Water Stewardship

Major threats- Biomagnification

• Chemicals released by industry, agriculture, transportation
• Toxins cannot be metabolized by organisms
• Build up or magnify throughout the food chain, concentrating in predators
• Can harm humans directly (eat toxic fish), or indirectly (economy)

Major Threats - Overfishing

• Humans deplete fish populations by harvesting fish too quickly
• Throws ecosystems and food webs out of balance
• Hurts economy by collapse of fish market
• Orange roughy, bluefin tuna, chilean sea bass
• Industrialization of commercial fishing reduced pop of large fish by 90%

Major threat - Oil spills

• Spills from tankers, malfunctioning rig equipment
• Can affect ability to fly, swim, feed, reproduce, regulate body temperature
• Sea mammals, birds and turtles particularly susceptible 
• Even traces of oil negatively affect fish embryos
• Deep Water Horizon - Aug 2010 flowed for 87 days 1.84 million gallons

Major threat - Plastics

• Plastics do not biodegrade, fish eat them
• Plastics absorb other chemicals - double whammy
• Great Pacific Garbage Patch
• 40 air craft carriers worth of plastic added to ocean each year

How does the EPA address pollution

• Regulation, science, collaboration, legislation
• Regulates industry & agriculture
• Conducts independent scientific analysis of problems
• Creates oceanic reserves and protected places
• Endangered species list

How does the EPA enforce rules?

• Permits, fines and fees
• Public education

EPA - Clean Water Act

• 1972, 2 years after EPA created
• Build up - river on fire, water quality standards ignored, oil spill
• Limits discharge pollution without a permit, stop discharge by 1985
• Water quality based, not industry based
• National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) - state & fed