8.1 Sources of Pollution
A student sees and can point to a pipe adding chemicals from a nearby paint factory into a river. This is an example of a point or non-point source of pollution?
Point-Source, the student is able to clearly see where the pollution is coming from.
What do algal blooms do to the dissolved oxygen content?
They decrease the DO by suffocating life and requiring aerobic bacteria to break down the dead plants.
Endocrine disrupters can block receptors in a body that are meant to receive what instead?
Hormones
When the water gets warmer, the DO content (increases/decreases).
Decreases
Your Charmin Ultra Soft TP is removed during which step of the sewage process?
Primary Treatment
A person has noticed that the water that goes into the storm drains in his urban town tends to be discolored and comes from many different sources. Is this a point or non-point source?
Non-point source
Give an example of a source of cultural eutrophication.
Lawn and agricultural fertilizers.
Sewage treatment effluent.
CAFO animal waste.
What is the usual common source of the endocrine disrupters in the environment?
Human medications
Why is it important for DO levels to be above a certain level?
The water that leaves sewage treatment plants is called:
Effluent
Factories and sewage treatment plants are two common sites of which type of pollution?
Point Source
What is a common water pollutant that we tested in our lab that can tell us if there may be algal blooms possible in our water? (hint: it comes from a lot of fertilizers and is necessary for life)
Nitrates (Nitrogen would be acceptable)
How do endocrine disrupters usually get into the environment?
By humans flushing medications down the toilet or throwing them into the trash.
What is the main source of thermal pollution?
Power plants
200 Extra Points! First group to tell me why power plants heat up water so much.
Would we expect to find E. coli bacteria in treated water?
NO!!
100 BONUS POINTS! First group who can tell me why E. coli is in our sewage in the first place??
Which of the following examples includes both a point and a nonpoint source of pollution?
A. A factory smokestack and a sewage overflow
B. Runoff from city streets and pesticides from agricultural fields
C. Waste from animal feedlots and sediment from construction sites
D. Fertilizer from suburban lawns and wastewater from a water treatment plant
D.
Capping an oil spill is crucial in cleaning up the mess created from a leaking oil rig, but what other solution can be used? (think small)
Bacteria
200 EXTRA POINTS! First group who can tell me how at least two of these types of bacteria worked.
Which of the following is the most likely consequence of runoff transporting chemicals that are endocrine disruptors to a pond?
A. Decreased turbidity in the pond
B. Increased frequency of birth defects in fish populations in the pond
C. Increased mutualistic relationships between fish and frog populations in the pond
D. Increased dissolved oxygen in the pond
B
100 Bonus Points! First group to tell me what mutualistic means again! (think Unit 1)
A factory's cooling tower has just became broken, what is the main consequence to the fish populations in a nearby lake as a result of this event.
The fish population will decrease, as the higher water temperature leaving the factory will cause the lake's DO content to go down. This will leave the lake with less oxygen to support a larger population.
Sewage treatment plants cannot fully remove which three substances from the water?
Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Medications.
Name a specific endocrine disrupter that was used as pesticide on agricultural fields, but then began to have more serious effects on bird populations.
DDT
A local citizen science group is monitoring the water quality of a nearby lake. They gather water samples once a week on Wednesday between the hours of 7 A.M. and 9 A.M. from the same location. One day in August they were unable to sample within that time frame and collected the sample at 3 P.M.
How might this modification to the sampling procedure affect the water temperature and then how that would affect the DO result?
Water temperature would probably increase and then the DO result would be decreased compared to the normal testing time.