Air & Water Pollution

Photochemical Smog

Oxidants can enhance formation of particulates which scatter light; caused by VOCs and NOx reacting with water vapor and UV rays; biggest cause is cars and dry, warm conditions; NOx and VOCs react with heat and sunlight, ozone and other photochemical oxidants (such as PANs) are formed; yellow; L.A. and Mexico City; asthma, eye irritation, breathing problems; NOx and UV.

Industrial Smog

Caused by SO2 and particulates reacting with water vapor; biggest cause is coal; cool, humid conditions; grey; Gary, IN and London; asthma, eye irritation, breathing problems; SOx.

Elements Causing Photochemical Smog

VOCs & NOx reacting with water vapor and UV rays, cars (NOx) and dry, warm conditions.

Elements Causing Industrial Smog

SO2 and particulates reacting with water vapor, coal, cool, humid conditions.

How is carbon dioxide added to the environment?

Vehicle exhaust & combustion (formed during incomplete combustion).

Lead

From gasoline (phased out by 1996), paint in older buildings and pipes (Flint, MI); toxic to the CNS (central nervous system) of living organisms - learning difficulties, kidney damage, reproductive system damage, high blood pressure, etc.

Normal Rainfall pH

5.6.

What does the logarithmic scale mean for pH?

Each whole number change on the pH scale represents a tenfold change in the concentration of hydrogen ions in a solution (a solution with a pH of 3 is ten times more acidic than a solution with a pH of 4, and a pH of 3 is one hundred times more acidic than a pH of 5).

Least Susceptible to Air Pollution

Adult men.

Most Susceptible to Air Pollution

Children, the elderly, pregnant individuals, and people with pre-existing conditions (i.e. asthma).

Acid rain causes leaching out of...

Aluminum (metal).

Oxygen Sag

Oxygen levels decline downstream from a pollution source as decomposers metabolize waste materials.

Dissolved Oxygen

Measure of dissolved oxygen in the water.

Septic Zone

Zone 3, a region of an aquatic ecosystem where there is a high concentration of organic matter and a low level of dissolved oxygen due to the decomposition of this matter, decomposition is often caused by the discharge of sewage or excess nutrients.

Formation of Ozone

UV-C radiation breaks bonds holding together 2 oxygen molecules, leaving two free oxygen atoms, sometimes the free oxygen atoms result in ozone (O3), ozone is broken down into O2 and free oxygen atoms when it absorbs both UV-C and UV-B ultraviolet light.

Breakdown of Ozone

Chlorine breaks ozone's bonds and pulls off one atom of oxygen, forming a chlorine monoxide molecule and O2; a free oxygen atom pulls the oxygen atom from ClO, liberating the chlorine and creating one oxygen molecule; one chlorine atom can catalyze the breakdown of as many as 100,000 ozone molecules before it leaves the stratosphere.

Anthropogenic Causes of Ozone Destruction

Major source of chlorine in stratosphere is a compound known as CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons), when CFCs are released in the troposphere, they make their way to the stratosphere, the UV radiation present has enough energy to break the bond connecting chlorine to the CFC molecule, which can then break apart the ozone molecules.

Ground Level Ozone

Secondary pollutant formed by sunlight and water reacting with VOCs, NOx, and O2; respiratory irritant (asthma, bronchitis, emphysema); damages plants (crops, carbon cycle impacted); increase in release of NOx through fossil fuel combustion and VOCs in use of chemical solvents; greenhouse gas absorbed infrared radiation (heat energy) from earth.

Stratospheric Ozone

Discovered in 1985 that levels were dropping rapidly during September and October, occurring since at least 1960; a 1% decrease in ozone results in a 2% increase in UV rays reaching the earth; depletion was greatest at the poles; increase in skin cancer by harmful UV-B rays; effects on ozone depletion include skin ailments, disturbed plant life-cycles, and destruction of marine life.

Causative Factors for Acid Rain

Natural: lighting & microbes (NO, N2O, NO2), volcanoes (SO2, SO); Anthropogenic: motor vehicles (NO, N2O, NO2), coal-burning power plants (NO, N2O, NO2, SO2, SO).

What is acid rain?

Precipitation that is unusually acidic due to pollutants like SO2 and NOx released into the atmosphere, which react with water, oxygen, and other chemicals to form sulfuric and nitric acids, which fall back on Earth's surface as acidic precipitation.

The Effects of Acid Rain

Aquatic Effects: thin, acidic soils and oligotrophic (lacking in plant nutrients and having a large amount of dissolved oxygen throughout) lakes are severely effected; acid precipitation causes a leaching of aluminum, causing aquatic animals to die out and reducing ion exchange in their lungs.

