Transcript water pollution

Marine Pollutants
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Petroleum hydrocarbons
Plastics
Pesticides
Heavy metals
Sewage
Radioactive waste
Thermal effluents
Petroleum Hydrocarbons
Oil drums on a beach in Pulau Redang, Malaysia.
Petroleum Hydrocarbons
Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge
100,000 gallons jet fuel spilled 2003.
Petroleum Hydrocarbons
Casitas
NOAA Marine debris vessel
Annual collection of 100 metric tons
of debris
July 5, 2005
Debris cleanup ship grounded 7/5/2005
has aboard 30,000 gallons of diesel fuel, 3,000 gallons
of gasoline and 200 gallons of lubricating oil
Exxon Valdez (1989)- Prince William Sound, Alaska
• 10 million gallons of oil spilled
• 400 miles of shore line affected
• $3 billion and 2 summers cleaning
Spain
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November 19, 2002
The Prestige: a 26-year-old Bahamas-flagged
single hulled vessel
Sunk with 20 million gallons of viscous fuel oil
Hundreds of miles of rugged coastline have been
fouled by the stricken Prestige's cargo,
destroying wildlife and wrecking the area's
renowned fisheries and shellfish industry.
incident
sinking
Lifeboat w/ dead bird
Persian Gulf War (1991)
• 240 million gallons of oil spilled
BP offshore drilling rig (Deepwater Horizon)
April 20, 2010; 50 miles off Louisiana
Spilling 5,000 barrels/day = 200,000 gal/day
Containing oil spills:
• Floating booms- contain oil and then pump into
other ship
• Burning oil off
• Chemical dispersants
• Bioremediation- bacteria
Containing oil spills:
• Hair Booms
Relative amts of petroleum in the ocean:
River runoff
Tanker operations
Coastal facilities
Atmospheric fallout
Natural seepage
Other transportation activities
Tanker accidents
Offshore petroleum production
31.1%
21.8%
13.1%
9.8%
9.8%
9.8%
3.3%
1.3%
Plastics
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100,000 marine mammals & 2 million sea birds die each
year after ingesting or being trapped in plastic debris
WHOI 1987 survey off N.E. coast of U.S.: found 46,000
pieces of plastic floating on surface
North Pacific Subtropical Gyre
• “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”
• Estimate: 46,000 pieces of floating garbage/mi2.
North Pacific Subtropical Gyre
135° to 155°W and 35° to 42°N
North Pacific Subtropical Gyre
Great Pacific Garbage Patch- Good Morning America 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLrVCI4N67M&feature=player_embedded
http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/patch.html#6
Laysan Island
hypersaline lake
(120-140o/oo)
Large bird rookery and guano mining
In 1857, reported 800,000 birds.
Sooty tern
Laysan albatross
Laysan finch
Laysan Island
Bits and pieces of plastic are collected at sea and deposited on
the Laysan Lake shoreline
A dead Laysan Albatross chick with seven bottle tops in its
gullet. Adult Albatross feed on flying fish eggs that the adult fish
attach to floating debris.
2004-2007
Barber’s Point
Japan Tsunami 2011
Prediction of Marine Debris Drifting Trajectories
Hawaii
http://www.hawaii247.com/2011/04/07/tsunami-2011-japan-debris-likely-to-hit-hawaii-twice/
Pesticides & Herbicides
• Designed to kill a variety of pests, such
as mosquitoes, agricultural pests and
weeds.
