Hurricane Floyd

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Hurricane Floyd

• WILMINGTON, N.C.-The ruinous 1999 hurricane
  season is forcing North Carolina officials to
  reevaluate the tremendous coastal growth and
  agricultural development in eastern North
  Carolina over the past decade, touching
  everything from how to save the rapidly eroding
  beaches to what to do about livestock waste.
• 51 people dead, 6 billion damage
• Drinking water has been contaminated, including
  an estimated 800 private wells in Duplin County
  alone. Shrinking beaches at Oak Island and North
  Topsail Beach lost more ground.

Image September 15, 1999 http//earthobservatory.
nasa.gov/Study/FloydIntro/ Washington Post
article http//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nati
onal/daily/oct99/carolina24.htm
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• Hurricane Floyd generated what is described as a
  500-year flood.
• In many places, as much as 20 inches of rain fell
  on ground already saturated by Hurricane Dennis.
• The Tar and Neuse rivers, feeding into the
  delicate sounds that serve as nurseries for many
  types of fish and then on into the Atlantic
  Ocean, spilled out of their banks.

Greenville, NC, Tar River overflowed its banks.
Its waters finally crested as high as 24 feet
above flood stage.
Many storage lagoons that contained livestock
sewage were flooded.
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• Brown sediments clogged coastal estuaries a week
  after the storm, as seen in this Landsat 7 image
  of the North Carolina coast taken September 23,
  1999. Along with dirt swept away by the flood
  waters, the estuaries filled with human and
  animal waste, fertilizers, and pesticides. (Image
  by Brian Montgomery, NASA GSFC)

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• Hog lagoons were flooded, wastewater treatment
  plants were breeched, more than 2 million
  chickens, turkeys and hogs drowned, and the scene
  was set for an environmental mess never
  encountered before in the state. Everything in
  the flood's path was swept into this witches'
  brew-chemicals, gasoline, fertilizers, dead
  animals, human and livestock wastes-and headed
  downstream.
• The Pamlico Sound has been so overwhelmed with
  extra nutrients and toxins that some scientists
  fear an oxygen-deprived dead zone will develop,
  stifling fish that come from Long Island to
  Florida to lay eggs there.

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Did you read about that?

• Didnt happen
• Speculation earlier rains (Hurricane Dennis)
  had already changed the ecosystem.
• Speculation - cooler weather let oxygen levels
  recover more quickly
• While the catch in the rivers and estuaries was
  virtually nil, they caught white shrimp in droves
  just behind the boundary line where the runoff
  waters ended and the saltwater began.
• Hordes of shrimp were schooling just on the
  seaward side of the line, but staying in close to
  the boundary, making them an easy catch.

The boundary between the outflowing rivers and
ocean water was unusually sharp. Fisherman
profited because shrimp, pushed out of the
estuaries by runoff, clustered along the ocean
side of the boundary. (Image courtesy Neuse River
Estuary Modeling and Montoring)
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Is this Pollution?
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Definition Pollutant

• In general terms, any factor that has a harmful
  effect on living things or their environment.
  Bodkin Keller, 2003
• Particular chemical or form of energy that can
  adversely affect the health, survival, or
  activities of humans or other living organisms.
  G. T. Miller, 2003

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Pollution

• A relative term in part, depends on the degree
  and nature
• From human or natural sources
• If from human source degrades the environment
  (biotic or physical)
• If from natural source degrades the biotic
  environment in an episodic or non-successional
  way

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Water Pollution

• Point sources
• Discharge pollutants at specific locations such
  as pipes, ditches or sewers, sewage treatment
  plants, oil tankers.
• Relatively easy to clean
• Non-point sources
• Discharge pollutants from large land areas or
  airsheds that pollute by runoff, from, e.g.,
  croplands, golfcourses, parking lots, roads,
  feedlots, or directly from atmosphere as rain or
  dry deposition (e.g., ash)
• Remaining major problem

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How do you assess water quality?
BAD
BETTER

• Image from Merritts et al., 1998

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How Do You Assess Your Own Health?

• Temperature
• Bleeding
• Pain
• Spots
• These are indicators

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How Healthy is the Water in a Natural System?

• Measuring Water Quality Factors and Understanding
  Their Significance

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Water Quality ParametersTemperature

• Effects of Water Temperature
• Solubility of dissolved oxygen
• Rate of plant growth/photosynthesis
• Metabolic rate of organisms
• Sensitivity of organisms to toxic wastes,
  parasites, and diseases
• Temperature affects the rate of biological and
  chemical processes occurring in the body of
  water!

