Fresh Water

Ninety-eight percent of the Earth’s water is saline water in the ocean; but freshwater resources, such as streams, rivers, and lakes, provide all living creatures with most of the water they need to survive. Water pollution is an issue that exists worldwide. According the Axia College Week Six reading Freshwater Resources and Water Pollution (2008), there are “eight categories to water pollution: sewage, disease-causing agents, sediment pollution, inorganic plant and algal nutrients, organic compounds, inorganic chemicals, radioactive substances, and thermal pollution” (¶51)
Sewage is waste that is created by residential and commercial sources and released into the sewers. Sewage can hold many diseases that can affect our health. Two serious environmental problems, caused by sewage, are enrichment and oxygen demand (Axis College Week Six reading Freshwater Resources and Water Pollution ¶52).
Disease causing agents consists of waste from infected individuals. Waste from infected individuals consists of bacteria, viruses, parasites. When this waste is released into the water system, transmittable diseases are spread. Some of those diseases are typhoid, hepatitis, cholera, to name a few.
Sediment is a form of pollution when there is an excess of it. A considerable amount of sediment can suffocate organisms that live at the bottom of any given freshwater system. Erosion is one example that causes sediment pollution. Contributors to erosion are agriculture, housing and business development and digging channels in shallow water. All these actions cause erosion to rapidly speed up by getting rid of the grass that covers the spoil and upsetting the sediment. When clearing land to plant crops, the soil is exposed to wind and rain. The rain causes the soil to flow down to rivers or lakes, causing sediment to settle at  
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the bottom. The same process happens when construction companies break ground on land being used for houses or... [continues]

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