Hodgepodge
Sets standards for pollution levels in water - to make safe for swimming and fishing.
Clean Water Act of 1977
Majority of water usage in the world
What is agriculture use?
What are amphibians?
Discharge of cooling water from power plants
What is thermal pollution? Fish kills due to low oxygen levels.
What is Minamata Disease (cause and description)
Acute mercury poisoning caused by methylmercury discharged in bay from a factory in Japan. Affects vision, hearing, muscle coordination (neurotoxin).
What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and 2 main environmental impacts of it?
What is a larger area with high concentration of microscopic and larger plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean?
Marine organisms mistake the plastic for food (starvation); the plastic carries toxins which affect animals that consume it.
What is the difference between clear, grey, and black water?
Clear: Potable
Grey: From showers, dishwashing, laundry - can be re-used in toilets and lawn watering
Black - sewage water, from toilets, etc.
Difference between point and nonpoint source pollution
Point - clearly identifiable source. Nonpoint - comes from diffuse sources.
Cholera enters the water supply
What is a pathogen? OR what is biological pollution?. Can cause cholera. dyssentary, etc.
RAPID FIRE: 3 Examples of nonpoint source pollution and 3 of point source
Will vary. NP: EX: cars leaking oil, fertilizer runoff (lawns/agriculture), eroding streambanks, etc.
PT: factory smokestack; sewage outlet pipe, underground gas tanks,
RAPID FIRE: Negative effects of building a dam (9 examples); 3 positive effects
NEG: Examples will vary but may include - habitat alteration - flooding upstream and downstream deprived of nutrient rich seds; warmer downstream waters; decline of fisheries/block fish migration; capturing of sediment, increasing evaporation; political tensions (water wars) ETC.
POS: Energy; drinking and irrigation water course; recreation; flood control
Name one agriculture and one industrial solution to freshwater depletion
Agriculture: replacing crops that need a lot of water in places with adequate rainfall OR What is drip irrigation Industry: recycling cooling water
Two main pollutants leading to eutrophication
nitrates and phosphates
DDT and PCBs
What are POPs (persistent organic pollutants). DDTs- thin eggshells - Bald Eagles. PCBs- damage liver and kidneys; Puget Sound Orcas
What is an oxygen sag curve and what causes it?
A region of high BOD and low DO downstream of a source of organic matter, caused by aerobic bacteria decomposition of the organic matter consuming oxygen.
The main way water is wasted for each type of water use (agricultural, industrial, municipal)
Agriculture - evaporation (lesser runoff and seepage)
Industrial - discharge of cooling water
Residential - leaks
Rapid Fire: 9 ways to conserve water in your home (inside or outside)
Inside: Low flow faucets, greywater system; run full loads (dishes, laundry), shorter showers, turn off water while brushing teeth, FIX LEAKS.
Outside: rainbarrels; drip irrigation; xeriscaping,
BONUS - What is largest daily use of household water?
What is eutrophication? How does it harm aquatic ecosystems?
Algal blooms caused by excess nutrients leading to a sudden explosion of algal growth. Leads to low oxygen levels/dead zones
Mercury and Lead
Heavy Metals. Toxcity. Lead - learning disorders (Flint MI water supplies); Hg - seizures (Minamata)
Day Zero refers to
The day Capetown South Africa was to turn off municipal water supplies due to severe water shortage (all household water had to be hauled manually).
BONUS: What would have been the per person allotment of water?
RAPID FIRE: Parts of the hydrological cycle (6)
evaporation - condensation - precipitation - transpiration - runoff - infiltration.
3 characteristics of pollutants that biomagnify.
1) long-lived 2) fat-soluble 3) concentrated by producers
The greatest pollutant by volume and mass
What is sediment pollution? Runoff - smothering corals leading to bleaching.