Preview

Urban Runoff: The Leading Cause Of Water Pollution

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
190 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Urban Runoff: The Leading Cause Of Water Pollution
Concerns that I have for our watershed is that people would be people pollute the storm drains that then could cause an algae bloom. I found evidence to support this claim from coastal-watershed.org/threats-to-watershed-health/ where it states “Urban Runoff or ‘storm drain pollution’ is one of the leading causes of water pollution in this country. Urban areas contain up to 90 percent hard surfaces such as rooftops and pavement where water collects and quickly runs off. Urban Runoff is difficult to prevent because it is nonpoint pollution. That is, instead of originating from a single-point source, such as a factory or sewage treatment plant, the sources of urban runoff are spread throughout an urban area. Such sources include yards, sidewalks,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Due to its specific location, Huntington Beach can have many possible sources of contamination, including the offshore sewage, urban runoff, and bird feces from the Talbert Coastal Marsh (Choi et al., 2003). Huntington Beach is located in the heavily urbanized Santa Ana watershed and there are some factors that are behind the importance when considering BMPs for this area. In arid regions, such as Southern California, stormwater in particular effects coastal water quality because a large percentage of the water runoff and pollution flows into the ocean in just a few storms in the winter (Ho Ahn et al., 2005). Many urbanized watersheds, Santa Ana included, have a stormwater flow that is controlled by municipal infrastructure that is used to minimize flood potential and maximize water reclamation. This, then, results in the discharge into coastal waters for days even after a rain event, causing a potential for human exposure to pathogens in beaches (Ho Ahn et al. 2005).…

    • 341 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rainwater pollution is a problem that affects anyone that benefits economically, residentially, or recreationally from the Chesapeake Bay. This includes people that have businesses that rely on how many aquatic organism they capture to either sell or serve as a meal in their restaurant. Runoff is caused by rainwater that does not percolate into the soil, and it carries chemicals and waste that are then drained into the Bay through the storm drains (“Stormwater Runoff”). Plant nutrients like fertilizers are one of the chemicals that are carried by runoff. The rainwater dumps out nitrogen and phosphorus from the fertilizers into the water. These contaminants directly harm aquatic life by causing eutrophication. The growth of algae is enhanced…

    • 1010 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The ultimate source of energy in an ecosystem is either light energy from the sun or chemical energy from compounds originating deep within Earth.…

    • 1322 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Water Pollution

    • 2045 Words
    • 2 Pages

    even affect human life on earth. It is said that the earth will just absorb all of the…

    • 2045 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Did you know that watersheds are all around us? You're in a watershed everywhere you go.Most watersheds include streams, rivers, land areas, and any other type of land you go to. We also live in a watershed, and our backyard is one too. Watersheds are very important in our daily lives. ‘What is a watershed?’ You may ask well, think of a watershed as a funnel that drains the water into the nearest body of water. Most of the water comes from rain and runoff from storms. Why are watersheds so important? They’re important because most of the water in a watershed drains into a body of water; Ocean, sea or basin.This means that if there's any pollutants, in the watershed water, then it will drain into those bodies of water and pollute the water.…

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    New York City has several water quality concerns and issues. Water pollution occurs with adequate treatments fails to remove harmful compounds from the water bodies. They affect inhabitants such as humans, and animals negatively by other toxins being combined and spread. The sewage system is a significant component that takes part in the megacity. We often wonder what is a sewage? A sewage is water mixed with human or animal wastes from residence, buildings, and other places, this is also called water waste. They are always tested and sent for treatment facilities for the water to be pure. However, how does sewage become pollution? It the wastewater does not reach the treatment facility and is not treated, the sewage pollutes…

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Water pollution has been divided by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) into two categories: point and non-point. Point sources are created by sewage, factories, and ships. Non-point sources include agriculture runoff, mining activities, and paved roads. These pollutants reach our water systems when rainfall or snowmelt moves over and through the ground. As this runoff moves, all natural and human-made pollutants are deposited into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters, and even underground sources of drinking water (Water Pollution, 2010).…

    • 1178 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nonpoint Source Pollution

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Nonpoint source pollution is land runoff from drainage, rain, and seepage and hydraulic modification. It is caused by rain or snow melt that moves through and over the ground. When the runoff moves, it collects and picks up manmade and natural pollutants and ends up spilling into lakes, rivers, streams, and coastal waters. Nonpoint source pollution can include things like motor oil, toxic chemicals, animal droppings, trash and even insecticides.…

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are a plethora of pollution types, but one of the most common is wastewater pollution. This directly affects our daily lives due to the fact, that water is an essential part of life. Not only is it for drinking, but it is also vital for sanitation and irrigation. Wastewater treatment facilities were designed to treat the outflow before entering the receiving waterways. The ideal modern system collects storm water separately from wastewater and treats it to remove all pollution, but that has become a difficult task. There are four different types of wastewater pollutants and all four are treated before being released.…

    • 925 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Planet in Peril

    • 863 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Good Afternoon, My name is Ashley and I will be speaking on our planet and the dangers that we are facing everyday and have no clue about it. Our planet is in major crises economically and physically.…

    • 863 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Clean Water Act

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Humans play a major role in water pollution in all types of bodies of water. One of our biggest impacts is the amount of trash/waste we allow to make its way into our water ways. For example, in my hometown, people are very irresponsible about the way they dispose of bigger waste items like tires, sheet metal and various tools and farm equipment. Most residence collect this waste in their yards or surrounding woodland, and when flood season comes, it makes its way into the creek beds and rivers. This may sometimes include stored chemicals and can empty its contents into the water. Another issue is runoff from agricultural farms/ranches. Runoff from fields and pastures that leak into the waterways can contain bacteria from fecal matter that…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    A major source of non-point water pollution in the urban environment is storm water runoff, in the past it was acceptable for this runoff to be channeled into the natural systems of washes, creeks, and rivers. However, this is no longer true, the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the Water Quality Act of 1987 set standards for water discharged to local surface water, and established fines for discharges that exceed the limits. (As in the Clean Water Act Forum). Additional tightening of these regulations by the Congress has increased the need for smaller communities of less than 100,000 people like our own to completely separate our storm water runoff and sanitary sewer systems. Sanitary sewer and storm water runoff need different levels of treatment and can compliment one another in collection and treatment. The high desert areas are highly dependent on agriculture, and wildlife depend on the area to survive the winter, and many migratory birds depend on the area as a flyway. All of these and the human population depend on clean water. Many older communities in the region have intermingled storm and sanitary sewer systems, either through the sanitary sewer treating both sources or…

    • 1966 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    American Water Pollution

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Did you know that over 40% of Americas Rivers and 46 percent of America’s lakes are too polluted for fish to live in? Water pollution can also have an effect on animals outside of the water for example animals in the area need a reliable water source, if the water is to polluted for animals to drink and they drink it, it could cause very serious internal injury or even death. Water pollution can also effect animal that eat things from the lakes or rivers such as fish that are in the lakes or rivers. This is just some of the effect water pollution can have on an environment. Water pollution has a great effect on bodies all across the world and American it also has an effect on the environment around us read more about water pollution to…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Water Pollution in China

    • 2237 Words
    • 9 Pages

    There are four main points of history from the figure worth pointing out in the Chinese economy.…

    • 2237 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Surface Runoff

    • 692 Words
    • 5 Pages

    3 The problem is that some streams are not gauged. Also, non-recording gauges only gives the volume of water and not intensities…

    • 692 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays