Solid Waste, Renewables, Nuclear, Sewage, and Water Analysis

Posted on Feb 13, 2025 in Geology

Solid Waste

Definition: Solid waste refers to all waste materials except hazardous waste, liquid waste, and atmospheric emissions. Solid wastes are generated by commercial, industrial, and institutional sources.

Types of Solid Waste

1. Municipal Solid Waste (MSW): Comprises small-sized solid waste items from homes, businesses, and institutions with short useful lives and produced in large numbers.
2. Bulky Waste: Consists of larger items of solid waste, such as mattresses and appliances, as well as smaller items generated in large quantity in a short time, such as roofing shingles. Bulky waste is frequently referred to as construction and demolition waste. They have a relatively long life.

Sources of Solid Waste

Production of goods and byproducts from solid materials, natural cycle of plant growth and decay. The amount a product contributes to the waste stream is proportional to two principal factors:

1. The number of items produced
2. The size of each item

The number of items produced, in turn, is proportional to:

1. The useful life of the product
2. The number of items in use at any one time

In contrast, pocket knives make up a negligible portion of MSW because relatively few people use them, they are small, and they are typically used for years before being discarded.

MSW and bulky waste are generated under four basic circumstances:

1. Packing is removed and then discarded.
2. The unused portion of a product is discarded.
3. A product is discarded, or a structure demolished, after use.
4. Unwanted plant material is discarded.

Negative Effects

MSW: Promotion of microorganisms that cause diseases, attraction and support of disease vectors, odors, degradation of the esthetic quality of the environment, occupation of space, and general pollution.

Bulky Waste: Degrades esthetic values, occupies valuable space, pollutes the environment, and poses a fire hazard.

Solid waste generates odors as microorganisms metabolize organic matter in the waste, causing the organic matter to decompose.

Fluctuations in Solid Waste Quantities

Weakness in the economy generally reduces the quantity of solid waste generated. The generation of solid waste is usually greater in warm weather.

Component Composition of MSW

1. Organic: Food waste and paper are the main contributors to municipal waste. In developing countries, large cities generate most of the municipal waste.
2. Inorganics: Main: metal and glass

Component Composition of Bulky Waste

Bulky waste items include: furniture, large devices, white goods, and branches, brush…

Waste Management

Waste management is the collection, transport, processing, recycling or disposal, and monitoring of waste materials.

Disposal Methods

1. Landfill: A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment. Most common methods of organised waste disposal. A properly-designed and well-managed landfill can be a hygienic and relatively inexpensive method. A common byproduct of landfills is gas. The density of waste in a landfill can be increased in a variety of ways. Because solid waste contains toxic materials, landfills must have impermeable liners and systems to collect water that has been in contact with the waste.
2. Incineration: By definition, incineration is the conversion of waste material to gas products and solid residues by combustion. Incineration and other high temperature waste treatment systems are sometimes described as “thermal treatment”. It reduces the necessary volume for disposal significantly. Emissions from incinerators can include toxic metals and toxic organics.
3. Recycling: Recycling involves processing used materials into new products to: prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage and reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for “conventional” waste disposal.

Waste Reduction

1. Methods of Avoidance: Repairing, reusable products…
2. Product Reuse: Reusable products are used more than once and compete with disposable, or single use, products.
3. Increased product durability. Decreased consumption.
4. Reducing waste toxicity

Renewables

Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources, which are naturally replenished on a human timescale. Renewable energy often provides energy in 4 important areas: electricity generation, air and water heating/cooling, transportation and rural energy services.

Wind Energy

Advantages: Wind power consumes no fuel and emits no air pollution. The energy consumed to manufacture and transport the materials used to build a wind power plant is equal to the new energy produced by the plant within a few months of operation.

Disadvantages: Danger to birds and bats, aesthetics, visual impact, and noise.

Solar Energy

Two main types:

1. PV (Solar panels).
2. CSP (Concentrated solar power): generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight onto a receiver. Electricity is generated when the concentrated light is converted to heat, which drives a heat engine connected to an electrical power generator or powers a thermochemical reaction.

Advantages: Long-term savings.

Disadvantages: Weather dependence and high upfront costs.

Hydro

Hydroelectricity is electricity generated by hydropower. It is the most widely used form of RES. Most hydroelectric power comes from the potential energy of dammed water. Energy extracted from the water depends on the volume and on the difference in height between the source and the water’s outflow.

