L1 - Intro to Pollution Flashcards
What is pollution?
Physical impurity or contamination of harmful or poisonous substances
Give examples of pollution disasters
Exxon Valdez oil spill (1989)
Give examples of pollutants
Mercury Asbestos Pesticides Sewage Solvents
Give 4 examples of very problematic types of pollutants
Polymers - eg lignin
Toxic organics - cyanides, phenol
Highly toxic organics - methylmercury silver
Not soluble - oil
When do pollutants become pollution?
When they enter the environment they’re not normally found in
What 5 environments can be polluted?
Marine - sea Terrestrial - soil Fresh water - rivers and lakes Atmosphere Extraterrestrial - space
What are the 3 main ways pollution gets into the environment?
Deliberate release
Natural release
Accidental release
What are examples of deliberate release?
Industrial discharge, tipping, litter
What are examples of Natural release?
Oils seepages, erosion
What are examples of accidental release?
Tanker accidents, explosions, gas leaks
What is the increase in CO2 in this age?
1000-1750 it was 280 ppm
2015 it is 399 ppm
CO2 increasing at 0.5% per year
What are the UK’s CO2 emissions and how has it increased?
2% of global CO2
Peaked at 831m tonnes in 2004.
2011 was 22% lower
What is categorised as a serious incident?
Major, serious, persistent or extensive impacts. E.g 100 dead adult coarse fish
What is categorised as a significant incident?
Significant impact on environ, people, and property. E.g damage to protected wildlife site
How have UK pollution incidents changed since 2000?
Reduced 50%
What are the main types of pollution incidents in the UK in 2012?
28% Waste management facilities
16% agriculture
13% sewage and water
How did UK waste generation decrease?
11.3 percent between 2004 and 2008
What sectors in the UK produce most of the waste?
Retail and wholesale - 19%
Power and utilities - 12%
Metal manufacture - 9%
Food, drink, tobacco - 10%
What 2 countries are good at bad with waste?
Latvia almost all waste to landfill
Sweden all recycled
How much of the UK is contaminated?
33500 confirmed
What are arguments for treatment of pollution?
Ecological - destruction of habitat, loss of diversity and extinctions
Human - Health, welfare and economics
What are arguments against treatment of pollution?
- Not destruction but creation of new environment
- Extinction leads to niches for evolution to fill
What are the broad types of treatment of contamination and example
Physical - containment
Chemical - neutralise acid
Biological - Sewage treatment
What are the four main types of physic-chemical treatment?
Containment
Solidification
Minimisation
Destruction
What are the two ways physic-chemical treatment is carried out?
In situ - treat where it is
Ex situ - remove to another site
What are the features of physical containment? And example
Movement prevented by barriers
Applied to all types of pollution
Control of water and gases is difficult
E.g. storage of nuclear waste
How can physical containment treat liquid pollution?
Leachate collection - pipes laid through collect methane and gases generated by degradation
What is the landfill tax?
£80 per tonne
What are some inactive pollutants?
Brick, clay, soil, gravel
What are some active pollutants?
Wood, piping, plastics
What is an in situ method of containment?
Impermeable or reaction barriers - concrete of steel pilings around contamination
Give an example of a reaction barrier?
Zeolite treatment wall used to treat radioactive groundwater (strontium-90)
What is hydrological containment?
Modifies the flow of groundwater at a site
What is solidification/stabilisation?
Pollutant converted into a more stable form by adding binding agents e.g asphalt to prevent migration off site
What is extraction?
Use a solvent like water, chemicals or gases to treat volatile chemicals e.g petrol.
(may only move pollutant)
What is soil venting?
Pumps of blowers induce flow of air through boreholes sunk in contaminated soil - volatile organic compounds then diffuse into airstream to be captured
What is thermal desorption?
Contamination heated to drive off organic contaminants
What is soil washing?
Liquid solvent (usually water) used to extract contaminant
What is destruction?
Incineration - can just move pollutant from solid to gas
What are the problems with physic-chemical treatments?
Containment is putting off problem
Often invasive or damage site further
Often costly
