Question
1)Why is it difficult to establish standards for acceptable levels of pollution?
2)Explain, considering physical, climatological, biological, social, and/or ethical reasons.
3)What is one way natural ecosystems can perform wastewater treatment? Explain
4)Compare and contrast point and nonpoint sources of water pollution. Which is easier to treat? Why?
Answer
Question 1
Why is it difficult to establish standards for acceptable levels of pollution?
Pollution comprises all the activities and actions that contaminate the environment. It is very difficult to difficult to establish these standards considering that pollution induces toxicity which is harmful. As a result, the toxic level will increase as the pollution agent continues to operate (Dunlap, 2014). Additionally, it is time-consuming to determine tolerable levels of toxic agent. Moreover, most organizations are not willing to spend most of their resources to neutralize their waste products unless legally compelled.
Question 2
Explain, considering physical, climatological, biological, social, and/or ethical reasons?
Usually, accepted levels of pollution are achieved when the benefits of reducing levels of pollution equal the cost incurred to reduce those effects. As a result, to achieve these optimal levels organizations should ensure that their waste productions are affecting the physical environment in any way such as litter, gas from their firms to do lead to global warming, their products do not have biological effects on living organisms. Moreover, these levels should ethically provide safe working and living environment.
Question 3
What is one way natural ecosystems can perform wastewater treatment? Explain
Wastewater purification is becoming popular worldwide due to the increase in wastewater collection systems. One of the best natural ways to clean such water is through deep filtration. This method involves separation of solid from the water where the liquid in this case wastewater is passed through a porous medium to remove fine suspended solids. The water may be required to go through several porous medium to ensure that it is clean and safe for human consumption.
Question 4
Compare and contrast point and nonpoint sources of water pollution. Which is easier to treat? Why?
A point source of pollution is a single identifiable source of pollution that can be easily established and identified (Ray, 2012). On the other hand, nonpoint sources of pollution are diffuse sources of pollution and they occur over a wide a large area and cannot be attributed to a single source. However, it is easier to treat a point source of pollution since it is easily identified and attributed to a single source.
References
Dunlap, R. E. (2014). American environmentalism: The US environmental movement, 1970-1990. Taylor & Francis.
Ray, J. P. (2012). Produced water: Technological/environmental issues and solutions (Vol. 46). Springer Science & Business Media.
