Water Pollution Vs Stormwater Pollution

When you think of problems in the world today, water pollution isn’t one that would normally come up. In fact it is one of the worst problems in the world today. Water pollution, by definition, is the contamination of streams, lakes, underground water, bays, or oceans by any substances harmful to living things. All living things contain water and most need water to survive, so water pollution is a big problem. If severe, the pollution can kill off birds, fish, and any animals that use the water source. In some cases even killing an entire species.

Nowadays, the most water pollution in Washington States comes from storm-water runoffs. Storm-water discharges are generated by runoff from land and impervious areas such as paved streets, parking lots, and building rooftops. During rainfall and snow events that often contain pollutants in quantities that could adversely affect water quality. Moreover, toxic chemical runoff from storm-water has an impact on organisms and human health. Therefore, this essay will focus on Puget Sound storm-water pollution, how they impact on living organisms, some solution of storm-water pollution, and why do we should care about of Puget

Answer = Based on my observations, the effects of pollution can change the environment severely causing great damage. It reduces the air quality that we breathe in from reeking factory waste to vehicle exhaust, which creates that smog look hanging over Los Angeles. It also affects our planet and food supply that we depend on to survive.

Water is probably the most important resource we as people have. Humans can survive without food for several weeks, but without water we would die in less than a week. On a slightly less dramatic note, millions of liters of water are needed every day worldwide for washing, irrigating crops, and cooling industrial processes, not to mention leisure industries such as swimming pools and water-sports centers. Despite our dependence on water, we use it as a dumping ground for all sorts of waste, and do very little to protect the water supplies we have.

Why is stormwater harmful to the Chesapeake Bay? Storm water is harmful because as it travels it picks up pollutants like fertilizers, sediments, and litter. All of this waste can end up going into streams and rivers. It is destructive for the ecosystems, but there are ways to help prevent this from happening.

One of the recurring problems at Howard County is the large quantities of stormwater runoff that flow into nearby streams. This is due to meteorological factors and physical characteristics including: land use changes. The more impervious surfaces there are the more surface runoff there will be; thus, placing adverse effects upon the environment. To be exact, these stormwater runoffs carry car oils, fertilizers, pet waste, litter, and sediment to the Chesapeake bay. Hence, 20% of the chesapeake bay’s pollution is due to stormwater runoff. However, not only does storm water contribute to pollution, but it also harms wildlife and its environment, as well as cause floods, erosion, and property damage. To address such issue, Howard Community College

Storm water is a great danger to the environment because it does not receive any treatment before entering waterways. A storm can overload the system, causing it to reach its max capacity. The water treatment plant is then forced to let the overflowing, untreated, water dump into the river. This leads to an almost opaque water, like that found in the Puget Sound. There is an average of 900 billion gallons of untreated sewage water entering larger bodies of water each year in the United States (Barnett). The rain that falls on surfaces drains into bodies of water through storm water collection systems, usually, without treatment. There is a strong relationship between concrete thickness and imperviousness in residential areas, leading researchers to believe that roads create impervious surfaces. When rain down the streets and rooftops, it absorbs all the harmful materials from those surfaces and flows into the major bays and the Puget Sound. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates the remodeling of the aging water system would cost between $300 billion to $1 trillion over the next 20 years (Barnett).

To address this issue, the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and NYS DEC have recently increased their attention to stormwater management. Explicitly requiring permits for municipalities in New York State that are located near urbanized areas, and have their storm sewer system separate from their sanitary sewer systems. Unlike municipalities with combined sewer systems, an MS4 discharges untreated stormwater directly into the nearest body of water. This type of system can be detrimental for numerous reasons and has ultimately resulted in the EPA’s creation of a federal regulation known as the Stormwater Phase II. It was published in the Federal Register on December 8, 1999 and has since effected every MS4 community in New York State (US EPA, 2005).

It will not have any affects on the surrounding communities that reside amongst the rivers and lakes and will not be any kind of annoyance or inconvenience to their neighbors. It will only be there to help and nothing but benefits will come from it.

Water pollution has had devastating effects on the environment, which include irreversible effects to the ocean's ecosystem, health problems and abnormal conditions.

Pollution is caused by people littering, throwing their trash everywhere, wasting energy, and burning fuel from vehicles. Pollution effects all animals and plants from around the world. It can harm them and kill them. Some animals have gone extinct because of pollution, thanks to humans. To be exact, over 11 species of animals have gone extinct because of pollution, Not to mention people have died too! How much? Well, about 6.5 million people have mainly because of respiratory problems (lung cancer caused by air pollution) . Yea, its really bad. Pollution has been around for a long time in the U.S since the mid-19 centuries. It got worse because of the industrial revolution. This caused the air and water to become polluted because of all of the manufacturing factories, which uses coal for their factories and threw their waste

These pollutions don't just affect that one area they affect the whole water cycle. The water cycle consists of condensation, evaporation, precipitation, surface runoff, and accumulation. When the water comes down from the clouds in the from of precipitation you get surface runoff and it accumulates in the ocean or river. Now you add a pollution to

A reason that water pollution is a problem today is because many people don’t realize that they are hurting out water supplies when they really are. There are many pollutants that hurt our water supply such as farming. When farmers spray their fields with chemicals and apply fertilizers. Some of these chemicals reach the river, and animal urine and manure may be washed into the river. Another cause of water pollution is from accidents, such as tanker spills. Accidents with chemicals may cause river pollution as well. Mining can be another cause because the dusts and minerals get washed into the rivers. Seepage is another cause of water pollution. Because chemicals from waste dumps join the groundwater flow into the river. Urban Wastes is a major cause because the sewage comes from toilets, sinks, and industrial processes. This causes many human diseases such as diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis, and cholera.

The purpose of this report is to propose a solution to the problem of reduced drinking water quality due to chemical pollution. Some bodies of water in the United States are becoming polluted from chemicals and restrictions are needed to protect drinking water quality.

Water pollution affects plants and organisms living in these bodies of water; and, in almost all cases the effect is damaging not only to individual species and populations, but also to the natural biological communities.