POLLUTION: WATER AND SOIL

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POLLUTION WATER AND SOIL
Monika Taing, Michelle Cameron, Jacqueline
Fisher, Alex Leversedge, Julia Friske

• Sustainable lifestyles

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Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Water

• The World Water Development Report (WWDR) has
  outlined how the achievement of 7 of 8 the MDGs
  are related to the accessibility of safe and
  sufficient water

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Goal 2 Achieve Universal Primary Education

• TARGET By 2015, ensure that all boys and
  girls complete a full course of primary schooling
  
• Approximately 113 million school-age children do
  not attend school
• Water factors may play a role in school
  absenteeism
• For example, the need to collect domestic water
  keeps many children (especially young girls)
  from attending school

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Goal 3 Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

• TARGET Eliminate gender disparity in primary and
  secondary education preferably by 2005, and at
  all levels by 2015
• Of all those who are illiterate, ? are women
• Girls absent from school due to collecting
• domestic water

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How is it for women and children?

• Focus of water projects is technology more than
  social issues
• Husbands have control ? determine
  arrangements with respect to water collection
• Women must face very tough conditions

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So What?

• Social issues must become focus
• Donors or project develops must ensure that
  expectations and responsibilities of both sides
  are clearly stated and understood

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Goal 7 Ensure Environmental Sustainability

• TARGET By 2015, reduce half the proportion of
  people without sustainable access to safe
  drinking water and basic sanitation
• 1 billion people lack access to safe drinking
  water
• 2.4 billion people lack access to adequate
  sanitation

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Tracking Progress of MDG Goals

• Access to Safe Drinking Water
• World is on track
• But access not improved everywhere ? sub-Saharan
  Africa
• Basic Sanitation
• If trends continue, we will miss the target
• We are headed in the right direction
• Most serious problem for sub-Saharan Africa and
  South Asia

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Challenges

• Who is responsible?
• Water is now a human right
• So what?
• Financial assistance
• Acknowledging problem publicly
• Advocacy

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Water in Canada

• Over 360 chemical compounds have been
  identified in the Great Lakes
• Health Problems related to water pollution are
  estimated to cost Canadians 300 million per
  year
• Seepage
• Runoff

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Causes of Impaired Water Quality

• Agricultural Runoff
• Industrial Pollution
• Household Pollution

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Types of Pollution

• Persistent Non-persistent
• Pesticides Sewage
• Landfill components Fertilizers
• Petroleum
• PCBs Physical
• Dioxins Garbage
• Polyaromatic hydrocarbons Thermal
• Radioactive materials
• Heavy metal

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How is Water Quality Measured?

• Field Samples
• Water
• Suspended materials
• Bottom sediment
• Laboratory
• Physical, chemical, and microbiological analyses
• Biological testing

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What can you do?

• - Dont dump hazardous products
• - Use non-toxic household products
• - Dont misuse the sewage system
• - Recycle and dispose of trash properly
• - Avoid using pesticides and fertilizers in
  gardens
• Attend and participate in public hearings and
  advisory boards

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GROUNDWATER
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What is groundwater?

• Found everywhere, usually found within 100meters
  from the surface
• Aquifers are water-bearing permeable rocks or
  unconsolidated material that holds a significant
  amount of water, which is easily retrieved by the
  construction of wells

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What is groundwater?

• Groundwater structure includes the following
• Water table - the area in which all the spaces
  are filled with water
• Above the water table is the unsaturated zone
• Water found in the soil is called soil moisture
• Everything below is the saturated zone
  (groundwater)

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Hydrologic cycle

• Groundwater does not just stay in the ground
• It is part of the hydrologic cycle which includes
  evaporation, condensation and precipitation
• There are recharge and discharge areas
• Residence time is an important factor,
  groundwater can reside anywhere from 2 to 10,000
  years before resurfacing

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What can be found in groundwater?

• Pure water is not naturally found in the
  environment
• However, groundwater provides almost all of
  earths fresh water supply
• Water quality is assessed by measuring milligrams
  per liter (mg/L)
• Dissolved particles can be anywhere from 25mg/L
  to 300,000mg/L in groundwater
• Depends on the flow rate and aid of aquifers
• This provides groundwater with disease-free
  microorganisms

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How does contamination occur?

• Groundwater is often purer than surface water
  because it has less dissolved materials
• Contamination often occurs from an origin but
  once in groundwater, it is spreads far from the
  originating area
• Contaminants come from two types of sources
• point sources (landfills, leaking septic tanks,
  accidental spills)
• non-point sources (farmland pesticides and
  fertilizers)

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Contamination prevention

• Effective groundwater practices from the
  government
• Constant monitoring of industries
• Good practices from citizens
• Since cleanup is very difficult if not almost
  impossible to completely clean up, preventative
  measures are very important so that the situation
  never arises where we have to clean ground water
  up

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What you can do

• Food for thought Where does the water go from
  your household?
• 75 of Canadians for example are serviced by the
  municipal sewer system however the sewage
  treatment place is not always 100 percent
  effective
• Avoid using hazardous household products (toxic,
  corrosive, flammable, reactive) do you need it?
  