• Toxin enters food chain and effects non
targeted species
• Pesticide toxicity often effects human
health Rachael Carson- Silent Spring
Bioaccumulation  biomagnification
Pesticides
Halogenated hydrocarbons or organochlorines:
Include DDT and PCBs, which are slow to biodegrade
Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane (DDT):
• used as a pesticide from 1939-late 1960s
• fat soluble compound
• the world’s production has substantially
decreased since it was banned in the West
• detected in mud of deep sea and snow & ice of
Antarctica
Polychloronated biphenyls (PCBs)
• produced since 1944
• banned in U.S. by 1979
• used in production of electrical equipment,
paints, plastics, adhesives, and coating
compounds…
• found everywhere in the ocean
• released in env. by unregulated
incineration of discarded products
DDT & PCBs affects:
• copepod and oyster development
• death of shrimp and a variety of fish
Biomagnification
Toxic Metals
Hg, Pb, Cd, Cu
Heavy metals resist biodegradation
Natural occurrence- volcanoes
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Mercury (Hg)- toxic when attached to short carbonchain alkyl group, strongly neurotoxic, birthdefects
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Lead (Pb)- from batteries, sewage, fuel additives,
neurotoxic effects, mental development in children
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Cadmium (Cd)- from batteries, sewage,
electroplating factories, effects on human kidney
function, bone deformities
Heavy Metals
Minamata Disease (1953-1960)– Japan
• Industrial pollution from plastic plant; dumped
mercuric chloride into bay
• Ingestion of Hg tainted shellfish  43 dead and
700 permanently disabled
• Symptoms: kidney damage, neuromuscular
deterioration, birth defects,insanity,   death
• Bay is still unusable for fishing and shell fishing
• Surviving victims received $24,200 as settlement
Cu:
• Tributyl tin (antifouling paint for boats)
• Banned in U.S. 1980s
• Acts as an immunosuppressor
• Accumulations unusually high in small whales
• May be associated with strandings
Pac Baroness – freighter carrying 21,000 metric
tons of finely powdered Cu sank in 448 m in
1987 of coast of central CA
• Tainted water detected 41km down current of
wreck
• Major fishing zone for rock cod and Dover sole
Pb:
• Leaded gasoline invented 1920’s
• Enters water from automobile exhaust,
runoff and atmospheric fallout of industrial
waste and landfills, mines, dumps
• Leaded gas banned in US in 1980’s has
reduced pollution in ocean
Bioaccumulation  biomagnification
Point Source Pollution
Sewage
• Causes disease outbreaks
• Contributes to eutrophication
6/13/2006
Raw sewage dump in Ala Wai. Beaches Close!
48 million gallons
Why?
• 40 straight days of rain
• 42-inch pressurized underground pipe
broke during heavy rains
Disease
Sewage Discharge and
Agricultural Runoff
• nutrient enrichment of coastal waters
• physiological consequences on corals
• ecological consequences
– phytoplankton bloom reduces light
penetration
– benthic seaweeds overgrow and smother
corals
Nutrients and Algae Growth
Atomic Testing
Coral reef at Enewetak Atoll, former nuclear test site.
Atomic Testing
Ocean Dumping
total > 10 million Curies
Three Mile Island (‘79) = 17 Curies
Chernobyl (‘86) = 100 million Curies
US
Other
Switzerland
Great
Britain
USSR
Soviet Union’s Atomic Dumping Ground
Arctic Ocean
Moscow
Russia
Thermal Effluents
Power plants
Non-Point Source Pollution
Ala Wai
Constructed 1920-28 to
reduce mosquitoes, but failed.
Sediment
Runoff
Sediment Plume Entering the Ocean
(Maui)
Corals Smothered in Sediment
Pflueger at Pila’a, Kauai
$7.5 million for Clean Water Act violations
Types of Non-Point
Source Pollution
• sediments from coastal urban and
agricultural development
• nutrients from detergents, fertilizers, leaky
septic tanks, and domesticated animals
• pesticides (home use, agricultural, & golf
courses)
Types of Non-Point
Source Pollution
• automobile wastes such as
combusted motor oil, tire rubber,
brake pad dust, coolant, etc.
• waste water from swimming pools
and aquaculture ponds
Other Wastes
1989
Net Damage
French Frigate Shoals (2001)
Kure Atoll
Sept. 28, 2007
Kamilo Beach
Big Island
Munitions Dumping
Millions of pounds of mustard gas canisters were
jettisoned into the Atlantic Ocean off New Jersey (1964)
and elsewhere. (Photo: The U.S. Army)
Munitions Dumping
1940’s to 1972 off
west coast of Oahu
Inquiry
1. Define bioaccumulation and biomagnification.
2. Discuss the process of managing an oil spill.
3. Distinguish between point source and
nonpoint source pollution.
4. What may result when eutrophication occurs?