Northeast High School

Water pollution

Rafael Lozano
Ms. Parker
May 20 2016

Table of contents

Position,History ..
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(Continued)........
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Present...
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Consequences...
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(Continued) ...
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Proposed Solution ...
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Rebuttal to opposing position..
...7

Rafael Lozano
Ms.Parker
Apes
May 20 2016
Water Pollution
We as a whole community of people want to save the water that is all
around our world. We are fighting to get water back to its clean form. Eliminating
water pollution will relieve the world of its pain.
The industrial revolution of the 19th century introduced many sources of
air and water pollution. The use of hazardous chemicals was a huge one. It was
used in manufacturing industries and in agriculture, causing severe water
pollution as waste went directly into near by ponds, lakes,rivers and the ocean.
This did not only affect the quality of water but also posed danger to many
aquatic species.The effects of the pollution did not come to be a problem until the
1960s. Changes were being felt around countries all around the world. During
this time people began to care more about the pollution because animals were
being harmed and people in third world countries were becoming sick and dying.

Out of this movement came events like Earth Day, and legislative victories like
the Clean Air Act (1970) and the Clean Water Act (1972). Man parties emerge
and join the movement to change the way pollution was looked at and these laws
came to be in effect. Its 2016 and there is still a great source of pollution getting
into the water. The main causes of the pollution are point source pollution which
means a single identifiable location that is releasing harmful pollution into a
stream water and then there is nonpoint source pollution which means that the
pollution is diffused over a large area instead of into a stream of water, but either
way the harmful toxins and waste still gets into surface water and groundwater.
Point source pollution was a big problem but it has lessen a great deal because
of the EPAs regulations.
In Urban areas rainfall runs off as stormwater. This is a major nonpoint
source of pollution that impacts the quality of water. The streets are often
covered with trash,oils, faeces dust, soil and many more thing like toxins for
constructions sites. This gets picked up by water and is carried into major
reservoirs. Agriculture is now a the top when it comes to water pollution and the
use of water. Especially when it comes to fresh water. There is only about 1
percent left on this planet and a crazy amount of fresh water goes into
agriculture. About 70 % is used for agriculture. If that's not enough to scare you,
many farms and plantations use fertilizers and pesticides to help enhance and
protect their crops. This is a bad thing in many ways. Fresh water gets
contaminated and when it rains all the pesticides and fertilizers runoff the plants
and gets into groundwater soon after. And of course everyones knows about all

the garbage that's get thrown into the ocean. For some reason the world thinks
that's the earth is a huge trash can. That because no one is there to blame
anyone that throws trash into the ocean that it is okay. In reality it is not okay and
this need to stop immediately. There are countries who all have contributed to the
massive whirlpool of trash. The place is called The Great Pacific garbage patch.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North
Pacific Ocean. Marine debris is litter that ends up in oceans, seas, and other
large bodies of water. It was discovered in 1997 by a California Charles Moore.
He was heading home from a sailing race in Hawaii. He decided to take a
shortcut at the edge of the North Pacific Ocean and during that journey he said
that he came across plastic, Bottle Caps, toothbrushes, styrofoam cups,
detergent bottles, pieces of polystyrene packaging and plastic bags. Half of it
was just little chips that we couldnt identify. It wasnt a revelation so much as a
gradual sinking feeling that something was terribly wrong here. Two years later I
went back with a fine-mesh net, and that was the real mind-boggling discovery.
This has been a growing problem, it doesn't stop. The size of the plastic patch is
forever growing and it's between the size of New South Wales, to double the size
of Queensland. How did the plastic and trash get there? Over 75% of the trash
was obtained from littered streets, landfills and wind blowing trash into rivers,
storm drains and then gets out into the ocean where currents do the rest. But
that's not only it, there are ships that dispose trash and harmful waste into the
ocean because no one wants to deal with the trash in their country. So they just
send it off into the water.

The problems that comes with water pollution is massive. The main
consequence of water pollution is the effects it has on aquatic life that depend on
the bodies of water. Fish, crabs seagulls, birds and many more animals die
because of the pollution in the water. Decreases of populations in the water can
affect many species who depend on each other for survival. That being said
sadly ecosystems begin to change or even get destroyed. And not only that, we
humans get affected. Eventually people can get sick from seafood that has been
exposed to the pollution. That tasty meal could be filled with harmful waste. It's
poisonous and it's not until later when it is known. And for the future to come,
many centuries from now if pollution is still a huge problem there won't be many
aquatic life, beaches will look like landfills and the ocean will be unswimmable.
With all the negatives to side there are many solutions to the problem of
water pollutions. Obviously there were the laws in placed like Clean Water Act of
1977 which meant to restore and maintain the integrity of U.S. waters and to
limits discharges to U.S. waters through National Pollutant Discharge System
and another law that helps is the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 stating it was to
prevent and clean up oil spills in U.S. waters and to get funding for response
costs. This was a good start, but implementing more ways to reduce the
problems is the way to go. People should first get educated, it should be a law
teach kids in school about environmental problems. Simply teaching people can
do a lot. People can learn how to properly recycle and throw trash in appropriate
bins rather than throw it on the side of the street. Teach also about using less
water when taking showers, bathing and leaving running water. This contributes

to water shortages and reduces the amount of water that needs to be treated
especially if it's just water that was wasted. Another solution is to have a far more
better system of waste management. Changing the way of collecting trash to a
better way can help reduce pollution that ends up in rivers or streams and most
importantly in the ocean. And finally have add more stricter rules and laws put
forth by the government to lessen the harmful things done to the water by us
humans like limit the amount of waste an industry can produce in a given month
or year. It won't be an easy task to push for the good, but it has to be done in
order to accomplish what needs to be done in order to succeed in reducing water
pollution.

Many big political figures don't believe that there's an anthropogenic cause
that is harming the world. The most common statement is that nature will do its
thing. Nature has its own way of dealing with problems that happen. But in reality
there is no possible way that nature is going to do defeat the harm we are putting
it through. Another big thing is people opposing conservation methods. The
problem is that to much money will be used for these problems. No one wants to
shell out billions of dollars, but why? Is the world not important enough? If
everyone contributes to solve world problems there will be many problems
solved. Future generations will continue to strive if we take a stand but money
and politics has a big influence on the world's future.