Aquatic environments pollution

Water. Many factors must be considered to obtain representative samples of water. The most important are the pollutant and the point at which it entered the aquatic environment. Pollutants can be contributed by agricultural, industrial, municipal, or other sources, such as spills from wrecks or train derailments. The prevailing wind direction and speed, the velocity of stream or river flow, temperature, thermal and salinity stratification, and sediment content are other important factors. 

Coal mining is a major source of aquatic environment pollutants. Section 8.2 examined this area. 

Fig. 26.1 Examples of pollutions entering the aquatic environment. Pollutions may originate from a point source, discharge from a factory, and non-point sources with activities connected to agriculture, i.e. pesticide spraying, fertilizing and cattle. Drawing by Jorge A. Varela Ramos...

Strict control is necessary over pollutant levels, acidity, temperature, turbidity, etc. because of their impact upon aquatic environments. Common pollutants in aqueous effluents are identified in Table 16.11. 

Forstner, V. Wittmann, G,T. Metal Pollution in the Aquatic Environment Springer-Verlag Berlin, GR NY,NY, 112, 1979. 

Peterson SM, Batley GE. 1993. The fate of endosulfan in aquatic ecosystems. Environ Pollut 82 143-152. 

In Angeletti G, Bjorseth A, eds. Commission of the European communities water pollution research reports 4. Organic micropollutants in the aquatic environment. Fifth European Symposium, Rome,... 

Interactions Between Dissolved Humic and Fulvic Acids and Pollutants in Aquatic Environments... 

Farre M, Perez S, Gonfalves C, Alpendurada MF, Barcelo D (2010) Green analytical chemistry in the determination of organic pollutants in the aquatic environment. TrAC, Trends Anal Chem 29(11) 1347—1362... 

Manufacturing of olive oil is of fundamental economic importance for many Mediterranean countries (Tunisia, Italy, Greece, Spain. ..). However this process involves an intensive consumption of water and produces large amounts of Olive Mill Wastewater (OMW), that is released without any treatment into the aquatic environment causing deleterious environmental effects [1]. OMWs are a serious environmental and social problem in Mediterranean countries [2], due to the high pollutant load, seasonal discharge, type and quality of the pollutants and difficulties to find technically and economically favourable solution. 

Trzilova, B., Horska, E. (1988) Biodegradation of amines and alkanes in aquatic environment. Biologia (Bratislava) 43, 209-218. Tse, G., Sandler, S.I. (1994) Determination of infinite dilution activity coefficients and 1-octanol/water partition coefficients of volatile organic pollutants. J. Chem. Eng. Data 39, 354—357. 

European Council (1976) Directive 76/464/EEC 4 May 1976 on pollution caused by certain dangerous substances discharged into the aquatic environment of the community. Official Journal of the European Communities... 

As zebra mussel, red swamp crayfish can be used to monitor the aquatic environment for Hg pollution owing to its capacity to accumulate metals in its tissues [54]. Other features, namely abundant populations, long life cycle, widespread distribution, and relatively sedentary lifestyle, also contribute to use this crayfish as bio-indicator of monitoring environmental quality [55]. 

Sites near industrial areas in the Ebro have been found to have the highest concentration of priority contaminants [15, 47—49], while dispersion of agricultural products by drift, runoff and drainage has resulted in residues being found in ground-waters, rivers, coastal waters and lakes far from point sources [50]. Priority contaminants in aquatic environments include persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as dichlorodiphenylethylenes (DDT) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). 

The official list of priority pollutants threatening the aquatic environment is presently based on that reported on Directive 2008/105/EC [27]. It was the output resulting from a previously done risk assessment study carried out by the Fraunhoffer Institute (COMMPS procedure) [28, 29], using monitoring data gathered throughout many European river basins. 

Spehar, R.L., R.L. Anderson, and J.T. Fiandt. 1978. Toxicity and bioaccumulation of cadmium and lead in aquatic invertebrates. Environ. Pollut. 15 195-208. 

Phipps, G.L. and G.W. Holcombe. 1985. A method for aquatic multiple species toxicant testing acute toxicity of 10 chemicals to 5 vertebrates and 2 invertebrates. Environ. Pollut. 38A 1,41-157. 

Huber, W., V. Schubert, and C. Sautter. 1982. Effects of pentachlorophenol on the metabolism of the aquatic macrophyte Lemna minor L. Environ. Pollut. 29A 215-223. 

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