Based on the picture, the media that is potentially being negatively impacted is the soil. The stagnant water in the image can be depositing acid from abandoned mines, leaked drops of oil from car engines, asphalt, and trash, among other contaminants. The pollution point is from a non-point source of pollution. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines a non-point source of pollution as any contaminant that enters the environment from an unconfined or unidentified place (Duarte et al., 2018). The picture does not show where the water is coming from, and that is how to determine whether the pollution is from a non-point source. The pollutants I suspect to be involved in the image are flush fertilizers and pesticides from farm fields, which are likely to wind up in the stream that deposited the water. Other potential pollutants might be, as mentioned, leaked oil drops, acid from power plants and factories, sewer, tire rubber particles, and many others. Over time, the negative effect of the pollutants on the environment is the change in certain chemical and physical soil characteristics.
The soil pollution process involved in the picture is anthropogenic, resulting from human activity. Pollution is caused by various human activities that lead to soil contamination. In the image, the collected acid from factories can contain hazardous substances, resulting in severe pollution (Duarte et al., 2018). Since the water might have collected other chemicals from mining activities, it might cause soil contamination from heavy metals. Possible solutions to soil pollution might be associated with reducing chemical fertilizer use, promoting natural manure, and recycling and reusing products (Duarte et al., 2018). Moreover, the promotion of reforestation and afforestation will result in the capture of good microorganisms in the soil to ensure the maintenance of the underground water table.
Reference
Duarte, A. C., Cachada, A., & Rocha-Santos, T. (2018). Soil pollution: From monitoring to remediation. Academic Press, an imprint of Elsevier.