Water Pollution In Rural Areas Environmental Sciences Essay

Water Pollution In out drop offish Areas Env compactmental Sciences EssayWater is a vital commodity and is demand to the natural environment. We not only rely on it for drinking still besides for its use in industrial processes, cooking, cleaning and the growing of our food. on that point be m all acknowledgments of piss taint the major sources of peeing taint being flood, plain befoulment, urban storm irrigate supply, organic fertilizer matter, toxic waste, and thermal taint (The Environment Agency 2010). These types of pollution tend to be vault of heaven fructifyed (for display pillowcase artless runoff go out on the whole sum up from clownish atomic number 18as as thats were most farms are situated) although this is not al guidances the case, any(prenominal) type of piss system pollution could slip by in any area clownish or urban. Rural and urban areas both bring on more or less(prenominal) contrasting sources of pollution, all of which resul t have varying affects on the touch environment and its habitants.Although the environment which makes up urban and coarse areas evict be vastly different they keister at the same time be affected by the same environmental conundrums relating to water pollution. One example of this is eutrophication of waterways both rural and urban. Eutrophication is a situation when foreign bodies much(prenominal) as fertilizers of sewer enroll a river or stream and act as a nutrient for alga causing rapid growth and algal blooms (May Sivakumar 2009). These algae grow out of control and gum olibanum the water becomes miserable in oxygen. The water becomes depleted in oxygen because dead algae sink to the river bed the retrieve the oxygen so it female genital organ decompose. This enkindle then lead to further problems if too much algae decomposes it whitethorn use all the oxygen. This will mean all the oxygen has at rest(p) and because the water near the surface of the water is warm er its oxygen doesnt commixture with water from the bottom as its colder and has a higher density .This eutrophication of a water body heap occur in both rural and urban areas. In an urban area this problem arises primarily from sewerage do byment works, if a works has an profitd amount of sewage to treat then there may be some secondary or direct discharge that may enter the water supply thence causing Eutrophication (Neal et al, .2010). A similar problem cigarette occur when leaks of atomic number 15 from septic tanks discharges into a local river system (Neal et al,.2010) although this isnt tied down to every rural or urban areas .This is also very likely to occur in rural areas where agriculture is to a greater extent than prominent and the uses of fertilizers are increased. particularly in the following practices of cereal production, maize, potato and dairy production where fertilizers are heavily used or large amount of manure postulate to be re rhythmd. (Jarvie et .al 2009)One of the biggest problems which give the axe lead to the pollution of urban waterways is runoff. everyplaceflow is also a major cause for concern in to a greater extent rural areas and areas of intense agriculture. The problem of runoff in urban areas til now is contrasting to rural rustic runoff. In the sense that runoff in urban areas arises from garden fertilizers, pesticides, anti-icing chemicals, fomite emissions and pet waste. These pollutants are both organic and inorganic and can also be perversely complex, this leads to little familiarity of how these pollutants will interact once they combine and enter a water body. Due to the little knowledge of these interactions it makes it increasingly difficult for an amount allowable discharged concentration to be devised (Kuhl et.al 2010). These pollutants runoff into any local water system via macadamise or pavement areas and because of the increase in tarmac and concrete roads and driveways it makes this polluti on easier to reach the water. This non permeable surface which is lay out more than so in urban areas not only makes it easier for any pollutants to travel into water systems , but it also increases the riskiness of flooding and the risk of storm water moving sewage into freshwater. In rural areas this isnt such a prevalent problem as most rural areas are permeable. Although because of this it makes the control and identification of runoff in rural areas much more difficult to locate. Runoff in rural areas is usually linked to agricultural runoff. This is categorized as nonpoint-source pollution because the pollutants involved originate over larger areas and the entry of this pollution into waterways cannot be pin pointed precisely (which is not the case for some sources of urban pollution). As this rural agricultural runoff is nonpoint-source it instrument any intervention of pollutants entering any water system is some impossible, although agricultural runoff can be supervi sed in different ways such as farmers minimizing fertilizer use and the correct administration of animal waste and fertrilizers. However there is an different type of pollution Point source which is where pollution will enter a water system in a specific point (such as a sewage pipe). These point sources of pollution are more often embed in urban areas where there may be a sewage treatment plants are normally located. This type of point source pollution makes any control or treatment of pollution much easier as it is located in unitary area and not spread over larger areas as agricultural runoff sometimes can be.Urban stormwater is a major source of pollution to any water bodies. It arises from when rainfall washes over any impermeable urban area tack togethering up with it toxic chemicals, vehicle emissions, sewage, household waste etc. The problem of urban storm water becomes exacerbated when extremely operose rainfall occurs and the flushing water can erode stream banks and streambeds. This stormwater will then be moved downriver along with any eroded soil into any waterbodys, this depository will then sink to the bottom of a water body. This can do damage to aquatic environment and can even destroy tip eggs. Excessive sediment in a water body can damage aquatic life in other ways. It can increase risk of disease, damage fish gills and also because of thick layer of sediment will cause darker conditions it may block enough light to limit growth of aquatic plants which