With industrialization came environmental impact. By the 1960s, water pollution was prevalent in many parts of the United States with rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters rapidly degrading. There are many examples of industrialization impacting our waterways, but none are more notorious than the burning Cuyahoga River in northeast Ohio in 1969.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) was formed in 1970 and the Clean Water Act (CWA) was introduced into law in 1972. According to USEPA, the CWA eliminates an estimated 900 million pounds of sewage and over a billion pounds of toxic chemicals from entering our waterways annually. The CWA has since been extended with additional regulations and amendments, including: Storm Water Discharge, Industrial Pretreatment, and Nonpoint Source Pollution.
Focus on estuaries, coastal waters, and wetlands along with assessment and enforcement have kept Americas water quality in check these past few decades. However, stresses on our water resources continue to grow. Population growth and redistribution, climate change, water for energy, and an aging water supply infrastructure contribute to tension on the water resources.
Water quality monitoring is essential to understanding the impact humans have on the environment. Clean water is important to the health of plants and animals and the quality of life for all people. Water quality professionals routinely monitor: temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, salinity, and turbidity.
Water Temperature
Water temperature has many important effects on the biological, chemical, and physical aspects of aquatic environments. Water temperature affects the growth and reproduction of living organisms. Many animals use temperature as a signal for when to reproduce, and when to migrate. Monitoring water temperature is important to the survival of these life forms.
Thermal pollution (or heat pollution) is an unnatural increase in water temperature that can endanger aquatic life. Factories and power plants generate a lot of hot water. If the water is released into streams and estuaries before it cools off, dissolved oxygen levels will decrease, but the biological oxygen demand of aquatic organisms will increase. In short, aquatic animals may suffocate.
Dissolved Oxygen
Dissolved oxygen is the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water. Just as we need air to breathe, aquatic organisms need dissolved oxygen to live. Fish, invertebrates, bacteria, and plants all need dissolved oxygen for respiration. It is also needed for the decomposition of organic matter. Dissolved oxygen is dependent on temperature and salinity.
Industrialization can have negative effects on the level of dissolved oxygen in a given body of water. Thermal pollution impacts the respiration of aquatic life.
pH
pH describes the acidity or alkalinity of a solution. A low pH indicates acidic conditions, and a high pH indicates basic conditions. pH is very important, and is used to monitor safe water conditions. When the normal pH range for a body of water has been established, a rise or fall in pH can indicate chemical pollution, or acid rain.
Mining, industry, and factory discharges can have drastic effects on pH. Acid mine drainage is a common form of water pollution in mining areas. Industrial strength cleaners and chemicals often have extremely high or low pHs, which can devastate aquatic life if released untreated.
Conductivity & Salinity
Salinity provides a measure of what is dissolved in water. Conductivity is dependent on salinity. When salts and other inorganic chemicals dissolve in water, they break into tiny, electrically charged particles called ions. Ions increase the waters ability to conduct electricity, and decrease the waters ability to hold oxygen.
Aquatic animals and plants are adapted for a certain range of salinity. Spikes outside of this range may indicate a pollution event, in which case life forms will be negatively affected and may die. Industries may release chemicals that drastically raise the salinity in a particular body of water. It is important to monitor conductivity and salinity to ensure that the range remains consistent.
Turbidity
Turbidity is an important indicator of the amount of suspended sediment in water. The suspended sediments that cause turbidity can have many negative effects on aquatic life. They can block light to aquatic plants, smother aquatic organisms, and carry contaminants and pathogens, such as lead, mercury, and bacteria.
Long-term turbidity monitoring is very important because it helps us measure the amount of soil erosion due to construction and agriculture, and helps to determine the impact of our land-use practices and increasing urban development on water quality.
Conclusion
Industrialization provides great advantages to society, but also significant environmental implications. It is important for industries to survey bodies of water that may be impacted by operations. Incorporating a real-time water quality monitoring system can build the framework for determining the environmental impact of industrial activity and find ways to reduce the negative effects.
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