Spruce Run Environmental Issues

Furthermore, factory farms pollute drinking water sources. Manure and fertilizers are rich in nitrates and phosphates, which are very unhealthy for living things. They pollute groundwater sources by seeping in through lagoons of waste sewage that factory farms create. Lagoons of animal feces and spent fertilizers are a very cheap way of dealing with waste (NRDC). The chemicals travel through the soil to groundwater that the local communities depend on. Ingesting nitrate tainted water will lower the amount of oxygen a person can intake. This can lead to death for infants. Some of the pollutants can reach open waters if they are carried by rain or irrigation water, called runoff. Runoff pollutes ponds, lakes, oceans, and other open bodies of water. Polluted waters with high levels of nitrates kill fish, aquatic plants, and other aquatic organisms because they experience the same problems with oxygen intake. High levels of phosphorus in our waters cause algae blooms in open bodies of water. Algae blooms disrupt the ecosystem in the water and kill the organisms living in the water. They use up all the oxygen in

Through these discussion and topic points this analysis of Spruce Lake will conclude with summary of the analysis and a personal opinion on wither the company should continue with their business model or to head onto a new path with one or more of the recommendations.

The culprit this time around is the farmland that makes up 63% of the Lake Erie watershed, or, more specifically, the potent phosphorous fertilizers being improperly applied to the land (McLean et al., 2014). Growing demand for food has placed increased pressure on farmers’ crop production, so many farmers compromise using more fertilizer less efficiently in

To understand the problem, you first have to know where it comes from. Nitrogen and phosphorous are the two nutrients of concern. These non-point source pollutants are often the direct result of human activities.

This paper will inform the reader why the Delaware River was polluted and how it is being solved. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is trying to clean up all rivers and lakes to make sure that every waterway in America is healthy and not harmful to humans or animals. With the coordination of the EPA, and the Delaware County Regional Water Quality Control Authority (DELCORA) are trying to fix the problems that have occurred over years that humans have been around the Delaware River. The use of a Combined Sewer Overflow Program also known as a CSO is very important for the protection of drinking water in major cities including New York City and Philadelphia. The toxic chemical levels are at an all-time high making this one of the dirtiest rivers in North America. This paper will talk about what results were received from the multiple tests that were taken from multiple sites along the Delaware River and its tributaries. Also, what solutions are being used to solve the problem that is at hand to make sure the public has knowledge of the toxic levels in the water and to make sure that everyone including the animals nearby have clean and safe drinking water?

Harmful chemicals, manure, and pollution factor into it. These can cause large amounts of blue-green algae, which can be more of an issue then the nitrates. They take away oxygen from the water which would cause a decrease in organisms. In the article, “The muted voice in water quality debate is finally heard.” Mike Kilen (2016) says, “But while we focus on nitrates, we also can’t forget the dangerous bacteria and blue-green algae increasingly popping up in our rivers that are even more a danger to public health.” So although the fertilizer problem is important, the nitrates and phosphorous is not the only thing to worry

Although the amount of pollutants from a single town or construction site may seem insignificant, the combined concentrations of contaminants threaten our lakes, streams and wetlands. When things such as: human and animal waste, decaying plants and animals, discarded litter, or food waste enter surface waters, either dissolved or suspended in stormwater runoff, they can deplete the supply of dissolved oxygen in the water. When dissolved oxygen is reduced below a certain critical level, it can impair or kill aquatic plants and animals (CNYRPDB, 2011).

The steel production in western Pennsylvania is producing a lot of toxic chemicals, which float up in the atmosphere and fall back down here, causing acid rain. But is it polluted, or is the creek still healthy despite of all the environmental problems in the area? That is the question we are here to find out.

Although scientists have explain eutrophication can be first recognized at thousand years ago, but eutrophication has become serious and well known as a significant problem was actually at the 1940s, along with growth of the population, and extend of the farm field. The first fact trigger to eutrophication can be concluded as urbanization. At that time, most of the treated or untreated sewage was directly

REMIEDIATING AGRICULTURAL WATER CONTAMINATION Remediating Agricultural Water Contamination: Problem, Solution, and Barriers Paper Problem Concerns about water pollution are generally focused towards sources that are highly visible and chemically oriented. However, the greatest causes of water contamination and quantity abuse in the United States come from agricultural production (United States Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], 2012a), which is defined as a nonpoint source that pollutes with nutrients. In 2011, nine

These sources are tricky to accurately identify, because once someone pollutes, even inadvertently, the toxins travel into the water supply in runoff. Rainfall, melting snow, and irrigation are examples as to how runoff transfers contaminants into streams and lakes. To mitigate and potentially stop this damage, ecoengineers make recommendations to government agencies about how to reduce NPS pollution. It takes many years for this pollution type to adversely affect the ecosystem and just as many years to repair the damage. NPS pollution is the biggest water pollution problem in the United States. The EPA cannot quantify the exact damage caused by nonpoint source pollution, but it cites that these contaminants taint drinking water, can make water features unsafe and injure marine

The largest source of contamination is runoff from land. Toxic runoff can be sewage, rainwater flowing over exposed topsoil, flooding or agricultural runoff. Rain can cause runoff of chemicals or waste that can seep into creeks, rivers and other waterways that lead to the ocean. Some of the chemicals found could be antibiotics or waste from animals, pesticides from crops or from pollutants, originating in the air, which have settled on land and washed away. Unless a solution to pollution runoff is found, this type of contamination will continue indefinitely and contribute to the deterioration of the ecosystem in the

The agriculture farming industry needs to wake up and see the harm that conventional farming is doing to our beloved planet earth and realize that organic farming could be our planets superhero. Conventional farming uses a high level of nitrogen to help crops grow in mass production. These fertilizers sometimes get into the normal irrigation and eventually end up in rivers and oceans. A 2004 United Nations article estimated that "most of the 160 million tons of nitrogen used as fertilizer annually ends up in the sea"(“Conventional Farming”). Why is this bad? The fertilizer that ends up in the ocean creates algal blooms which have neurotoxins in them that suck the oxygen out of the water, creating

Agricultural farms contribute tremendously to stream pollution by overusing fertilizers. Farmers use fertilizers to assist in making their yields bigger and to grow quickly. Nitrogen and Phosphorus are chemicals that are found within fertilizers which can be harmful to bodies of water in substantial amounts. The runoff from fertilized farmlands increases the nutrient levels in streams leading to eutrophication, which decreases macrophytes and animal diversity (Huang). Some studies even concluded that the fertilizer used wasn’t needed in such high amounts as it was “high enough to result in soluble and total P concentrations in surface runoff from both unfertilized and fertilized watersheds that were consistently greater than critical levels associated with accelerated eutrophication” (Sharpley et al,).

One of the leading causes of water pollution is from agriculture. Some of the reasons for this are that agriculture is close to most bodies of water, agriculture is the most widespread land use in the U.S., and agriculture uses chemicals and nutrients to improve production. Figures