Forest Damage/Destruction

Buildings and Monuments: Limestone and marble are destroyed by air pollution; corroding steel in reinforced concrete weakens buildings, roads, and bridges.

Eutrophication

The process of increasing nutrient levels and biological productivity.

Primary Treatment

Solid waste separated into sludge layer which can be removed.

Secondary Treatment

Water aerated, oxygen added, promotes growth of aerobic bacteria; disinfection using chlorine, ozone, UV light released to waterway; sludge treated with bacteria to reduce volume; burned, taken to landfill, or turned into fertilizer; N & P still released in wastewater into waterways.

Tertiary Treatment

Removal of plant nutrients (nitrates and phosphates from secondary effluent); chemical or natural wetlands; sanitary sewers often connected to storm sewers; heavy storms can overload the system, causing by-pass dumping of raw sewage and toxic runoff directly into watercourses.

Activated Sludge Tank

A large, aerated tank used in wastewater treatment plants to remove pollutants from the water, uses microorganisms to break down organic matter and pollutants in sewage.

Clean Water Act

Goal was to return all U.S. surface waters to 'fishable and swimmable' conditions; for point sources, Discharge Permits and Best Practicable Control Technology are required; set best available, economically achievable technology for zero discharge for 126 priority toxic pollutants.

Clean Air Act(s)

1963 - first national air pollution control

1970 - rewrote original, identified critical pollutants, established ambient air quality standards

1990 - included provisions for acid rain, urban smog, toxic air pollutants, ozone protection, marketing pollution rights, volatile organic compounds, ambient ozone, NOx emissions

1997 - stricter standards.

Safe Drinking Act

Sets the national standards for safe drinking water.

Primary Pollutant

Released directly from the source into the air in a harmful form.

Secondary Pollutant

Modified to a hazardous form after entering the air and mixing with other environmental components.

Criteria Pollutant

Set of six common and widespread air pollutants that the U.S. EPA regulates due to their significant impact on human health and the environment: carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, particulate matter, and sulfur dioxide.

Fugitive Emission

Do not go through smokestack (dust from soil erosion, strip mining, rock crushing, and building construction).

Aerosols

A tiny solid or liquid particle suspended in the atmosphere.

Aesthetic Degradation

Noise, odor, and light pollution that reduce quality of life; harmful impacts on humans include delayed cognitive development, psychological triggers for PTSD, anxiety, mood shifts, elevated blood pressure, increased heart rate, etc.

What are harmful impacts on other organisms as a result of aesthetic degradation?

Include stress, the masking of sounds used to communicate/hunt, damaged hearing, and changes to migratory routes.

Temperature Inversions

Occur when a stable layer of warm air overlays cooler air, reversing the normal temperature decline with increasing height, and preventing convection currents from dispersing pollutants; cold front slides under warm air mass; cool air subsides down slope (rapid nighttime cooling in a basin); possible adverse effects on human health include asthma and increased lung cancer.

Dust Domes

Sparse vegetation and large amounts of concrete and glass create warm, stable air masses (heat islands) over large cities, concentrates pollutants in a 'dust dome.' Rural areas downwind from major industrial areas often have significantly decreased visibility and increased rainfall. Urban air holds are warmer so they hold more water vapor—rainfall can be as much as 30% greater downwind of the city than areas upwind.

Long-Range Pollutant

A substance that travels long distances (over 100km) within the atmosphere, potentially causing environmental damage in areas distant from its source.

What type of building does acid rain damage the most?

Limestone, marble.

Point Source Pollution

Produced from a single, identifiable location (smokestack, waste discharge pipe).

Non-Point Source Pollution

Produced from a more diffuse, broadly defined area (pesticide spraying, agriculture, urban runoff, construction sites, land disposal).

What does high oxygen in water mean?

Means improved water quality and decreased biological oxygen demand (BOD).

Cultural Eutrophication

An increase in biological productivity and ecosystem succession caused by human activities.

Algae Bloom

A rapid increase in the population of algae in an aquatic ecosystem, often visible as a green or red discoloration of the water, typically caused by an influx of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous.

Toxic Metals

Include mercury, lead, cadmium, and nickel; highly persistent and tend to bioaccumulate in food chains.

Why are feedlots causes for water pollution?

Manure runoff carries nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus into surface and groundwater, leading to algal blooms, reduced oxygen levels, and contamination of water sources.

What part of the human body absorbs chemicals the fastest?

What water pollutant most commonly threatens human health?

Pathogenic organisms.