Water Quality

Water Quality

Discussion on water quality in South Boardman, Michigan

In 2020, the local municipality report showed that drinking water meets all the South Boardman Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards and requirements. The water used in the ascribed in the mentioned cases is bottled and tap water. Moreover, other sources include rivers, wells, ponds, reservoirs, and springs. The Boardman River is most notable, vital in ensuring free water flow, and has excellent water quality. As argued by the Michigan Water Department, more than 160 contaminants are constantly observed to ensure that water is safe for drinking and other purposes (Gehri, 2020). The waters in the area are free from contamination, such as metals and chemicals, which are primarily challenging to recognize. Besides, the water is odorless as there has been the adoption of outstanding practices that always encourage sanitation and hygiene in sources of water, the process of distribution, and treatment plants.

Water Quality Issue in My Community

The critical issues detected in the community that alter water quality include chemical and physical pollutants in water sources. It is evident in the community that the population in the area has become a significant problem for water quality. The problem can be attributed to the increased agricultural and industrial activities, which harm water quality. With technological changes, more and more manufacturing and farming practices are invented. Agricultural activities lead to low water quality, especially with the growing technology (Evans et al., 2019). For instance, when farmers spray their crops with chemicals, the hindmost is carried away into water sources like streams and rivers. The result is that the quality of water is lowered. In addition, poor agricultural practices around the area cause erosion. Clay and soil particles are deposited into the water sources, affecting their quality. Sedimentation is among the major problems affecting water sources as vital aquatic animals like fish are endangered. Do you need urgent assignment help ? Get in touch with us at eminencepapers.com. We endeavor to provide you with excellent service.

The fertilizers and agrochemicals are carried into the water sources, thus making the waters unfit for human consumption. A negative effect of fertilizer is that when they are washed into the rivers, they encourage eutrophication and lower the oxygen concentration in the water. Such water becomes unfit for human utilization. Moreover, industrial wastewater is another major problem that reduces water quality. When industries release hot water in the water sources from various coal ash and plants, they affect water quality.

Furthermore, raw sewage becomes a water problem when released into the water sources (Evans et al., 2019). If not treated or partially treated, the raw sewage can contaminate the water sources and harm aquatic life. When the water becomes polluted, it may not be healthy for human consumption. Hence, the community’s leading causes of poor water are agricultural and industrial practices that are not monitored well.

How Pollution Impacts the Environment and Human Health in My Community

Pollution of water sources has a significant impact on the environment since both animals and plants are affected. Animals that are mostly affected are aquatic. The pollution source’s primary effect is eutrophication (Diedrich, 2021). Eutrophication involves a series of deposits of nutrients, such as Nitrogen, into water origins. The effect is an increase in algae and other aquatic plants. The plants lead to a reduction in oxygen concentration, making the environment ill-suited for the life of marine creatures.

Besides, chemicals deposited in the water sources interfere with water PH. Such water is unsuitable for both micro-organisms and macro-organisms. Furthermore, runoff water that contains chemicals and microbial pollutants could be deposited into the water sources. The mentioned pollutants contain heavy metals and pathogens harmful to human health. Heavy metals have a spectrum that affects human health, such as lead, which leads to cancer and skin diseases. In addition, microbial pollutants are bacteria and viruses that expose humans to infections (Diedrich, 2021). The primary known illnesses brought by the mentioned pathogens include typhoid, cholera, and other sanitation diseases. Besides, when water quality is low, people in the community find it hard to access quality water, bringing about a water shortage. Further, contaminated water can lead to a pandemic, which can cause the death of people in the area.

Three Management Practices to Minimize Water Pollution

The most vital management practice that should be used is adopting best practices in farming. As confirmed by major bodies worldwide, the primary source of water pollution is terrible agricultural practices. There is a need for better agricultural practices, such as sparingly using farm chemicals and fertilizers. The mentioned will ensure that few or no pollutants come into contact with water bodies (Chen et al., 2017). The farmers should also minimize practice tillage and keep away from cultivating lands close to the riverbanks or steep slopes to avoid erosion of soils.

Secondly, the different bodies that exist to secure water sources should impose strict laws and punishments on the various industries that release their waste materials into water sources such as rivers. In the same way, those industries that treat their waste products before discharging them into the water sources should be inspected and tracked to ensure that the method they use to treat the waste products is safe. Some manufacturing industries treat their waste materials before releasing them into water sources. Still, their ways are ineffective, allowing them to contaminate the water sources and kill aquatic life. Furthermore, the bodies should ensure that the companies pay a fee that will ease the restoration of watersheds that have been destroyed. The mentioned will ensure those watersheds that have been isolated are brought back to life.

Additionally, there is a need for the public to be educated on matters to do with disposing of their domestic waste in the right way. As much as industries and agricultural practices contaminate water sources, people contribute a certain percentage. Thus, educating them on the importance of water sources and improving water quality is vital as they will need the water now and then (Chen et al., 2017). Practices such as refurbishing, reusing, recovering, reducing, and recycling should be used to ensure that the waste materials are appropriately handled. Furthermore, there is a need for the community to take collaborative action to ensure that the entire watersheds are protected.

References

Chen, L., Wang, L., Wu, X., & Ding, X. (2017). Process-level water conservation and pollution control performance evaluation tool of cleaner production technology in the textile industry. Journal of cleaner production, 143, 1137-1143.

Diedrich, C. (2021). Spatial and Temporal Comparison Of Persistent Organic Pollutants In The Boardman River.

Evans, A. E., Mateo-Sagasta, J., Qadir, M., Boelee, E., & Ippolito, A. (2019). Agricultural water pollution: critical knowledge gaps and research needs. Current opinion in environmental sustainability, 36, 20-27.

Gehri, R. R. (2020). Genetic Assessment of Boardman River Fish Populations Before Dam Removal (Doctoral dissertation, College of Natural Resources, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point).

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Assessment Description
Write a 750-1,000-word essay about water quality in your community that addresses the following points:

1. Obtain a water quality report from your local municipality within the last two years and discuss what you found in the report.
2. Identify a water quality issue in your community and where the pollution comes from. This includes point sources (for example, water discharge from a factory or contamination from a Superfund site), Non-point sources (for example, agricultural runoff), and Natural sources.
3. Describe how the pollution source impacts your community’s environment and human health, and provide two examples of each.
4. Identify three management practices to minimize water pollution.
Remember to support your data and information with appropriate citations. A minimum of five peer-reviewed references must be included.