Water Pollution Management

What Is Water Pollution?

Water Pollution can be defined in many ways. Water pollution is the contamination of
water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water
bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater.
Water pollution occurs when harmful substances (often chemicals or microorganisms)
contaminate a stream, river, lake, ocean, aquifer, or other body of water, degrading water quality
and rendering it toxic to humans or the environment.
Water pollution results when contaminants mix with these water bodies.

Categories of Water Pollution

 Point Source Pollution
 Non-Point Pollution
 Transboundary Pollution

Point source pollution

When contamination originates from a single source, it’s called point source pollution.
Examples include wastewater (also called effluent) discharged legally or illegally by a
manufacturer, oil refinery, or wastewater treatment facility, as well as contamination from
leaking septic systems, chemical and oil spills, and illegal dumping.
The Environmental protection Agency (EPA) regulates point source pollution by
establishing limits on what can be discharged by a facility directly into a body of water. While
point source pollution originates from a specific place, it can also affect miles of waterways and
ocean.
Examples Of Point Source Pollution
- Smokestacks
- Discharge Pipes
- Drainage Ditches

Non-point source pollution

Non-point source pollution is contamination derived from diffuse sources. These may include
agricultural or storm water runoff or debris blown into waterways from land.
Examples Of Non-point Source Pollution
- Excess Fertilizers
- Herbicides and insecticides from Agricultural Lands
- Residential Area

Transboundary pollution
Transboundary pollution is the result of contaminated water from one country spilling
into the waters of another. Contamination can result from a disaster—like an oil spill—or the
slow, downriver creep of industrial, agricultural, or municipal discharge.
Examples of Transboundary Pollution
 - Acid Rain
- Global Warming

Types of water that being Impacted

 Groundwater pollution occurs due to the release of pollutants into the ground that
eventually find their way into natural underground water reservoirs known as aquifers.
Once the pollutants released infiltrate groundwater, they cause contamination.
Examples of Groundwater Pollution
- Industrial Discharges
- Ground Water Pumpage

 Surface water pollution is generally caused by pathogen, nutrients, plastics, chemicals

such as heavy metals, pesticides, antibiotics, industrial waste discharges, and individuals
dumping into waterways. Nutrient pollution, which includes nitrates and phosphates, is
the leading type of contamination in these freshwater sources. While plants and animals
need these nutrients to grow, they have become a major pollutant due to farm waste and
fertilizer runoff. Municipal and industrial waste discharges contribute their fair share of
toxins as well. There’s also all the random junk that industry and individuals dump
directly into waterways.
Examples of Surface water Pollution
- Sewage and Wastewater
- Radioactive Substances

 Ocean water pollution is a complex mixture made up of mercury, plastic wastes,

manufactured chemicals, petroleum wastes, agricultural runoff, and biological threats,
like harmful algal blooms. Eighty percent of ocean pollution (also called marine
pollution) originates on land—whether along the coast or far inland.
Examples of Ocean Water Pollution
- Oil Spill
- Deep Sea Mining

CAUSES OF WATER POLLUTION

Water pollution is putting our health at risk. Unsafe water kills more people each year
than war and all other forms of violence combined. Meanwhile, less than 1% of the Earth’s
freshwater is actually accessible to us and it’s in our best interest to protect what we have,
especially considering that by 2050, global demand for freshwater is expected to be one-third
greater than it is now.

SEWAGE
Sewage is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically
transported through a sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged from residences
and from commercial, institutional and public facilities that exist in the locality. Sub-types of
sewage are greywater and blackwater.
According to the UN, more than 80% of the world’s wastewater flows back into the
environment without being treated or reused; in some least-developed countries, this figure tops
95%. Harmful chemicals and bacteria can be found in sewage and wastewater even after it’s been
treated.
Sewage Treatment Plant is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove
contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable to discharge to the surrounding
environment or an intended reuse application, thereby preventing water pollution from raw
sewage discharges.

These are the main types of plants that are present worldwide:

 Rotating Disc System

The rotating disc system for sewage treatment plants is pretty common nowadays. While
it’s a pretty recent system, it can also be retrofitted into other sewage treatment plants to create
sanitized and cleaned effluent.
These sewage treatment plants are ideal for plants that handle the sewage of a widely
populated area. One of the major benefits of these plants is that they don’t require to be de-
sludged that often. Typically, a rotating disc system plant will only have to de-sludge once every
12-18 months, which can help save on time, effort, and costs. This low maintenance quality is a
key reason that many modern plants are shifting to this system. With that said, while it doesn’t
require constant de-sludging, it does need service every 6-12 months to keep it running to the
best of its abilities.

 Activated Sludge Plant

This is another common type of sewage treatment plant. These plants use oxygen and
microorganisms to clean and sanitize the sewage. This works by oxidizing the pollutants, which
creates a sludge-type substance.

