Warm-Up
 What is it called when water enters the ground?
 What do you think affects the rate at which water
soaks into the soil? What type of soil do you think
would allow water to sink in the fastest or the
slowest?
Water Quality
Types of Water Pollution
 Point Source Pollution –
contaminants have an
identifiable source
 Smokestacks, car tailpipe
 Nonpoint Source Pollution
 Contaminant source cannot be
found
 Several farmlands in the same
area
Major Sources of Water Pollution
 Agriculture: by far the
leader
 Pesticides, fertilizers
 Industrial: factories and
powerplants
 Mining: surface mining
toxics, acids, sediment
Non-Point Water Pollution
 Non-Point pollution reaches bodies of
water through streets and sewers.
 Pesticides, fertilizers are washed off
lawns
 Animal feces float away from farms
 96% of water pollution is from nonpoint sources
Warm-Up Activity
 Water Pollution handout
 Answer Review questions
 Video
 Answer video questions
Wastewater Treatment Plants
 Water goes to a treatment plant after it is flushed
 Not all harmful substances are removed
 Industrial wastewater and storm runoff contain toxic
substances that aren’t removed
Physical Properties of Water
 Water Temperature
 Total Dissolved Solids-Combined
living and non-living substances
dissolved in water
 Agriculture
 Point Source Pollution
 Discharge from sewage treatment
plants
 Total Suspended Solids-Living and
non-living substances suspended in
water
Chemical Properties of Water
 pH-Measurement of the hydrogen
concentration in water
 pH above 7 = Basic
 pH below 7 = Acidic
 Dissolved Oxygen-Amount of
oxygen dissolved in water
 Low oxygen levels can kill ecosystems
Biotic Index
 Biotic Index-Indicates the types of organisms present in an environment
 Used to measure water quality of a stream or river
 Measures from 1-10. (Excellent, Good, Fair or Poor)
River Basins

A river basin is the area that
includes the streams that a river is
going to feed into
 Watersheds (river basins) are
separated from each other by areas
of higher elevation (ridge
lines/divides).
NC River Basins
 There are 17 river basins in North Carolina
 4 of them empty into the Atlantic Ocean
 Some of them flow into South Carolina
 The remaining flow westward to the Mississippi River
 Important for states to reduce the amount of pollution in the rivers because
the rivers do flow to other states