CEE4303 ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

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 COURSE CONTENT
 Pollution and environment definitions and inter-relationship; natural and manmade
pollution; the economics of pollution
 Air pollution and particulate pollution and their sources, effects on weather, vegetation,
materials and human health. Legislation relating to air pollution, methods of control of
gaseous emission and destruction; cyclones, inertia separators, electrostatic precipitator
bag filters, wet washers etc. dispersal from chimneys and method of calculating
chimney height, flare stacks
 Water and river pollution by industrial effluent, legislation and standards for effluent
discharge; impurities in natural water and their effects, brief survey of ecology and the
effect of effluent on the ecosystems; treatment processes including precipitation,
flocculation, coagulation, sedimentation, clarification and colour removal. Principles of
biological treatment processes, cost of treatment, treatment for water reuse, ion
exchange, cooling water treatment
 Land pollution; disposal of waste by incinerator and dumping, possible future trends
including conversion of solid waste into useful material or energy
 Treatment of other types of pollution; noise; thermal and nuclear pollution
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 Definition of Environment
 The term environment refers to the “sum total of all conditions that surround
man at any point in time on the earths surface” Hagget (1975).

 According to Miller (1975), the term “environment” could be perceived as “the

aggregate of external conditions that influence the life of an individual or
population, specifically the life of man and other living organisms on the earth
surface”
 The Federal Environmental protection Agency (FEPA) Act of 1990, under section
38 defined; Environment includes water, air, land and all plants and human
beings and/or animals living there in and the interrelationships which exist
among these or any of them

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What is Environmental Engineering?

 The branch of engineering concerned with protecting the environment from

potentially deleterious effects of the anthropogenic (human) activities, protecting
human populations from effects of adverse environmental factors and improving
environmental quality for human health and well being (Peavey et al., 1985).
 The application of science and engineering principles to minimize the adverse
effects of anthropogenic activities on the environment (Ray, 1995).
 “The application of engineering principles, under constraint, to the protection and
enhancement of the quality of the environment and to the enhancement and
protection of public health and welfare.” (Sincero, 1996)
 Environmental Engineering is a discipline of engineering devoted to the
development and application of scientific knowledge through technology to
eliminate or minimize adverse effects associated with human activities on the
environment.
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What is pollution?

 Pollution is the introduction of harmful substances or products into the

environment.

 The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (UK) defined pollution

as “the introduction, by man, into the environment of substances or energy
liable to cause hazards to human health, harm to living resources and
ecological systems, damage to structures or amenities or interference with
legitimate uses of the environment”.

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 According to Section 1(3) of the U.K. Environment Protection Act, 1990, the
term Pollution‟ means: The release (into any environmental medium) from
any process of substances which are capable of causing harm to man or any
other living organisms supported by the environment”.

 The committee on pollution of the United States National Research Council

(1965) defined pollution as an undesirable change in physical, chemical or
biological characteristics of air, land and water that may or will harmfully
affect human life or that of other desirable species, industrial processes,
living conditions, cultural assets that may or will waste or deteriorate our raw
material resources

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SIC1

Types of Pollution

Pollution

Natural Manmade

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Slide 7

SIC1 Suleiman Ibrahim Ciroma, 25/03/2019

 Natural Pollution
Natural pollutants

Sources Pollutants

Volcanoes Sulfur oxides, particulates

Forest fires Carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulates

Wind storms Dust

Plants (living) Hydrocarbons, pollen

Plants (decaying) Methane, hydrogen sulfide

Soil Viruses, dust

Sea Salt particulates

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 Point source and nonpoint source pollution

 A point source pollution is a single identifiable source of pollution

 The sources can be approximated using mathematical modeling
 Pollution point sources include:
 Air pollution from an industrial source
 Water pollution from factories, power plants, municipal sewage
treatment plants
 Noise pollution from a jet engine
 Disruptive seismic vibration from a localized seismic study
 Light pollution from an intrusive street light
 Radio emissions from an interference-producing electrical device

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 Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution is pollution resulting from many diffuse sources
which is difficult to trace back to a single source
 Nonpoint source pollution generally results from land runoff, precipitation,
atmospheric deposition, drainage, seepage, or hydrological modification (rainfall
and snowmelt)
 NPS water pollution affects water bodies from sources such as
polluted runoff from agricultural areas draining into a river, or wind-
borne debris blowing out to sea
 NPS air pollution affects air quality from sources such as smokestacks or
car exhausts
 Non-point source pollution can be contrasted with point source pollution, where
discharges occur to a body of water or into the atmosphere at a single location

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