Clean Water Act Lab

In the Chemistry of Natural Waters Lab we were to collect a sample of water, ranging from a fountain, stream, bottle, or tap water. After we collected the samples we all did many tests to see what the hardness was for each one. Water hardness is determined by the amount of Calcium and Magnesium in the water.(2) Water that has more Calcium or Magnesium is considered to be harder than water with less of those two elements. When you use soap and detergent, this is where you see water hardness coming into play in everyday life when you are washing things.

Throughout my experiment my control acted normally, the daphnia had average movement and calm manner. On a scale from 1 to 5 I ranked the control group as a 3 for normal movement and health. When I introduced car antifreeze to my pure water daphnia there was an immediate change in the color of the daphnia, their bodies turned from a white opaque color to a light pink (the same color as the antifreeze). Not only did the physical appearance change but their behavior became more aggressive and panicked. As time passed the daphnia moved in a circular motion and the chemical caused one of their antennas to cripple. The antifreeze surprisingly resulted in no deaths so I gave the effect of antifreeze to daphnia a 2 (table 2 and 2B). When exposed

Please briefly describe the different types of water pollution mentioned throughout the "Poisoned Waters" video. Fertilizers, Nitrogen and Phosphorous caused algae which poisoned the waters. It caused a dead zone. The farmers who own chickens was allowing the manure to pollute the water. The humans race is all responsible as we pollute our water by throwing garbage into it. Soap, household cleaning agents, toothpaste, and other plastic, lubricant and fuels are all poisoning our water.

Entine states, “…we are dependent on synthetic, as well as natural, chemicals for treating disease and improving both longevity and the quality of life. Both natural and synthetic chemicals are integral to all aspects of modern life” (bish 13) In other words, these processes are not something that can be avoided, as they are standard procedure. Use of pesticides is for the safety of those who consume the food often. When discussing Glyphosate, there is no clear cut answer. Tension and confusion continue to grow, partly due to common chemophobic tendencies. While the definitive conclusion on the product is not clear, the inclination to expect the worst is revealed. As the safety of the product can be seen as evidence to support the safety of Glyphosate, there can at least be a consensus that more research should be conducted before defaulting to fear and

Introduction/General Information: The problem in this experiment was how laundry detergent, a solution that is used to clean clothes in a washing machine, affects the Daphnia’s behavior and heart rate. The hypothesis for this experiment is when the laundry detergent was added to the Daphnia’s water, the heart rate will speed up and trigger movement throughout the Daphnia and then eventually cause it to die. A Daphnia is a microscopic water crustacean that is usually used as food for aquarium fish. Daphnia are sometimes put into water systems to test the water to see if it is healthy or not because they are quick to sense a change in water that may be hazardous. The independent variable is the toxin put into the Daphnia’s water, the dependent variable would be how the Daphnia reacts to the toxin. The controlled variables would be its heart rate and behavior before the toxin was put into its water.

7. The Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 established the basic framework for protecting the drinking water of the United States. Most ground water used for drinking water occurs near the earth’s surface and is easily contaminated .The major concern is the potential contamination of underground sources of the drinking water by any of the hundreds or thousands of subsurface wastewater disposal .Waste disposal wells dispose of approximately more than 11% of the nation’s toxic fluid waste. The injection wells can be good or bad and cause a major problem. Some of the wells are used many different ways like for a aquifer recharge and the production of oil, gas, or minerals. Also for improper usage as disposal of toxic and hazardous waste. The EPA

The Rio Grande River is currently on the 303(d) list of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The lower Sub-Basin from International Falcon Reservoir downstream to the Gulf of Mexico is lacking infrastructure to adequately handle the environmental consequences of human and industrial waste generation and disposal on the U. S side in locations such as Harlingen, TX. The Rio Grande is mostly affected by the high volumes of dissolved solids, such as salinity and bacteria. The U.S is working to introduce a common set of standards that can be agreed on by both countries.

