Source entry 2: Citation: Dragičević, Jelena. “Global Nitrate Water Pollution: Lessons from Nebraska’s Platte River Valley and beyond.” Harvard International Review, vol. 41, no. 1, Winter 2020, pp. 63–67.

Summary: Based on my reading from this periodic genre, the article talks about the problem with global nitrate water pollution and lessons learned from the Platte River Valley in Nebraska. The topics discussed are the challenge of using pesticides and fertilizer that are given to agricultural water pollution, farming technology to help prevent nitrate run-off in Platte River Valley, and policies and solutions to nitrate water pollution including the use of farm subsidies to control the cost and supply of crops. What is interesting is that the problem was that the nitrate in the public water systems is “10 parts per million in Nebraska”, meaning that the levels are higher than how they used to be. The author also talked about how farmers are using and turning technology to help prevent nitrogen runoff. This technology will stop the spread of nitrate water pollution in the rivers of Nebraska.

Reflection: In my opinion, I believe that nitrogen water is poisonous, which is bad for the water systems and that technology can definitely help stop this from spreading in the waters of Nebraska. Also, I agree that farmers using pesticides and fertilizer is a better solution to help prevent nitrate runoff because it will reduce the levels of nitrate from increasing so that it wouldn’t get much worse. Quote from the text stated, “In the case of water pollution caused by agricultural practices, there is evidence to suggest that it is most effective to simultaneously clean up contaminated water and prevent chemical contamination in the first place.” A question that I have based on the text is What is the difference between this solution and the other solutions? What this tells me about my research is that the best solution is pesticides and fertilizer, since farmers used it to stop their nitrate water pollution. Based on the author’s writing style, the author’s tone was direct, showing us that she was straightforward with the process of eliminating the water pollution, and the choice of genre was a periodic article based only on one author.

Quotations: “Nitrate comes from nitrogen, the main ingredient in fertilizers, implying that fertilizers, more so than pesticides, are one of the world’s greatest sources of water pollution.” (pg. 66) Another quote is, “For farmers who cannot afford Project Sense, other options exist. Researchers from the University of Nebraska recommend cover crops as another method of mitigating nitrate water pollution.” (pg.66)

Source entry 3: Citation: Pagone, Frank Joseph. “Environmental Justice in Cook County, IL: Air and Land Pollution.” Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, vol. 79, no. 12–B(E), ProQuest Information & Learning, 2018.

Summary: Based on my reading from this Dissertation/Thesis, the authors talk about both air and land pollution. Since I’ve already mentioned air pollution, the author mentioned land pollution (environmental pollution) and that there are communities who are in danger that have a high environmental pollution load with a lot of pollution on land surfaces. It also talks about that based on the pollution, cancer is calculated to be higher in risk compared to the other diseases at risk.

Reflection: Based on the text, I agree with what they’ve talked about with cancer risks because inhaling all the chemicals and garbage that are sitting everywhere in our environment can cause changes to our DNA, which can increase our chances of any disease, including cancer. A quote states, “cancer risks calculated are much greater than all the carcinogenic risk calculated in the 2011 NATA, which does not include the DPM risk. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients indicated that weak significant correlations were found between DPM cancer and non-cancer risks and percent Hispanic/Latino (0.2174 (p<.0001)). A question I have based on the reading is: What did the results of this environmental pollution help solve? . Information that I need to look up to better understand this article is more of a solution to stop this from happening. Although, this document tells me about my research question that there is somewhat of a solution but more of analysis on what risks land pollution can do to others that are affected by it. Based on the author’s writing style, the author’s tone was neutral, showing us that he used facts and not emotions, and the choice of genre was a Dissertation/Thesis based only on an essay and contention.

Quotations: “We aimed to accomplish our goals by collecting community-level risk perception data for environmental, neighborhood and health threats in Southeastern Cook County (SCC), calculating the diesel particulate matter (DPM) excess inhalation cancer and non-cancer risks throughout Cook County”. Another quote states, “Correlation rankings between the USEPA’s 2011 NATA Cancer Risk data, hazardous waste site data (Brownfield, Superfund, etc.), diesel particulate matter emissions and risk data, and demographic information for Cook County do not indicate an overall statistically significant relationship between environmental pollution and hardship index.” (Quoted from the abstract).