AP Question; Waste and Water Pollution
A sanitary landfill with a surface area of 6000m2 receives a yearly rainfall amount of 300mm. About 2020 percent of this precipitation is runoff and does not infiltrate the surface. A leachate collection system, which is installed underneath the landfill, is 90 percent effective at collecting and treating any water that infiltrates the surface of the landfill. Assuming consistent yearly rainfall amounts, what is the volume of leachate, in m3, that the landfill will be able to treat per year?
1,296m3
A farmer needs to kill more than half of the insect crop pests to ensure a profitable harvest. Based on the graph, what is the minimum concentration of pesticide C that the farmer must use to make a profit?
1,500g/cm3
A pesticide was applied to a population of roaches, and it was determined that the LD50 was 55mgkg. If the average mass of a roach was 0.02kg, which of the following approaches will determine the dose in mg per roach?
55mg1kg×0.02kg (C)
Approximately 60 percent of municipal solid waste in the United States is composed of some form of organic matter that could be composted. Every American generates approximately 2 kg of waste every day. The amount of compostable waste that could be generated by one individual in a week would be closest to
8.4 kg
Large objects, such as sticks and rocks, are screened out and removed during this process.
A
Students conducted an experiment to calculate the LD50 of Chemical XX on seedlings. They grew separate groups of seedlings in a range of doses of Chemical XX. After several days they calculated the percent mortality at each dose and graphed the results. Which of the graphs correctly shows how to determine the LD50 of Chemical XX on the seedlings?
A
Which of the following describes a component of a modern sanitary landfill?
A bottom liner of plastic or clay to prevent groundwater contamination
Which of the following components of a wastewater treatment plants designed to facilitate the decomposition of organic material by aerobic microorganisms?
Activated-sludge tank
Based upon the data, what is the best description of this relationship?
As the concentration of anastrozole increases, the percent induction of breast cancer decreases.
Which of the following human health issues is linked to exposure to pollutants released during the incineration of plastic waste?
Asthma
The graph shows how biological oxygen demand (BOD) and dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration change over the length of a stream. Points AA-DD indicate different locations within the stream.
B
Which method introduces microorganisms to break down hazardous organic compounds?
Biological treatment
Some toxic compounds are ingested and retained in the tissues. These pollutants pose special risks to humans and other organisms high on the food chain because of which process?
Biomagnification
The graph above shows the effect of sewage on biological oxygen demand (BOD) and dissolved oxygen (DO) in a flowing stream. The smallest fish populations will most probably be found at point
C
This process results in the biological breakdown of most of the organic matter in the sewage.
C
An individual is exposed to the water in the stream from which the sample show in the graph was taken. If the individual was exposed to the highest dose of the bacteria, which of the following bacteria would have the lowest probability of causing illness if ingested?
C. jejuni
Which method would be best suited for neutralizing the acidic components of waste?
Chemical Treatment
This pathogen infects the intestine and is spread through contaminated water or food.
Chlorea
Mandates the restoration and maintenance of the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters
Clean Water Act
Which of the following federal laws specifically deals with the cleanup of abandoned hazardous waste sites?
Comprehensive Environmental Responsibility Compensation and Liability Act
The United States Environmental Protection Agency has determined that all four pesticides could have negative health consequences to humans if applied at high concentrations and has set a maximum application concentration of 500g/cm3. Based on the data in the graph, which pesticide would be the most effective at that concentration?
D
This process uses chlorine, ultraviolet radiation, or ozone as part of the disinfection of wastewater.
D
Which of the following components, which are not shown on the diagram, are part of the tertiary treatment of wastewater?
Disinfectants
A point source discharges organic waste into a stream. Which of the following graphs best depicts the expected pattern for dissolved oxygen (DO) in this stream as a function of distance from the discharge point?
E
Alligators in a Florida lake polluted by high levels of dioxins (chlorinated hydrocarbons) had low testosterone levels and failed to reproduce. Scientists came to the conclusion that the dioxins were acting as which of the following?
Endocrine disrupters
An ecologist examining several different ponds discovers that in one pond all the frogs are female. Which of the following most likely led to the all-female population of frogs?
Endocrine disrupters
If wastewater treatment plant effluent that contains nitrates and phosphates is allowed to flow into a body of water, which of the following may result?
Eutrophication
Which of the following examples includes both a point and a nonpoint source of pollution?
Fertilizer from suburban lawns and wastewater from a water treatment plant
Based on the diagram, which of the following best describes how a malfunctioning air compressor would affect the process of sewage treatment?
Fewer bacteria would be available to absorb dissolved organics in the tank.
For a certain insecticide, the LD-50 dosage level for rats is determined to be 250 milligrams per kilograms of body mass. On the basis of this information, which of the following is the best prediction regarding the consequences of receiving this dosage of the insecticide?
