Dependence of man on the environment Essay

Three experiments were conducted during week two. The first was to determine how many contaminates that we put into our water supply will reach our groundwater. The conclusion that I arrived at was, that there are still large remnants of contaminates in the groundwater supply after it has had a chance to be passed through soil. We emulated this affect by using smaller amounts of contaminates such as oil, vinegar and laundry detergent. Put them in a smaller amounts of water and then passed them though soil. Introduction In the introduction, I will list the problems with our world’s water sources. Contained in the articles written by: The Natural Resources Defense Council. Water. These sources go on to state problems that we are facing as a population with our water quality. Some of these problems are large amounts of water waste, the large cities that are going to face a climate change that will alter their dependence on water. They also note that dirty water is the worldâ€⠄¢s largest health risk and it continues to threaten the quality of life and the public health in the United States. The first problem is that people don’t know how important having clean water is until it’s no longer easily accessible for them. When people become more informed about the problems that we are facing and will face very soon as a society. We can take certain steps to try to prevent it and to ensure our quality of life not only stays the same, but improves. Little can be accomplished by one, but if we work together and try to  conserve and keep our water clean, it can last much longer. The objective of this experiment is relatively simple, to educate on how much we affect our environment by the actions we take and what we can do to improve our habits to ensure that our water supply will last much longer and have good quality. It also has the purpose to let people know that their actions don’t just affect them or only the people that they live around; it also affects the environment and the animals that inhabit it. During the experiment of the Water Quality and Contamination my hypothesis were; The Oil hypothesis was that if there is oil in the surface water then, I think when the water is passed through soil it will be able to filter out the oil before it reaches the groundwater. The hypothesis for the vinegar hypothesis was if there is vinegar in the surface water then, I think that when passed through soil it will still remai n in the groundwater. My laundry detergent hypothesis was if there is laundry detergent in the surface water then, when it is passed through soil it will still have traces of laundry detergent in the groundwater. The next experiment’s hypothesis was that using particular chemicals and methods of filtration, we should be able to remove most of the contaminates that are in the groundwater. This was the experiment that involved different methods of Water Treatment. The final experiment pertained to the drinking water quality and my hypothesis was that tap water will contain the most contaminates because of its path and unknown condition. The bottles of water are in a more sterile environment. The Dasani water is treated and Fiji comes from a natural spring. The treated water (Dasani) will have the least amount of contaminates. Materials and Methods The first experiment that was conducted used soil, different beakers, wooden stir sticks, vegetable oil, vinegar, liquid laundry detergent, water, cheesecloth and funnels. I poured water into each of the first 4 beakers, and then put vegetable oil, vinegar and laundry detergent in respectively. I stirred them with the wooden stir sticks and used the cheesecloth to line the funnel and put soil in and poured each of the different contaminates through, replacing the soil and cheesecloth each time. The second experiment involved beakers, soil, cylinders, sand, charcoal, gravel, wooden stir stick, alum, funnel, cheesecloth, bleach, stopwatch and water. I added  soil to a beaker and put water with the soil and mixed them with two beakers 15 times. I divvied some on the contaminated solution into a new beaker and added alum to it. I stirred the mixture with a wooden stick for 1-2 minutes and then let it sit for 15 minutes. I lined a funnel with cheesecloth and layered sand, charcoal and g ravel into the cheesecloth. I poured the clean tap water through the filter and repeated 4 times. I poured  ¾ of the contaminated water into the funnel and let it filter for 5 minutes. I annotated the smell and compared to the mixture in step 3. I added a few drops of bleach and stirred the combination for 1 minute. I then compared and annotated the now filtered water to the initial contaminated water. The final lab contained Dasani bottled water, Fiji bottled water, Ammonia test stripes, Chloride test strips, 4 in 1 test strip, phosphate test strips, iron test strips, beakers, marker, stopwatch, Parafilm, pipettes, foil packets of reducing powder and tap water. I labeled each of the beakers and poured Dasani, Fiji and tap water in each of the three beakers. I gathered the ammonia test strips and placed in the water and moved them up and down vigorously for 30 seconds each, I held each pad level for 30 seconds to get a reading. I did this 2 more times for each of the beakers. I then retrieved the chloride tes t strips and immersed the reaction zones in each of the three beakers one at a time for 1 second each. I shook off the excess liquid and determined what color the test strip was. I then used the 4 in 1 test strip and dipped in each of the beakers again, one at a time, for 5 seconds and wiggled back and forth. I briskly removed the excess water and waited 20 seconds to read the results. I then used the phosphate test strip by dipping in each of the beakers signally for 5 seconds and then removed and held horizontal for 45 seconds, leaving the excess water on the test strip and recorded the results. Finally, I used the Iron test strip and removed 70 ml of water from each beaker and tested 30 ml of each of the three beakers. I added one foil packet and covered with parafilm and shook the beaker for 15 seconds. I removed and dipped the test pad into the sample and moved it back and forth under the water for 5 seconds. I removed and shook the excess water off and tested and compared 10 seconds later.