Antunez 1

Nathan Antunez
Ms.Figueroa
Senior English 1
October 31, 2018

Water Pollution

Water pollution is a serious problem but doesn’t get noticed as much as other major

pollution. People are using the fresh water and continue to pollute it without a worry. Water

pollution is typically caused by humans contaminating water bodies. Water bodies consists of

oceans, seas, lakes, ponds, and rivers. The water can be contaminated by chemicals, trash, and

oil. All of these contaminates are the result of factories, sewage, trash, and chemicals that may

have been illegally dumped. The first major time water pollution became a problem was 1996

when the river Cuyahoga was so polluted from human waste. This lead to The Enactment of the

1972 Clean Water Act. CWA prohibited pollutants discharged into navigable waterways. There

has also been other recorded dated back to the Romans polluting the Tiber River in 312 B.C.

They then created aqueduct (Artificial channel for conveying water, typically in the form of a

bridge across a valley) to make it clean enough to drink.

Some believe water pollution may actually be beneficial, there are certain fish that

aren’t affected by the pollution and thrive over other fish like carp are one kind of fish who

benefit from pollution. Water pollution can stop from pollution other things like soil and

affection crops that we eat. Contaminated soil and air are much more difficult to clean than

water. There can also be great advantages from oil rigs and chemical manufacturing companies
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because they are things we use every day. Such as power plants, constructions, and fuel for our

vehicles. I believe that if we were to monitor how oil companies and manufacturing companies

dump their garbage, and a finding a new sewage plan could help fix this problem. Although this

may sound like a good plan for water pollution there is always flaws like with monitoring how

trash and chemicals are dumped there may be bribing. Another problem that might arise is

some countries might not want to follow the policies and to continue to pollute because it is

what they have done for so long. The people only want to follow their traditional routine of

how they normally dispose of their waste in the water. To the big oil companies and factories

they may persist to pollute illegally. Water pollution is a widespread problem that doesn’t get

as much recognition as other pollution, and the main reasons this is such a big problem is

because many water and land creatures are dying from polluted water, more than half of water

is polluted in all of the world, and lastly it is hurting the food chain and it is affecting larger sea

creatures.

Water pollution is a bad problem in our world that has gotten worse these last few

decades. Many of our fresh water resources are being polluted and soon will be rare to have

fresh water. Here in America the way our fresh water is treated will only make us spend more

money and time to clean our waters to be loveable for water life and drinkable for people to

drink. “55% of American rivers were in poor conditions and could not sustain healthy biological

life, only 21% of American rivers are considered healthy” (facts.net). On average America

spends over 4.4 billion dollars to clean up our waters. Over half of our water is polluted and a

fifth is unlivable, these are horrible percentages for the future of our water. At this rate those

percentages will only continue to get worse until we do something about it or it is too late.
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Many water bodies near highly populated places are being severely polluted. This is from us

dumping chemicals and garbage not only from factories but from people throwing their trash

into the precious water. “Many water bodies near urban areas are highly polluted. This is a

result of both garbage dumped by individuals and dangerous chemicals legally or illegally

dumped by manufacturing industries, health centers, schools, and market places” (Eschools

Today). This pollution is the effect of our carelessness and ignorance of thinking that we have

unlimited water. It is horrible that these places are illegally dumping waste, but this doesn’t

take away from the fact that the residence are also dumping their garbage adding to the

problem too. The only way to stop and make our waters clean and livable is to start by caring

and notice how we are treating our water and what we are affecting. In the end we are going to

hurt ourselves.

Water pollution is now affecting the fish and water life. The food chain is not supposed

to be knocked out of balance, this can impact more than a few species and when the fish

swimming in the pollution, it can lead to diseases and cancer. When people dump garbage and

chemicals it can change how water creatures eat or just kill them. Some pollution may just

destroy their whole environment all together. “Ecosystems can be severely changed or

destroyed by water pollution. Many areas are now being affected by careless human pollution

and this pollution is coming back to hurt humans in many ways” (Eschools Today).This explains

that our carelessness is harming not only water life but humans too. We change the way

animals have lived for centuries. The contaminated fish we catch from polluted waters can be

bad or even deadly to you. This is how diseases like Ebola and many other deadly are created,

they mostly come from water or food. “People can get diseases such as Hepatitis by eating
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seafood that has been poisoned. In many poor nations, there is always an outbreak of Cholera

and disease as a result of poor drinking water treatment” (Eschools Today). These poor

countries are polluting their waters and don’t have the money to clean their water, and are

getting diseases from bad water. Their lack of resources to clean their water also plays a big

part of these outbreaks. This could be other countries if something were to happen to their

economy, then they wouldn’t have the money to keep their waters clean and end up with

undrinkable contaminated water. This may open your eyes to show that when we pollute our

waters we are affecting everything around us. People seem to be very careless and throw trash

in the water when a simple fix is to just put it in the garbage. In the end it only hurt the people

when they pollute their water.