 Submerged Aerated Filter System

These sewage treatment plants are one of the simpler systems available. A submerged
aerated filter system (SAF system) requires very little maintenance and has just a few moving
parts, making it very easy to keep running. This is a great option for plants that aim to reduce
overhead costs without affecting the sanitation process. Despite its simplicity, a SAF system can
effectively clean sewage before it’s released into oceans and rivers. Additionally, these systems
utilize an automatic de-sludging system. This means you won’t have to manually de-sludge the
system, which can be both time-consuming and costly.

 Sequencing Batch Reactors

This system is one of the most flexible types of sewage treatment plants. It treats sewage
through a series of steps. However, each of the steps takes place in the same tank, which reduces
the need to transfer the sewage.
The reason this is a popular system is its flexibility. A sequencing batch reactor sewage treatment
plant is able to handle strong and diluted sewage pretty easily. Additionally, these treatment
plants tend to have a lower carbon footprint, another huge benefit of these types of sewage
treatment plants.

WASTE WATER
Wastewater is used water. It is the polluted form of water generated from rainwater runoff
and human activities.

What is in Wastewater?
 Wastewater is 99.9% pure water
 The other 0.1% is what is cause for concern. It contains a wide variety of dissolved and
suspended impurities. That 0.1% includes:
o Nutrients: Phosphorous and Nitrogen
o Fats, oils, grease: cooking oils, body lotions
o Pathogens are disease-causing bacteria and viruses
o Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) is a measure of oxygen needed by aerobic
bacteria to break down organic matter.
o Other solids: dust, sand, clay and rust.

Wastewater is typically categorized by the manner in which it is generated:

• Stormwater runoff or rainwater runoff are from precipitation that is collected in a
system of pipes or open channels. Stormwater washes down storm drains on the curbs of roads
and leads directly into lakes, rivers, and streams. It is untreated and can carry pollutants,
sediments, and trash directly into our natural water resources.
• Industrial wastewater is an aqueous discard and by-product from most production
industries like food and beverage, cloth and shoe production, electronic production, and heavy
production sites such as mining, oil and gas, as well as chemical manufacturing.
• Domestic wastewater is defined as wastewater from residential settlements and services,
such as houses; and which originates predominantly from toilets, bathrooms and kitchens.
Two types of domestic waste water:
Greywater – consists of water discharge from sources like bathroom, laundry, and
kitchen.
Blackwater – contains human waste and harmful pathogens like urine and feces.

Wastewater contributors
Around half of all ocean pollution is caused by sewage and waste water. Each year, the
world generates 400 billion tons of industrial waste much of which is pumped untreated into
rivers, oceans, and other waterways. Following are the main contributors of wastewater:

 Factories (generates industrial wastewater)

Factories are point sources of water pollution. In the United States alone, around 400,000
factories take clean water from rivers, and many pumps polluted waters back in their place.
  Ordinary People (generates domestic wastewater)
Quite a lot of water is polluted by ordinary people from nonpoint sources; this is how ordinary
water becomes waste water in the first place. Virtually everyone pours chemicals of one sort or
another down their drains or toilets. Even detergents used in washing machines and dishwashers
eventually end up in our rivers and oceans. So do the pesticides we use on our gardens.

 Highways (generates stormwater runoff)

Highways are typically covered with a cocktail of toxic chemicals -everything from spilled fuel
and brake fluids to bits of worn tires (themselves made from chemical additives) and exhaust
emissions. When it rains, these chemicals wash into drains and rivers in such concentrations that
they kill large numbers of fish overnight. In one year, the highway runoff from a single large city
leaks as much oil into our water environment as a typical tanker spill. Some highway runoff runs
away into drains; others can pollute groundwater or accumulate in the land next to a road,
making it increasingly toxic as the years go by.

CHEMICAL WASTE
Chemical waste is any excess, unused, or unwanted chemical, especially those that cause damage
to human health or the environment. Some dangerous chemical waste includes:

 PCBS (polychlorinated biphenyls)

They were once widely used to manufacture electronic circuit boards, but their harmful effects
have now been recognized and their use is highly restricted in many countries. Nevertheless, any
estimated half million tons of PCBs were discharged into the environment during the 20th
century. Although PCBs are widely banned, their effects will be felt for many decades because
they last a long time in the environment without breaking down.

 Heavy Metals
Another kind of toxic pollution comes from heavy metals, such as lead, cadmium, and mercury.
Lead was once commonly used in gasoline (petrol), though its use is now restricted in some
countries. Mercury and cadmium are still used in batteries (though some brands use other
metals instead).

