Scouting, Volume 58, Number 5, September-October 1970 Page: 45
88 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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WATER POLLUTION
What man has done to water
Man has harmed his water supply in many ways.
He has changed its color, dumped tons of dirt into it,
and has made it foam with detergents. The phos-
phates in the detergents cause the algae and other
plants to grow so fast that they shrink the lakes to
swamps and add bad tastes and odors to the water.
Through waste chemicals and oil spillage he has pol-
luted the waters, making them hiding places for
cans and other trash, as well as destroying wildlife
and spoiling the beaches.
At one time the relatively clean rivers could take
the household wastes, and through natural processes
the water would wash itself clean. But as more men
come together and cities grow larger, the rivers and
oceans can no longer do the job without additional
city waste-treatment plants.
At home, man uses more and more water. Auto-
matic dish and clothes washers gulp ever-increasing
amounts of water, making it dirtier with the detergents
that have replaced the soaps.
As man has multiplied, so have his needs. He uses
more steel, iron, paper, food, and nearly everything
else. With the birth of the synthetic age in which
we live came new industries with new technological
processes that required more water. Many of the
processes resulted in new chemical wastes that pour
into our lakes and streams. Many of the wastes are
deadly and persistent.
Industries producing electric power need lots of
water for cooling purposes. When the hot water is
poured into the stream, the stream's capacity for hold-
ing oxygen is reduced and aquatic environment is
greatly altered. Fish and other aquatic life are re-
duced, and organisms that break down wastes in
water may die because of lack of oxygen.
Farmers, seeking to feed the increased millions of
people in the world, have developed new methods
for growing more food. This increased the demand
for water. Farmers use more and newer pesticides
and fertilizers, and much of them are being washed
into streams where they produce taste and odor prob-
lems and become toxic to aquatic life.
Things to do
• Visit water works or water-treatment plants and
learn how water is made fit to drink. Learn where
your drinking water comes from (wells, reservoir,
rivers).
• Learn about erosion and how you can prevent it
by planting grass or shrubs or riprapping a stream-
bank. With help, find out if there are places in the
community where you can help in erosion prevention.
• Encourage Scouts to help keep roadsides, streets,
and sidewalks free of trash.
• Encourage Scouts to discuss with their mothers
the proper use of detergents in the home. Read the
instructions on the box and proper amounts to use.
• Organize activities for removal of trash from
streams and streambanks.
• Encourage Scouts to discuss with their parents
the proper use of insecticides. Stress the importance of
following the instructions on the labels.
• Check the laws governing your community related
to water-quality standards and pollution abatement
and discuss with other boys and parents.
• Learn what pollution damage is affecting fish,
other wildlife, human health, recreational facilities,
and industry in your community.
• Avoid putting Scouts in the position of becoming
"pollution policemen."
• Write for other ideas to the Federal Water Pollu-
tion Control Administration, Washington, D.C. 20242.
Ask for the Boy Scout Leaders' Guide to Water Pollu-
tion Control.
AIR POLLUTION
What is air pollution?
Air pollution is defined as: Contamination of the air
by waste products resulting from the activities of man.
Your community's air is polluted when the contami-
nation is strong enough to affect you, to interfere
with your comfort, safety, or health, or to prevent
you from using and enjoying your property and your
community.
Most wastes get into the air from burning—man's
basic method of producing power. This burning may
be in the furnaces of industry, the engines of modern
transportation, or even in your community's home
furnaces and incinerators.
What they spew into the air mixes with wastes and
gases from many other sources. Some are acted upon
by sunlight. Some interact with one another to form
different polluting compounds.
These contaminants are sometimes washed away
by rain or snow or blown away by wind. But too often,
the whole mess stays in the air—for you to breathe.
How long does it stay? How much harm does it
do?
It all depends on what the pollutants are. What the
community is like. Its climate. Its physical character-
istics. A valley city surrounded by hills, for example,
may have more trouble than a city on the open plain.
Hills trap the impure air and keep it from blowing
away.
Polluted air may also be trapped by weather. On a
windless day, a heavy mass of air can hang around
45
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 58, Number 5, September-October 1970, periodical, September 1970; New Brunswick, New Jersey. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth331808/m1/51/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.