Category Archives: CI

Taking a Look at the Clean Water Act

3 Replies

For this, my last post, I thought that I would focus on the Clean Water Act, an important piece of legislation that has had major impacts on water in the United States. Unfortunately, you will still have gaps in your knowledge regarding worldwide pollution, but I think that by now, it’s fairly clear that we have a serious problem on our hands regarding the scarcity and pollution of water. Since I think that is fairly well established, I wanted to end on a slightly more positive note and really explore the goals and accomplishments (or lack thereof) of an existing program to help protect water.

The Clean Water Act first appeared in American legislation in 1948 with the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. This early version of the CWA left sanitation planning up to the surgeon general, and allowed the Federal Works Administration to help local and state governments with prevention and cleanup efforts. Though this was a step in the right direction, water sanitation was still not monitored as closely as it should have been.

The year 1962 was hugely important for the environmental movement; it saw the publication of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring which discussed the horrible environmental effects of using synthetic pesticides, making the case that if “humankind poisoned nature, nature would in turn poison humankind.” Though this book wasn’t necessarily about water pollution, Silent Spring ushered in a new era of change; by 1972 it seemed as though the entire nation had embraced the environmental movement.

In 1972, the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and the Environmental Protection Agency all came into being. The most important amendment to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (essentially now the CWA) was the creation of the National Pollution Discharge Elimination Permit (henceforth referred to as “NPDEP”) system which created pollution permits that determined the amount of discharge allowed from particular factories throughout the nation; enforcement of these permits was handed over to the newly formed Environmental Protection Agency. By 1977, the EPA had created wastewater standards for all contaminants and made it illegal for anyone to discharge pollution from a point source (a fixed position somewhere) without a permit. The Act has remained the same, with some budget adjustments and such, since 1972.

You’re probably wondering now how effective the Clean Water Act has been, and in reality, it has coupled great strides in cleaning water with setbacks or areas that haven’t changed substantially since 1972. When it comes to enforcing of the NPDEP system, things have remained pretty inconsistent, and a lot of companies do not meet pretreatment standards. In addition, exemptions are issued fairly often, some even if they conflict with the EPA mandate focused on protected any possible drinking water. According to a report by ProPublica, the recent surge in domestic drilling has brought in a lot more exemption applications, which is followed by intense political pressure to approve the exemptions and allow for the exploration of other energy sources. Beyond drinking water problems (mostly due to the contamination of aquifers, which are large underground stores of freshwater), many rivers (and streams, creeks, etc.) suffer from poor water quality because of the mostly uncontrolled non-point water pollution (that is that it comes from an indirect source like runoff from fields or construction sites).

Despite these drawbacks, the Clean Water Act has met with some huge successes. Prior to the Act’s implementation, only 33% of all U.S. waterways were considered fishable or swimmable; the number of fishable/swimmable waterways has now increased to 65% (which is amazing if you take into account the industrialization that has occurred at the same time). Before the Clean Water Act, the United States was reported to be losing 500,000 acres of wetland per year; that number has now dropped below 60,000 acres of wetland lost a year. Finally, according to an EPA report from 2012,  90.7% of U.S. water systems met all of the health based standards in 2011.

At the end of the day, there is still much work to be done when it comes to stopping pollution and improving the Clean Water Act. The fact remains, however, that is has made significant strides in cleaning waters that were previously unusable, at the same time that the modern world is advancing and creating more pollution and debris than ever before. That in and of itself is an accomplishment worthy of praise.  

 

In the spirit of conserving water (since that is more within our control than decreasing pollution substantially), I’ll leave you with this incredible site which lists 100 ways to conserve water.  Check it out here, and you too help take care of our watery world!

Pollution Goes Beyond the Obvious

5 Replies

Unfortunately for all of us, shortage of water is not the only problem facing our modern world. The environment itself is suffering greatly from new pollutants and products of our ever-growing globe, and water has not gone unaffected.

A few years ago the BP oil spill off the coast of southern United States made headlines as the company leaked up to 200 million gallons of oil into the ocean. Not only were the lives of 11 company workers lost, but countless sea-dependent jobs – like selling fish  or even weaving fishing nets  – were either lost totally or greatly reduced. This doesn’t even take into account the environmental impact of the oil spill; Louisiana is the state closest to the oil leak and its governor reported that oil had been discovered up to 100 miles inland, leaving sticky traces in swamps, wetlands, and marshes. Even six weeks after the spill, tar balls were discovered in Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama as well, and up to a quarter of US waters in the Gulf of Mexico were no longer open to fishing (showing not only an impact on marine life, but also on the people who depend upon those waters for their livelihoods). Beyond this, it is hard to gauge the impact on marine life and it could potentially take years to determine the extent of the spill’s effects.

