Pollution
What Causes Pollution in the Shenandoah River?
The Major concern scientist have is for nonpoint source pollution Nonpoint Source Pollution is dangerous because it does not come from a single source. This makes it extremely difficult to identify who or what is contributing to the pollution. And even harder to stop.
Most pollution travels naturally through the water cycle. This causes contamination to spread further downstream. Nonpoint source pollution is so dangerous because the pollutants are easily carried through the water cycle. Below is a picture depicting the flow of the water cycle:
There are a few main categories for Nonpoint source pollution, Including:
Sediments
Nutrients
Chemical/Toxic Substances
Pathogens
The Shenandoah River is mostly effected by nutrients. For the Purpose of this project we will focus, however, on three main Pollutants:
Mercury
Nitrogen
Phosphorous
Nitrogen and Phosphorous are both nutrient pollutants that are naturally occurring in the ecosystem. Mercury is a chemical pollutants that has been added.
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