BESC 320 – Water and Bioenvironmental Science(6 February 2020)

Water Pollution, Atrazine Case Study

“It came from a well in Hinkley“ (scene from Erin Brockovich)

Water pollution is a ubiquitous cryptic problem (can you see the barium in your Fiji water?)

Pollutants are generally anthropogenic. They are physical or chemical agents that adversely affect environmental quality with respect to organismal wellbeing. Examples include sewage, pathogens, sediment or synthetic particulate excess, nutrients, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, oxygen demanding substances, organic or inorganic toxics, radioactivity, or thermal or visual stressors.

Not all synthetic chemicals are environmentally toxic, but note that only a small fraction are tested. There are today at least 30,000 chemicals in use that were unknown to your grandparents at your age (NAS report; read § 2 for the course).

Aquatic pollutants are often identified as point or nonpoint in terms of their source.

For each pollutant, reflect on its crypticity.

Does crypticity correlate with danger?

Example point source effect—sewage (organic solids) released into a river causing a distinct often chronic oxygen sag

Effects shown are organic, oxic, and ecological.Toxics, pharmaceuticals, etc. are not shown. Where would you capture fish for your personal diet? Wherabout to sell?

Cumulative effect of multiple pollution sources are ruinous Cause eutrophication of surface waters Contrast oligotrophic

Bay/estuary view

Note additions, especially red tides (harmful algal blooms) and biodiversity

Case Study—DDT See Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT d, intro, history (sections 2.1,2.2), environmental impact, and section 5.1. Scan remaining sections.

1. DDT was cheap, effective against mosquitoes, and thought to be harmless to vertebrates (image of children playing in DDT application plumes)

2. Fat soluble, half life 2-15 yrs, broad spectrum so used also in farming & residential pest control

3. It saved and continues to save millions of humans in malaria-prone parts of the world

4. Its human health and environmental costs became clearer over time5. It is an endocrine disruptor and indirectly causes cancers and developmental

and neurological problems6. Currently banned in most industrialized countries

Highbiodiversity

Harmful algal blooms

7. It came under broad public scrutiny with the publication of Silent Spring and this broad attention was ladder fuel to the emergence of environmentalism

... . . . ...... . . . .... . .

BioaccumulationBiomagnification

Rachel Carson and Silent Spring– see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring A brief intro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xAL5J5xRh0 (1.3 min, in class)The video neglects mentioning the meaning of the title Silent Spring and the personal reticence, discrimination, and villification she rose to overcome.Silent Spring as a title describes a trigger of her epiphany while also providing a sad and forboding metaphor and image of the future nearly only she could see.For additional information, American Experience made a full length biography, the trailer for which is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd0ENnOG_nw (30 s, in class).

Endocrine disruptors—hormone-like chemicals that trigger or occlude the physiological and developmental mechanisms of hormones.

Case Study—AtrazineAtrazine was the most used herbicide in the world until recently, displaced only by glyphosate (Roundup)It is banned in most developed countriesIt is a story reminiscent of Carson’s but with modern lessons in science v. industryProtagonist Dr. Tyrone Hayes Here is the essential video on the story of Atrazine, Dr. Hayes, and Syngenta:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4lijvIjpRw (1 h; in class from 5:00 to 55:00)Finish outside class, take copious notes, repeat.

Some of my notes:~8:00 – Interesting contrast with Rachel Carson, who went directly public. Dr. Hayes cites how he realized that important science is not only opaque but hidden from public view.30:00 – crosses the line to advocation; tells solution—call legislator and demand “don’t just regulate Atrazine, get rid of it”.35:40 – Eeeuw. I drank the L. Nabugabo water he talked about.

Annotate a timeline to study from. Turn a copy of it in and if sufficiently thoughtful, earn an extra excused absence. I would expect at least 30 annotations evenly dispersed to warrant extra credit. These must be independent, individually discerned and articulated notes.

Case Study—Mosquitofish, paper mill effluent, mystery chemical in local parkLocal example at College Hills park—rampant female masculinization likely due to lawn treatments.

PME example (link also on course page): http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166445X07002688Groundwater suffers no less than surface waters

Thermal pollution Occurs when heated water produced

during industrial processes is released into waterways

Organisms affected (temperature affects reproductive cycles, sex ratio, digestion rates, respiration rates, etc.)

Warm water holds less DO

Visual pollution Opaque water does not allow sunlight

to penetrate (prevents photolysis, photosynthesis)

Fish species with visually cued mating disrupted

o Zones of hybridization of swordtails in Mexico (Dr. Gil Rosenthal)

The problems from aquatic pollution are great in number.They are as great in magnitude as they are cryptic.So, what are the major roots of problems? There are many that any exposition is is to scratch the surface of a boulder. Remember the 30,000 new chemicals quote? But to provide some traction on the diversity of pollutants, causes, and consequences, let us look at some examples.

Different industries generate different pollutantsAgriculture is leading source of water pollution globally

nutrients, pesticides into surface waters pesticides into groundwater animal wastes and plants residues have high BOD

o e.g. hog farms (note ¼ of the hogs for China) near all streams and rivers contain easily detected levels of agricultural

pollutionOil – Fossil fuels are associated with several massive pollutant sources

(many of which you may not know) Vehicles / Gas etc. – CO2, nitrous and sufurous emissions, road runoff of

engine fluids and tire microparticles, methane venting, frac fluids and physical processes

Plastic bottleso Over 3 trillion pounds of platic bottles thrown away annually in USo US drinks billions of bottles of water annually (31.2 billion in 2006)o Making enough plastic to bottle 31.2 billion liters of water required

more than 106 billion megajoules of energy. Because a barrel of oil contains around 6 thousand megajoules, the Pacific Institute estimates that the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil were needed to produce these plastic bottles. (link to source, required reading)

o The manufacture of every ton of PET produces around 3 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2). Bottling water thus created more than 2.5 million tons of CO2 in 2006. (source as above)

o Oil used to produce plastic bottles in the US would fuel 100,000 cars Fisheries, biodiversity, recreation & tourism potentials lost

o Case Study—Lake Maracaibo (see news story, link, required reading)

Mining— tailings and smelting products horribly toxic Gold King mine accident -- Wiki) Food processing plants - high BOD Paper mills- High BOD and toxic compounds

So the problems are many and large.What can you do to reduce water pollution?

Fertilize your phytodomain with compost Do not use synthetic pesticides Influence the broader phytodomain by supporting organic production Do not consume bottled water (but also don’t drink tapwater or surface or

ground waters) Don’t use questionable vanity or convenience products (e.g. water fresheners

in toilets) Don’t flush medicines Reduce fossil fuel use in yours and broader domains Dispose of paints, used oil, electronics and batteries, etc. responsibly

Send me one!

“Farmer, Farmer, put away the DDT. I don’t mind spots on my apples, just leave me the birds and the bees.” –Joni Mitchell (best version ever – video), start @ 45s)