Dissolved Gases and Emerging Contaminants: Challenges and Solutions
- Published:
- Updated: November 29, 2024
Summary
Here’s a summary of the challenges and solutions regarding dissolved gases and emerging contaminants in water:
- Understanding Dissolved Gases: Oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen in water can affect aquatic life and water quality.
- Impact on Aquatic Ecosystems: Low oxygen levels can harm marine life, while excess nitrogen can lead to algal blooms.
- Emerging Contaminants: Substances like pharmaceuticals pose health and environmental risks, with uncertain long-term impacts.
Water quality — most people think about the color of the water or if there are no harmful bacteria. All of these are fundamental but only part of what water quality is. Two important if unacknowledged elements of water purity are dissolved gases and emerging contaminants. To deal with these is not only about conserving natural systems, but also a public health problem.
The Basics of Dissolved Gases in Water
Dissolved gases like oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen are naturally occurring in water. They come into water through such means as atmospheric absorption, biology and chemistry. Knowing a little about these gases is the first step in identifying their water quality effects.
The two most common kinds of dissolved gases are oxygen, which is needed by living things, and carbon dioxide, which makes the water acidic. Another common gas, nitrogen, is good and bad for you, depending on its concentration. For instance, a few micrograms of nitrogen is good for plants, but too much results in toxic algal blooms.
The Silent Impact of Dissolved Gases on Aquatic Life
Oxygen in water is a powerful indicator of how healthy the fishes are. When oxygen levels are low, hypoxia can kill fish and other sea life. Super-saturated oxygen, on the other hand, causes gas bubble disease in fish, another lethal disease.
So does carbon dioxide, which makes water acidic. With abrasive water, mineral substances such as aluminum can dissolve, and these are toxic to the marine life. Excess nitrogen leads to algal blooms that choke marine life and form sludge in waterways.
A Deep Dive into Emerging Contaminants
Emerging contaminants: substances that were not previously classified and regulated as pollutants but are now in the news for their potential environmental and health effects. Such as pharmaceuticals, personal care products and certain industrial by-products, to name a few.
And it’s unfortunate that few know about the future effects of most new contaminants. Emerging contaminants are not pollutants, as we have been accustomed to with heavy metals or organic chemicals that have been researched well enough. For this reason, their full range of health and environmental effects is yet unknown.
Emerging Contaminants and Human Health: A Concerning Connection
New contaminants such as endocrine disruptors in some plastics and personal hygiene products have been reported to perturb hormones in animals and people. The disturbance can be developmental, reproductive and other health related. Worse yet is the risk of bioaccumulation, when such pollutants accumulate in living systems and exacerbate their effects.
Baby boomers, older people and the immunodeficient are all especially at risk. These populations are more vulnerable to negative health impacts because of lower metabolic rates, weaker or damaged immune systems, and other physiological factors. This makes the proliferation of new contaminants a public health problem that needs immediate response.
Measurement and Detection Techniques
Dissolved gases in lakes and rivers were traditionally detected through chemical tests and dissolved oxygen meters. These are proven techniques, but manual sampling can be costly and time-consuming, as well as human error-prone.
In the modern world, sensors and remote monitoring systems are being applied for real-time measurements with the development of technologies. These tech-savvy devices are more precise and allow you to track more parameters at once, a completer picture of water quality.
The Environmental Toll: Ecosystems at Risk
Concentrations of dissolved gases and new contaminants are disastrous to natural ecosystems. Damage to aquatic life has a cascading effect, up the food chain, down the food chain to birds, mammals, and then human beings. Too much nitrogen causing algal blooms, for example, can kill fish and ruin fishing communities.
We are already seeing the negative effects of these pollutants in a number areas of the world. Mass deaths of fish, coral bleaching and drinking water contamination are already cited, all grim reminders of the need to address the problem.
Regulatory Landscape: What’s Being Done?
Standards for water quality now tend to cover older pollutant categories such as heavy metals, pH, and bacteria. But those rules often don’t consider dissolved gases and new pollutants. And so even waterways that meet all the standards that are now in place might still be in trouble.
And even law is often glacial relative to how fast the new contaminants become available in the environment. Regulation is out of step and science is losing ground to law. International programmes are helping to solve this problem, but the job isn’t done.
Innovative Solutions to Counter the Challenges
We have several new solutions in the works to address the issue of dissolved gases and emerging contaminants. Biological treatments use nature to remove or neutralise contaminants. Some plants, for instance, take up heavy metals, which purifies the water.
Mechanical and chemical solutions include:
Nanofiltration and Reverse Osmosis: Perfect for eliminating all contaminants, new ones too.
Ozonation Methods: Used for dissolution of some organic contaminants.
Newer Oxidation Technologies: Use ozonation and UV radiation to breakdown contaminants.
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