What can be done to improve the quality of water after it has become polluted?
481463
there are a variety of treatment options depending on the type of pollution. \nboiling is only effective for biological contamination\nmembrane filtration will eliminate heavy metals\nDistillation will remove everything but is very expensive\naeration is effective for volatile organic compounds
1046638
i don't really know about this but i'm fairly sure i can give a better answer than lrisjqoijgjr  \n\nyou could probably use a surfactant to break down the molecular attraction between the water molecules but this would leave pollution through the path of whatever you were using to travel through the water\n\nbut yeah not really practical but better than uingnpds
310893
The best thing would be a bit of bleach.  Do the math - you should shoot for about 2 to 4 parts per million hypochlorite (since commercial preparations are usually 5% - which is 50,000 parts per million - YOU NEED TO DILUTE IT 25,000 FOLD BEFORE YOU DRINK IT - SEE MY NOTE AT THE BOTTOM).  You should also try to store the water in the dark, in an opaque container, or at least in a brown or green glas container since algae growth is photosynthetically driven (i.e. needs light)\n\nBE CAREFUL HANDLING BLEACH - AT HIGH CONCENTRATIONS IT IS TOXIC AND CORROSIVE.
993835
How about something dealing with providing potable water or water purification... that's a heck of a subject and there should be tons of information about it on the Internet.  Besides... with the fact that drinkable water is becoming harder to obtain and the costs are going up to provide that commodity, water science will be a real 'Biggie' in the near future.
1143904
Get a ION Pure system.........get rid of the chemicals\n\nhttp://www.usfilter.com/en/Institutional/Aquatics_and_Pools/
788712
probably nothing long lasting, all the man made sewage and chemicals washed into the sea would have done more damage to the environment than anything natural.
812815
Soak them in fresh water...or put them in salt.
889662
Water softening: distillation, water softener using salts and replacement reaction, boiling(of some help)\nDivers surface slowly to avoid getting the "bends", caused by nitrogen in the air tank dissolving into their blood because of the pressure change\nOxygn is added to water as it bubbles over the rocks in a stream. Fountains, bubblers,waves\nCaO helps smal particles settle in water purification
710803
I dont think so. Giardia is a microscopic beastie that gets into you from contaminated water. I think you have to have some kind of treatment.
441642
What about adding in another....Disstilled water, which can be caught using a container when it rains or via a disstilling machine or you can buy it now off the shelf. This is water in it's purest form!!!
666152
When toxic substances enter lakes, streams, rivers, oceans, and other water bodies, they get dissolved or lie suspended in water or get deposited on the bed. This results in the pollution of water whereby the quality of the water deteriorates, affecting aquatic ecosystems. Pollutants can also seep down and affect the groundwater deposits.\n\nWater pollution has many sources. The most polluting of them are the city sewage and industrial waste discharged into the rivers. The facilities to treat waste water are not adequate in any city in India. Presently, only about 10% of the waste water generated is treated; the rest is discharged as it is into our water bodies. Due to this, pollutants enter groundwater, rivers, and other water bodies. Such water, which ultimately ends up in our households, is often highly contaminated and carries disease-causing microbes. Agricultural run-off, or the water from the fields that drains into rivers, is another major water pollutant as it contains fertilizers and pesticides.
1170225
There's lots of different effects of pollution. Very few pollutants directly kill creatures in the water, unless they're released in huge amounts because they're simply not strong enough. What they usually do is disrupt the ecosystem that then kills most of the creatures.\nExamples:\nOil - creates a film on the water which blocks the passage of gasses in and out of the water. CO2 builds up in the water and kills most of the marine fauna. (this can also kill the terra life, birds and animals which also add to the pollution of the water) These rotting creatures increase the amount of nitrogen and nutrient in the water which encourage bacterial and algae blooms in the water. These particles in the water then block the light which kills the water flora. If the pollutants stay in the water and can not be flushed out then they encourage the build up even more organic matter around the waterway, and this restricts the flow of the water even more. The natural disruption of this cycle is flooding, which breaks up and washes away the toxins and debris to the ocean, which is much better able to recover from these processes. This process is less common now due to wide spread control of waterways with damming and irrigation. Many first world countries artifically recreate this process artifically by periodically flushing the river.\n\n(although our oceans are now getting in trouble too because many of the toxins we use don't break down, so over time they gradually build up and litterally have nowhere to go)\n\nAnother example is nitrogen pollution (cleaning products) which do a similar process, but they directly encourage bacterial and algae blooms... then you can take it from there.\n\nHeavy metals pollution is a little different. It builds up in a system and as it's heavier, it mostly sinks to the bottom of the river and is difficult to flush out, remaining for many generations. Smaller particles are consumed by the ocean life (eg, fish eating worms that each have a small amount in their system, then birds/humans/other animals eat the fish and the toxins are transported to the land.) This usually makes everything very sick, putting strains on any already stressed populations. This has a less dramatic effect, but much longer lasting results.\n\nI hope this helped.
