Water Pollution in Los Angeles County Essay Example for Free

Water Pollution in Los Angeles County Essay Around 50% or 4. 5 million of the Los Angeles County residents are adults who are family-oriented professionals with middle to high income professional works (California Environmental Protection Agency). They usually rinse off their driveways for more than 200, 000 times in a month into the storm drains and for about 375, 000 times a month, throw cigarette butts on the ground (California Environmental Protection Agency). Additionally, around 1. 2 million adults are involved in environmental pollution through household chores and car washing (California Environmental Protection Agency). For every month, they usually neglected to recycle or properly dispose used motor oil and other car fluids for more than 124, 000 times. Also, on a monthly basis, for approximately 100, 000 times they spray pesticides on their yards and flush their driveways out into the storm drains for about 85,000 times for every month (California Environmental Protection Agency). Nonetheless, around 405, 000 young adults or nine percent of the populace used to dump their ashtrays for greater than 20, 000 times in the street in a month and accounted for 42% dumped ashtrays (California Environmental Protection Agency). They also throw litters from their cars for about 575,000 times and put trashes directly for greater than 125,000 times into the storm drains for every month (California Environmental Protection Agency). With these scenarios, it is foreseen that in the near future, the county has mountains of trashes and contaminated water resources. Pollution Sources The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, reported that non-point sources pollution is a major cause of contamination of drinking water and adversely affected the wildlife and marine fishes (â€Å"Stormwater Pollution Basics†). Moreover, in 1992, State’s Water Quality Assessment reported that pollutants from non-point sources have ruined around two-thirds of bodies of water in California (â€Å"Water Resources† 8. 15-22). In order to mitigate these effects, the federal government issued legislation on industrial activities such as logging and mining to preserve and protect ecological resources. This step is intensively imposed through local support like by creating ordinances like on erosion control and zoning (â€Å"Stormwater Pollution Basics†). Pollutants from point sources can easily be tracked because they usually discharged from different establishments through pipes or sewage system (â€Å"Water Resources† 8. 15-24). The effective regulation of point-sources has brought improvement in the quality of water among the country’s seas, lakes, rivers, and streams (â€Å"Water Resources† 8. 15-24). On the other hand, non-point source pollutants, also called runoffs, are diffused. They probably transported through a medium from one community to another then accumulated in a particular place, hence, the term runoff. Thus, the non-point sources are much given priority in Clean Water Act of 1972 (â€Å"Water Resources† 8. 15-24). The contamination of groundwater in Southern California region is a consequence of poor land and water management practices (â€Å"Water Resources† 8. 15-28). Agricultural chemicals like pesticides and fertilizers applied on farms seep into the ground while leakage on storage and septic tanks in the same manner contaminate the water table (Adams 5-6). Also, urban runoffs which include dissolved chemicals and suspended particles contribute largely on water quality degradation (â€Å"Water Resources† 8. 15-28). These runoff pollutants include sediments, nutrients, oil spill, metals, pesticides, insecticides, fertilizers, and floatables (Adams 5-6). Limited Water Resources As the world population continuously increases so as the demand for potable water (â€Å"Guidelines for Water Reuse† 3). The increase of residential communities and industrial development in rural areas not only increased the demand for water use but also elevated wastewater discharges (Asano, Burton, Leverenz, Tsuchihashi, Tchobanoglous 19). As a consequence, great number of communities around the world has limited water supply that necessitated for the conservation and reuse of water (â€Å"Guidelines for Water Reuse† 3). Based on the average regional consumptive use, major regions of the United States are consuming water greater than the existing water resources (Asano, Burton, Leverenz, Tsuchihashi, Tchobanoglous 20). While some regions are dependent on ground water, other areas are utilizing waters from rivers, lakes, and streams (Asano, Burton, Leverenz, Tsuchihashi, Tchobanoglous 20). Water reuse requires efficient wastewater reclamation and treatment. Majority of water reuse projects can only reclaim water for nonpotable use such as for irrigation and industrial purposes (Asano, Burton, Leverenz, Tsuchihashi, Tchobanoglous 19). Although water reclamation and reuse has great advantages in conserving water, wastewater treatment for water to yield potable water entails costly treatment plants (Asano, Burton, Leverenz, Tsuchihashi, Tchobanoglous 31). Further, government or other institutional priorities may give additional burden in budget allocation for such projects (Asano, Burton, Leverenz, Tsuchihashi, Tchobanoglous 31). On the other hand, the industrial sectors are mandated by the government to secure for an efficient wastewater pretreatment facilities and management (â€Å"Guidelines for Water Reuse† 4). In this way, the harm of wastewater discharges on the environment is alleviated. Water Pollution Regulation The Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972, now called as Clean Water Act, was