EFFECTS OF WATER POLLUTION: 1. Boston Harbor is a strong example of how badly pollution can damage bodi es of water.

The water is filled with toxic waste and sewage, and routinely rec eives more waste when rainfall pushes it into the harbor. 2. Many bodies of water near urban areas are highly polluted. This is the result of both garbage dumped by individuals and dangerous chemicals legally or illegally dumped by industries . 3. The main problem caused by water pollution is that it kills life that in habits water-based ecosystems. Dead fish, birds, dolphins, and many other anima ls often wind up on beaches, killed by pollutants in their habitat. 4. Pollution disrupts the natural food chain as well. Pollutants such as l ead and cadmium are eaten by tiny animals. Later, these animals are consumed by fish and shellfish, and the food chain continues to be disrupted at all higher levels. CONTROL OF WATER POLLUTION: 1. Control water pollution in your home by using non-toxic soaps, detergents and cleaning products. Refrain from the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides on your lawn and gardens. Always dispose of paints, motor oil, gasoline, antifre eze and other harmful chemicals in accordance with your local laws and safety re gulations. 2. Protect groundwater, which is critical for drinking water, irrigation systems and natural ecosystems. If you are using chemicals that may be harmful to the e nvironment, store them correctly. Improperly stored chemicals can slowly seep in to the groundwater system, so keep them in tightly sealed containers, inside of structures with cement floors, to avoid groundwater contamination. 3. Prevent polluted runoff and soil erosion. Polluted runoff is caused when rain washes toxic pollutants into surface waters from sources that include city stre ets, farms, or logging and mining sites .Plant bushes and trees along roads and natural water sources. The roots of trees and bushes can slow the speed of runof f and erosion, protecting surface water. 4. Write letters to your state representative and congressman to express your co ncerns about water pollution. Ask them to promote more sustainable agricultural methods and mention that you feel it is time for Congress to create and enforce stricter mandatory laws regarding water pollution. ABATEMENT OF WATER POLLUTION: 1. For each pollutant, marginal abatement costs exhibit great differences by se ctor, scale, and degree of abatement. 2. The benefits of stricter discharge standards should be weighed carefully aga inst the costs. 3. Emissions charges as low as $1 per ton would be sufficient to induce 80 perc ent abatement of suspended solids, chemical oxygen demand, and biological oxygen demand, respectively. 4. The current regulatory system provides an economic incentive to abate by cha rging a levy on pollution that exceeds the standard. The results of this analysi s suggest, however, that changing to a full emissions charge system would greatl y reduce overall abatement costs. The approach the authors recommend for measuri ng the costs of abatement is to use joint abatement cost functions that relate t otal costs to treatment volume and the simultaneous effect of reductions in susp ended solids, chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, and other pollut ants. Tests of alternative functional forms suggest that a simple (constant elas ticity) model fits the data as well as a complex (translog) model does, permitti ng sophisticated policy experiments with relatively simple calculations.