Water Pollution K-12 Experiments
Water Pollution
The causes of water pollution can be divided into two groups:
anthropogenic sources of pollution are those due to human choices, and
natural sources are those resulting from forces intrinsic to the
environment.
Anthropogenic sources include:
- discharge of poorly-treated or untreated sewage;
- runoff from construction sites, farms, or paved and other impervious surfaces e.g. silt
- discharge of contaminated and/or heated water used for industrial processes
- acid rain caused by industrial discharge of sulfur dioxide (by burning high-sulfur fossil fuels)
- excess nutrients added by runoff containing large amounts of detergents or fertilizers
Natural sources include:
- seasonal turnover of lakes and embayments;
- siltation due to floods;
- eutrophication of lakes due to seasonal changes
- acid rain caused by natural volcanic discharges or smog from factories
- acid pollution of rivers and lakes by runoff from naturally acidic soils
- carbon dioxide discharges and runoff, volcanic or mineral
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia Encyclopedia article "Water Pollution"
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