amended to expand its control in the regulation of wastewater discharges from the industries through the issuance of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, NPDES permit (â€Å"Hydrology and Water Quality† 6). It was again amended in 1987 to include the regulations on storm water discharges through industrial and municipal facilities under the NPDES program (â€Å"Hydrology and Water Quality† 6). As a result, NPDES permit is also mandated for Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System effluents. Each state is required by the Clean Water Act to set water standards for local bodies of water in the approval of the EPA (â€Å"Hydrology and Water Quality† 6). The criteria for water quality standards must be developed with respect to water use such as for agricultural purposes and wildlife habitat (â€Å"Hydrology and Water Quality† 6). This include maximum and minimum allowable level for both dissolved and suspended particles like heavy metals, nutrients, dirt, and bacteria. Nevertheless, the EPA regional offices have specified standards for water quality through California Toxics Rule (â€Å"Hydrology and Water Quality† 6). Also, the section 303 (d) of the Clean Water Act mandated the identification of impaired bodies of water (â€Å"Hydrology and Water Quality† 6). Once identified, the Total Maximum Daily Load, TMDL, should be set for each pollutant present. Then, future wastewater discharges will be assessed based on these criteria to minimize pollutant increase (â€Å"Hydrology and Water Quality† 6). The provisions of the Clean Water Act are the bases of water-quality controls and restrictions for wastewater discharges to rivers and lakes. This was made possible by amending the content of 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act that was enriched in 1977 (â€Å"Coastal Water Quality and Urban Runoff in Orange County† 10). Meanwhile, in June 1994, the revised Water Quality Control Plan of Los Angeles was adopted by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board. This encompassed agricultural, municipal, and industrial water services (â€Å"Coastal Water Quality and Urban Runoff in Orange County† 5). Presently, Lost Angeles County is maintaining about 1, 000 acres watersheds through their regional and subregional facilities (â€Å"Hydrology and Water Quality† 5). Indeed, their facilities are designed to withstand a hundred year frequency storms (â€Å"Hydrology and Water Quality† 5). In addition, local facilities maintained by the local district are also available to protect less than 640 acres watersheds (â€Å"Hydrology and Water Quality† 6). Conclusion The different bodies of water and even ground water of the Southern California are continuously degraded by human activities (â€Å"Water Resources† 8. 15-25). Agricultural chemicals like fertilizers and pesticides may infiltrate and contaminate the ground water. Meanwhile, the excessive pumping of water from the water table may result to incursion of seawater into the ground water (â€Å"Water Resources† 8. 15-25). Every water management and planning project needs active participation of the local citizens in order to create an efficient and sustainable working model (Asano, Burton, Leverenz, Tsuchihashi, Tchobanoglous 31). The participation of the local citizens can be promoted through environmental education campaign on prevention and conservation of resources. In connection with this, the Los Angeles County residents are generally concerned with water pollution however, are presently engaged in polluting activities (California Environmental Protection Agency). On the positive side, they are very willing to actively participate in any anti-pollution projects (California Environmental Protection Agency). Since water pollution is caused primarily of human activities, it is only through active involvement of every citizen in governmental programs, that the goals for pollution abatement can be effectively attained. In this connection, EPA encouraged private citizens to: properly dispose garbage and litters thereby avoiding drain clogs and the runoff of these pollutants to bodies of water; sparingly use household and garden chemicals; maintain plants and ground covers to prevent erosion; support local government officials in environmental projects; and use environment friendly home products (â€Å"Stormwater Pollution Basics†). Works Cited Adams, Gregory. Identifying and Controlling Municipal Wastewater Odor Phase II: Impacts of Inplant Parameters on Biosolids Odor Quality Werf Report Treatment Processes.London: IWA Publishing, 2004. Asano, Takashi, Burton, Franklin L. , Leverenz, Harold L. , Tsuchihashi, Ryujiro, and Tchobanoglous, George. Water Reuse: Issues, Technologies, and Applications. USA: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2007 California Environmental Protection Agency. â€Å"Erase the Waste. † May 1997. State Water Resources Control Board, Office of Public Affairs. 12 December 2008 http://www. swrcb. ca. gov/erasethewaste/docs/campaignprofiles. pdf â€Å"Coastal Water Quality and Urban Runoff in Orange Country. † n. d. Department of Public Works. 12 December 2008 http://www. ocwatersheds. com/brochures/Coastal%20Water%20Quality%20etc%206-15-99. pdf. Guidelines For Water Reuse. U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. Washington D. C. : Camp Dresser McKee, Inc. 2004. Hydrology and Water Quality. Draft Environmental Impact Report. Los Angeles: LSA Associates, Inc. 2008. â€Å"Stormwater Pollution Basics. † n. d. Department of Public Works, Los Angeles County. 12 December 2008 http://dpw. lacounty. gov/PRG/StormWater/Page_36. cfm. Water Resources. Southern California Association of Governments Draft 2008 RTP PEIR, January 2008.