Science Unit 8 Lesson 2

Question 1

Cuyahoga River was called the River that oozes rather than flows. How did it get to that point?

Answer 1

For over a century, the Cuyahoga River was used by the city of Cleveland as a dumping ground for chemical and sewage wastes.

Question 1

Due the ambulance of chemicals in the Cuyahoga River, what happened? When did they finally address the problem?

Answer 1

It was such a problem that the oil slicks on the river caught fire 13 times. However, when the river caught fire on June 22, 1969, the country finally took notice. This is because the cultural revolution of the 1960s and 1970s included a new awareness and appreciation of the environment.

Question 2

What is the Clean Water Act (CWA)?

Answer 2

regulates discharges of pollutants into U.S. waters and regulates the quality standards for surface water

Question 3

What is the Enviromental Protection Agency (EPA)?

Answer 3

a federal agency of the United States government that sets and enforces guidelines that protect the environment

Question 4

How much sewage water does the US produce every day?

Answer 4

The United States produces roughly 34 billion gallons of sewage every day.

Question 5

Where did wastewater go pior to the Clean Water Act?

Answer 5

Prior to the Clean Water Act (CWA), wastewater could be legally dumped into surface waters with little or no treatment. Industrial wastewater was also dumped directly into the nearest body of water. These practices led to situations like the Cuyahoga River fire.

Question 6

What lead to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)?

Answer 6

In 1970, President Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Question 7

Why was the clean water act created?

Answer 7

To regulate water pollution

Question 8

What authority does the CWA give to the EPA?

Answer 8

It gave the EPA the authority to set standards for industrial wastewater. It made it illegal for anyone to discharge pollutants without a tightly controlled permit.

Question 9

What did the CWA do to help with point-source pollution?

Answer 9

The CWA also funded the construction of sewage treatment plants to help reduce municipal point-source pollution.

Question 10

What are some Environmental regulations costs?

Answer 10

The costs include businesses having to find a way to safely dispose of wastes, instead of simply discharging them into the water or ground. Because the CWA made point-source pollution illegal, the EPA can fine businesses that break the law.

Question 11

What are benefits of having cleaner water?

Answer 11

• Municipalities save money on cleaning water for drinking when the water is less polluted.
• Tourism earnings increase when the water is clean enough to swim or fish in.
• Waterfront property usually has a higher value when the water is cleaner.

Question 12

What do supports of the CWA agrue?

Answer 12

Supporters of the CWA argue that all water is connected in the water cycle. Therefore, wastes that are discharged into ditches or ponds will run into larger bodies of water over time.

Question 13

What is a major benefit of the CWA?

Answer 13

Another major benefit of the CWA is that by the late 1990s, it provided more than $62 billion in grant money for municipalities to construct or expand their treatment works. In the late 1980s, the CWA was amended to include the State Revolving Fund, which has provided over $126 billion in loans to states. As the money is repaid, it returns to the fund where it can be loaned to fund additional projects.

Question 14

How are waterways like pior to the CWA and now?

Answer 14

Prior to the CWA, only about one-third of U.S. waterways were safe for swimming and fishing; now nearly two-thirds of waterways qualify.

Question 15

How is it going for wetlands?

Answer 15

While wetlands are still being lost, the rate has dropped from 500,000 acres per year to 60,000 acres per year.

Question 16

How are the water systems now than in 1993?

Answer 16

Now, about 93% of water systems for U.S. communities meet all the health-based standards of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). This is an increase of over 14% since 1993.

Question 17

What is the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)?

Answer 17

act passed in 1974 that ensures drinking water is safe by requiring drinking water be monitored for microorganisms, disinfectants, disinfectant by-products, inorganic and organic chemicals, and radionuclides

Question 18

What is the weakness of the CWA and the SDWA?

Answer 18

One of the weaknesses of the CWA and SDWA is that, while point-sources of pollution have become much more strictly regulated, not enough has been done to address nonpoint-source pollution such as city and farm runoff.

Question 19

What kind of area produce a lot of runoff?

Answer 19

Areas that are heavily populated, used for livestock, or where pesticides and fertilizers are applied all produce a great deal of runoff pollution that ends up in rivers, lakes, and oceans.

Question 20

What is the definition of nonpoint-source pollution?

Answer 20

pollution that does not come from a single, identifiable point

Question 21

What is the definition of runoff?