Five hundred out of every one thousand rats would die.
Based on the diagram, which of the following is associated with the primary treatment of sewage?
Grit chamber
The presence of which of the following contaminants would be the strongest reason for judging municipal sewage sludge unfit for use as fertilizer?
Heavy Metals
An experiment was carried out to determine the lethal dose of ammonium sulfate on mung bean germination. True statements about the experimental design include which of the following? The control group has neither the seeds nor the ammonium sulfate. The independent variable is the concentration of the ammonium sulfate. The dependent variable is the number of seeds that failed to germinate.
II and III only
Critics of incineration of municipal solid waste suggests that it may not be the best solution for the future, for which of the following reasons?
Incineration contributes to air pollution.
Which of the following is the most likely consequence of runoff transporting chemicals that are endocrine disruptors to a pond?
Increased frequency of birth defects in fish populations in the pond
Which of the following is a way to potentially eliminate one of the greatest threats to the world's mangrove wetlands?
Integrate ecologically sound shrimp aquacultural practices with mangrove management.
Based on the data in the graphs, which of the following would result in the largest reduction in volume of municipal solid waste disposed of in landfills?
Introduce composting programs for yard trimmings and food waste
Of the following, which is the most serious immediate problem associated with sanitary landfills?
Leachate contamination of groundwater
The dangers of disposing of toxic chemicals underground came to public attention in which of the following locations?
Love Canal, New York
Significant increases in water temperature can drastically change dissolved oxygen (DO)(DO) levels in a lake. Why does the combined effect of these two environmental changes result in algal blooms?
Low dissolved oxygen leads to death for aerobic organisms, like fish, whose decomposition provides an overabundance of nutrients for the algae, resulting in the large blooms.
This pathogen is primarily transmitted by mosquitoes and is found most often in sub-Saharan Africa.
Malaria
Is a flammable gas produced by landfills
Methane
A scientist is studying PCBs in tertiary consumers. She wants to determine if PCBs can be found in tertiary consumers even though these compounds were banned in the United States in the 1970s. Which of the following best identifies a testable hypothesis for the study?
PCBs are persistent organic compounds that are fat-soluble, so they should be found in the fatty tissues of tertiary consumers even though the compounds have been banned for decades.
Which of the following best describes a way that persistent organic pollutants (POPs) cause harm in the environment?
Persistent organic pollutants are soluble in fat, so they accumulate in an organisms' fatty tissues.
Which of the following practices would best help to protect against inland and coastal flooding in urban areas?
Preserving wetland and coastal mangrove habitats
Which of the following correctly orders the methods of solid-waste management in terms of energy required?
Reduce Reuse Recycle
Which of the following would best improve the validity of the experiment?
Repeating the experiment several times and comparing the results
Which of the following factors would most likely contribute to the conditions observed in the Long Island Sound?
Restricted circulation
Based on the diagram, which of the following is the most likely reason that a community with good sanitation could still have individuals who contract cholera?
Runoff from a nearby agricultural field pollutes a reservoir used for drinking water.
Requires minimum safety standards for community water supplies
Safe Drinking Water Act
If all four of the bacteria species shown in the graph are equally likely to contaminate agricultural products at a dose of 10^2 CFU regulating which of the following species would have the greatest effect in reducing the likelihood of illness in humans?
Salmonella spp.
Many synthetic chemicals, such as PCBs, act as estrogen mimics. In an ecosystem, these persistent chemicals would have the greatest effect on which of the following?
Secondary consumers
Based on the data table above for a stream in Illinois, which site most likely has a construction site immediately upstream from it?
Site C
Until 2005 the entire Postawko Creek Watershed in Fremont County consisted of a national forest interspersed with hay meadows and houses on lots with a minimum size of five acres. In 2005 Farmer Cobb opened a dairy farm in the watershed, and the citizens of Fremont County became concerned that the runoff from the dairy farm would negatively impact the water quality of the watershed. Scientists employed by the county collected water quality data at five sites in the watershed; some of the data are compiled in the table above. Based on these data, which site is most likely immediately downstream from the dairy farm?
Site C
Which of the following is the best description of bioaccumulation?
The absorption of a substance by an organism at a rate greater than the rate of elimination
Why did the DO after one week decrease as the amount of waste increased?
The algae multiplied and then died and decomposed.
Based on the diagram above, which of the following best describes why a population in an area that has poor sanitation can be particularly at risk for a cholera outbreak?
The bacterium that causes cholera is spread through ingestion of contaminated water or food.
In 1986 Country X established regulations to reduce the maximum allowable concentration of chromium in industrial effluents from 37 ppm to 25 ppm. In 1994 government research indicated that a chromium concentration of up to 35 ppm in effluents presented an acceptable risk; in the same year the government also discovered that a certain chemical company had been discharging effluents with chromium concentrations of 32 ppm each year since 1981. Based on this information, which of the following statements is correct?