There are many water animals killed daily showing up on beaches. The water pollution is

affecting the larger fish that we eat as well as smaller fish. When we pollute a major bodies of

water we are killing fish and birds big and small. It will only continue to get worse until it is

under control. “The main problem caused by water pollution is that it kills organisms that

depend on these water bodies. Dead fish, crab, birds, and seagulls, dolphins, and many other

animals often wind up on beaches, killed by pollutants in their habitat” (Eschools Today). This

shows how wide range of animals we are killing and how deadly water pollution can be. Each

year this is getting worse, how are people going to watch there doings on killing innocent

animals. The water pollution has also begun to affect the food chain because the smaller fish

that were in polluted water are eaten and then contaminate larger fish. As more fish get eaten

the more fish that are affected. “Pollution disrupts the natural food chain as well. Pollutants

such as Lead and Cadmium are eaten by tiny animals. Later, these animals are consumed by fish
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and shellfish, and the food continues to be disrupted at all higher levels” (Eschools Today). The

food chain can be contaminated because of water pollution as stated and animals on all levels

rely on animals for food, which could be contaminated. When we eat contaminated fish is

where we can catch the diseases, and we were the cause of it in the first place. Only we can

stop what we are doing to these poor animals. We have a choice to help the water and things

that live in the water or let them die and continue to be disease ridden.

Although water pollution is a bad thing some may say that the chemicals could benefit

some fish. It could help the fish by getting rid of completion and helping another species of fish.

There are several kinds of fish that aren’t affected by the chemicals that are polluted into their

waters. This may help them to thrive in that environment. “There can be various advantages to

certain kinds of fish or sea creatures. Such as a species of carp may not be impacted by

contaminated water, but a trout-fish will die from the contamination” (UK essays). This is

showing that there are fish that can survive and outlive other fish when in contaminated water

which is less completion for food. They then will begin to have more population and thrive. Like

stated before there are fish that aren’t affected by the water pollution. These advantages are

major for the Carp. “Therefore, the carp will possess the advantages by having no other fish to

contest without finding the food and region. Hence the carp species will grow in a better way”

(UK essays). This can lead to their species to better adapt with the environment. It could also

help the fish that eat these Carp if the Carp decide to migrate. While we continue to pollute our

waters it can affect whole species and this can never be a good thing for the world.

In everything we pollute there are always reasons why it is being done. The water that is

polluted is for the betterment of the people. Also there are more advantages in polluting water
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than soil and air. Almost everywhere in the world there are demands for oil, gasoline, and

chemicals. This is why polluting the water is important because it makes it possible to power

our cars. “Manufacturing plants energy production plants, oil drilling rigs, and chemicals

manufactures all offer powerful advantages” (UK essays). When we pollute water the

advantages are much greater than keeping the waters clean, without it we wouldn’t be able to

use everyday items we rely on. On top of the strong benefits that are given with water pollution

it is also cheaper to pollute water and takes less time which is the simpler option than to pay

people to clean it. “It is less expensive to release the waste products into the closest water

resource or soil as compared to process or treat that rubbish” (UK essays). With less time and

money wasted this is the best option for many companies. Time is money so we cannot afford

to waste any on something that we can avoid if we would just be f Although, there may be

advantages in polluting the water, there is also a way to reduce what companies are doing.

Even though it cost money to not pollute water it may benefit you still.

The points that are trying to be proved may have some positives but are very one sided

and only benefit one thing and that is humans. If the water is polluted there is only a certain

kind of fish that can survive the pollution, the rest will die off and the surviving fish may begin

to over populate which can cause many problems in our food chain. Also when the water is

polluted from manufactures the humans are being benefited only, while on the other hand the

fish and animals are being killed.

The water pollution is polluted worldwide and many do not believe it to be a big

problem like other forms of pollution. The fish and land animals that die every day from our

careless actions is one of water pollutions biggest problems. The amount of fish that die every
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day is insane about 220,000 pounds of fish are collected daily. Many of the major lakes, oceans,

and seas have some form of water pollution and this is most of the world’s fresh water. More

and more water will continue to be polluted especially the precious lakes. The dirty water is

now hurting or killing fish big or small, and throwing the food chain out of alignment. With the

food chain out of alignment it will affect far more than the one species. I believe if large

companies are monitored how they are dumping trash and chemicals and a new way to handle

sewage, this can greatly reduce the and clean the water. When the companies are monitored

this will make sure they will not dump illegally and help keep waters cleaner. Also with a new

way of handling sewage, this could help reduce how much it affects water. If scientist find a

way to purify water from chemicals and oil this could make lots of contaminated water clean

again which would help society all around the world.

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Works cited

"Benefits Of Water Pollution Environmental Sciences Essay." UKEssays.com. 11 2013. All

Answers Ltd. 11 2018 <https://www.ukessays.com/essays/environmental-sciences/benefits-of-

water-pollution-environmental-sciences-essay.php?vref=1>.

eSchooltoday. “Your Cool Facts and Tips on Water Pollution.” Important Facts and Tips

on Water Pollution for Children, eschooltoday.com/pollution/water-pollution/important-water-

pollution-facts.html.

“16 Water Pollution Facts - Types, Causes, Effects, Prevention.” Facts, 2 Oct. 2016,

facts.net/water-pollution/.