Water Pollution

Several unique environmental factors influence the growing problem of pollutants in the water systems throughout the United States. Research papers on water pollution can focus on any specific area domestically or internationally and are custom written at Paper Masters.

Many aquifers along the region in New York are sand deposits derived from glacial-lake and beach sand. Typically, these types of aquifers are shallow and highly susceptible to groundwater and run-off contamination. The chief concern for contamination of the New York area is in the form of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB's) and other dioxins.

PCB's in Water

The following are attributes of PCB's in water that is polluted:

• Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a subset of the synthetic organic chemicals known as chlorinated hydrocarbons.
• PCBs are extremely persistent when released into the environment because they resist metabolic processes that would break them down to simpler chemical compounds.
• TCBs low water solubility allows PCBs to accumulate in the fatty tissues of exposed animals and humans. PCBs are known to cause chronic reproductive effects, gastric disorders, and skin lesions in laboratory animals.

PCBs been banned in most industrialized countries for two decades because their effects cause cancer and birth defects and damage the neurological and hormonal development of young children. However, they continue to evaporate from rubbish dumps and pour into the air when contaminated oil is burned. From there they travel on the winds and, like some fiendish laboratory experiment, condense out in the cold northern air - a process that atmospheric chemists call global distillation.

Dioxins in Water

'Dioxins' is the generic term given to polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs). Dioxin1 is an ubiquitous environmental contaminant, inadvertently created during industrial processes such as incineration and pulp bleaching. In 1984, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a water quality criterion or allowable water concentration, for dioxin. The water quality criterion calculation included specific values indicating dioxin's cancer potency and ability to accumulate in fish tissue. Both of those values are highly controversial, as is the degree of dioxin's impact on aquatic life and wildlife.