Aquatic Pollution [antikvár]

SERIES PREFACE Environmental Science and Technology The Environmental Science and Technology Series of Monographs, Textbooks, and Advances is devoted to the study of the quality of the environment and to the technology of its conservation. Environmental science therefore relates to the chemical, physical, and biological changes in the environment through contamination or modification, to the physical nature and biological behavior of air, water, soil, food, and waste as they are affected by man's agricultural, industrial, and social activities, and to the application of science and technology to the control and improvement of environmental quality. The deterioration of environmental quality, which began when man first collected into villages and utilized fire, has existed as a serious problem under the ever-increasing impacts of exponentially increasing population and of industrializing society. Environmental contamination of air, water, soil, and food has become a threat to the continued existence of many plant and animal communities of the ecosystem and may ultimately threaten the very survival of the human race. It seems clear that if we are to preserve for future generations some semblance of the biological order of the world of the past and hope to improve on the deteriorating standards of urban public health, environmental science and technology must quickly come to play a dominant role in designing our social and industrial structure for tomorrow. Scientifically rigorous criteria of environmental quality must be developed. Based in part on these criteria, realistic standards must be established and our technological progress must be tailored to meet them. It is obvious that civilization will continue to require increasing amounts of fuel, transportation, industrial chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, and countless other products; and that it will continue to produce waste products of all descriptions. What is urgently needed is a total systems approach to modern civilization through which the pooled talents of scientists and engineers, in cooperation with social scientists and the medical profession, can be focused on the development of order and equilibrium in the presently disparate segments of the human environment. Most of the skills and tools that are needed are already in existence. We PREFACE This bootc assumes that the reader has had at least an introductory course in aquatic ecology or oceanography. The first three chapters of the book provide a review of basic ecological concepts relevant to water pollution, and together with Chapter 8, which introduces the subject of toxicology, provide the essential background information for the remaining chapters. Chapters 4-7 and 9-14 amount to a categorical study of various types of water pollution problems, namely eutrophication (Chapter 4), urban runoff (Chapter 5), sewage (Chapter 6), pathogens (Chapter 7), industrial wastes (Chapter 9), pesticides (Chapter 10), thermal pollution (Chapter II), metals (Chapter 12), oil (Chapter 13), and radioactivity (Chapter 14). In general each of these chapters begins with historical information and a discussion of principles and concepts relevant to the particular type of pollution and ends with one or more case studies. The treatment of the various types of water pollution is deliberately uneven, with eutrophication, pesticides, metals, and radioactivity receiving more attention than the other subjects. I have emphasized these four types of pollution both because I felt more background understanding was needed to appreciate the subjects, and because the topics are of special concern at the present time. A more comprehensive text would undoubtedly have considered additional types of pollution problems, for example acid mine drainage or contamination of water supplies with exotic chemicals. However, covering the 14 chapters in this book requires a complete semester, and since the book is not intended to be a comprehensive reference source for all kinds of water pollution, I have limited the scope of the subject matter. The choice of which subjects to include and to omit obviously reflects my own perception of which materials are appropriate for an introductory course of this nature. With regard to case studies, there is no doubt that some examples chosen for discussion reflect my own personal experiences, first as an oceanography faculty member at Florida State University and later at the University of Hawaii. For example, the case studies of Kaneohe Bay (Chapter 4), Lake Jackson (Chapter 5), the Buckeye Cellulose Corporation (Chapter 9), and the Hawaiian sugar cane industry (Chapter 9) all reflect problems about which I have obtained detailed information either through my own personal vii