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We can measure environmental Water Quality
indicators

• Temperature
• pH
• Dissolved oxygen (DO)
• Biological oxygen demand (BOD)
• Nitrate - Nutrient
• Phosphates -Nutrient

• Turbidity
• Fecal coliform
• Total solids
• Alkalinity
• Ammonium
• Total dissolved solids (TDS)
• Hardness

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Water Quality ParametersTemperature

• What factors affect water temperature?
• Air temperature
• Amount of shade
• Soil erosion increasing turbidity
• Thermal pollution from human activities
• Confluence of streams

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• Table from http//www.epa.gov/volunteer/stream/vm
  s53.html

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Water Quality ParameterspH

• Simple view of pH
• How acidic or basic a solution is
• Relative concentrations of H and OH-
  determine pH value of water
• If water sample has more H ions than OH- ions,
  then acidic
• If more OH- ions than H ions, then basic
• If H OH-, then neutral

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Water Quality ParameterspH

• Neutral water has pH of 7
• pH scale
• 0 to 14
• Acidic samples pH lt 7
• Basic samples pH gt 7
• Neutral samples pH 7

Image from http//ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/phdiagram
.html
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pH Ranges that Support Aquatic Life
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Dissolved Oxygen

• This fish needs oxygen to breath

Image from http//www.msstate.edu/dept/bioscience
s/fish.jpg
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Dissolved Oxygen

• Measured in mg/L and saturation
• DO levels fluctuate seasonally and over a 24-hour
  period.
• They vary with water temperature and altitude.
  Cold water holds more oxygen than warm water
• Water holds less oxygen at higher altitudes.

Information from http//www.epa.gov/volunteer/str
eam/vms52.html
Graph from http//condor.wesleyan.edu/soconnell/c
triver
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Dissolved Oxygen

• Thermal discharges, such as water used to cool
  machinery in a manufacturing plant or a power
  plant, raise the temperature of water and lower
  its oxygen content. Aquatic animals are most
  vulnerable to lowered DO levels in the early
  morning on hot summer days when stream flows are
  low, water temperatures are high, and aquatic
  plants have not been producing oxygen since
  sunset.

Information from http//www.epa.gov/volunteer/str
eam/vms52.html
Graph from http//condor.wesleyan.edu/soconnell/c
triver
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Dissolved Oxygen Terms

• lt 3 mg/L of DO hypoxia unhealthy, die offs
• No oxygen anoxia good for oil formation,
  deadly for organisms

http//www.longislandsoundstudy.net/publications.h
tmmaps
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What is biochemical oxygen demand and why is it
important?

• Biochemical oxygen demand, or BOD, measures the
  amount of oxygen consumed by microorganisms in
  decomposing organic matter in stream water. BOD
  also measures the chemical oxidation of inorganic
  matter (i.e., the extraction of oxygen from water
  via chemical reaction). A test is used to measure
  the amount of oxygen consumed by these organisms
  during a specified period of time (usually 5 days
  at 20 C). The rate of oxygen consumption in a
  stream is affected by a number of variables
  temperature, pH, the presence of certain kinds of
  microorganisms, and the type of organic and
  inorganic material in the water.

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What is biochemical oxygen demand and why is it
important?

• BOD directly affects the amount of dissolved
  oxygen in rivers and streams. The greater the
  BOD, the more rapidly oxygen is depleted in the
  stream. This means less oxygen is available to
  higher forms of aquatic life. The consequences of
  high BOD are the same as those for low dissolved
  oxygen aquatic organisms become stressed,
  suffocate, and die.
• Sources of BOD include leaves and woody debris
  dead plants and animals animal manure effluents
  from pulp and paper mills, wastewater treatment
  plants, feedlots, and food-processing plants
  failing septic systems and urban stormwater
  runoff.

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Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone

• Eutrophication of the Gulf of Mexico
• Produces dead zone, especially for benthic
  organisms, e.g., crabs, mollusks, flounders
• West of the Mississippi River delta
• 5,000-7,000 sq. mi. size of New Jersey
• Due to B.O.D. of Mississippi River Water

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Pollution to Aquatic Ecosystems
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Nutrients Nitrate and Phosphate

• In most biological systems these are limiting
  nutrients
• When you get more of them, more plants grow, but
  then they die
• The aerobic bacteria that breakdown organic
  matter need oxygen
• Too much organic matter to break down all of
  the oxygen is consumed by bacteria trying to
  breakdown organisms
• No oxygen
• organisms that require oxygen die
• Organisms that do not need oxygen (e.g. sulfur
  reducing organisms) take over

Red Tide off off S. Africa http//earthobservatory
.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id77
73
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Long Island Sound Watershed

• Three levels of priority for managing nonpoint
  sources of nitrogen.
• Within Level 1, the highest priority sub-drainage
  basins are shown in black and include all of the
  portions of Westchester, Suffolk and Nassau
  Counties and New York City that lie within the
  sound's drainage area and the densely populated
  portions of Fairfield and New Haven Counties.