 TBT (tributyltin)
A highly toxic chemical called tributyltin (TBT) was used in paints to protect boats from the
ravaging effects of the oceans. Ironically, however, TBT was gradually recognized as a pollutant:
boats painted with it were doing as much damage to the oceans as the oceans were doing to the
boats. Its chemical formula is C12H27Sn or (C4H9)3Sn.

RADIOACTIVE WASTE
• People view radioactive waste with great alarm.
• Because if the concentration is high enough it can kill.
• Even if the concentration is low, it can cause cancer and other illness.
Radioactive Waste (Nuclear Waste)
• Is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive materials
• Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear
research, nuclear power generation, nuclear decommissioning, rare-earth mining, and
nuclear weapons reprocessing

Biggest source of radioactive pollution is in Europe

The 2 factories that reprocess waste fuel from nuclear power plants are:
 Sellafield on the north-west coast of Britain
Sellafield, formerly known as Windscale, is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale
on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste
processing and storage and nuclear decommissioning.
 Cap La Hague on the north coast of France.
The La Hague site is a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at La Hague on the Cotentin Peninsula in
northern France, with the Manche storage center bordering on it.
Both of this discharge radioactive wastewater into the sea, which the ocean currents then carry
around the world.

OIL POLLUTION
- Oil pollution occurs when the liquid form of petroleum leaks into an ecosystem due to
anthropogenic (human) causes. Oil pollution most commonly occurs in the form of oil spills,
which result in the release of a large amount of oil into marine and coastal waterways, with
devastating consequences.
- 12% of the oil that enters the oceans comes from tanker accident
- 70% of the oil pollution at the sea comes from routine shipping and from the oil people
pour down drains on the land.

PLASTIC
- Plastic is the most common substance that washes up with the waves.

There are three reasons for this:

• Plastic is one of the most common materials
Used for making virtually every kind of manufactured object from clothing to automobile
parts.
• Plastic is light and floats so easily so it can travel enormous distances across the ocean
• Most plastic are biodegradable (they do not break down naturally in the environment)
Which means that things like plastic bottle tops can survive in the marine environment for a
long time (a plastic bottle can survive an estimated 450 years in the ocean and plastic fishing line
can last up to 600 years)

- While plastic is not toxic in quite the same way as poisonous chemical, they nevertheless
present a major hazard to seabird, fish and other marine creatures
- At least 14 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year, and plastic makes up
80% of all marine debris found from surface waters to deep-sea sediments. Marine species ingest
or are entangled by plastic debris, which causes severe injuries and death.

ALIEN SPECIES
Alien species (sometimes known as invasive species) are animals or plants from one
region that have been introduced into a different ecosystem where they do not belong. Outside
their normal environment, they have no natural predators, so they rapidly run wild, crowding out
the usual animals or plants that thrive there.
Alien species are species that occur outside their natural range and dispersal potential.
Alien species are spread by human activity, intended or unintended, to new areas. Alien species
do also include taxa below species level such as subspecies, varieties, cultivars and hybrids.
Examples of invasive alien species;
 Grey Squirrel: Native to North America, these squirrels carry diseases that
threaten the native red squirrel.
 Stone moroko: a small fish native to Eastern Asia that has escaped from garden
ponds and now threatens native fish species.

EFFECTS OF WATER POLLUTION

Some people believe pollution is an inescapable result of human activity: they argue that
if we want to have factories, cities, ships, cars, oil, and coastal resorts, some degree of pollution
is almost certain to result. In other words, pollution is a necessary evil that people must put up
with if they want to make progress. Fortunately, not everyone agrees with this view. One reason
people have woken up to the problem of pollution is that it brings costs of its own that undermine
any economic benefits that come about by polluting.

What are the Causes of Water Pollution?

Water is uniquely vulnerable to pollution. Known as a “universal solvent”, water is able
to dissolve more substances than any other liquid on earth. It’s the reason we have Kool-Aid and
brilliant blue waterfalls. It’s also why water is so easily polluted. Toxic substances from farms,
towns, and factories readily dissolve into and mix with it, causing water pollution.
Take oil spills, for example. They can happen if tankers are too poorly built to survive
accidents at sea. But the economic benefit of compromising on tanker quality brings an
economic cost when an oil spill occurs. The oil can wash up on nearby beaches, devastate the
ecosystem, and severely affect tourism. The main problem is that the people who bear the cost of
the spill (typically a small coastal community) are not the people who caused the problem in the
first place (the people who operate the tanker). Yet, arguably, everyone who puts gasoline
(petrol) into their car- or uses almost any kind of petroleum-fueled transport-contributes to the
problem in some way. So, oil spills are a problem for everyone, not just people who live by the
coast and tanker operates.
Sewage is another good example of how pollution can affect us all. Sewage discharged
into coastal waters can wash up on beaches and cause a health hazard. People who bathe or surf
in the water can fall if they swallow polluted water-yet sewage can have other harmful effects
too: it can poison shellfish (such as cockles and mussels) that grow near the shore. People who
eat poisoned shellfish risk suffering from an acute and sometimes fatal illness called Paralytic
Shellfish poisoning. Shellfish is no longer caught along many shores because it is simply too
polluted with sewage or toxic chemical wastes that have discharged from the land nearby.
Pollution matters because it harms the environment on which people depend. The
environment is not something distant and separate from our lives. It’s not a pretty shoreline
hundreds of miles from our homes or wilderness landscape that we see only on TV.
The environment is everything that surrounds us that gives us life and health.
Destroying the environment ultimately reduces the quality of our own lives and that, most
selfishly, is why pollution should matter to all of us.

