Essay/Term paper: Water pollution

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Society

Water pollution needs to be stopped. Pollution of lakes rivers, streams, and oceans has been killing land and water animals for years. Polluting water is a horrible act and will be stopped. Water pollution kills all kinds of animals every year. Just 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. -Oil spills are one of--if not 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. (See graph on page 2 for more inf.) -Radioactive Waste is a very serious problem polluting the lakes and oceans. Submarines release some radioactivity into the water. If a submarine ever crashed enough radioactivity would be released to destroy a region of about 300 sq. miles (this happens because of the nuclear engines) -Human waste is when people dump their.... deification in the water and have sewer lines leading to water which also pollutes a lot (little streams lead to big lakes). Human waste is also when we dump garbage in the ocean because we cannot find places on land to dump it. Some more types of pollution are.. Infectious Gases, Plant nutrients that can simulate growth of aquatic plants which then interfere with water uses and, when decaying, deplete the dissolved oxygen and produce nasty odors. Exotic organic chemicals including: pesticides, various industrial products, detergents. petroleum, inorganic materials, nuclear power plants, industrial sites, medical and scientific use of radioactive materials. 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, that slowed in 1956 when the Federal Water Pollution Control Act was created. It 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. Eventually water pollution will cause there to be no life in the ocean, lakes, and rivers. All the dumping of waste into the water will cause all the water creatures to die off and there will be no tolerable areas for life or people to swim, or anything at all. I don't think many people disagree with saving the oceans and lakes, but many people still dump waste not knowing it or just not caring. It may be because of laziness, like not wanting to bring their oil to a place where it can be disposed of properly. Instead they dump it in the sewer or in a stream by their house. What they do not realize is that the Sewer eventually leads to a treatment plant which does a pretty good job in getting rid of pollution, but it may take a different route and leak into the ocean or another body of water. When you dump in a stream the pollution will eventually coat all the plants and trees and kill bugs, and other animals then it leaks into a lake and spreads out making the lake or river not tolerable to anything at all. Water pollution is horrible. Pollution kills millions of animals insects, and fish every year. And oil spills are happening almost every 3'rd year or every other year (just enough time to clean one and another comes along). The Exxon Valdez spilled over 11 million gallons of crude oil in 1989 because of somebody's carelessness. Water pollution is something that should have been stopped many years ago and still should be stopped. Why do we need to pollute the lakes, rivers, streams, and oceans? Millions of animals are killed by water pollution not to mention the 10,000,000 people who die each year from drinking polluted water. If we all would just spend a bit more time doing what is right and not be so lazy, we wouldn't be killing ourselves and animals. Please help stop polluting.