How do industries cause water pollution

Examples include wastewater also called effluent discharged legally or illegally by a manufacturer, oil refinery, or wastewater treatment facility, as well as contamination from leaking septic systems, chemical and oil spills, and illegal dumping.

The EPA regulates point source pollution by establishing limits on what can be discharged by a facility directly into a body of water. While point source pollution originates from a specific place, it can affect miles of waterways and ocean. Nonpoint source pollution is contamination derived from diffuse sources.

These may include agricultural or stormwater runoff or debris blown into waterways from land. Nonpoint source pollution is the leading cause of water pollution in U.

Transboundary pollution is the result of contaminated water from one country spilling into the waters of another. Contamination can result from a disaster—like an oil spill—or the slow, downriver creep of industrial, agricultural, or municipal discharge. Around the world, agriculture is the leading cause of water degradation.

In the United States, agricultural pollution is the top source of contamination in rivers and streams, the second-biggest source in wetlands, and the third main source in lakes. Every time it rains, fertilizers, pesticides, and animal waste from farms and livestock operations wash nutrients and pathogens—such bacteria and viruses—into our waterways. Nutrient pollution , caused by excess nitrogen and phosphorus in water or air, is the number-one threat to water quality worldwide and can cause algal blooms , a toxic soup of blue-green algae that can be harmful to people and wildlife.

Used water is wastewater. It comes from our sinks, showers, and toilets think sewage and from commercial, industrial, and agricultural activities think metals, solvents, and toxic sludge. The term also includes stormwater runoff , which occurs when rainfall carries road salts, oil, grease, chemicals, and debris from impermeable surfaces into our waterways. In the United States, wastewater treatment facilities process about 34 billion gallons of wastewater per day.

These facilities reduce the amount of pollutants such as pathogens, phosphorus, and nitrogen in sewage, as well as heavy metals and toxic chemicals in industrial waste, before discharging the treated waters back into waterways. Big spills may dominate headlines, but consumers account for the vast majority of oil pollution in our seas, including oil and gasoline that drips from millions of cars and trucks every day.

Moreover, nearly half of the estimated 1 million tons of oil that makes its way into marine environments each year comes not from tanker spills but from land-based sources such as factories, farms, and cities.

At sea, tanker spills account for about 10 percent of the oil in waters around the world, while regular operations of the shipping industry—through both legal and illegal discharges—contribute about one-third.

Oil is also naturally released from under the ocean floor through fractures known as seeps. Radioactive waste is any pollution that emits radiation beyond what is naturally released by the environment.

Radioactive waste can persist in the environment for thousands of years, making disposal a major challenge. Accidentally released or improperly disposed of contaminants threaten groundwater, surface water, and marine resources. To put it bluntly: Water pollution kills.

In fact, it caused 1. Contaminated water can also make you ill. Every year, unsafe water sickens about 1 billion people. And low-income communities are disproportionately at risk because their homes are often closest to the most polluting industries. Waterborne pathogens, in the form of disease-causing bacteria and viruses from human and animal waste, are a major cause of illness from contaminated drinking water.

Diseases spread by unsafe water include cholera, giardia, and typhoid. Even in wealthy nations, accidental or illegal releases from sewage treatment facilities, as well as runoff from farms and urban areas, contribute harmful pathogens to waterways. Meanwhile, the plight of residents in Flint, Michigan —where cost-cutting measures and aging water infrastructure created the recent lead contamination crisis—offers a stark look at how dangerous chemical and other industrial pollutants in our water can be.

The problem goes far beyond Flint and involves much more than lead, as a wide range of chemical pollutants—from heavy metals such as arsenic and mercury to pesticides and nitrate fertilizers —are getting into our water supplies.

Children and pregnant women are particularly at risk. Even swimming can pose a risk. Every year, 3. In order to thrive, healthy ecosystems rely on a complex web of animals, plants, bacteria, and fungi—all of which interact, directly or indirectly, with each other. Harm to any of these organisms can create a chain effect, imperiling entire aquatic environments.

