Industrial Pollution

Industrial pollution

Industrial pollution is one of the leading issues around water pollution, with a high proportions of waste produced throughout the industry ranging from garbage, gravel, concrete, scrap metal and lumber, oil, solvents, chemicals. The waste products created throughout many industrial processes produces a mixture of hazardous and non-hazardous products, it is as a result of improper treatment and storage of these products that leads to environmental damage.

Pollution from industrial activity can occur from both point and diffuse sources of contamination. Point sources are easily identified, such as a waste pipe discharging material directly into surface water, and produce large amounts of environmental damage. The direct discharge of pollutants into surface water can lead to major environmental damage with the potential to destroy ecosystems depending on what material is discharged. Diffuse sources of pollution from industrial practices are also a major environmental threat, with the diffuse sources being much more diverse, ranging from garbage that enters the environment through improper practices to contaminated water entering fluvial systems after the leaching of pollutants into groundwater resources or as a result of surface runoff over contaminated land. Diffuse pollution sources pose a major threat to the environment as this pollution presents an overall significant cumulative impact on the environment, building up within the nartural environment.

Pollutants

There are a wide range of pollutants that originate from industrial sources these include:

  • Lead - An environmentally persistant, harmful metal that is often found in many different forms throughout industry that poses a threat to both human and environmental health with the potential to bioaccumulate within organic tissue.

  • Mercury - An environmentally persistant metal used throughout industry from electronic componants to medical usage. Mercury can enter the environment in both its raw form as a heavy liquid metal as well as in chemical compounds.

  • Oils - An envrionmentally persistant substance that is hydrophobic as such remains in a layer on the surface of water itself. This can lead to major environmental loss with oil not only impacting species directly by covering anything that goes within the contaminated area but also preventing processes such as photosynthesis leading to environmental deterioration.

  • Petrochemicals - Chemicals used throughout industry for many processes ranging from direct usage of fossil fuels for energy generation to many of the other uses such as in plastics, furniture, electronics and medicine. The improper storage of these chemical can lead to major environmental damage with leaks of these chemicals creating high levels of environmental contamiation in terms of contaminating soil and water resources.

Environmental Impact

Lead

Lead can be found in many forms within industrial activity as such there are also a large number of ways that it can be enter the environment leading to a wide array of environmental impacts. The environmentally persistent metal can be located in dust form transported through wind processes, within contaminated soil as well as within water resources. The lead itself remains within the environment, as it cannot be broken down, leading to the detiroration of the biota as the metal bioaccumulates within organic tissue leading in some cases to the loss of human life.

Mercury

Mercury within the environment can lead to the deterioration of environmental health with the liquid metal accumulating within the sediments of fluvial systems where it converts into a harmful compound, Methylmercury, that accumulate within the food chain. The products bioaccumulate within organic tissue and biomagnify up natural food chains contributing to not only damage to the environment itself but also to human health.

Oil

The impacts of oil entering the natural envrionment can be seen in both short and long-term impacts. Short-term impacts range from the direct loss of biota through exposure with the depletion of fishstocks through smothering as well as the loss of flora as the vegitation absorbs the oil through its roots destroying the vegitation. The Long-term impacts of oil within the environment are much more drastic with the damage that is seen in the short-term persisting over a number of years, leading to ecosystem deterioration and potentially even collapse with some species migrating away from the region, never to return, leading to losses in biodiversity and the overall environmental health.

Petrochemicals

Petrochemicals often end up in the water environment as a result of point source discharge of contaminated effluent. Once in discharged into the wider environment, the pollutants lead to both short and long-term environmental impacts, with declines seen in the ecosystems conected to the contamination seen with reductions in aquatic life as well as the deterioration of flora in the region. These chemicals also pose a threat to human health with high concentrations of heavy metals known for their negative impacts on human health including Zinc, Cromium, Lead and Mercury.

Mitigation

The mitigation of indutrial pollution is highly dependant on the identification of the source of pollution. With the identification of point sources of pollution it is possible to prevent further damage to the wider environment by preventing the discharge of contaminants into the surface water or in some cases improve the techniques that are used within industrial processes to remove harmful contaminant from wastewater.

In terms of diffuse sources of pollution mitigation and remediation efforts come in many forms dependant on the situation, issues such as garbage entering fluvial environments and damaging natural ecosystems can be rectafied through the implimentation of improved practices on the desposal of waste. However, in the case of contamination as a result of chemical spills extensive remediation efforts are required to remove the contaminants to prevent any futher spread of pollution.

It should be noted that as a result of the more toxic industrial pollutants the damage to the environment is often widespread and long-term in nature, with ecosystems requiring a long period of recovery before they are able to function.