Types of hydropower plants: low head, medium head, and high head.

Efficiency of hydropower plants: Hydropower is very efficient: Efficiency = (electrical power delivered) / (potential energy of head water). Typical losses are due to: Frictional drag and turbulence of flow and Friction and magnetic losses in turbine and generator. Overall efficiency ranges from 75-95%

Advantages: No cost of fuel, energy is virtually free, no waste or pollution, reliable, can cope with peaks in demand.

Disadvantages: Expensive to build, building a large dam will flood a very large area upstream, finding a suitable site can be difficult, water quality and quantity downstream can be affected.

Environmental Damage

Disruptive to surrounding aquatic ecosystems both upstream and downstream. It changes the downstream river environment. Water exiting a turbine contains very little suspended sediment. Water exiting from turbines is warmer and prevent natural freezing processes.

Tidal Power

Does not have the environmental problems that a tidal barrage would bring.

Advantages: Once you’ve built it is free, no greenhouse gasses or other waste, no fuel, produces electricity reliably, not expensive to maintain, and tides are totally predictable.

Disadvantages: Expensive to build and affects a very wide area and only provides power for around 10 hours each day.

Wave Power

Ocean waves are caused by the wind as it blows across the sea. Waves are a powerful source of energy. The problem is that it’s not easy to use this energy and convert it into electricity in large amounts. Thus, wave power stations are rare. There are several methods of getting energy from waves.

Advantages: Wave energy is an abundant and clean energy resource as the waves are generated by the wind, wave energy is relatively consistent and predictable as waves can be accurately forecast several days in advance, dissipates the waves energy protecting the shoreline from coastal erosion and presents no barriers or difficulty to migrating fish and aquatic animals.

Disadvantages: Visual impact, require suitable sites, intermittent power generation, high power distribution costs to send the generated power from offshore devices to the land using long underwater cables.

Biomass Energy

1. Traditional Biomass: Organic matter such as wood or charcoal has been used as fuel for fires, cooking and industry. In more isolated or rural areas with no energy access, it remains a key source despite the health and environmental problems associated with its inefficient burning.
2. Modern Biomass: Biomass using modern technology differs from traditional biomass in two key characteristics; firstly, that the source of organic matter should be sustainable and secondly, that the technology used to obtain the energy, should limit or mitigate emissions of flue gases and account for ash residue management. Also higher efficiency so less use of fuel

Geothermal Energy

Nuclear

Nuclear Power Plants

Nuclear power is energy which is produced with the use of a controlled nuclear reaction. It is considered cleaner than fossil fuels. 16% of the world’s electricity is supplied by nuclear power.

Why Use Nuclear Power

Produces no soot or greenhouse gases, it reduces their dependency on foreign oil, the fuel is very compact.

How Does a Nuclear Power Plant Produce Electricity

A conventional power plant burns fuel to create heat. The heat is used to raise the temperature of water, thus causing it to boil. The high T and intense P steam that results from the boiling of the water turns a turbine, which then generates electricity. Nuclear power plant works the same way, except that the heat used to boil the water is produced by a nuclear fission reaction using mainly 235U as fuel. The nuclear power plant boiler is replaced by a nuclear reactor.

Nuclear Fission

When a neutron strikes an atom of uranium, the uranium splits into two lighter atoms and releases heat simultaneously. Fission of heavy elements is an exothermic reaction which can release large amounts of energy both as electromagnetic radiation and as kinetic energy of the fragments.

Why Does Splitting a Uranium Atom Release Energy?

Under the right conditions, a uranium atom will split into two smaller atoms and throw off two or sometimes three neutrons in the process. The combined mass of these resulting particles tends to be roughly 99.9 percent of the mass of the original uranium atom. The other 0.1 percent of the original mass got converted to energy, as Einstein described.

Basic Components of Nuclear Reactors

1. Fuel: Almost all reactors use uranium as fuel.
2. Moderator: A moderator is necessary to slow down the fast neutrons created during fission to increase their efficiency in causing further fission. It must be a light material that will allow the neutrons to slow down without being captured.
3. Coolant: A coolant is necessary to absorb and remove the heat produced by nuclear fission and maintain the temperature of the fuel within acceptable limits.

Control Rods

Are made of materials that absorb neutrons. To reduce the number of neutrons and thus stop the fission process when required.