589094
U Replace shower heads and faucet aerators with water efficient models.\nU Use a water-filled milk jug or plastic bottle in your toilet tank to displace water; this allows your toilet\nto operate using less water.\nU Choose nonphosphate or low phosphate detergents. High phosphate levels in lakes and streams\ncan kill fish and other wildlife.\nU Use a broom instead of water to clean your driveway or garage . Do not sweep debris into the\nstreet or storm sewer.\nU Put a spray nozzle on the end of your hose for car washing and plant watering to prevent the hose\nfrom continually releasing water and to control the amount of water used.\nU Use native plants in your garden that require less water.\nU Use cat litter or sand instead of salt on icy walks. Salt pollutes water and kills plants.\n\nU Do not let the water run while brushing your teeth or washing your face (you can save up to 5\ngallons).\nU Do not leave the water running if you wash dishes by hand.\nU Rinse all your dishes at once by using a dishrack placed in the sink.\nU Only run your dishwasher and washing machine when they are full.\n\nU Do not open fire hydrants on hot summer days because water needed to fight a fire will not be\navailable in an emergency. Also, opening fire hydrants is illegal.\nU Do not throw in the trash, pour down the drain, or dump on the ground paint, antifreeze, motor oil,\nand other household hazardous wastes, because they can migrate to your water source.\nU Dispose of tissues, dead insects, and other waste in a trash can rather than a toilet.\nU Plant native plants instead of traditional lawn grass to avoid the use of herbicides, pesticides,\nfertilizers.\nU Do not dump used motor oil on the ground or into sewers; throwing motor oil in the trash is illegal.\nRecycling centers and many service stations accept used motor oil for recycling.\nImproving Your Housekeeping\nU Fix leaks by replacing faucet washers and toilet flappers as needed. A slow drip or leak can easily\nwaste more than 100 gallons of water a week, which leads to an unnecessarily high water bill.\nU Put all litter in trash cans so it does not get washed into the storm sewers.\nU Clean up waste products while walking your pets.\nEducating Yourself and Others\nU Educate your community about the effects of dumping waste, such as pesticides, down drains and\ninto waterways.\nU Encourage your neighbors, family, and friends to install low flow water fixtures and to practice\nwater conservation.\n\n\nMaybe you can not stop but it is easy to help decrease pollution.
297703
pollution can cause poisonous run off, and destroy the habitat of water animals, it would also hurt the animals who drink from the water source. It causes smog, its very bad to breath, with all of the pullution building uo it traps heat in earths atmosphere, causing global warming, the planet heats up. theres also alot of other tihngs.
318669
The obvious answer "by destillation" is technically challenging. I know of a Danish firm EnvoTech ApS that built systems which concentrate problematic waste water by cyclical destillation with very little energy loss,  which would help concentrate the remaining acid, but only up to a degree where the stainless steel the system is built from begins to corrode, and without removing the discoloration. You'd get quite good water condensate to reuse in the process, which isn't that helpful for your problem...\n\nThe foamy particles might be removable by letting the water go through a flotation trough. The resulting acid will still be weak and brown, though.
1010302
It depends on your source of water.  Rainwater, wastewater, pond water, and well water all go through different steps.\n\nThe things that need addressed in one manner or another are particulates (usually cleaned out by a filter in the beginning stages of the process), bacteria and larger life forms (also many of which can be be filtered out with finer filters), and chemicals (usually removed by reverse osmosis or by charcoal or some other cleansing chemical process).\n\nThere are a lot of sources out there.  I have listed a few of them below.  Good luck.
599698
Try using a pro-biotic product. The bacteria in the product digests waste. They use this in commercial ponds for cleaning before restocking, and also in oil spills, because it can digest petrol. Ask your local house and garden supplies shop, or if you live near farms ask them.