HOW WASTE WATER TREATMENT WORKS

Following are the eight Stages of the Wastewater Treatment Process:

Stage One — Bar Screening

Removal of large items from the influent to prevent damage to the facility’s pumps, valves and
other equipment.
The physical process of wastewater treatment begins with screening out large items that
have found their way into the sewer system, and if not removed, can damage pumps and impede
water flow. A bar screen is usually used to remove large items from the influent and ultimately
taken to a landfill.

Stage Two — Screening

Removal of grit by flowing the influent over/through a grit chamber.
Fine grit that finds its way into the influent needs to be removed to prevent the damage of
pumps and equipment downstream (or impact water flow). Too small to be screened out, this grit
needs to be removed from the grit chamber. Grit chambers control the flow of water, allowing
the heavier grit to fall to the bottom of the chamber; the water and organic material continue to
flow to the next stage in the process. The grit is physically removed from the bottom of the
chamber and discarded.

Stage Three — Primary Clarifier

Initial separation of solid organic matter from wastewater.
Solids known as organics/sludge sink to the bottom of the tank and are pumped to a
sludge digestor or sludge processing area, dried and hauled away. Proper settling rates are a key
indicator for how well the clarifier is operating. Adjusting flow rate into the clarifier can help the
operator adjust the settling rates and efficiency.
The solids that fall to the bottom of the clarifier are known as sludge and pumped out
regularly to ensure it doesn’t impact the process of separation. The sludge is then discarded after
any water is removed and commonly used as fertilizer.

Stage Four — Aeration

 Air is pumped into the aeration tank/basin to encourage conversion of NH3 to NO3 and
provide oxygen for bacteria to continue to propagate and grow.
The primary function of the aeration tank is to pump oxygen into the tank to encourage
the breakdown of any organic material (and the growth of the bacteria), as well as ensure there is
enough time for the organic material to be broken down. Oxygen gas [O2] levels below 2 ppm
will kill off the bacteria, reducing efficiency of the plant. Dissolved oxygen monitoring at this
stage of the plant is critical. Ammonia and nitrate measurements are common to measure how
efficient the bacteria are in converting NH3 to N2↑.

Stage Five — Secondary Clarifier

Treated wastewater is pumped into a secondary clarifier to allow any remaining organic
sediment to settle out of treated water flow.
As the influent exits the aeration process, it flows into a secondary clarifier were, like the
primary clarifier, any very small solids (or fines) sink to the bottom of the tank. These small
solids are called activated sludge and consist mostly of active bacteria. Part of this activated
sludge is returned to the aeration tank to increase the bacterial concentration, help in propagation,
and accelerate the breakdown of organic material. The excess is discarded.

Stage Six — Chlorination (Disinfection)

Chlorine is added to kill any remaining bacteria in the contact chamber.
With the enhanced concentration of bacteria as part of the aeration stage, there is a need
to test the outgoing effluent for bacteria presence or absence and to disinfect the water. This
ensures that higher than specified concentrations of bacteria are not released into the
environment. Chlorination is the most common and inexpensive type of disinfection but ozone
and UV disinfection are also increasing in popularity.

Stage Seven — Water Analysis & Testing

Testing for proper pH level, ammonia, nitrates, phosphates, dissolved oxygen, and residual
chlorine levels to conform to the plant’s NPDES permit are critical to the plant’s performance.
Although testing is continuous throughout the wastewater treatment process to ensure
optimal water flow, clarification and aeration, final testing is done to make sure the effluent
leaving the plant meets permit specifications. Plants that don`t meet permit discharge levels are
subject to fines and possible incarceration of the operator in charge.

Stage Eight — Effluent Disposal

After meeting all permit specifications, clean water is reintroduced into the environment.
Although testing is continuous throughout the wastewater treatment process to ensure
optimal water flow, clarification and aeration, final testing is done to make sure the effluent
leaving the plant meets permit specifications. Plants that don`t meet permit discharge levels are
subject to fines and possible incarceration of the operator in charge.