Gas Cooled and Graphite Moderated

The MAGNOX reactor uses natural uranium metal as a fuel. Fuel elements consisting of fuel rods are loaded into vertical channels in a core constructed of graphite blocks.

Water Cooled and Moderated

The most widely used reactor type in the world is the Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) which uses enriched uranium dioxide as a fuel in zirconium alloy cans. The fuel, is held in a steel vessel through which water at high pressure (to suppress boiling) is pumped to act as both a coolant and a moderator.

Radioactive Contamination

Radioactive contamination is the uncontrolled distribution of radioactive material in a given environment. Radioactivity is defined as the property possessed by some elements with spontaneously emitting alpha particles (a), beta particles (b), or sometimes gamma rays (g) by the disintegration of the nuclei of atoms. It is a naturally occurring phenomenon, it can not be stopped. All isotopes of elements with atomic numbers larger than 83 (Bismuth) are radioactive. A few elements with lower atomic numbers, such as potassium and rubidium, have naturally occurring isotopes that are also radioactive.

Types of Radioactivity

1. Alpha Particles: Emitted by many high-atomic-number radioactive elements such as thorium, uranium, and plutonium.
2. Beta Particles: Emitted by both high and low atomic weight radioactive elements, the beta particle is an electron possessing kinetic energy due to the speed with which it is emitted from the nucleus.
3. Gamma Rays: This type of emission consists not of particles but quanta of energy, similar to radiowaves, but containing much higher levels of energy.

Half-Life of Radioisotopes

Another factor in managing radioactive wastes is the time that they are likely to remain hazardous. The half life is the time it takes for a given radioactive isotope to lose half of its radioactivity. For example after four half lives the level of radioactivity is l/16th of the original.

Effects of Radioactivity

Radioactivity presents special hazards because it cannot be detected by the normal human senses. Exposure to high levels of radioactive waste may cause serious harm or death.

1. Alpha Radiation: Its sources are most harmful to humans if they are ingested. Alpha radiation can be very damaging to body organs, especially the lungs if the alpha source is inhaled as fine particles.
2. Beta Radiation: The human body can be damaged by being near a source of beta radiation for a long period of time or by ingesting a source of beta radiation.
3. Gamma Radiation: Easily penetrates matter.

Goals of Waste Management

The main objective in managing and disposing or destruction of radioactive waste is to protect people and the environment. This means isolating, diluting, or destroying the waste so that the rate or concentration of any radionuclide returned to the biosphere is harmless. Radioactivity by definition reduces over time, so in principle the waste needs to be isolated for a particular period of time until its components have decayed such that it no longer poses a threat.

Sources of Radioactivity in the Environment

Radioactivity in the environment comes from natural and man-made sources. Natural radioactivity harnessed by man and not properly disposed of is also a potential threat to the environment.

1. The Nuclear Fuel Cycle: The nuclear fuel cycle is defined as the activities carried out to produce energy from nuclear fuel. These activities include: mining of uranium-containing ores, enrichment of uranium to fuel grade specifications, fabrication and use of fuel rods, and isolation and storage of waste produced from power plants.
2. Mining Activities: Mining, processing, and the use of coal, natural gas, phosphate rock and rare earth deposits result in the concentration and release or disposal of large amounts of low–level radioactive material
3. Medical and Laboratory Facilities: Radioisotopes are used extensively in: Medical facilities, Biomedical research laboratories and to a lesser extent in other types of laboratories.
4. Nuclear Weapons Testing
5. Natural Deposits: The majority of radioactivity in groundwater is due to seepage from natural deposits of uranium and thorium.

Low-Level Radioactive Waste

Low-level radioactive waste is a general term for a wide range of materials contaminated with radioisotopes. The majority of radioactive waste is low-level. This type of waste often consists of used protective clothing, which is only lightly contaminated but still dangerous in case of radioactive contamination of a human body through inhalation, absorption, or injection.

High-Level Radioactive Waste

High level waste (HLW) is produced by nuclear reactors. It contains fission products and transuranic elements generated in the reactor core.

Initial Treatment of Waste

Nuclear waste requires sophisticated treatment and management in order to successfully isolate it from interacting with the biosphere. Initial treatment of waste:

1. Vitrification: Long-term storage of radioactive waste requires the stabilization of the waste into a form which will not react, nor degrade, for extended periods of time.
2. Ion Exchange: It is common for medium active wastes in the nuclear industry to be treated with ion exchange to concentrate the radioactivity into a small volume. The much less radioactive bulk (after treatment) is often then discharged.
3. Synroc: Method of forming solid synthetic rock with nearly all the radioactive waste

Long Term Management of Waste

The ultimate disposal of vitrified wastes requires their isolation from the environment for long periods. To ensure that no significant environmental releases occur over a long period after disposal, a ‘multiple barrier’ disposal concept is used to immobilise the radioactive elements in high-level wastes and to isolate them from the biosphere.

