What is water pollution...?
Interactive Study Guide
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Guiding Question 18.2
What is water pollution, and what are some of the most common types of pollution that enter our surface waters?
Why You Should Care
Water pollution is any chemical released that is picked up and carried away by surface water or groundwater. Some water pollutants are toxic, and most of these pollutants are produced by industrial (heavy metals) or agricultural (pesticides) processes. Other water pollutants are dangerous as their levels build up, but not dangerous at low levels (nutrients such as fertilizers and sewage).
Solving water-pollution problems involves identifying the source and treating or minimizing the waste before it is released. Identification of sources can be tricky—any factory will have pipes that carry water pollutants and these are easily identified as point sources. But if a river has high levels of a common pesticide showing up in water samples, how can we identify which farm was releasing it?
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An example of sIlJGa/4C0feWmkdc5GAJ9BDfO6Ii8+bQy+1Dk/xIwo= is a pollutant that is released from any area of the watershed.
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18.1
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18.2
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18.3
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18.4
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18.5
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Pathogens cause sickness and death in humans and animals that drink that water downstream. They are all naturally found in water, but the concentrations here are high enough that they cannot be fought off before they cause illness or death.