According to the EPA, 13 million households rely on private wells for drinking water. While public drinking water systems are regulated by the EPA, private drinking water wells are unregulated and do not need to meet EPA clean water standards. Thus, families that rely upon private drinking water wells are especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of water pollution from factory farms and other forms of industrial agriculture and must test their own drinking water to avoid health problems.

Agriculture accounts for 80 percent in Western states, up to 90 percent of all freshwater use in the US. Center-pivot irrigation and similar methods encourage use of large quantities of water, draining underground aquifers.

The Ogallala Aquifer, which stretches from Wyoming and South Dakota to the Texas panhandle and supports nearly one-fifth of US wheat, corn and beef cattle, has already run dry in some places and is reduced by as much as 60 percent in others. By , the USDA predicts that water availability for agriculture in all areas of the US will be significantly reduced, primarily because of climate change, but also due to current water use patterns.

Industrial Animal Agriculture Concentrated animal feeding operations CAFOs , also known as factory farms, typically house thousands of animals, generating millions if not billions of gallons of animal waste per year.

Support local organizations, like the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network , which are conducting grassroots organizing around CAFO and other types of water pollution.

Look for similar organizations in your area and support their fight. One example is Waterkeeper Alliance , which works to protect local and national waterways to ensure clean water for all. You can also follow these organizations to learn more about the local and state-level policy changes that large agricultural companies push for to increase their profits, but that end up contributing to water and other types of pollution and environmental damage.

As a consumer and whenever possible , you can avoid meat from industrial animal facilities aka, CAFOs or factory farms and purchase meats, dairy and grain that are local and organic. Check out our Label Guide for more information. US Environmental Protection Agency. The Pew Environmental Group. World Health Organization. Nitrates and phosphates are essentially found in fertilizers and may contribute to the eutrophication process that can cause dead zones. On the other hand, the presence of high levels of carbon tetrachloride in drinking water may cause problems with the liver.

Other industrial pollutants benzene is suspected to be associated with diseases such as anemia and decreased platelet counts and increased risk of cancer. Chemical chlorobenzene found in insecticides and colorants may adversely affect on the liver, kidney and central nervous system.

Toluene is substantially pollutant generated by the oil and petroleum industry, which can also affect the liver, kidney and central nervous system. Volatile organic compounds are essentially solvents used in a wide variety of industrial and household products. If not properly disposed of, these chemicals contaminate groundwater. They can cause a variety of health problems such as headaches, nausea, liver and kidney damage and memory.

When industrial water pollution, it is difficult to contain, it is not impossible. Greater awareness should be created among the common masses about how water gets polluted, it can be prevented its effects on human health and marine life and how.

It is not possible to reduce water pollution without public cooperation and cooperation of industrial units. Strict pollution control laws and regulations and their effective implementation have an important role in controlling any kind of pollution.

Development of cost-effective pollution control equipment and incentives from the government for installing these devices can encourage industry to take control pollution seriously. Some industrial wastes are common waste, as well as domestic sewage. Such waste can be easily treated municipal facilities. But some wastes, such as heavy metals, volatile organic compounds and oils and fats need special treatment.

Industries can install separate pre-treatment of such hazardous waste. Partially treated waste water may be sent to the local system for further purification. Extensive industries generate large amounts of waste water. These sectors should revise their manufacturing processes to reduce the amount of pollutants and operate their own facilities for treatment on the spot. Industrial wastewater treatment can be performed in three stages-primary treatment, which includes mechanical processes, biological processes for secondary treatment and tertiary treatment which can be performed using biological, physical and chemical processes.

In the primary treatment, pollutants are separated from the water by screening, grinding, flocculation and sedimentation processes. In the secondary treatment, biological methods are used for wastewater treatment. Finally, the waste water is recycled to the tertiary treatment using biological, physical and chemical processes. Thermal pollution on the other hand, can be controlled by creating cooling ponds, or by using a cooling tower.

The cooperation of citizens and industrial units, proper enforcement of legislation and the availability of effective and cheaper pollution control techniques are essential prerequisites for the success of such legislation.

With genetic engineering technology, some of the activities of microbial cultures are now a reality. This has led to new approaches to the treatment of waste.