1. Transmutation: There are some reactors that consume nuclear waste and transmute it to other, less-harmful nuclear waste.
2. Re-use of Waste: Another option is to find applications of the isotopes in nuclear waste so as to reuse them. Already, some isotopes are extracted for certain industrial applications such as food irradiation and radioisotope thermoelectric generators. It may reduce the quantity of waste produced.
3. Space Disposal: It is an attractive way because it permanently removes nuclear waste from the environment. However, it has significant disadvt, not least of which is the potential for catastrophic failure of vehicle.

Sewage Sludge Treatment and Disposal

Wastewater Treatment Plant General Information

They are designed for:

1. Wastewater treatment
2. Treatment and disposal of sewage sludge
3. Space heating
4. Electricity to power air compressors, pumps and other electric motors.

Sewage Sludge

Is a biomass. Electricity produced with use of sewage sludge is called green energy. (no CO2 emissions).

Definition: Any solid, semisolid, or liquid residue removed during the treatment of municipal waste water or domestic sewage. It includes solids removed during primary, secondary, or advanced waste water treatment. It does not include grit or screenings, or ash generated during its incineration. It’s 1-2% of the total volume of sewage.

Characteristics

1. High water content
2. Smooth, smear or earthy consistency
3. High content of organic compounds
4. High content of fertilizer compound (N2,K y P)
5. Has heavy metals
6. Health risks

Disposal Methods

1. Use of sewage sludge in agriculture
2. Composting
3. Incineration
4. Storage

Types of Sludge on Wastewater Plants

1. Preliminary: Sludge separation from waste water
2. Secondary: The biomass resulting from the biological treatment of wastewater, separated in settling tanks
3. Mixed: Result of combination of the above types.

Composition of Sludge

Water, microorganisms, viruses and pathogens, organic particles, heavy metals, micro-pollutants.

Goals of Sludge Treatment

1. Volume reduction: by thickening and dewatering
2. Elimination of pathogenic germs
3. Stabilisation of organic substances: reduction of dry content, improvement of dewatering and reduction of odour
4. Recycling of substances (fertilizers).

Sludge Treatment Processes

1. Thickening
2. Stabilization
3. Conditioning
4. Dewatering
5. Vol. reduction
6. Disposal

Centrifugation

Separating liquids of different density. We use centrifugal force to separate the solid from the water. The process is applicable to the dewatering of wastewater sludges.

Belt Filter Press

Continuous-feed sludge-dewatering devices that dewater sludge with chemical conditioning and mechanically applied P. Effective for almost all types of municipal wastewater sludge.

Anaerobic Digestion, The Production of Biogas

To digester goes mixed sludge. Biogas production is dependent on: holding time, temperature, dosing frequency of sludge and mixing efficiency. Biogas (CH4,CO2,N2,H2S) The use of biogas: production of electricity in compressor or turbine, heat production in gas boilers, production of electricity and heat, supplying gas to the gas network.

Review of Thermal Methods of Sludge Disposal

3 ways: combustion, co-combustion and alternative processes (pyrolysis and gasification).

1. Combustion and Co-combustion: Sludge can be used in co-combustion with lignite, wood and municipal waste.
2. Incineration: Use of energy content, but not of nutrients. 2 types: Mono incineration and co- incineration.
3. Pyrolysis: Chemical degradation of a molecule due to high temperature. Produces gas fraction, solid fraction and liquid fraction.
4. Gasification: Conversion of solid or liquid fuel in the fuel gas using oxygen (or air) and water vapor.

Drying of Sewage Sludge Goals

Eliminate water from sludge and diminish its volume, increase its calorific value, make it hygienic, stabilize sludge, improve its structure, make it a fertilizer.