is inseparable along with oxygen to aquatic life. As well as sediment from eroded soil urban stormwater can also pick up metals from the urban environment, the main source of which is from vehicle emissions in urban environments. Some examples of the types of metals usually establish in urban stormwater are Lead, cadmium, zinc, mercury, iron, nickel and copper. All of which have differing affects including damage to fish gills and statusinal of aquatic organisms. These metals will accumulate on roadways and then be process off in rainwater into the water bodies. In smaller amounts metals can derive from other sources such as metal roof surpass which are pelted from heavy rain, some weed killers call for zinc and also scrap yards which keep metal outside.Unlike most sources of urban water pollution rural sources normally come in the form of easy pollution. One of the mains sources of which is agriculture as previously mentioned, the main pollutants involved in diffuse water pollution in agriculture are normality and phosphorus. friction match and normality are both essential in term of animal and plant growth. Phosphorus and atomic number 7 are effectuate in a variety of different sources. Animal waste as found in areas of agriculture, also the use of phosphorus and nitrogen in fertilizers contributes to water pollution. The adding of fertilizers to crops also returns the essential phosphorus back to the soil, which gets taken from the soil to relig ious service grow the crops to start with. Phosphorus can also be found in soils in both the organic and inorganic form. In scathe of organic phosphorus it exists in plant resi collectibles, organic soil and microbes. Phosphorus can also be in an insoluble form at bottom soil meaning that plants cannot take in this phosphorus. When fertilizers are applied that put up phosphorus as soluble compounds most of the phosphorus will be absorbed into the soil which can then be washed on directly into a body of water, leading to eutrophication. This introduction of nitrogen can seriously affect the balance of the natural nitrogen cycle. Nitrogen is essential nutrient for plant growth and part of a natural cycle that occurs which if perturbed can have serious effects on organisms that rely on the cycle. As shows in figure 1 the addition of extra nitrogen from farming practices and the use of fertilizers will lead to the potential eutrophication of water bodies. This is due to the when the balance of the nitrogen cycle is interrupted with the addition of nitrogen from fertilizers. As a result of this the natural nitrogen cycle expels the surplus nitrogen which can be washed away into a water body. compute 1 Nitrogen cycle diagram (sourcehttp//www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/9s.html)Although not a major source of water pollution Mining still can influence water bodies. Mines are normally found in more rural areas although they can be found in urban areas, as in earlier time small towns would have been built about these sources of coal and iron ore .Minings primary source of water pollution comes from biting drainage in mine systems. This happens when the contents of a mine (coal or metal ore) oxidise on contact with air to create sulfuric acid. This problem of mine drainage is more of a problem broadly speaking in closed mines. This is because water which may have previously been out of use(p) or stopped somehow from entering can now enter washing the acid ic solution with it. As well as containing sulphuric acid the washout from the mines may also contain high concentrations of sulphur, heavy metals and iron. When this mine drainage enters a water body the change in pH from acid to a more neutral pH causes the iron to precipitate as ferric hydroxide. This will settle to the bottom of a water body which will deplete the water of oxygen thus seriously harming aquatic life.Mining can be mainly set forth as a rural source of water pollution whereas one source can be described as the opposite. Land fills sites are growing and growing in the United Kingdom and many farming fills are situated in urban areas as they tend to superlative filled with waste from nearby towns and citys. Land fills are a potentials source of water pollution as when it rains when waste is being deposited the rainwater will pass through the waste picking up along the way all the pollutants such as heavy metals, ammonia and oxygen depleting pollutants which if th ey reached the water bodies could seriously harm any aquatic life. Also the waste itself in whatever from this may come in as will contain water and as the waste degrades in the landfill this water will be released which will also carry the pollutants into the soil, which may eventually end up in a water body. These problems will all be more prevalent with older land will sites as new land fills have measure in place to reduce the risk of water pollution from these sites.In conclusion both rural and urban areas have a number of different sources of water pollution. Although there are some very different sources such as mine drainage in rural areas which causes acids and heavy metals to enter water body whereas in urban areas land fill sites can cause pollutants such as ammonia to enter water systems. One common source that both rural and urban areas share is runoff. Although both share this source of pollution they do both differ slightly. Rural areas will tend to have agricultural runoff where nitrogen and phosphorus are the common pollutants which as a result cause eutrophication. Whereas urban areas also encounter the pollution problem of runoff but in term of the pollutants involved it varies significantly to rural runoff. Urban stormwater which is the urban runoff differs to agricultural runoff because it can pick up many more types of pollutants such as heavy metals, oils and other vehicle related emissions, sewage, household waste and like rural runoff it also can pick up fertilizers from gardens. This urban stormwater can be considerably worse in terms of the impacts on aquatic organisms than agricultural runoff because of types of pollutant that are involved. It is also important to remember that because agricultural pollution is diffuse or non-point source pollution as previously mentioned this makes the treatment or control or agricultural runoff much more difficult than the control or treatment of point sources of pollution such as urban sewage lea ks.