The Pros And Cons Of Humans Affecting Water Quality

The quality of the University High School Creek was excellent, however creeks always have the best quality and humans greatly cause this to be. One example is runoff, when it rains or snows, the water that moves downhill to restore Earth’s groundwater. This is polluting the Earth because the water can pick up pollutants as it moves downhill the water quality lowers as the water picks up these pollutants and they end up in groundwater, streams, and lakes. the water can end up harming plants, animals, and people too. (http://water.usgs.gov/edu/runoff.html) Another way humans affect water quality is with chemicals, for example, farmers pesticides and fertilizers can end up in water when rainwater washes them into rivers, creeks, lakes, and other

A Riparian Zone is “the transition area between the aquatic environment in the creek channel and the terrestrial environment outside the channel.” They work by not allowing pollutants including trash and harmful chemicals by blocking the water from the pollutants with the plants so they can’t enter the water. (http://www.austintexas.gov/blog/grow-zones) One pro is that Riparian Zones help prevent stream bank erosion. Another pro being that not mowing the Riparian Zone provide(s) a habitat and food for a diverse group of animals. (http://www.austintexas.gov/blog/grow-zones) However, there are some cons, one is that it takes a while to grow, it can take from 5 to 10 years so it wouldn’t be good if someone were to accidently mow the vegetation. One more con is that not mowing these Riparian Zones may eventually take over some people’s whole properties in urban areas, people may unfortunately not have a yard if they wouldn’t be able to mow the

It works when “a two-part pumping system is used to selectively remove only the fine sediment particles, leaving the larger cobbles or gravels in place for aquatic benefit, all with minimal localized turbidity impacts. The pumping system can be mounted on floats in applications where adequate water depth is available or can be placed onshore with containments to be operated from the stream bank.” (http://streamside.us/products/sand-wand-system/) (http://streamside.us/our-services/instream-restoration-services/) One pro with the Sand Wand is that it has a “selective removal of targeted sediments, without the negative impacts of dredging.” This means that it takes the sediments out of the water source but doesn’t have the chance of more pollution, destroying marine life, and other negative effects of dredging too. (http://streamside.us/our-services/instream-restoration-services/) Another pro is that the Sand Wand “restore(s) sediment-impacted habitat for aquatic life including threatened or endangered species.” This means that helps preserve and regain for life-threatened or endangered species of animals. (http://streamside.us/our-services/instream-restoration-services/) There isn’t all pros though, there are some cons too, one being the cost. It says that “Streamside does not sell the Sand Wand systems, but