College reading and writing skills PDF

Running head: College Reading and Writing Skills
College Reading and Writing Skills
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1COLLEGE READING AND WRITING SKILLS
INTRODUCTION:
Water pollution refers to a physical, biological and chemical change in the water that has
a detrimental effect on any living being that consumes it, or dwells in it or uses it for a plethora
of purposes. When human beings and animals drink water that is impure and polluted in nature,
it can cause serious deterioration to one’s health. Thus, this paper will try to examine the types of
water pollution, the causes behind water pollution and recommend ways to control and alleviate
water pollution.
Types of Water Pollution:
There are five types of water pollution. They include Surface water pollution,
Groundwater pollution, Point-Source Pollution, Nonpoint-source pollution and Transboundary
pollution (Foley, 2015). Surface water pollution refers to the pollution of streams, rivers, lakes
and other aquatic bodies. This water becomes polluted when rainwater runoffs bring pollutants
into the water. The pollutants that are carried by runoffs include salts and toxic chemicals. They
might also affect groundwater deposits. When fertilizers and nutrients causes water pollution it is
called nutrient pollution and this in turn leads to an overproduction of algae and other plants,
which cover the surface and prevent sunlight from reaching the plants that are underwater. This
in turn leads to less oxygen production, which has a detrimental effect on fishes and other
aquatic life (Foley, 2015).
Groundwater pollution is caused when products such as oil, gasoline, road salts, and
chemicals seep into the groundwater, which leads it to be unfit and unsafe for consumption
Harmful resources from the land surface can seep into the soil and pollute groundwater. For

2COLLEGE READING AND WRITING SKILLS
example, fertilizers and pesticides seep into the groundwater over a period of time and negatively
affects it (Foley 2015).
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines Point Source pollution as “any
single identifiable source of pollution from which pollutants are discharged such as a pipe, ditch,
ship or factory smokestack” (Wilson, 2015, p. 89). Examples include Sewage treatment plants
and factories. Factories discharge effluents into the water and sewage treatment plans treat
human waste and discharge the effluent that has been treated to a river or a stream.
Nonpoint pollution results from precipitation, land runoff, seepage, drainage and
hydrologic modification. Nonpoint source pollution is caused by melting of snow and rainfall.
Nonpoint pollution can include fertilizers, herbicides and herbicides from farms and agricultural
plots of land, oil and toxic chemicals resulting from urban runoff, sediments from construction
sites, salt from farming practices and bacteria from septic systems and hydro modification and
atmospheric deposition (Wilson 2015).
Transboundary pollution refers to the pollution that takes place in one country but that,
which has the ability to cause damage to the environment of another country by crossing borders
through air and water.
Causes of Water Pollution:
There are five main causes of water pollution. They include agents that cause diseases
such as viruses, protozoa, bacteria and worms that are parasitic in nature that breed in untreated
waste and sewage systems. The second cause of water pollution includes chemical wastes.
Industrial sites and factories produce industrial wastes or chemical wastes, which produces toxic