Discuss acid deposition and formation of acid rain and acid water. Indicate most acid rain comes from burning of coal, and is combated with coal scrubbers.
Discuss acid water originating from below ground, from abandoned mines and the decomposition of pyrite rock. Show chemically how sulfur and nitrogen from coal oxidizes to sulfate and nitrate which forms sulfuric acid and nitric acid.
Indicate how low pH can dissolve metallic ions, like zinc, copper, aluminum, and manganese.
Introduce the synthetic organic's and human produced chemicals. Discuss the meaning of organic. Outline how these chemicals can enter from industrial point sources or from non point sources.
These will include pesticides, pharmaceuticals, military compounds, and industrial compounds.
For each listed above, indicate their uses and problems caused by their introduction into the water system.
Discuss DDT, its chemical makeup and how it was designed to attack a particular aspect of an insect's physiology.
Introduce how pharmaceuticals and hormones enter the water system, the effects of military compounds, like perchlorates, on human thyroid gland functioning.