Needless to say, the oil spill in 2010 was an absolute tragedy, and one that was completely man-made. However, this event received so much national attention that I would like to think that companies will be more careful in the future, as BP has suffered many losses both monetarily and as far as popular opinion.

But the scary thing is, commercial pollution is not the only thing affecting the world’s water sources right now. There is a terrifying phenomenon called the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” or also the “Pacific Trash Vortex.” Ocean gyres (“gyres” are ocean currents caused by wind and the rotation of the earth) have forced plastics and other litter (that is slow to degrade) into the center of a gyre in the northern Pacific ocean. This patch of garbage is swirling around together and is roughly the size of Texas.  Think about this. There is a Texas-sized patch of plastics and various other items floating around in the ocean and you probably didn’t know about it until right now. (I certainly didn’t know anything about this until last year when I took an environmental science course). It gets even crazier when you think about the fact that roughly 70% of litter in the ocean will sink. 

Images of the Garbage Patch:

post_1611095_1243707878_med

 

090904-01-great-pacific-garbage-patch-gyre-ocean-trash_big

The worst part of this trash vortex is not just that it’s ugly; estimates state that over 1 million seabirds and one hundred thousand marine mammals and turtles are killed each year by ingestion of these materials. Think it couldn’t get worse? It can. These plastics can act as a sort of “chemical sponge” and thus concentrate some of the most toxic chemicals found in the ocean in one place; making chances of survival for animals that ingest these plastics to dwindle even more.

The Pacific Trash Vortex is so large, but most of the pieces are so miniscule that it is nearly impossible to remove this environmental hazard. The garbage patch is just another example of the impact humans can have on their environment.  From oil spills to swirling litter, it is up to us as a whole to begin reforming our ways and caring for our watery world.

 

 

Tip to Save Water:

Don’t litter! It is as easy as that. If you are at the beach and you see a candy wrapper or an empty water bottle on the ground, please pick it up! It is amazing the distance that any one piece of litter can travel, and stopping the practice all together makes our world cleaner and prettier. We don’t need a trash vortex the size of North America.

 Defending Our Oceans Tour - Hawaii Trash (Hawaii: 2006)

Photos Courtesy of: Cluesforum.info, NationalGeographic.com, and Greenpeace.org.

On a Search for Feasible Solutions

1 Reply

One of the earliest questions people usually ask about the world’s water problems is “Can’t we just figure out a way to use salt water?” The short answer is yes. “WE CAN???!” you may be excitedly asking – well, yes. We can. There are methods of desalination and purification of salt water that can be processed so that we can drink it. However (you had to know there was a ‘but’ coming along), this process comes with a fair amount of accompanying issues that must be addressed.

The desalination of water – removing salt and purifying water for drinking – faces an immediate problem when it comes to location. It makes the most sense for desalination plants to be located near large bodies of surface water in order to limit the costs of transportation the best they can. It is important for plants to choose locations with access to large bodies of water (usually oceans) while respecting coastline habitats. This limits things a bit. It may not seem like a big deal to us, as Americans, because there are huge stretches of coastline on both sides of our country, but this poses a real problem for landlocked countries in arid climates that could be considering solutions to their water problems.

Another thing to keep in mind about water that is being purified – of salt and other substances that may be floating in the water – is that these substances must at some point be extracted and then handled. The excess salt and other materials (heretofore referred to as “brine”) are taken out of the water in a process called reverse osmosis. I won’t go into the details of reverse osmosis, but ultimately the extracted brine mixture must be disposed of in some way. Most frequently this is released back into the surface water (usually from which the original salt water came). This isn’t a massive problem as the disposed brine is often mixed well back into the surface water, but if not properly monitored this could lead to toxic areas in the water sources near the treatment plant. Toxic water is not only a threat to the animal and plant life that live off of it, but also creates a dirtier water that takes more money and time to purify for use by humans.

Probably the biggest problem facing desalination plants is simply the cost. The electricity that must be generated in order to desalinate saltwater is incredibly high, let alone the cost of buying the necessary equipment and employing individuals that are qualified to run that complex machinery guiding reverse osmosis. Other costs include the price the land that must be bought for the plant, some construction overhead, chemical supplies, and the cost of monitoring levels of toxicity in the water as brine is being released into it (due to potentially negative environmental effects as discussed above). A study done by a company in Australia pegged the yearly operating cost at $130 million dollars, with the start up costs averaged at about $3 billion. With prices this high, it is no wonder that desalination plants account for less than 1% of the freshwater being used today (USGS).

So yes, technically purifying saltwater is a solution. However, it is just not feasible for many developing countries today. Water conservation remains the most effective and reasonable approach to this problem, for the time being. I’d like to hope that we live in a world that will continue to determine ways to lower the cost of desalination plants, or at least find people that realize the value in funding them.