Types of Dryers

Based on the method of heat supplying: convective dryers, contact dryers, mixed convective-contract dryers: mixing device across the width of the bed and robot operating in a limited space, infrared dryers

Inorganic Water Pollutants

Include: Acidity caused by industrial discharges (especially SO2 from power plants). freshwater lakes and streams have a ph 6-8. Acids deposited 6-5. Below 5, fish begin to disappear, Ammonia from food processing waste, Chemical waste as industrial by-products

Macroscopic Pollution

Trash (e.g. paper, plastic, or food waste) discarded by people on the ground, and that are washed by rainfall into storm drains and eventually discharged into surface waters, Shipwrecks, large derelict ships.

Thermal Pollution

Is the rise or fall in the temperature of a body of water caused by humans: A common cause of thermal pollution is the use of water as a coolant by power plants and industrial manufacturers. Elevated water temperatures decreases oxygen levels and affects ecosystem composition, such as invasion by new thermophilic species.

Point Source and Non Point Sources of Pollution

Sources of surface water pollution are generally grouped into two categories based on their origin: Point source pollution refers to contaminants that enter a waterway through a single discrete source, such as a pipe or ditch. Examples of sources in this category include discharges from, a sewage treatment plant, a factory, a city storm drain, Non-point source pollution…

Wastewater and Water Treatment

Water treatment may be divided into 3 major categories: purification for domestic use

Substances removed are: bacteria, algae, viruses…

The combination of following processes is used for municipal drinking water treatment worldwide:

1. Pre-chlorination – for algae control and arresting any biological growth
2. Aeration – along with pre-chlorination for removal of dissolved iron and manganese
3. Coagulation – for flocculation
4. Sedimentation – for solids separation, that is, removal of suspended solids trapped in the floe
5. Filtration – for removal of carried over floe
6. Disinfection – for killing bacteria

Treatment for Specialized Industrial Applications

Major industrial applications are boiler feed water and cooling water

What is the Measure of Water Pollution? BOD

Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) is the amount of dissolved oxygen needed by aerobic biological organisms in water to break down organic material present in a given water sample at certain temperature over a specific time period. It is expressed in milligrams of oxygen/L and indicates the degree of organic pollution of water. The result is that the oxygen content of the water will be decreased. 15-20 g BOD/day is contributed by each person.

Wastewater Treatment Objectives

1. Reduce organic content
2. Removal/ reduction of nutrients
3. Removal/ inactivation of pathogenic microbes

Sewage is Composed of

1. Domestic used water and toilet wastes
2. Rainwater
3. Industrial effluent

Primary Treatment

Consists of the removal of insoluble matter such as grit, grease and scum. The first treatment is screening: it removes or reduces the size of trash and large solids that get into the sewage system. It includes sand or grit channel or chamber chamber where the velocity of the incoming wastewater is carefully controlled to allow sand, grit and stones to settle

The main purpose of the primary sedimentation stage is to produce both a generally homogeneous liquid capable of being treated biologically and a sludge that can be separately treated or processed.

Secondary Treatment

Designed to degrade the biological content of the sewage from human and food waste. Secondary treatment systems are classified as: fixed film and suspended growth.

The final step in the secondary treatment stage is to settle out the biological floe or filter material and produce sewage water

Tertiary Treatment

Its purpose is to provide a final treatment stage to raise the effluent quality before it is discharged to the receiving environment

Sewage Sludge Treatment and Disposal

Sewage treatment plants in Poland: The annual quantity of municipal waste in Poland – 1265.2 cubic hm / year (100-150L per person per day)

Sewage Sludge

Any solid, semisolid, or liquid residue removed during the treatment of municipal waste water or domestic sewage. It includes solids removed during primary, secondary, or advanced waste water treatment. It does not include grit or screenings, or ash generated during the incineration of sewage sludge. Sludge represents 1-2% of the total volume of sewage. 501 300 Mg of dry weight sludge made in Poland in 2006

Disposal Methods

Use of sewage sludge in agriculture, composting, incineration, storage

Types of Sludge on Wastewater Plants

1. Preliminary: The sludge separated from the waste water in primary clarifier – about 35g/capita*d.
2. Secondary: Which is the biomass resulting from the biological treatment of wastewater, it is separated from the waste water in the secondary settling tanks

Composition of Sludge

Predominantly water, Micro-organisms, Viruses, pathogens, germs in general, Organic particles, Heavy metals, Micro-pollutants, pharmaceuticals, endocrine disrupters