Image from http//www.longislandsoundstudy.net/cc
mp/priority.htm
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http//www.longislandsoundstudy.net/pubs/maps/nloa
ds.html
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Long Island Sound Problems

• Over a billion gallons of treated effluent, which
  contains oxygen-demanding material and the
  nutrient nitrogen, are discharged each day from
  sewage treatment plants to the Sound. The
  nitrogen overfertilizes the Sound, fueling the
  growth of marine plants. When the plants die,
  they sink to the bottom and decay, using up
  oxygen in the process. Other sources of nitrogen
  include runoff from overfertilized lawns and
  gardens and atmospheric deposition from vehicle
  and power plant emissions.
• Toxic chemical substances produced through human
  activity have found their way into the Sound and
  persist in elevated levels in some bottom
  sediments. In the past, much of this material
  came from industrial sources, but rigorous
  compliance with pollution control programs has
  reduced this source substantially. Continuing
  sources today include urban runoff, sewage
  treatment plants, vehicle exhaust emissions,
  household chemicals, and pesticides. These
  contaminants affect the health of plants and
  animals and human consumption of species that
  concentrate these substances can pose significant
  health risks.

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Long Island Sound Problems

• Pathogens, disease-causing, microscopic bacteria
  and viruses, enter the Sound's waters through
  inadequately treated human sewage and domestic
  and wild animal wastes. Some of the primary
  sources of pathogens are older sewer systems that
  have combined stormwater and sanitary systems
  that overflow during rainfalls (called combined
  sewer overflows), sewage treatment plant
  malfunctions, illegal connections to storm
  sewers, and vessel sewage discharges.
• Floatable debris comes from people carelessly
  disposing of their trash, transforming it into
  litter that enters the Sound through runoff,
  stormwater discharges, and combined sewer
  overflows.

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We can measure environmental Water Quality
indicators

• Temperature
• pH
• Dissolved oxygen (DO)
• Biological oxygen demand (BOD)
• Nitrate - Nutrient
• Phosphates -Nutrient

• Turbidity
• Fecal coliform
• Total solids
• Alkalinity
• Ammonium
• Total dissolved solids (TDS)
• Hardness

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Turbidity- What is turbidity why is it
important?

• Turbidity is a measure of water clarity how much
  the material suspended in water decreases the
  passage of light through the water. Suspended
  materials include soil particles (clay, silt, and
  sand), algae, plankton, microbes, and other
  substances. These materials are typically in the
  size range of 0.004 mm (clay) to 1.0 mm (sand).
  Turbidity can affect the color of the water.

Image http//earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Floy
dIntr datao/ Data http//www.epa.gov/volunteer/st
ream/vms55.html
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Turbidity- What is turbidity why is it
important?

• Higher turbidity increases water temperatures
  because suspended particles absorb more heat.
  This, in turn, reduces the concentration of
  dissolved oxygen (DO) because warm water holds
  less DO than cold.
• Higher turbidity also reduces the amount of
  light penetrating the water, which reduces
  photosynthesis and the production of DO.
• Suspended materials can clog fish gills, reducing
  resistance to disease in fish, lowering growth
  rates, and affecting egg and larval development.
• As the particles settle, they can blanket the
  stream bottom, especially in slower waters, and
  smother fish eggs and benthic macroinvertebrates.

Image http//earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Floy
dIntr datao/ Data http//www.epa.gov/volunteer/st
ream/vms55.html
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Turbidity- What is turbidity why is it
important?

• Sources of turbidity include
• Soil erosion
• Waste discharge
• Urban runoff
• Eroding stream banks
• Large numbers of bottom feeders (such as carp),
  which stir up bottom sediments
• Excessive algal growth.

Image http//earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Floy
dIntr datao/ Data http//www.epa.gov/volunteer/st
ream/vms55.html
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Fecal Coliform

• Organism itself may not be bad (different
  varieties).
• But is an indication of other orgainisms that may
  be lucking in the water.
• In your LOE reading what else could be used in a
  similar way?
• Values given as /100 mL of water
• Drinking water 0 mL WHO
• Government regulations for fresh water
• Escherichia coli lt 26/ 100 mL
• Enterococci lt 33/100 mL

Image from http//oh.water.usgs.gov/micro/MIfluor
escence.jpg
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Preserving Water Quality

• Depends upon protecting Watersheds
• What can be done?
• EPA watershed site http//www.epa.gov/owow/waters
  hed/
• Center for Watershed Protection
  http//www.cwp.org/

http//www.adopt-a-watershed.org/