Water Testing Connection

My group members and i chose to to plastic recycling.
My group members and i are comparing how plastics effect the water cycle and the growing process of plants (peas and grass). We are comparing number 1 plastics to number 2 plastics. We will be observing, over a fifteen day period, how plastics not being disposed of properly can effect how, we as humans, are harming our own natural resources. I feel very strongly about recycling, in general, not just plastic, and im hoping that the information we recover we can distribute and help make people that are....less aware, more aware.
In our Bio Bottles we are hoping to recover information that shows that having plastic in our landfills and littered around the earth greatly weakens the Earths ability to grow plants that are vital for human and animal life forms and how irresponsible not properly disposing plastics really is.
The connection between plastic recycling and the water testing we are doing at the Grand River at McArthur River Drive has many different points. 1. Not all plastics are manufactured the same and some contain chemicals that when they are taken out of there final state of creation cause grave harm to living creatures. 2. It requires 3 times as much water to make the bottle as it does to fill a water bottle up, and if the manufacturer is using fresh water, like water from the great lakes, they could be using water that is vital to humans because we haven't yet found a completely efficient way to turn sea water into fresh water. http://www.bottledwaterblues.com/  3.  it is estimated it takes 700 years to begin composting, meaning that while they are sitting around, waiting for there inatement plastic life to end, they could end up in a variety of different places one such being the river, and if fish or water creatures were to be caught in the plastic bottle, getting out for them could result in death or great harm to that specimen. http://www.ehow.com/about_5414634_plasticbottle.html
Lets start a revolution and RECYCLE!

Water Treatment Plant 9/13/2010

   Filtering the water in the city of E Rap is quite a complex task: the water starts water can also be run through charcoal to filter out the ickys then backwash the water. Grates are also put into the large holding tanks to filter the water even more.

The Trip: It was quite a trip, needless to say. Literally viewing the entire plant (not ginormous but still good sized) was interesting.
   I found the lab to be the most interesting, i kind of thought that the maintenance people did just that, but good ole Troy and Mike don't just service the cities water supply but they also do labs and make sure our water is up to the EPA's and Michigan's water standards. The thing i remember the most was Mike making the joke that hes the guy that fixes the water mains when they bust and he said that it seems like the mains break during the winter more than anything and he said it was really a pain when he has to get out of bed and go fix it in the dead of winter. That would suck!
    I was quite disturbed by the amount of chemicals that are put into the water system, especially the amount of chlorine, i realize that it is safe for drinking and isn't as harmful to us as pure chlorine but i still disagree with the use of chemicals in the water system that are bodies don't produce and are not recognized with.

Water Treatment stufffffff

1.Granular Activated Carbon filtering: a form of activated carbon with a high surface area, adsorbs many compounds including many toxic compounds. Water passing through activated carbon is commonly used in municipal regions with organic contamination, taste or odors. Many household water filters and fish tanks use activated carbon filters to further purify the water. Household filters for drinking water sometimes contain silver as metallic silver nanoparticle. if water is held in the carbon block for longer period, microorganisms can grow inside which results in fouling and contamination. Silver nanoparticles are excellent anti-bacterial material and they can decompose toxic halo-organic compounds such as pesticides into non-toxic organic products
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_purification#Other_water_purification_techniques

2. The influent sewage water is screened to remove all large objects carried in the sewage stream.[4] This is most commonly done with an automated mechanically raked bar screen in modern plants serving large populations, whilst in smaller or less modern plants a manually cleaned screen may be used. The raking action of a mechanical bar screen is typically paced according to the accumulation on the bar screens and/or flow rate. The solids are collected and later disposed in a landfill or incinerated. Bar screens or mesh screens of varying sizes may be used to optimise solids removal. If gross solids are not removed they become entrained in pipes and moving parts of the treatment plant and can cause substantial damage and inefficiency in the process.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewage_treatment

3. Question 1: What kind of chemicals do you use to treat the water?
Question 2: Are the chemicals that are used state-of-the-art and Eco friendly?

Carbon Footprint

1. www.greengurl11.blogspot.com
2. I hate blogging so i am very opposed to using this site. i think young children would be extremely confused and stressed.
3. 24 C02 ton emitted per year
4. Myself: Unplug more appliance, Take cooler showers, Use energy efficient lights
School: Recycle more recyclable things, use less electricity during the day, share pencils
Community: Car pool, Have a larger recycling area that excepts more things, make more trips to nature centers to help out
5. Drive less or when we do drive car pool and maybe drive hybrid instead of an old piece of crap car. We could use Eco friendly laundry detergents so that when they recycle back to the earth is not as harmful.