Agricultural pollution is a very big contributor to water pollution. Problems we see with agriculture are applications of fertilizers, insecticides, and pesticides. We have made vast improvements in the types of chemicals we are using, as to how environmentally friendly they are. Yet even today the effects of these chemicals a

Over the last 30 or so years there has been an increased demand for food. Foods like pork, chicken, turkey, and beef. With the demand for meats, there is also an increased demand for grains to feed these animals. So more land is needed to grow the feed, less space is available for the feedlots. More and more of these feedlots have been popping up over the landscape. And the amounts of animals crammed into the small spaces are also increasing. There can be as few as 50 to as many as 7 million in a single confinement (Boss Hog). The animals in these confinements make much more waste than a human does. For instance, a single dairy cow can produce up to 120 lbs of wet manure a day (EPA). Think about the total amount of wastes produced in a day at one of theseconfinements. A 1000 head dairy cattle farm would yield around 120,000 lbs of waste per day. This waste is either pumped into bins, earthen lagoons, or spread onto fields as fertilizer. These waste storage facilities pose a great threat to the environment. Most of the lagoons are not properly sized or lined. This can allow the manure to seep into the ground contaminating the ground water. They can also break causing a major spill. In 1995 a North Carolina hog farm had a lagoon break through its side and spill into the New York River. The lagoon was nearly 8 acres in size and according to the EPA approximately 22 million gallons of manure was spilled (EPA). When these spills occur the animal life in the body of water they pollute is wiped out. The manure kills the fish just as the fertilizers do. They produce a major algae bloom, and when the plants die they produce a large amount of bacteria that use up the oxygen in the water causing the fish and other animals to die.

Another problem the silt causes is making the water much less clear. This directly affects the plant life in the body of water. It decreases the amount of sunlight that can reach the plants. These plants need the sun to carry out photosynthesis, which is how they create their food. This also creates oxygen for the different inhabitants of the system.

The problems we face with pollution today are very important. Important enough for the government to pass many acts and amendments to control the amounts of pollutants that are released into our waterways. This problem has been growing with time. But with the right amount of time and a hefty chunk of cash we can make a good start at cleaning up the water of the world. Though pollution is such a widespread problem we can do our part in cleaning up the world by just doing one small thing at a time.

These pollution problems we are facing today are being monitored by hundreds of different agencies, which enforce many different laws. These laws were started t

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Approximate Word count = 1873
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)