Fletcher's Paint Experiment Essay

In the academic journal written by Ronald A. MacGillivray the purpose was to find out information about the Delaware River and how polluted it is. The research was done over a four-year period to find out if lethal toxins were coming out of tributaries (MacGillivrary et al., 2011). The research was done by a sampling procedure. The researchers would go out into the field and collect samples on a weekly basis depending on the weather to see how the toxic levels in the river were from 16 different locations (MacGillivrary et al., 2011). At the end of the four years that the research was taken the results were conclusive that the tributaries that led into the Delaware River were found to be at normal toxic water level rates (MacGillivrary et al., 2011). The pollution levels found were normal with a few exceptions depending on the water content of the day (MacGillivrary et al., 2011).

Daphnia, or water fleas (named after the jerky, jumping way in which they move), are tiny planktonic crustaceans measuring around 1mm in length. They live in freshwater lakes and ponds, filter feeding on green algae, bacteria, yeast and phytoplankton, before being the prey of small fish such as sticklebacks and minnows. As a primary consumer, Daphnia provide an important link in the human food chain; increasingly larger fish such as salmon are dependant on their numbers. In terms of their nutritional values, adult Daphnia have a protein content of approximately 50% dry mass and a fat content of 20-27%. (Clare) (Background information on Daphnia)

A conceptual framework was developed that incorporated characteristics of chemicals, agricultural landscapes, and aquatic ecosystems that interact to influence exposure. From this framework, the workgroups designed a tiered system for the risk assessment process in which the assessment progresses from a deterministic assessment to probabilistic assessments of increasing complexity. Each tier includes several experimental and analytical options that reduce uncertainty and provide more complete descriptions of the aquatic environment (Environmental Proection Agency, 2012).

Often, toxic substances are being drained into the air, waterways, and undergrounds wells. According to the report by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), over 60 million pounds of deadly chemicals are produced by industries in Florida. Notably, Florida’s water has been suffering mercury contamination until the state’s department of migration issues a circular regularly for regulations of eating freshwater fish in the region (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission). In fact, such metals emanate from coal combustion’s emissions which run into water bodies. Not to mention, pesticides and herbicides utilized by government and homeowners pollute the environment (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission). Indeed, all chemicals released into the atmosphere find themselves in rivers.

For example, the chemicals could leak into a local water supply through surface runoff and eutrophication could occur. This is where an algae bloom takes place resulting in the depletion of oxygen disabling plants such as pondweed to respire and therefore die. These then decompose and with a high build up of toxic chemicals the fish of the freshwater lake or pond then die too.

In the groundwater samples (rural, city, and well samples), there were acidic contaminants, coliform bacteria contaminants, pesticide and herbicide contaminants, and metal contaminants. More specifically, the rural water sample had pesticide and herbicide contaminants, the city water sample had acidic and coliform bacteria contaminants, and the well water sample had metal contaminants.

These cyanobacteria can rapidly become dominant in a water source when the concentration of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and phosphorus increases[v]. Cases of blue-green algae infestations in lakes and streams often happen, particularly because of human activities. Indeed, studies prove that manufacturing as well as agriculture have impacts on water quality when not well managed. The toxins from the two closed decommissioned areas mentioned earlier can have impacts on the water quality if entered in the AHHS watershed dragged by runoffs that are caused by precipitations. Moreover, pesticides used in agriculture can be led into the water system, which can cause blue-green algae to bloom rapidly[vi]. Pesticides may come from precipitations and dust erosion, but also from air by being pushed by wind[vii].

In order to determine chemical pollution and its effects on marine mammals many scientists have collected and reviewed current levels of pollutants all across the world, long-term trends, and biological effects upon marine mammals at the individual and population level. Particularly in Australia there have been studies that have been trying to investigate temporal trends of organochlorine pesticides such as OCPs, aldrin, chlordance, dieldrin, heptachlor, hexachlorbenzene, DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in sewage sludge. In terms of

Water Pollution is one of the most serious ecological threat faced in this modern era. Water pollution is a result of toxic substances entering water bodies such as lakes, rivers and oceans etc. These toxins can either dissolve in the water, lay suspended in the water, deposit on the water bed or contaminate ground water. This not only results in degradation of water quality but also means destruction of aquatic ecosystem.

Rivers and streams receiving urban runoff have been shown to be toxic to aquatic species (e.g. H. azteca), due to the presence of pyrethroids (Budd et al., 2007; Weston and Lydy, 2010; Weston et al, 2014). These pyrethroids are greatly toxic, with acute species mortality possible at even small concentrations of one part per trillion (Weston and Jackson, 2009), yet urban runoff regularly contains concentrations greater than 20 parts per trillion (Weston and Lydy, 2012). A significant part of the runoff from urban areas encompassing Sacramento, California flows to the American River. Thus, the toxic level of the rivers and tributaries of the American River and its sensitivity to aquatic species has been studied through modeling efforts (Jorgenson et al, 2013). Urban runoff, which contains a considerable amount of bifenthrin, a subset of pyrethroids, makes up a large portion of the river flow after a storm event. Due to increased use of bifenthrin in Sacramento County, bifenthrin concentration can be as high as 0.018 ppb, which is more than 5 times the 96-h middle effective concentration (EC50) for loss of motion to most aquatic species (Weston et al., 2009; Holmes et al., 2008; Hintzen et al., 2009; Weston and Lydy, 2010). The aggregated sum of pyrethroids active ingredient (A.I.) used by licensed professional pesticide applicators in Sacramento County, California, was estimated as 4,025,246 lbs. in 2014, and among this, structural pest control and landscape

Water pollution is the where water bodies such as lakes, oceans, rivers and so on are affected by pollutants which are discharged in water masses either directly or indirectly. Pollutants include toxic waste materials from factories, spillage of oil from oil tankers, pesticides and herbicides from farms, soil erosion which is usually deposited in a water source, sewages from homes and septic tanks spill off nearby water sources and the list is endless.

Previous studies have detected chemicals in wastewaters, effluents and surface waters in the past. For example, several organic compounds were found in UK estuaries (Thomas and Hilton, 2004), Spanish waters (Gaffney et al., 2015) and source water from

In theory, airborne chemicals could cause several types of detrimental effects on aquatic or terrestrial ecosystems. These effects could include visible symptoms of injury, decreased growth, and alteration of physiological processes

Worldwide, many chemicals have been detected in wastewaters, effluents and freshwater ecosystems. For example, several chemicals were reported for UK estuaries (Thomas and Hilton, 2004), Spanish waters (Gaffney et al., 2015) and source water from Japan

There are nine different causes of water pollution that are really worth pointing out. These are Sewage and Wastewater, Marine Dumping, Industrial Waste, Radioactive Waste, Oil Pollution, Underground Storage Leakages, Atmospheric Deposition, Global Warming, and Eutrophication (Water Pollution Guide). Some of these happen to be way worse than the others but either way, it is still pollution.