Stream

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Stream

• Every bit of ground on Earth is a part of some
  river's watershed.
• The water comes from rain, hoses or pipes,
  whatever doesn't sink into the ground will flow
  into the nearest stream.

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Stream Pollution

• Industrial pollution
• pollutants
• heavy metals, DDT and a number of recently
  banned pesticides and herbicides etc. from
  factories.
• There are underground storage areas of toxic
  chemicals as well that have begun to leak into
  streams.

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• rivers contain living creatures and plants. Many
  of them are microscopic but very important in the
  food web that can be killed by pesticides and
  herbicides.
• When part of the food web is eradicated by these
  chemicals, the animals that depend on them starve
  or fail to reproduce.

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• Urban Runoff
•        The pig and poultry farms in the New
  Territories produce a large amount of manure
  everyday which is disposed into the streams with
  little treatment.
• Then, streams near the farms will be polluted
  by the organic wastes and some fertilizers( such
  as human excreta)
• However, not all the fertilizers come from
  farms, but also come from peoples' lawns and
  gardens. This is part of urban runoff.
•        

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• Sediment

Housing and road constructions, mines, and
logging roads all contribute large amounts of
sediments to rivers. Sediment can 1. Choke
plant life and stream organisms, coat gills,
making breathing difficult. 2. Many stream
residents fail to mature.
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• Hot water from power plants
• Nuclear, natural gas, and coal power plants
  inject heated water into rivers, raising
  temperatures above normal. In this case heat is
  the pollutant.

Erosion Coast around 2nd Nuclear Power Plant in
Taiwan
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• Runoff from piles of coal and coal mines carries
  heavy metals like cadmium, lead, chromium and
  mercury. Stored radioactive and other toxic
  wastes leak into water tables.
• When those heavy metals accumulate in the
  marine organisms, heavy metals enter into food
  chain.

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• Transport

• Oil spillage from ships occasionally
  contaminates the sea. The oil covers the surface
  of the sea so that living things suffocate and
  die. Boat and engine maintenance can also pollute.

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• These pollutants prevent oxygen from dissolving
  into the sea that aquatic organisms will die when
  dissolved oxygen is used up.
• Also, light cannot pass through the water as oil
  leaked covers the surface of the sea.

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•     Domestic Sewage
•  Urban pollutants also enter marines through
  water-treatment plants. Water-treatment plants
  only clean out some of the pollutants, leaving
  the rest in the treated water that they pipe into
  streams and marines.
• Most of the chemicals we put in our sinks,
  toilets and washing machines will end up in the
  sea. The long list of pollutants we contribute
  includes drugs like antibiotics and painkillers.
  Many of them include reproductive hormones like
  progesterone. Also, our organic wastes such as
  excreta are disposed to the sea. Indeed, most
  medicines that we put in our mouths will later be
  found in the sea where young marine fish mature.

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• The other chemicals we use--antioxidants,
  anticorrosives, solvents, the fragrances for our
  laundry, and degreasers--will join them there.

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Agricultural Sewage

• Excess fertilizers pollute and mix with the sea.
  Algae in the sea absorbs nutrients from the
  fertilizers that nitrate, phosphate and potassium
  being leached from the soil and eventually causes
  red tides.
• Pesticides and herbicides contain lots of
  chemicals which are toxic will irritate the
  aquatic lives.

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• Fertilizers cause their own problems
• They enrich rivers, causing the rapid growth of
  algae and bacteria ? Undesirable smells are
  produced.
• 2. Removing oxygen from the water? aquatic lives
  die
• 3. Blocking light ?plants cannot grow well and
  even die
• As some of the chemicals contain heavy metal,
  High concentrations of these substances pose a
  threat to the health of man and animals.

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• Reclamation and excavation

This reduce the rate of flow across the harbour
and also reduces the dissolved oxygen for the
aquatic organisms.
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What Can Be Done?

•      There are many workable solutions for those
  who care about the health of their streams.
• Individual
• 1.Monitor streams and keep a watchful eye on
  industry, including farms, ranches and feedlots.
• 2.Good vehicle maintenance keeps leaks and fumes
  in check.
• 3.Decline to use pesticides and herbicides.
• 4.support organic farmers by buying their
  products.