Sludge Treatment Processes

1. Thickening: involves increasing the sludge solids from the system’s primary solids separation system. Thickened sludge is withdrawn from hopper and introduced to sludge treatment
2. Stabilization: anaerobic (fermentation) or aerobic, to mineralization of organic compounds
3. Conditioning
4. Dewatering: these processes take the sludge from 3.0%-5.0% solids to greater than 20% solids. Selection of the dewatering device depends on the type of sludge to be dewatered, characteristics of the dewatered product, and the space available
5. Volume reduction
6. Disposal

Types of Dryers

Based on the method of heat supplying: convective dryers, contact dryers, mixed convective-contract dryers: 2 types: mixing device across the width of the bed and robot operating in a limited space and infrared dryers

Water

Introduction and General Information

The water molecule is made up of two hydrogen atoms bonded to an oxygen atom. H2O is colorless, tasteless and odorless. It boils at 100°C and freezes at 0°C. Water by itself is a very stable compound that is hard to decompose by heating. Water is an excellent solvent for a variety of materials; these include many (acids, bases, salts). Sugars and many other biologically important compounds are also soluble in water. Greases and oils generally are not soluble in water. Water has the highest heat capacity of any liquid or solid, 4,19 kJ/kgK. About 97.6% of total water is present as salt water in oceans: 69% is present in solid form, as polar snowcap and another 30% as groundwater. 1% is distributed among surface water, atmospheric water, and biospheric water.

Water Supply and Resources

Surface water is water in rivers, lakes… Groundwater is water below the surface in porous rock formations. Desalination is an artificial process by which saline water (generally from sea) is converted to freshwater. The most common desalination processes are distillation and reverse osmosis. Water cycle: The atmosphere is the smallest compartment of water. Water from atmosphere is really important in the movement of water from the oceans inland in the hydrologic cycle. It provides precipitation: to sustain river flow, to fill lakes, to replenish groundwater. Cycle:

1. Water enters the atmosphere by evaporation, transpiration and sublimation. Water in the atmosphere is called humidity.
2. Condensation occurs at a temperature called the dew point when water molecules leave the vapor state and form liquid or ice particles.

Water Supply and Resources

Available, water supplies are equal to total precipitation minus that lost by evaporation/transpiration and infiltration. The water that humans use is primarily fresh surface water (rivers, lakes) and groundwater. In some regions, a small fraction of the water supply comes from the ocean. A major problem with water supply is its non-uniform distribution with location and time. This is a problem because people in areas with low precipitation often consume more water than people in regions with more rainfall.

Water Use and Consumption

Next to air, water is the cheapest and most universally available raw material. It has found a huge amount of uses as a consequence:

Industry

1. The greatest amount of water for industrial applications is used to cool power plants and other energy-related facilities.
2. Such use is relatively no dangerous because usually no more than 5% of that water is lost to evaporation, and the remainder is available for other applications.

Agricultural

1. Most agricultural use of water is for irrigation.
2. Sometimes as little as 10% of the water for irrigation actually reaching the crops, with the rest lost to evaporation and infiltration.

Household

15% of worldwide water use is for household purposes such as: Drinking water, Bathing, Cooking, Sanitation and Gardening. Water is not destroyed, but it can be lost for practical use. 3 ways in which this may occur are the following:

1. Evaporative losses, such as occur during spray irrigation and when water is used for evaporative cooling.
2. Infiltration of water into the ground, often in places and ways that preclude its later uses as groundwater.
3. Degradation from pollutants, such as salts picked up by water used for irrigation.

Water Pollution

The specific contaminants leading to pollution in water include a wide spectrum of: chemicals, pathogens and physical or sensory changes such as elevated temperature and discoloration. Oxygen-depleting substances may be natural materials, such as plant matter (e.g. grass) as well as man-made chemicals. Other natural and anthropogenic substances may cause cloudiness which blocks light and disrupts plant growth. Many of the chemical substances are toxic. Contaminants may include organic and inorganic substances.

Sources of Water Pollution

Industrial, Municipal, Agricultural, Natural, Stormwater, Landfill Underground storage tank. Pathogens: organisms which produce a disease. It is an organic pollution and occurs from fecal contamination. They can introduce into water: bacteria, viruses, protozoa and parasitic worms. Coliform bacteria are a commonly-used bacterial indicator of water pollution.

Organic Water Pollutants

1. Detergents
2. Disinfection by-products found in chemically disinfected drinking water, such as chloroform
3. Food processing waste
4. Insecticides and herbicides
5. Petroleum hydrocarbons
6. Tree and bush debris from logging operations
7. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)