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APES Test 2
Types of Pollution
Question | Answer |
---|---|
emitted directly into the air from natural sources such as volcanoes, mobile sources, or stationary sources such as industrial smokestack | primary pollutants |
results from the reaction of primary pollutants in the atmosphere to form a new pollutant | secondary pollutants |
Six major air pollutants | Nitrogen Dioxide, ozone, peroxyacyl nitrates, sulfur dioxide, suspended particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds |
Two forms of smog | industrial smog and photochemical smog |
this smog tends to be sulfur-based and is also called gray-air smog | industrial smog |
this smog is catalyzed by UV radiation and tends to be nitrogen-based and is called brown-air smog | photochemical smog |
Two parts of acid deposition | wet and dry deposition |
this form of deposition refers to acidic rain, fog, and snow | wet deposition |
this form of deposition refers to acidic gases and particles | dry deposition |
Describe the process of acid deposition due to sulfur dioxide | 1. sulfur dioxide put into atmosphere from burning coal and oil 2. combines with water vapor to form sulfurous acid 3. sulfurous acid reacts with oxygen to form sulfuric acid |
describe the process of acid deposition due to nitrogen oxides | 1. nitrogen oxides formed by burning coal, oil, or natural gas 2. Nitrogen monoxide reacts with oxygen gas to make nitrogen dioxide gas 3. nitrogen dioxide reacts with water vapor to produce nitrous and nitric acid |
caused by the rapid melting of snow pack that contains dry acidic particles | acid shock |
this occurs in metropolitan areas that are significantly warmer than their surroundings | urban heat island |
Three reasons for urban heat islands | 1. urban areas are buildings that reduce the radiation of heat to the night sky 2. the lack of vegetation and standing water 3. high levels of pollution in urban areas can also create a localized greenhouse effect |
this occurs when air temperature increases with height above the ground, as opposed to the normal decrease in temperature with height | temperature inversion |
this results from buildings reflecting and absorbing heat and blocking winds that reduce heat through convection | canyon effect |
Most common pollutants found indoors | molds, bacteria, carbon monoxide, radon, allergens, formaldehyde, asbestos, and tobacco smoke. |
strategies to improve air quality in general | 1. emphasize tax incentives for pollution rather than fines and penalties 2. setting legislation standards 3. increasing funding for research for renewable resources 4. phasing out two-cycle engines 5. providing incentives to use mass transit |
this program is designed to achieve significant environmental and public health benefits through reductions in emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides | EPA's Acid Rain Program |
what are the primary standards of the Clean Air Act | protect human health |
what are the secondary standards of the Clean Air Act | protect materials, crops, climate, visibility, and personal comfort |
this would have required the U.S. to reduce greenhouse emissions by 7% when compared with 199 levels over a five-year period | Kyoto Protocol |
Reasons why the U.S. didn't agree with the rest of the signing members of the Kyoto Protocol | 1. cost of meeting the emission targets would be too high 2. the time frame was too short for implementation 3. there was no evidence of correlation between greenhouse gases and global warming |
unwanted human created sound that disrupts the environment | noise pollution |
noise regulation by governmental agencies effectively began in the U.S. with the 1972_______ | Federal Noise Control Act |
Three kinds of hearing loss | conductive, sensory, and neural |
ways to reduce roadway noise | noise barriers, limitations on vehicle speed, newer roadway surface technologies, limiting time for heavy-duty vehicles, computer-controlled traffic flow devices |
ways to reduce aircraft noise | quieter engines and rescheduling takeoff and landing times |
ways to reduce industrial noise | installation of noise barriers in workplaces |
ways to reduce residential noise | local laws and enforcement |
occurs when harmful substances are emitted directly into a body of water | point sources |
delivers pollutants indirectly through transport or environmental change | non-point source |
sources of water pollution | air pollution, chemicals, microbiological sources, mining, noise, nutrients, oxygen-depleting substances, suspended matter, and thermal sources |
examples of air pollution | mercury, sulfur dioxide, nitric oxides, and ammonia fall out the air and into the water |
examples of chemical pollution | metals, solvents, oils, detergents, pesticides, and drug prescriptions that pass through the human body unaltered. |
ways mining causes pollution | exposes heavy metals and sulfur compounds, rainwater on piles of mining waste(tailings) transfers pollution to freshwater, pools of mine waste slurry stored behind dams and leak into water, and dump mining waste directly into rivers as method of disposal |