 

Tip to Conserve Water:

Instead of rinsing fruits and vegetables directly under the running tap water, put some water in a pan and rinse them in the pan. Once you have finished, you can reuse this and water plants around your home or garden with it. Watering early in the morning or later in the evening is also very helpful because it reduces the evaporation of water, and thus keeps more water in for the plants.

 

 

Works Cited

“100 Ways To Conserve.” Water Conservation Tips, Facts and Resources. Park & Co., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2013.

“Seawater Desalination Feasibility Summary.” Melbourne Water, June 2007. Web. 6 Feb. 2013. <http://www.water.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/6011/B.ExecSummary2of121.pdf>.

“Thirsty? How ’bout a Cool, Refreshing Cup of Seawater?” Desalination: Drink a Cup of Seawater? U.S. Department of the Interior: U.S. Geological Survey, 10 Jan. 2013. Web. 06 Feb. 2013.

Younos, Tamim. The Feasibility of Using Desalination to Supplement Drinking Water Supplies in Eastern Virigina. Rep. Blacksburg: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2004. Web.

 

Our Watery World

7 Replies

Though the industrial age is often associated with sooty factories of the mid-nineteenth century, our modern world is continuing along this path of industry and development (though in a somewhat cleaner manner). New technologies and ideas can create great benefits for people, but the environment always seems to have to pay the price for these advancements. In a world where there are a terrifying amount of environmental issues, it is hard to focus on one and truly understand what it means and what is at stake if the problem escalates. Many of the problems our world is facing have no solution yet, but there are certainly things that an educated person can begin to do in order to give our brightest thinkers more time to come up with an answer.

Did you shower today? Eat an apple? Brush your teeth? Use a sheet of paper? The one thing that all of these activities have in common is the use of water. The scary thing is that this water is running out. This may seem impossible when one even glances at an ocean, but there is a great difference between usable fresh water and the salt water of the oceans (though you probably knew that already). What you might not know is that of the water on Earth, 97.5% of it is salty, meaning that there is only 2.5% of Earth’s water that is fresh and available for human use (Patrick). It is clear then, that when looking at great bodies of water, like oceans, one does not quite see the full story. Unfortunately, the water shortages don’t stop there. Most of this freshwater is to be found underground or in glaciers; the numbers play out so that only about 0.4% of the earth’s water is in another source, such as lakes, rivers, the atmosphere, and vegetation (Patrick). Perhaps we now have a better understanding of the saying “water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.”

You may be wondering why this is becoming a major problem only now, considering that civilization has survived on the 2.5% of freshwater for centuries. Though this is true, there are problems developing in the modern era that create new and greater uses for water. To start, one must remember that water is at the base of a lot of production, even production of items that one might not consider. For example, one pair of jeans can require up to 2,636 gallons of water and a single sheet of paper can require up to 3 gallons of water to produce (Garber).

In Stewart Patrick’s article “The Coming Global Water Crisis,” the author also lists three main causes of the growing likelihood for water problems. The first issue Patrick presents is growing world demographics: by 2025 the population is assumed to be anywhere between 7 and 8 billion people. This increase in people also causes many countries to urbanize rapidly, thus increasing the use of water in industry and personal consumption. With more people using more water, you can see why it is likely that the same amount of water will no longer suffice. The second issue Patrick discusses is the change in dietary preferences. As countries urbanize and more people join middle classes around the world, there seems to be a parallel increase in citizens that eat meat on a regular basis, thus requiring growth of water-intensive breeding productions. A third problem posed by Patrick centers on decreasing resources; underground aquifers (basins that hold water beneath the surface of the earth) are being quickly used up and some glaciers are now melting into already-salty oceans.

The Enlightenment philosopher Thomas Malthus predicted that the human race would die out due to a lack of food, arguing that the human population was advancing at too rapid a rate and was far exceeding the speed of food production. Though Malthus was quickly proved wrong (he did not anticipate the growth of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-nineteenth century,) it seems that he may have been on to something in regards to the water situation facing the world today. If our water consumption remains at its current level, let alone increases, there could be water shortages sooner than one would like to realize. One can only guess what might happen, not only to humans in general, but also politically and economically if the water essentially dries up.

 

Tip to Conserve Water:

This may seem cliché and overused, but one of the best tips I can offer is to try taking shorter showers. I totally understand the peace a long, warm shower can bring one at the end of the day, but perhaps limiting this luxury to once a week instead of once a day can make a difference without making your life too difficult. Any amount of water saved is hugely important. We don’t want to live in a world where Mr. Malthus ends up being correct.

 

Works Cited:

Garber, Megan. “It Takes More Than 3 Gallons of Water to Make a Single Sheet of Paper.” The Atlantic. The Atlantic Monthly Group, 21 June 2012. Web. 24 Jan. 2013.

Patrick, Stewart M. “The Coming Global Water Crisis.” The Atlantic. The Atlantic Monthly Group, 9 May 2012. Web. 24 Jan. 2013.