The chemical company did not violate effluent regulations in the 1982-1985 period, but it violated them at some other time.
Some studies have indicated that global amphibian populations are declining and that exposure to herbicides in agricultural runoff is implicated in the decline. Which of the following is the most likely explanation of how herbicides affect amphibians?
The herbicides act as endocrine disruptors.
A massive bluegill fish kill was observed in a lake near a power plant during the winter months. It was determined that the plant was releasing large amounts of hot water into the lake. Which of the following explains what likely caused the death of so many bluegills in the lake?
The influx of warmer water caused an unexpected increase in the metabolic rate of the bluegills, which led to increased physiological stress from limited resource availability.
Some drinking water standards allow bacteria in water at dosages up to the 10% probability of illness. Which of the following statements is best supported by the data in the graph?
The newly discovered bacterium would have the lowest allowable dosage to meet the drinking water standards.
Based on the image, which of the following conclusions can best be drawn to describe the conditions in the Long Island Sound?
The sound has large numbers of phytoplankton blooms that are decomposing and consumed by respiring bacteria.
The water used in this type of power plant is often released back into a reservoir. Which of the following effects could this released water have on the reservoir?
The temperature of the released water causes a decrease in the amount of dissolved oxygen in the reservoir.
Which of the following statements best describes the concept of phytoremediation?
The use of plants to absorb and accumulate toxic materials from the soil
What is the main purpose for the experiment?
To observe the effect of organic waste on DO
Based on the diagram above, which of the following is the most likely reason that V. cholerae can spread rapidly through a population?
V. cholerae is a microscopic bacterium that can survive in various aquatic environments for prolonged periods of time and can cause a delayed onset of visible symptoms.
Which of the following identifies an unintended result from recycling programs?
When items are placed in recycling that cannot be recycled, the cost of recycling increases.
Most plastics pose a special problem in the waste stream because they
decompose slowly, if at all, and persist as solid waste
Toxicologists say, "the dose makes the poison," meaning that most substances are harmful in high enough concentrations. The data for anastrozole
does not support this concept because as concentration increases, response decreases
The release of a large amount of sewage and other organic wastes into a river would likely result in a sharp
increase in the biological oxygen demand
When logging is carried out in a watershed, a likely effect on the local streams is
increased water temperature
Three common methods employed in the cleanup of oil spills are
large floating booms, skimmer boats, and genetically engineered bacteria
Although the use of DDT was banned in the United States in 1972, a test of the body tissue of an average United States resident today would most likely reveal the presence of DDT because
other countries that export produce to the United States still use DDT
The LD50 for arsenic in humans is 13mg/kg. Which of the following approaches should be used to calculate the number of grams of arsenic it would take to reach the LD50 in a 140-pound person? [Note: 1kg=2.2pounds]
140lb×1kg2.2lb×13mg1kg×1g1,000mg (B)
Which of the following best describes the action of an endocrine disruptor?
An endocrine disruptor blocks the receptor protein binding site of a hormone so that the cell cannot receive a signal.
Which of the following is most likely to result from destruction of wetlands surrounding a river?
An increased frequency of flooding of the river valley
Based on the LD50 values, which of the following best describes the toxicity level of the household substances shown in the table?
Antifreeze is more toxic than aspirin
In the removal of a pollutant from wastewater, which of the following is true of the cost per unit of pollutant removed?
It increases as the concentration of the pollutant decreases.
Of the following, which is the primary method of waste disposal in the United States?
Landfilling
Scientists are interested in measuring the effect of pollution on the water quality of a stream. They will use observations of various bottom-dwelling insects, or macroinvertebrates, collected in the stream as indicators of the physical, chemical, and biological conditions within the stream. Which of the following best describes why macroinvertebrate sampling can be used to assess the overall health of a stream?
Macroinvertebrates live in an aquatic ecosystem for a long enough time to show the chronic effects of pollutants, and many tend to remain in the same area throughout their life span.
Chemical compound that can cause algal blooms and cultural eutrophication in streams
Nitrates (NO3−)
Which of the following is an effective alternative to chlorine for disinfecting wastewater in a municipal treatment plant?
Ozone
The processes described above are steps in the purification and treatment of municipal wastewater. The steps are listed in random order. Which of the following lists the steps in the correct sequence?
P → S → R → Q
An advantage of recycling aluminum rather than disposing of it in landfills is that aluminum can be
produced from recycled metal using much less energy than is required for its production from aluminum ore
Of the following strategies to decrease the landfill volume of packaging material from food and other consumer products, the most energy efficient is
promoting the use of reusable containers for consumer goods
A laboratory study using rats showed a steady increase in physical effects as the concentration of a toxic substance in their food was increased. This suggests that
the dose-response relationship is linear