Although the growing concern about cyanobacterial blooms, as well as the intoxication by cyanotoxins worldwide, in the United States there is not any regulation for cyanobacteria or cyanotoxins levels in the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) or in the Clean Water Act (CWA) (USEPA, 2015a). Since the SDWA provides the authority for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to publish health advisories (HAs) for agents that do not have any national drinking water regulation. Therefore, USEPA is the agency that is responsible for the implementing and enforcing of the guidelines, standards or HAs related to cyanotoxins. Based on this, during summer 2015, the USEPA issued a 10 days HAs for two cyanotoxins:

The use of insecticides (kills bugs) has declined since these crops were introduced in the 1990s, but the use of herbicides (kills weeds) has risen dramatically. The majority of soybeans and other GMO crops grown in this country are genetically altered to be resistant to glyphosate, a weed killer known as Roundup. Roundup is manufactured by Monsanto. Monsanto also produces seeds that makes crops that have the ability to grow even being soaked with the herbicide. There has been almost a tenfold increase in the use of Roundup since that technology was introduced in 1996, with over 500 million pounds of

Round-up is a chemical based product used in most of the growing of food products in grocery stores across the world. Although many chemicals are used, glyphosate is the base of the herbicide. Glyphosate has been used for many years now and has had many negative results in relations with humans and animals. When used on the crops in GMO harvests, the chemical tends to stay on the crop permanently. Then the product is then grow and sold in stores, it has been found that glyphosate appears in the human body after consuming foods that, although aren’t labeled, are GMO. One study on groups of rats by French scientists showed that the herbicide caused large tumors all over the body, leaving scientists and the media wondering if the chemical could be cancer-causing to humans as

Over the years many requests have been made for new regulations pertaining to the “waters of the United States”, adopted in 1986 under the Clean Water Act (Clean Water Rule, 2015, p. 165). Advocating change were “members of Congress, developers, farmers, state and local governments, energy companies, and many others requested new regulations to make the process of identifying waters protected under the CWA clearer, simpler, and faster” (Clean Water Rule, 2015, p.13). In response to these requests the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers published the “Clean Water Rule: Definition of “Waters of the United States” federal regulation (80 Fed. Reg. 37054) on June 29, 2015 (Clean Water Rule, 2015, p.13).

Drinking water quality was not a concern until the last century when the use of chemicals was greatly expanded. Chemicals are used to kill weeds, insects, and other pests. Chemicals are typically sprayed on an area and are designed not to harm the crop, grass, or other plants that you want to remain. This mass application procedure allows much-unutilized chemical to soak into the soil and eventually leach into the

Crops, such as corn, soybean, and cotton, which are grown in the United States, are subject to weed management. One method that growers use to manage this issue is with the use of glyphosate. However, weeds have evolved to become glyphosate-resistant (GR). Growers were forced to introduce a mixture of different herbicides into their soils to combat such weeds (Green & Owen, 2011). One such commonly used mixed-herbicide is Roundup which contains three different types of herbicides: glyphosate, Monsato, and St. Louis. Roundup is safe for growers because it is not only efficient in preventing plant growth, it is minimally toxic to soil. Roundup-resistant genes may be introduced into crops which allow growers to freely use the herbicide for effective and safe weed management (Day,

There primary function of Clean Water Act is to devise the fundamental structure to control expulsion of polluted material into the U.S waters and implementing quality principles for surface water. In the light of this Act, several pollution control programs have been implemented by Environmental Protection Agency comprising developing standards against water wastage for manufacturing firms (Stern & Kollikkathara, 2008). It has also defined principles interrelated to quality of water for all pollutants in surface water. Clean Water Act states, it’s illegal to dispose off any contaminant from any point source into negotiable water without any legal authorization.

Although the state of America’s water infrastructure is of great concern, the types of chemicals found in America’s tap water are equally as frightening. The passage of the Water Act in 1972 prevents the direct dumping of hazardous chemicals directly into waterways, and helps regulate quality standards of water. However, the Clean Water Act is has no jurisdiction on regulating indirect dumping of chemicals that integrates into water supplies. Pesticides and prescription drugs are the greatest cause for concern of indirect containments in America’s water supply (Olsen). An abundance of the harmful chemicals found in liquefied animals feces, used in large dairy states, have percolated into drinking wells that have caused serious infections (Duhigg). However, more harmful containments are infiltrating water supplies. Such containments include