Air+and+Water+Pollution

__ Air and Water Pollution Group Page __


 * [[image:http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2011-11/66382980.jpg caption="Palm trees are reflected on the oil-slicked surface at the La Brea Tar Pits. Now that polluted water in Ballona Creek has been traced to the popular tourist attraction, the county will spend $2 million on a remedy." link="@http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2011-11/66382980.jpg"]]

WATER POLLUTION TRACED TO LA BREA TAR PITS! Palm trees are reflected on the oil-slicked surface at the La Brea Tar Pits.… (Ricardo DeAratanha, Los Angeles Times) [|November 29, 2011] | By Jason Song and Tony Barboza, Los Angeles Times For years, residents living near Ballona Creek and environmentalists have complained of mysterious sheens of oil and grease in the western Los Angeles County waterway, often blaming industrial dumping, urban runoff or other man-made causes for the pollution. One cause that apparently never crossed their minds: the La Brea Tar Pits.

**○ What is Air and Water Pollution? [|Air or water that is contaminated with impurities.] ** media type="youtube" key="bjiqxOJbwtw" height="345" width="420" align="center"

**- This video gives** **a few examples of the affects of air and water pollution.**

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**- Is bottled water healthier than tap water??? **

media type="youtube" key="zmAwkYLEV80" height="316" width="504"media type="youtube" key="0fjWAro-haI" height="345" width="420" **-A****n int****roduction to natural gas drilling known as "Fracking"**

[|Air Quality in U.S.: Air Pollution in Los Angeles County]

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media type="youtube" key="tnUjTHB1lvM" height="315" width="420" over 7 million tons of plastic spanning an area twice the size of texas, destroying our oceans and harming our food chains.

media type="youtube" key="mZTJohAtkf0" height="315" width="420" A video about China's polluted air and water has affected many Chinese residence.

Here are a few steps everyone can take to reduce their air and water pollution. []

A few interesting facts about air pollution:

Air Pollution Travels Long Distances Since 1970, At the same time,
 * Toxaphene, a pesticide used in the U. S. corn belt has been found in fatty tissues of polar bears and other Arctic animals - thousands of miles from any possible source.
 * Nitrogen oxides deposited from the air have contributed to fish kills by increasing the growth of oxygen-depleting algae in the Chesapeake Bay. Over a quarter of the nitrogen in the Bay and its tidal rivers and streams is estimated to come from air pollution carried by the wind from power plants and industrial sources far away.
 * Emissions of sulfur oxides from power plants in the Midwest contribute to acid rain, haze and particle pollution problems in the eastern United States hundreds of miles away.
 * the six commonly found air pollutants have decreased by more than 50 percent
 * air toxics from large industrial sources, such as chemical plants, petroleum refineries, and paper mills have been reduced by nearly 70 percent
 * new cars are more than 90 percent cleaner and will be even cleaner in the future, and
 * production of most ozone-depleting chemicals has ceased.
 * the U.S. gross domestic product, or GDP, has tripled
 * energy consumption has increased by 50 percent, and
 * vehicle use has increased by almost 200 percent.

'Greenwash': A Way to Say 'Hogwash' By [|JONATHAN D. GLATER]

Published: May 17, 2006 MORE and more developers have endorsed green construction, planning buildings that are energy-efficient wonders made with recycled materials. And more buyers and tenants want their homes and offices to possess these virtues. But as claims of environmentally sound design multiply, a problem has come up. How can anyone be sure that a particular carpet really was made from old trash bags, that a redwood did not die for that deck, that a pump in an air-circulation system was a high-efficiency model? The danger is what Anthony Bernheim, an architect at SMWM in San Francisco, calls "greenwash." "Greenwash is when somebody says that, 'Oh, we have the greenest building in town,' and they do not have the metrics to show that they've done something," he said. "We've coined it from 'whitewash.' " A range of businesses, industry trade groups and nongovernmental organizations have leaped to fill this need, offering seals of approval for everything from the source of lumber to the recycled content of various building materials. Third-party certifications can support an application for the most recognized seal of approval, from the U.S. Green Building Council. The council, a nonprofit group, promotes energy efficiency and other environmental benefits in construction and design, and has established criteria to measure how green buildings are. The system is called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design; so far more than 450 buildings have received some certification. "The way that we have tried to build better buildings and affect building stock is to create a rating system that recognizes certain characteristics of the building, including products, materials and technologies," said S. Richard Fedrizzi, chief executive of the council. But he added, "For the most part, today we are relying on the honesty and the integrity of the manufacturers of those products and systems and services." But increasingly, developers, owners, designers, architects and contractors are trying to ensure that the materials they use have the desired characteristics. Mr. Bernheim, the architect, gets certifications from Scientific Certification Systems, a company in Emeryville, Calif., that, among other things, evaluates emissions from carpets and furniture. Some materials are carcinogenic, while others could cause respiratory problems, said Kirsten T. Ritchie, director for environmental claim certification at Scientific Certification Systems. Indoor air quality generally causes great concern, and avoiding problems requires careful monitoring, said Michael S. Andrew, manager for the Western region consulting business of Air Quality Sciences, an Atlanta firm. Mr. Andrew told a story he heard from a contractor, about how a subcontractor on a project tried to repair minor damage to a wall using an unapproved paint that could emit an undesired vapor. Verifying recycled content of materials can be more difficult because a lab test cannot always reveal what something was made of. Working with the manufacturer must be part of that process. For the Orchard Garden Hotel project in San Francisco, contractors are using fly ash — a mineral residue from the combustion of powdered coal in electricity-generating plants — to make concrete, said Bill Krill, who heads the green building operation at Swinerton Builders, which is based in San Francisco. "Ten years ago, it would've been a waste product," Mr. Krill said. "The fly ash will actually work with the concrete in the product and make a product that's as strong." Mr. Krill said the project was also using wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, a nonprofit company whose international headquarters is in Bonn. The council certifies lumber that is harvested in an environmentally sustainable and socially conscious way. Other certifications exist, and Michael Washburn, vice president for brand management at the council's office in the United States, said that the proliferation of standards was not necessarily a good thing. "It is very frustrating for people who aren't close to the issue to treat it like, well, basically if you've got a certification system, it's O.K.," he said. "In fact, some of us don't really believe that some of these systems deal with these issues at all." Ideally, there will be a general certification system someday, people at certifying groups said. A single standardized and comparable set of ratings could capture whether a product was made in an environmentally friendly way, without exploiting local labor, and that its use would have little impact on nature. http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?v=vKIM9sE0t6I "We want to bring all those things together," said Ms. Ritchie of Scientific Certification Systems. "We want to have a holistic approach."

http://cal-adapt.org/blog/2011/apr/13/air-pollution/ Great website on California's air and water pollution

[|BNSF is the worst polluted rail yard in Southern California]

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Water pollution is a major concern and environmental hazard to biological organisms. Mostly all water pollution is excreted by humans. Trash is carelessly thrown into a local stream on a preserve and it just goes to show you how much of a concern water pollution is and how evident and close it can be to people. Residents of Rancho Cucamonga recieve their water from what flows out of our local mountains.