three types of wastewater treatment | primary treament, secondary treatment, and tertiary treatment |
this treatment is to reduce oils, grease, fats, sand, grit, and coarse solids | primary treatment |
designed to degrade substantially the biological content of the sewage derived from human waste, food waste, soaps, and detergetns | secondary treatment |
provides a final stage to raise the effluent quality to the standard required before it is discharged to the recieving environment | tertiary treatment |
types of solid waste | organic, radioactive, recyclable, soiled, toxic |
types of organic waste | kitchen wastes, vegetables, flowers, leaves, or fruit |
types of radioactive wastes | spent fuel rods, smoke detectors, |
types of recycleable wastes | paper, glass, metal, plastics |
types of soiled wastes | hospital wastes |
types of toxic wastes | paints, chemicals, pesticides |
pros of burning, incineration, or energy recovery | heat can be used to supplement energy requirements, reduces impact on landfills, and mass burning is inexpensive |
cons of burning, incineration, or energy recovery | air pollution, sorting out things is expensive, no way of knowing toxic consequences, and adds to acid precipitation and global warming |
pros of composting | creates nutrient-rich soil, slows down soil erosion, and aids in water retention |
cons of composting | public reaction to odor and insects, not in my backyard (NIMBY) |
pros and cons of remanufacturing | recovers materials that would have been discarded but toxic materials may be present |
pros and cons of exporting | gets rid of problem immeadiately and is source of income for poor countries but expensive to transport and long-term effects are not known |
pros and cons of de-toxyifying | reduces the impact on the environment but is expensive |
pros of land disposal-sanitary landfills | waste is convered each day with dirt, plastic liners control leaching material into groundwater, collection of methange and use of fuel cells to supplement energy demand |
cons of land disposal- sanitary landfills | rising land prices, transportation costs, legal liability, suitable areas are limited |
pros and cons of open dumping | inexpensive but trash blows away in wind, vermin and disease, and leaching of toxic chemicals into the soil |
pros and cons of ocean dumping | inexpensive but debris floats to unintended areas, marine organisms impacted, and illegal in the U.S. |
pros of recycling | turns waste into inexpensive resource, reduces impact on landfills, reduces need for raw materials and the costs of it, reduces dependance on foreign oil, and reduces air and water pollution |
cons of recycling | poor regulation, fluctuations in market price, throwaway packaging more popular |
pros and cons of reuse | most efficient method of reclaiming materials, cloth diapers dont impact landfills, and industry models in place but cost of collecting materials is expensive and cost of washing and decontaminating containers is expensive |
way thermal sources pollute water | heat reduces the ability of water to hold oxygen and causes death to organisms that cannot tolerate heat or low oxygen levels |
Minamata disease | mercury-containg compounds from industry dumped into Minamata Bay in Japan, collected in fish and shellfish |
Exxon Valdez | oil tanker Exxon Valdez spilled crude oil into Prince William Sound, Alaska and killed countless organisms and destroyed plankton there |
the process whereby human activity increases the amount of nutrients entering surface water | cultural eutrophication |
two importnat nutrients that cause cultural eutrophication | nitrates and phosphates |
steps involved in algal blooms | 1.increased algae due to nitrate and phosphate increase that decreases light and kills deeper plants and oxygen 2. oxygen concentration decreases 3. fish and organisms die and contaminate water at a high rate 4. decaying fish and algae produce toxins |
methods to control cultural eutrophication | planting vegetation to slow erosion and absorb nutrients, control application/timing of fertilizer, control runoff from feedlots, and use biological controls like denitrifying bacteria |
drinking water treatment methods | adsorption, disinfection, filtration, flocculation-sedimentation, and ion exchange |
contaiments stick to the surface of granular or powdered activated charcoal | adsorption |
chlorine, chloramines, chlorine dioxide, ozone, and UV radiation in this treatment method | disinfection |
removes clay, silt from the treatment process. clarifies water and enhances the effectiveness of the infection | filtration |
process that combines small particles into large particles that then settle out of the water as sediment | flocculation-sedimentation |
removes inorganic constituents. | ion exchange |
water treatment remediation technologies | aeration, air stripping, in-well air stripping, deep-well injection |