The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Land Remediation and Pollution Control website provides information about EPA activities to reduce land pollution. Last updated on Thursday, May 1st, 2008, the author anonymous statement of their mission is “...research at the basic level as well as...explore innovative solutions to current and future land pollution problems. According to the information on the site, they partner with other federal and state agencies on field evaluation research, in-house work, and explore cost-effective alternatives to cause and effect of land pollution.
Cause of Land Pollution
The EPA author anonymous 1994 brochure (EPA-841-F-94-005) contains land pollution facts and information about non-point environmental pollution sources. The EPA defines land pollution and non-point land pollution as “...unlike (land) pollution from industrial and sewage treatment plants, (non-point pollution) comes from many diffuse sources...caused by rainfall or snow melt moving over the ground...depositing (different pollutants) into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters, and even our underground sources of drinking water."
Causes of Water Pollution
Land pollution contributes to the causes and effects of water pollution and ocean pollution, according to an August 15, 2008, article in The Scientific American magazine, by David Biello, titled Oceanic Dead Zones Continue to Spread. Mr. Biello states in the article about ocean pollution, “Fertilizer runoff and fossil-fuel use lead to massive areas in the ocean with scant or no oxygen...”
The EPA 841-F-94-005 brochure provides a list of land pollutants that can find their way to and pollute water:
- Fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides from agricultural lands and residential areas.
- Toxic chemicals, grease, and oil from urban runoff and energy production.
- Sediment pollutants from improperly managed construction sites, polluted eroding stream beds, crops & forest lands.
- Salt from irrigation practices and acid drainage from mines.
- Bacteria from fault septic systems, pet wastes, and livestock.
- Hydro-modification is the alteration of the natural flow of water through a landscape, and often takes the form of channel modification or channelization. Also, it can take the form of building of levees and underwater mining.
Types of Air Pollution
The brochure (EPA 841-F-94-005) contains air pollution facts and lists another non-point source of land pollution. Deposits from types of air pollution is another cause of land pollution, according to the report. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Land Remediation and Pollution Control website contains an author anonymous report titled Six Common Air Pollutants, updated April 8, 2008, which lists air pollutants that can cause land pollution:
- Ozone
- Particle Matter
- Carbon Monoxide
- Nitrogen Oxides
- Lead
- Sulfur Dioxide
Not everyone agrees with land based sewage treatment. According to the EPA 841-F-94-005 brochure information, in this article, faulty sewage practices lead to land pollution. The Responsible Sewage Treatment Victoria [British Columbia, Canada] website published a comment by Dr. Shaun Peck, dated November 28th, 2007, in which he states “...when one ton of cement is manufactured the process releases approximately one ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere...many thousands of tons of concrete (is) needed for the...sewage treatment plants.” The RSTV website contains an undated author anonymous statement stating "It is a myth that land-based sewage treatment...is needed to protect public health..."
According to the Environmental Protection Agency 841-F-94-005 report, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Land Remediation and Pollution Control website information, and the Scientific American magazine article, Oceanic Dead Zones Continue to Spread, water pollution, air pollution, and land pollution are interrelated as to the possibility of one polluting the other.
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