WPWT - Water Pollution and Water Treatment Module Overview

Water Pollution and Water Treatment

Image from the Rime of the Ancient Mariner "Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink," is a line from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, but could very well apply to the availability of fresh water in many developing and water-poor countries.  Water is an amazing and renewable resource, but the growing population and years of mismanagement have stressed the supply of fresh water. Our planet's surface may be covered mostly in water, yet most are undrinkable saltwater. Because of the seemingly endless source of water, it has been wasted and polluted. Humans have always followed the principle of the solution to pollution is dilution from human waste to industrial effluent, and so the consequences are that both fresh and saltwater reserves have been severely compromised at our hands.

Essential Questions

  • How will changing climate affect the availability and distribution of water?
  • How do human activities affect the occurrence of droughts?
  • How do so many people live with so little water?
  • Why do people use so much more water than they used to?
  • Why don't localities and people use water in the most efficient way, rather than sometimes in wasteful ways?
  • Globally, how many people do not have access to water that is safe for drinking and washing?
  • What is the toll of waterborne diseases?
  • What are the indicators of water quality?
  • What type of pollutants do urban areas create?
  • How do pollutants enter the groundwater?
  • How do agricultural practices cause water pollution?
  • What causes land subsidence and where are the places where this is a problem?
  • How can heat be a pollutant and what damage can it cause?
  • How is wastewater treated?
  • Is keeping water from becoming polluted easier, less expensive, and safer than cleaning it after it is polluted?
  • What can individuals do to protect water quality?
  • What is the purpose of the Clean Water Act?

 

Key Terms

  • Hydrological cycle- the natural cycle of water on our planet where it moves from place to place in different states
  • Groundwater discharge- water released from a groundwater source
  • Groundwater recharge- water entering groundwater source
  • Withdrawal- removal of water from any surface or groundwater source for some purpose
  • Consumptive water use- water use that is lost to the ecosystem after withdrawal
  • Non-consumptive water use- water use that is recycled in the ecosystem after withdrawal
  • Water table- top level of groundwater source
  • Eutrophication- the change of a body of surface water due to the nature of cultural additional of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) leading to negative events such as phytoplankton blooms and hypoxia
  • Desalination- the removal of salts from seawater for use as fresh
  • Watershed (drainage basin)- an area of land where precipitation runs off into streams, rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. It is a land feature that can be identified by tracing a line along the highest elevations between two areas on a map, often a ridge.
  • Subsidence- a dropping of the land surface as a result of groundwater being pumped, a virtually irreversible process
  • Greywater- wastewater from clothes washing machines, showers, bathtubs, hand washing, lavatories, and sinks
  • Thermal pollution- a reduction in water quality caused by increasing its temperature, often due to disposal of waste heat from industrial or power generation processes
  • Reservoir- storage location for a substance (like water)
  • Residence time- average length of time a substance spends in a reservoir
  • Effluent- water that flows from a sewage treatment plant after it has been treated.

 

RESOURCES IN THIS MODULE ARE OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER) OR CREATED BY GAVS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. SOME IMAGES USED UNDER SUBSCRIPTION.