Clean It Up!

Kate StrauchAddison Plume

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to try and prevent water pollution. We decided to clean a half mile of the Double Rock Park steam by picking up litter in and around the stream area. Ways to prevent water pollution are to not litter, pick up trash around streams, and reduce chemical use outside.

Explanation

Humans play a huge role in water pollution. Humans dump waste into the water. They also use harmful chemicals on land that run into the water. These chemicals can hurt animal and human life. Humans may throw garbage into a stream, dump a chemical into a lake, work for a sewage plant, play a part in industrial pollution, or own a farm that uses too many pesticides on its plants.

ExplanationThere are many causes of this issue. The first is that chemicals may be dumped into the water. These chemicals include fertilizers and oils. Sewage is also a big source that has contributed to water pollution. It can include trash, garbage, and human waste. People have dumped garbage in the water for centuries. Today, most rivers and lakes near big cities are too polluted for people or animals. Industrial pollution is also contributing much to the pollution of the water. Every year factories worldwide create three hundred million tons of pollutants. Much of this pollution winds up in the water. Finally, farms can use harmful chemicals on their crops that run off into the water. . One farm can use tons of fertilizers to help its crops grow. Farms also use a lot of pesticides, and the tractor spill oil and gas. When it rains, the rain washes away all the chemicals, oil, and dirt that are on the farm into nearby rivers and lakes.

Explanation

There are many effects of this issue on the environment. For example, water pollution can cause death to many inhabitant of the water infected by the pollution. Groundwater contamination from pesticides can cause damage of the reproduction system within wildlife in ecosystems. Solid water pollution can choke animals and either kill them or cause them much pain. Pollution in the water can also reach a point where there isn't enough oxygen for the animals living under the water and they will suffocate. Finally, Water pollution from major events like acid rain or oil spills can completely destroy marine habitats.

Explanation

Water pollution can also effect human life badly. For example, humans can get diseases or even die if they drink polluted water. Some of those diseases include Cholera, Typhoid Fever, Hepatitis, and E-Coli infections. Also, swimming in and drinking contaminated water can cause skin rashes and health problems like cancer, problems with the reproductive system, stomach sickness in humans. Finally, as pollution increases, the amount of drinking water decreases. This can cause areas with lack of drinking water to have even less water and people could die.

Explanation

There are many horrible potential impacts that could occur in the future if water pollution continues. For example, the drinking water supply could continue to decrease until there is only little water left for people to drink. If water pollution continues, marine life and wildlife could become extinct. The toxins in the water could continue to harm these animals in the water until there are none left. Human illness could also increase because of the continuous amount of toxins in the water that are not being cleaned out. Finally, the death rate of humans and animals will continue to increase when they swim in or drink the toxins in the water.

Action ProjectIn our action project we cleaned a half mile of the Double Rock park stream by picking up trash in and around the stream’s area. This helps the environmental issue because we are cleaning the waterways so that the animals in and around the area will not eat the trash, be suffocated by it, or swim in it. Also, this helps keep down the pollution and helps keep the beauty of the area in tact. Finally, other people may have seen us cleaning the stream and may want to do the same thing. We collected eight kilograms of trash as a result of the cleanup. We found that there was a large amount of trash in a small area. There were many trash items including bottles, trash bags, Styrofoam, cans, plastic bags, plates, and other solid items.

Action Project

We found that the most common type of pollution were the bottles, plastic bags, and cans. The least common were plates and other solid items such as balls and water bottle caps. Most of the items were found on the land very close to the streams with the exception of the plastic bags which were mostly found in the water. Lots of the items were found hidden under rocks or stuck on sticks in the water. Finally, we saw that there were no trash cans around the entire length of the stream that we cleaned. We have concluded that this could be why there was so much pollution in the water.

Scope

The idea of our project was to help prevent water pollution. We wanted to clean up a stream so that pollution would not continue to sit in the water. We also did this so that the pollution would not continue to move throughout the stream and into larger bodies of water. We wanted to help protect the animal life in the water by taking out all harmful objects in and around the water. Finally, we wanted to improve the beauty of the stream and area around it so that people would not want to destroy the stream’s beauty anymore.

SolutionIn order to stop the issue of water pollution, the nation has passed laws against littering and dumping chemicals into Earth’s waterways. Dumping industrial waste was made illegal in the United Kingdom in 1993. The Clean Water Act was passed in the United States which aims to eliminate the releases of highly toxic substances into the water. The Safe Water Drinking Act was passed in the United States to help ensure safe drinking water for the public. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act governed the disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste. These acts have made positive impacts on the environment, but most of these acts are unable to further advance and improve the water even more.

Solution

As a society and nation we can do many things to improve the condition of the water. First of all, we can make stricter laws prohibiting the release of toxic and solid waste into the waterways. Also, we could try to find an alternate way to dispose of human waste so that millions of tons are not going into the water every year. Farms could also try and use less fertilizer on crops. The government can also try to create groups to clean up spilled chemicals and dispose of them properly. The nation can also dispose of chemicals properly. Finally, there could be more marine life protection groups an programs that would address the issue of water pollution to many people.

SolutionAs individuals, we can do many things to help improve the condition of the water. We can start by recycling more. Also, we can pick up trash that we see laying around. We could put more trash cans around stream areas and clean streams that are heavily polluted. We can also be aware of what we put down are drains and sinks so that we can make sure that they are not harmful. We could also not litter or throw trash in streams or rivers. We can also use environmentally friendly household products. Finally, conserve clean water by turning off the tap when running water is not needed.

Solution

These solutions will help in many ways. Not littering will help prevent pollution in the water so that people do not need to clean rivers. Stricter laws would prohibit factories from dumping large amounts of waste into the water without a strict and harsh punishment. Finding alternative ways of disposing waste will prevent tons of waste from being dumped into the waterways each year. Having more marine life protection programs will spread the word of how harmful water pollution is to the marine life. Finally, conserving water will keep more fresh water on the planet for people to drink if the pollution does continue.