Main Water Pollutants (Examples) - encyclopedia

Video: Types of Pollutants that affect Water Quality

Content

Hydrocarbons
Urban discharges
Construction materials
Agricultural substances and waste
Discharges from power plants
Mining tailings
Solid commercial waste
Radioactive waste
Industrial chemical waste
Substances that produce acid rain
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The water contamination or Water pollution refers to the alteration of its chemical properties, usually a direct or indirect product of human activities, making it unsuitable for consumption by animals and humans, and even for recreational, industrial, agricultural and fishing use.

There are numerous polluting sources that currently besiege rivers, seas and lakes, and even rainwater, and that unbalance the biological cycles that take place inside them, leading to extinctions, mutations, migrations and irreversible ecological damage that, in turn, lead to other secondary environmental damage.

There are numerous initiatives to combat water pollutionBut they are insufficient for the daily injection of polluting elements that we submit to the planet.

It can serve you: 12 Examples of Air Pollution

Hydrocarbons

Not just the big and dramatic oil spills, ecological tragedies absolute numbers that kill animals, plants and microorganisms alike, but also the small emissions of diesel, diesel, oils and other fuels Petroleum derivatives used in maritime automotive transport, make their presence felt in the chemical balance of waters, from the introduction of harmful substances that are difficult to eliminate by biotic chains ordinary seas.

See also: Examples of Natural Disasters

Urban discharges

All the liquids that we dispose of from our houses through the drainage will, sooner or later, enter the rivers or the ocean. In that sense, our everyday way of life throws tons of organic waste, industrial solvents, chemical cleaners and consumer oils, which often unbalance the food chain of the seas, promoting the proliferation of certain species over others, or whose decomposition deoxygenates the water, preventing the reproduction of the weakest species.

Construction materials

The construction and cement industries often dump waste materials into the water (through cleaning or waste disposal routines), which leads to the suspension of toxic elements (metals, dense powders) in the water, altering little little by little their pH levels and making them less compatible with life.

Agricultural substances and waste

Much of the waste material from the agricultural and livestock industry is dumped into rivers, which lead to the sea. This includes organic matter, leftover compost, and often pesticides, pesticides and agrochemicals of a toxic nature, which seep into groundwater or are washed away by rain and then poison the water. Many of these substances are then found inside fish and shellfish that we gladly eat.

See also: Examples of Soil Contamination

Discharges from power plants

The waters taken by electricity generation plants are often at temperatures other than those of the sea or rivers. Once these waters return to their course, the total temperature of the medium varies, causing ecological damage to species that are directly dependent on water temperature, and indirectly to those that feed on them.

Mining tailings

Often the result of illegal mining activities and therefore difficult to control, the spill in the rivers of mercury and other substances used in the extraction of precious minerals have a serious effect on the local fauna and flora, in addition to causing the destruction of the soil and indiscriminate logging, activities common to this illegal industrial area.

Solid commercial waste

Much of the material we discard goes to the sea or lakes, where it becomes a harmful agent for the fauna and Flora local, due to its chemical or physical properties. Metals, for example, oxidize in water and react by altering its chemical balance, while plastic, difficult to biodegrade, accumulates and often enters the body of fish, turtles and birds, causing death. .

Radioactive waste

The big point against nuclear power plants is that they generate radioactive material highly harmful to life in all its forms and that it can only be contained in lead barrels. Many of them are then discharged into the water in deep seas or ocean trenches, where the cycle of oxidation It releases lead from lead before its active life is over, spreading radioactivity to all local species.

Industrial chemical waste

Most manufacturing and material procurement processes, byproducts substances that are then discharged into the river or lakes, where it reacts in uncontrolled and unforeseen ways with the local habitats, being able to even indirectly contaminate the inhabitants with carcinogenic substances, highly toxic or simply destroying the local chemical balance.

Substances that produce acid rain

The pollution of the air and water leads to the phenomenon of acid rain, in which toxic substances accompany the water in its cycle or are integrated into it in the atmosphere and then precipitate together with the raindrops, deteriorating the health of local and often population species.