GEOG 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Water Pollution, Thermal Pollution, Nutrient Pollution
Document Summary
Availability of water: regional variation, scarcity and water deficit, desalination. Modifications of streams: prevent flood, regulate supply, generate power, dams, canals reservoirs, and channelization. Only a fraction available to humans as freshwater. 68. 9% of it is locked up in ice caps or glaciers. Nutrient pollution: eutrophication in lakes and ponds. Thermal pollution: shallow seas and streams absorption of sunlight heats up the water and makes it difficult for fish and other organisms to thrive there. Swage from urban areas: often washed asway after heavy rainfall. Herbicides and pesticides: runoff from farms. Animal wastes: waste from cattle pigs and poultry farms. Industry: seepage from chemical plants, discharge of pcbs, oil spills, thermal pollution from discharge of heated water into streams and ponds. Mining: heap-leach gold mining (pouring toxic materials e. g. cyanide and mercury into rocks, dissolved minerals, piled up wastes dissolve into streams. Municipalities and residences: use of detergent"s, water runoff, sewage.
