Pollution

What is the ph range of acid precipitation?

4.0 Normal, clean rain has a pH value of between 5.0 and 5.5, which is slightly acidic. However, when rain combines with sulfur dioxide or nitrogen oxides—produced from power plants and automobiles—the rain becomes much more acidic. Typical acid rain has a pH value of 4.0.

Negative effects of acid pollution

Acid Rain Harms Forests Acid raincan be extremelyharmfulto forests.Acid rainthat seeps into the ground can dissolve nutrients, such as magnesium and calcium, that trees need to be healthy.Acid rainalso causes aluminum to be released into the soil, which makes it difficult for trees to take up water.

Acid Precipitation

Acid rain, or acid deposition, is a broad term that includes any form of precipitation with acidic components, such as sulfuric or nitric acid that fall to the ground from the atmosphere in wet or dry forms. This can include rain, snow, fog, hail or even dust that is acidic.May 12, 2020

An example of something biodegradable

Biodegradable material contains food waste like vegetable and fruit peels, dead plants and animals, egg shells, chicken, garden waste paper materials, etc. Non-biodegradable things include of plastics, polystyrene, plastic, metals, and aluminum cans, toxic chemicals, paints, tyres, etc.

Hazardous Waste

Hazardous waste is waste that has substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment. Characteristic hazardous wastes are materials that are known or tested to exhibit one or more of the following hazardous traits: Ignitability. Reactivity. Corrosivity.

An example of hazardous waste

Household Hazardous Wastes. Household hazardous waste is the discarded, unused, or leftover portion of household products containing toxic chemicals. ... For example, buried wastes can filter down through the soil and contaminate groundwater. Plumbing systems can be damaged when corrosive chemicals are put down the drain.

hat are environmental issues with landfills?

Landfills produce millions of cubic feet of methane gas each day. Landfill methane is a natural result of the decomposition of organic materials and is invisible. Problems result when methane leaks into the air before being captured and used for things like natural gas.Aug 17, 2020

What produces most of the air pollution?

Most of this air pollution we cause results from the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, natural gas, and gasoline to produce electricity and power our vehicles. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a good indicator of how much fossil fuel is burned and how much of other pollutants are emitted as a result.

Nonpoint-source pollution

Nonpoint source pollution can include: Excess fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides from agricultural lands and residential areas. Oil, grease and toxic chemicals from urban runoff and energy production. Sediment from improperly managed construction sites, crop and forest lands, and eroding streambanks.Oct 7, 2020

What are the components involved in the chemical reaction that produces smog?

Smog, the primary constituent of which is ground level ozone, is formed by a chemical reaction of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, VOCs, and heat from sunlight.

Superfund Act

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act -- otherwise known as CERCLA or Superfund -- provides a Federal "Superfund" to clean up uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous-waste sites as well as accidents, spills, and other emergency releases of pollutants and contaminants into the environment ...Jul 27, 2020

Point-source pollution

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines point source pollution as "any single identifiable source of pollution from which pollutants are discharged, such as a pipe, ditch, ship or factory smokestack." Factories and sewage treatment plants are two common types of point sources.

What are the components of a landfill?

There are four critical elements in a secure landfill: a bottom liner, a leachate collection system, a cover, and the natural hydrogeologic setting. The natural setting can be selected to minimize the possibility of wastes escaping to groundwater beneath a landfill. The three other elements must be engineered.Mar 26, 2003

Thermal Pollution

Thermal pollution is defined as a sudden increase or decrease in temperature of a natural body of water, which may be ocean, lake, river or pond by human influence. This normally occurs when a plant or facility takes in water from a natural resource and puts it back with an altered temperature.

Incinerator

an apparatus for burning waste material, especially industrial waste, at high temperatures until it is reduced to ash.

Biodegradable

f a substance or object) capable of being decomposed by bacteria or other living organisms. "consumers have forced a shift to more biodegradable products"

Smog

fog or haze combined with smoke and other atmospheric pollutants.

Example of nonpoint-source pollution

onpoint source pollution can include: Excess fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides from agricultural lands and residential areas. Oil, grease and toxic chemicals from urban runoff and energy production. Sediment from improperly managed construction sites, crop and forest lands, and eroding streambanks.

Biomagnification

the concentration of toxins in an organism as a result of its ingesting other plants or animals in which the toxins are more widely disbursed.

Leachate

water that has percolated through a solid and leached out some of the constituents.