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Topic 3. Clean Water – Life Depends on It! Chapter 3B: Pollution
To the teacherPurpose To provide an overview of the different ways we pollute our water resources and to focus on our role in actively cleaning up. Subject areas Science, Language Arts, Environmental and Social Studies, Art, Health, Geography Procedure
References
Student information
Remember that trip you went on with your family to a country where the water was not clean enough to drink? And how lucky you felt to be from a country which has so much good, clean, sparkling water? Well, just a minute. Before you get carried away with how environmentally clean Canada is, consider the following:
The sad truth is... If you were to survey large water bodies across Canada, for example, the Great Lakes or the St. Lawrence River, you would find out that we are spoiling the quality of our water. We are doing this with human wastes, animal wastes, and chemical substances. And many of our treatment processes are unable to cope with the increasing complexity and number of chemicals being added to the system. Our water supply is having a harder and harder time cleansing itself. Normally nature has its own "purification cycle" whereby it uses energy from the sun, oxygen, bacteria, and carbon dioxide to purify itself. Unfortunately, this purification process does not work on some of the more toxic chemicals we are adding to our air and water supply. How have we polluted our water supply? Let's look at some of the ways we have affected the quality of our water.
Acid rain: Long-range transport of airborne pollutants (LRTAP) As you know, pollution caused in one province, territory, or country does not stay in the area where it occurred. We find airborne pollutants like acid rain in our northern lakes – carried there by wind currents from the south of Canada, from the United States, and even from Europe. Remember, the air above us does not recognize borders. Acid rain comes from rainwater contaminated with chemicals from sources such as iron and steel mills, pulp and paper mills, oil refineries, and motor vehicle exhaust. How do we measure acid rain? By its pH. Scientists measure the acidity of rain by its pH factor, which stands for "potential for hydrogen," on a scale of 0 to 14. The pH scale The zero end of the scale is the maximum in acidic content, while the 14 is the other end of the scale, the highest possible alkaline content. This is not too hard to remember if you realize that zero is something like a test mark. It's bad. You would think that pure rainwater would be right in the middle of the scale, but it stands at 5.5, since there is always some natural acid in rain. Is it all gloom and doom? There is much that can be done about pollution, but it will take all nations of the world working together. After all, we all share the same atmosphere and the same hydrologic cycle – you won't find borders to keep out air pollution or water pollution. How can we control water pollution? Since nature cannot cope with pollution from our growing populations and industries, governments and citizens must set out guidelines to protect the environment. Laws and regulations must keep pollutants in check. Technology can also help reduce harm to the environment. For example, water treatment plants and wastewater treatment plants help keep our water clean. We all have to play our part. Talk your parents into practising some of the following at home:
A good news story
The phosphorous (phosphate) from laundry detergents was the main problem. A law was passed to reduce this substance and, in 1972 phosphates were cut by 90%. Since 1972, Lake Erie has made a remarkable recovery. 
Learning activitiesActivity 1 – Environmental Studies, Social Studies Water pollution in your town?
Activity 2 – Environmental Studies
Activity 3 – Social Studies, Art You hear a lot of talk these days about being "proactive," in other words, taking responsibility and doing something about a problem before we have to react. Let's look at an example. Students at a school in Toronto were upset because fast food restaurants were packaging their food in materials which were not friendly to the environment. The students decided to do something about it. That is just one example of a group of people being proactive. There are lots of other ways – and simpler things you could do. For example, look around the school and around your own house.
Activity 4 – Social Studies Scenario: You know that a business or industry (dry-cleaning plant, pulp and paper mill, mining operation, chemical plant, etc.) is polluting a nearby stream.
Activity 5 – Environmental Studies In your information sheets you read about different ways we pollute our water supply by dumping persistent and non-persistent pollutants, or with dredging, thermal discharge, acid rain, etc.
Activity 6 – Language Arts, Art Collect headlines about pollution and acid rain.
Activity 7 – Science Can you boil away impurities?
What to do:
Activity 8 – Language Arts
In groups of two to four students, make up some "what if" questions for the rest of the class. Each of your groups will make up four such situations and present them to the class for discussion. Option: Select one of the "what if" situations to role play or act out. Sample situations:
Activity 9 – Research: Geography, Science, Health Each year 3 to 4 million people die of waterborne diseases, including 2 million children who die of diarrhea.
or
Activity 10 – Environmental Science Adopt a stream. In many parts of Canada, concerned citizens have organized groups to keep the environment free from pollution. For example, some groups (or individuals) will volunteer to keep a mile of highway free from litter, or students will adopt a ditch in their community to keep clean. Why not organize your classmates (or community) to adopt a nearby body of water. Invite people from the community into your class to help set it up. Get as many people involved as you can. Activity 11 – Language Arts What's wrong with this ad?
Have you seen ads which make the same promises?
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The Green LaneTM, Environment Canada's World Wide Web site
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Is Canada a water paradise?
Have you heard stories about fish being polluted by mercury poisoning in Canada as well as other countries?
We allow non-persistent (degradable) pollutants such as domestic sewage, fertilizers, some household cleaners, and some industrial wastes into our water supply areas. These degradable pollutants can be broken down slowly.
floating debris and garbage – dumped directly into our lakes and rivers where they may be carried away by the currents only to turn up somewhere else.
In the 1960s, Lake Erie experienced such serious eutrophication that fish were dying, and decomposing algae washing up on the beaches had to be removed by bulldozers.
Explore the following:
What pollution are YOU responsible for?
You will need:
What if...?
Research one of the following diseases and prepare a report on it: diarrhoea, polio, typhoid, cholera, leprosy, scabies, roundworm, malaria, sleeping sickness, river blindness, hookworm. Describe the disease, what its effects are on people, and explain how unsanitary water helps spread the disease.
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