Answer 21

precipitation or irrigation water that reaches streams, rivers, lakes, or the ocean, often carrying pollutants

Question 22

While it’s true that most municipalities in the U.S. now treat their sewage wastewater, overflows do still happen resulting in raw sewage being leaked or dumped into waterways. Why does that happen?

Answer 22

This is largely due to how sewers developed through history. Initially, before flush toilets and running water, sewers were only designed to handle stormwater to reduce flooding in streets. As plumbing was installed in housing, sewage drained into existing stormwater sewers

Question 23

Up until the 1970s, in many places the combination of stormwater and household sewage was simply dumped into a local body of water. How is it like now?

Answer 23

Now, however, nearly all combined sewage wastewater is sent to the local publicly owned treatment works (POTW) where sewage sludge is separated out. The wastewater is then cleaned before being reintroduced to local waterways. However, because populations have grown dramatically, the combined sewer systems must now handle far more wastewater than they were designed for. During heavy rains, this leads to overflows.

Question 24

What is the local public owned treatment works (POTW)? What do they do?

Answer 24

Nearly all combined sewage wastewater is sent to the local publicly owned treatment works (POTW) where sewage sludge is separated out. The wastewater is then cleaned before being reintroduced to local waterways.

Question 25

What is sludge?

Answer 25

An unpleasant combination of fecal matter, toilet paper, and various solids that have been flushed or washed into storm water drains.

Question 26

What happened since the population increased, and how does heavy rains add to the affect?

Answer 26

Because populations have grown dramatically, the combined sewer systems must now handle far more wastewater than they were designed for. During heavy rains, this leads to overflows.

Question 27

What is the definition of biodiesel?

Answer 27

A fuel similar to fossil diesel fuel that is derived from organic sources such as plant or animal oils

Question 28

Just over 150 years ago, people sued outhouses. What are the difference between households and outhouses?

Answer 28

This required deep holes to be dug intermittently and left nothing to the imagination about the fate of human waste. It is nothing short of a modern miracle that today, people can flush a toilet and have the waste immediately whisked away.

Question 29

Worldwide, over __% of sewage wastewater is released into waterways untreated.

Answer 29

80

Question 30

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, ___ billion gallons of untreated sewage wastewater are released into US waterways each year.

Answer 30

850

Question 31

How are scientists making wastewater useful?

Answer 31

For some scientists, wastewater isn’t something unpleasant to wrinkle their noses at and try to forget; it’s a potential gold mine. Or, rather, an oil field! Thanks to new processes being developed, sewage wastewater may go from being one of the biggest potential freshwater pollutants to the raw material that, once refined, could power cars: biodiesel.

Question 32

What are the scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) doing?

Answer 32

They developed technology that heats and pressurizes sewage sludge, mimicking the processes that produce conventional fossil fuels deep within Earth.

Question 33

Describe the process of making biodiesel from wastewater. How long does it take to make?

Answer 33

The process takes mere minutes and results in a substance called biocrude, much like crude oil that is pumped out of Earth’s crust. The biocrude can be refined into diesel fuel. The PNNL partnered with the city of Vancouver and created a processing plant that is testing producing biodiesel from the city’s wastewater.

Question 34

How is the Cuyahoga River doing today? What regulations were set in place due to the fish in the river?

Answer 34

Today, the river has been repopulated with fish that require clean water to live, such as the steelhead trout and northern pike. While fishing is now permitted in much of the Cuyahoga River, advisories are still in place regarding fish caught from the river and its tributaries. Officials warn against eating more than one meal a week of fish caught from the river because of high levels of harmful chemicals.

Question 35

Engines can biodiesel be used in? What is it made from?

Answer 35

Biodiesel can be used in any diesel engine and doesn’t require the engine to be modified. It is fuel produced from lipids, or fats, from organic sources. For years, biodiesel has been manufactured from restaurants’ used cooking oils, from specially grown algae, or from farmed seed oils.

Question 36

What is the benefit of using sewage wastewater in fuels?

Answer 36

The benefit of using sewage wastewater would be that it would not only produce a relatively clean-burning fuel, but it would also reduce the potential risk of water pollution. In fact, processing sewage into biodiesel would be one of the only energy production methods that reduces pollution risk rather than increasing it.

Question 37

What does the safe drinking water act do?

Answer 37

Monitors groundwater and public drinking water supply sources

Question 38

What does the clean water act do?

Answer 38

Remediates and protects surface waterways