• Try using organic household products
• Avoid using pesticides in your garden
• Locate your local hazardous waste disposal
  facility
• Get involved in environmental issues!

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Hinkley, California
CASE STUDY 1
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Chromium 6 Hexavalent Chromium

• Small town of Hinkley, California
• Pacific Gas Electric dumped million gallons of
  chromium 6 into unlined ponds for decades
• December 7, 1987 company announced they found
  levels of chromium 6
• Deceived citizens
• Symptoms included chronic headache, chronic
  nosebleeds, rashes, tumors, cancer, and death

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Quick background on chromium

• Chromium in 0.05mg/L is said to be harmless
  (maximum amount)
• for example in Canadian waters, it is usually
  0.024mg/L
• Chromium 3 (trivalent chromium) is a less toxic,
  natural occurring substance
• When it is introduced to raw water, during
  chlorination, it may be oxidized to chromium 6
  (hexavalent chromium)
• Hexavalent chromium is used for metal production
  (such as chrome alloy) and corrosion inhibitors
• Chromium 6 is not naturally found in the
  environment but its presence is due to industrial
  and domestic production

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What did the company do?

• told them it was beneficial, but to avoid
  drinking it, every other use was safe including
  bathing in it
• stated chlorine kills the contaminants
• hired doctors and toxicologists who stated the
  resident were completely healthy
• When other doctors, provided by the law firm were
  asked to test the family, they had a high and
  dangerous amount of chromium in their system
• Again, this has been occurring for generations
  without the residents awareness

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What could have been done?

• monitoring the waste and finding a more
  appropriate way of disposing it
• heavy metals are difficult to treat
• 90 of the less toxic chromium (3) can be removed
  via ferric sulphate and lime softening
• ferric sulphate can also be used for chromium 6
  by reducing it to its chromium 3 state
• chlorine unfortunately oxidizes any chromium 3 to
  chromium 6
• exposure of chromium 6 is carcinogenic and
  mutagenic

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Walkerton, Ontario
CASE STUDY 2
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Events of Walkerton, Ontario

• May 18th 2000 first symptoms widespread illness
  bloody diarrhea and throbbing cramps
• Escherichia coli O157H7
• Campylobacter jejuni
• Cause manure entering well 5
• Stan Koebel, manager of the Walkerton Public
  Utilities Commission, concealed results from a
  microbiological samples
• 7 people died while the rest were airlifted to
  London, Ontario hospital

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Prevention methods

• Responsilibilities
• Role of the Ministry of the Environment oversee
  distribution, treatment and mentoring practices
  for safe water
• Role of PUC
• Role of Health Unit
• Better implementation of policies
• The Approval Program
• The Inspections Program

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What can you do to help?

• increase awareness and training in these areas
  (clearly Stan Koebel and his staff lacked the
  knowledge and importance of chlorine in water)
• Education and awareness (be active)
• boiling water can be a habit when using wells
  (microorganisms are often killed successfully
  this way)

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Quick Facts

• Contaminated water and poor sanitation cause 30
  000 deaths daily worldwide
• Diarrhea-related diseases in developing countries
• 80 of infectious diseases in developing
  countries are water-related
• 1.2 billion people worldwide lack clean water
• Only 10 of industrial pollutants in the United
  States is disposed of in an environmentally
  responsible manner

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Water and Sanitation is one of the primary
drivers of public health. I often refer to it as
Health 101, which means that once we can secure
access to clean water and to adequate sanitation
facilities for all people, irrespective of the
difference in their living conditions, a huge
battle against all kinds of diseases will be
won. Dr. LEE Jong-wook, Director-General, World
Health Organization.
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ENGINEERS WITHOUT BORDERS

• For the 800 million people who go hungry each
  day and the 1 billion who lack access to clean
  water, poverty is an absence of opportunity.
• Technology can drive change
• Sustainable development
• Raising awareness

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WATERAID

• Worlds leading water and sanitation NGO
• Vision of a world where everyone has access to
  safe water
• Campaign locally and internationally to change
  policy and practice

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How can you help?

• Donate to NGOs
• Learn more about what is being done
• Organize events to raise awareness in your
  community
• Write to local newspapers about the crisis
• Use your skills to join and contribute to
  organizations such as EWB, DWB, and SWB
• Workplace campaigns
• High school and University Outreach

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Play Your Part

• On March 2, 2006, thousands of volunteers carried
  buckets of water on their heads through the
  streets of Toronto to demonstrate the plight of
  women in developing countries who walk many
  kilometers daily for water