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• Government
• 1.Water-treatment plants can be upgraded to
  filter out more pollutants.
• 2.New developments can be built using the latest
  in environmental practices and the advice of
  biologists.
• 3.Educate their communities about watersheds.

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• Which kind of sources are classified as organic?
• Which of them are classified as inorganic?

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BEACH STANDARDS

• According to the WHO.
• The level of E. coli should not exceed 1 000 per
  100mL calculated as the running median of the 5
  most recent consecutive samples.
• The standard might not be applicable for
  worldwide conditions and epidemiological studies
  should be conducted locally to develop health
  related criteria that suited the particular
  conditions of different countries.
• In order to facilitate the dissemination and
  interpretation of information on beach water
  quality, beach rating systems were also
  introduced.

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The epidemiological studies

• The findings of the studies
• Swimmers were exposed to higher risks of
  developing gastrointestinal, eye and skin illness
  symptoms than non-swimmers
• The swimming-associated illness rates of Hong
  Kong beaches were generally lower than those
  reported by overseas researchers
• A linear relationship between the rates of
  swimming-associated illnesses and geometric mean
  E. coli densities of the beach water could be
  established
• None of the bacterial pathogens studied was found
  to have correlation with any specific
  swimming-associated symptom rates.

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THE BEACH GRADING SYSTEM
Reason of setting up the system
Variations in the water quality of a beach due to
natural fluctuations under different weather and
tidal conditions.
About the classification of beaches

• 4 grades.
• The new beach grade was calculated on the basis
  of the geometric mean E. coli level of the 5 most
  recent sampling occasions.
• The beach grades could reflect the short-term
  water quality trend of the last few weeks.

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• Grade 4 (the worst grade) is also given to a
  beach when its last E. coli reading exceeds a
  high figure of 1 600 E. coli per 100mL
  irrespective of the geometric mean.
• This provides additional information on the
  recent deterioration of beach water quality.

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Purpose

• To disseminate Latest Information on beach water
  quality to the public during the bathing season,
• Enabling bathers to decide whether they should
  swim in the beach water.
• A series of new initiatives to disseminate
  timely beach water quality information to the
  public and thus bathers health is better
  protected.

These include

• launch of a dedicated web page and hotline on
  beach water quality
• display of beach grades and beach related
  advisory notices at beaches
• response to pollution incidents is done
  immediately

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• BEACH WATER QUALITY IN
• DIFFERENT DISTRICTS

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Examples
Southern district In general, beaches on the
south of Hong Kong Island have "Good" water
quality. Sai Kung district Except the
Silverstrand and Clear Water Bay Second beaches
which were ranked "Fair", all other beaches in
Sai Kung had "Good" water quality Islands
district Only one beach, the Silvermine Bay
Beach was ranked "Fair", while all other beaches
in the Islands District had "Good" water quality.
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• Tuen Mun district
• The general water quality of all the beaches in
  the Tuen Mun District had significant improvement
  in the last three years. The annual ranks of all
  Tuen Mun beaches had changed from "Poor" before
  1998 to the current "Fair" status.
• Tsuen Wan district
• The water quality of the beaches in Tsuen Wan is
  comparatively worse than that in other districts.
  In 2000, six out of the eight beaches were ranked
  "Poor" and two were "Fair".

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IMPROVEMENTS DONE BY EPD
The major pollution sources of these beaches are
the sewage arising from village and squatter
houses in the unsewered hinterland. ?the
Tsuen Wan beaches ?some of the Sai Kung
beaches So, the government has plans to provide
proper sewerage systems in the hinterland of
these beaches.
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• Special measures on seriously polluted beaches
  such as Tsuen Wan beaches
• installation of an additional sewage treatment
  plant in the Sham Tseng Lower Resite Village to
  improve the effluent from the communal septic
  tanks serving the village
• The provision of storage tanks to collect the
  wastewater from the refuse collection point,
  public toilet and temporary market at Sham Tseng
  for tankering away.

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reference

• http//chamisa.freeshell.org/pollution.htm
• http//home.netvigator.com/taich/water_pollution.
  htm
• http//www.cityofbremerton.com/content/sw_waterpol
  lutionfacts.html
• http//www.fao.org/docrep/W2598E/w2598e06.htmorga
  nic20fertilizers
• http//www.epd.gov.hk/epd/tc_chi/environmentinhk/w
  ater/beach_quality/bwq_home.html
• Advanced level biology 2