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Pollution of Aquatic Systems:

Pollution Through Eutrophication,

Fecal Materials, and Oil Spills

7

7.1 Nature of Pollution

Pollution of water may be defined as the introduction
into a body of water of any material or condition which
may be injurious to human health or offend aesthetic
sensibilities and thus limit the use of water for drinking,

recreation, fishing, and other activities to which water

is normally put.

It should be borne in mind that the idea of pollution

in the wider sense is anthropocentric (i.e., centered

around man’s needs). Seen in this light, pollution

should be understood as a relative term, which depends

Abstract

Natural bodies of water will purify themselves and remove added materials given

sufficient time. Pollution therefore occurs when the self-purifying powers of a

body of water have not had enough time to remove the pollutant and return itself

to its original state. Pollutants in water include bacteria, chemicals, heat and by the

addition of organic or inorganic nutrients or eutrophication. Eutrophication causes

excesses growth of cyanobacteria or blooms.

Pollution by fecal matter is determined principally by the identification of

E. coli in water. Water bodies are expected to meet standards of the maximum

content of microbial and chemical pollutants set by governments all over the

world. The Total Maximum Daily Load (TDML) is a calculation of the maximum

amount of a pollutant that a water body can contain and still meet water quality

standards set by the regulating authority for a particular water use. Since not all E

coli is necessarily of human origin, its source is determined through methods of

microbial source tracking.

Oil spills are major sources of marine pollution. They are remediated physi-

cally by skimmers which collect the oil, adsorption onto suitable materials, the use

of dispersants or in-situ burning. Biological methods include addition of nutrients

to stimulate the growth of oil-degrading microorganisms, the use of surfactants to

emulsify the oil and increase contact between oil and microorganisms, and the

introduction of organisms specially adapted to growth on oil.

Keywords

Self-purification • Eutrophication • “Algal blooms” • Fecal pollution • Indicator

organisms in pollution • Oil spills • Remediation of oil spills • Standard water

analysis • Total Daily Maximum load (TDML) • Microbial source tracking (MST)

N. Okafor, Environmental Microbiology of Aquatic and Waste Systems,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-1460-1_7, © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011