

• Noise pollution is sound at levels high enough to cause physiological stress and hearing loss.
• Noise pollution can occur in aquatic and terrestrial habitats and sources of noise pollution in urban areas include transportation, construction, and domestic and industrial activity.
• Noise pollution can cause hearing loss and make it more difficult to communicate as well as increase stress factors → high blood pressure, heart disease and sleep disturbances.
• Many children who live near noisy airports or streets have been found to suffer from stress and other problems, such as impairments in memory, attention level, and reading skill.

Check Out This Resource:

Noise Pollution from National Geographic

Noise Pollution and Wildlife

• Animals use sound for a variety of reasons, including to navigate, find food, attract mates, and avoid predators. Noise pollution makes it difficult for them to accomplish these tasks, which affects their ability survive.
• Sounds emitted by ships and submarines can interfere with animal communication. Especially loud sonar can negatively affect species such as whales that rely on low-frequency, long-distance communication. Check out The Canary of the Sea for more.
• An increased awareness of noise pollution in the ocean has inspired some shipbuilders to design ships equipped with quieter propellers. 

Water Pollution Laws

• Flint, Michigan and Newark, NJ have both experienced highly detrimental impacts of water pollution such as lead contamination. The CWA and SDWA seek to prevent this from happening.
• The Clean Water Act (CWA) issued water quality standards that defined acceptable limits of various pollutants in U.S. waterways.
• The Safe Water Drinking Act (SDWA) establishes maximum contaminant levels (MCL) for 77 different elements or substances in both surface water and groundwater.
• Key Point: The Clean Water Act only applies to surface waters, while the Safe Drinking Water Act applies to surface AND groundwater.
• Maximum contaminant level (MCL): The standard for safe drinking water established by the EPA under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

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APES Exam Environmental Legislation: Clean Water Act (1972)

• The Clean Water Act (CWA) establishes the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States and regulating quality standards for surface waters.
• The basis of the CWA was enacted in 1948 and was called the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, but the Act was significantly reorganized and expanded in 1972. "Clean Water Act" became the Act's common name with amendments in 1972.
• Under the CWA, EPA has implemented pollution control programs such as setting wastewater standards for industry.
• EPA has also developed national water quality criteria recommendations for pollutants in surface waters.

APES Exam Environmental Legislation: Clean Water Act (1972)

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• The Clean Water Act establishes a “No Net Loss” policy for wetland protection.
• The goal of the policy is to balance wetland loss due to economic development with wetlands reclamation, mitigation, and restorations efforts, so that the total acreage of wetlands in the country does not decrease, but remains constant or increases.
• Most recently the US Supreme Court weakened this protection.

APES Exam Environmental Legislation: Safe Drinking Water Act (1974)

• The Safe Drinking Water Act was established to protect the quality of drinking water in the U.S.
• This law focuses on all waters actually or potentially designed for drinking use, whether from above ground or underground sources.
• The Act authorized EPA to establish safe standards of purity and required all owners or operators of public water systems to comply with primary (health-related) standards.
• State governments, which assume this power from EPA, also encourage attainment of secondary standards (nuisance-related).

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Safe Drinking Water Act

This Table is for context, not memorization!

Safe Drinking Water Act

This Table is for context, not memorization!

Patterns in Water Pollution Legislation

• Water pollution legislation is becoming more common in the developing world where water quality has historically suffered from political corruption and instability.
• Developed countries have addressed the problems of pollution by cleaning up polluted areas and by passing legislation to prevent pollution in the future. 
• Developing countries are still in the process of industrializing and are less able to afford water-quality improvements
• Developing countries suffer from the additional pollution of industrialization, but also benefit economically from the additional jobs and industrial spending. And as a nation becomes more affluent, it has more resources available to address environmental issues.

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Patterns of Water Quality in NJ

• The New Jersey Integrated Water Quality Assessment Report (Integrated Report) is a compilation of information about the quality of New Jersey's surface waters.
• The NJDEP’s findings underscore the overall low water quality in NJ.

“The waters of New Jersey are exceptionally stressed. As the most densely populated state in the country, numerous pollutants from point and nonpoint sources are impacting water quality.”

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Interactive map

This is probably beyond this course and the AP Exam, but still interesting and relevant!

Water Pollution in Ringwood, NJ

• Heart of Ringwood
• In the 1960s and 70s the Ford Motor Company turned Ringwood’s mines into a toxic waste dump. An overwhelming majority of the community’s residents are Native Americans of the Ramapough Lenape Nation. Today the community is gripped by cancer and other diseases that residents believe are tied to the Ford chemical dump.
• When the EPA put the Ringwood Mines on the Superfund list, a shoddy cleanup left so much pollution behind that the site had to be relisted. A second try at cleaning up the mess is now underway. As climate change brings increasingly heavy rains to the area, a nearby reservoir, essential to the water supply, is threatened with runoff contaminated by toxic chemicals in the groundwater.

This is probably beyond this course and the AP Exam, but still interesting and relevant!

Module Review:

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• Oil pollution in water comes from both natural sources and human activity and can be devastating to plants and animals.
• We have developed several ways to help clean up oil spills.
• There are several nonchemical forms of water pollution. Solid waste pollution comes from garbage, sludge, and the ash and slag produced by burning coal.
• Sediment pollution consists of soil particles that erode from the land and are carried downstream in streams and rivers where they can reduce light penetration, clog the gills of aquatic organisms, and add nutrients to aquatic ecosystems.

Module Review (Continued):

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• Thermal pollution typically happens when industrial processes take in cool water from water bodies, use the water to cool their equipment, and then return much warmer water to the water body.
• Noise pollution from ships, sonar, and air guns exploring for energy deposits has the potential to interfere with the communication of aquatic animals in the ocean, including whales.
• The Clean Water Act is designed to protect surface water from pollution, but it does not protect groundwater.
• In contrast, the Safe Water Drinking Act sets maximum levels for microorganisms, disinfectants, organic chemicals, and inorganic chemicals in drinking water.

Module Review (Continued):

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• Whereas developed countries have gone through periods of large-scale water pollution as they industrialized, they have since passed many laws to improve water quality.
• Developing countries are currently experiencing industrialization and widespread water pollution.
• As these countries become more affluent, it is expected that they will also turn their attention to improving water quality.