City Discussion

    Mrs. Byerly came to talk to us about the cities plan for the way that all of the water is going to systematically work.  She told us about what the city was doing to the storm water, which was that they were making big well like things in a couple of different parts of the city that all of the water will collect in and the the city will have to go and empty every once and a while.  The city made it so that the storm water wouldn't build up in the street and made it so that it was less likely to flood the island.  This move by the city will improve the overall water quality of the river water by keeping less rail water from running into the water that has already been through the town.  This will improve the quality of the test that my group is doing by giving us cleaner water to test intern giving us a better BOD, meaning that there will be more oxygen in the water.  I learned from the talk that although main street was being opened back up that they were now going to close us some of hall street, because they need to tear that up and do work on it.  My bio bottle that i am working on is doing really good, i have three different sunflowers growing really quickly, and that look really healthy also.  For my groups action project i am getting the materials to build a compost bin and then we're going to do a two week trial in the cafeteria's for composting.  We have made it pretty far in our power point i think, with help of the action plan paper.

Water Testing Connection

    Our group chose to focus on composting.  Our plan is to create a compost bin at school that people can throw there leftover food in after lunch.  Assentially there will be smaller bins in the lunch room, and at the end of the day we (Josie and I) could take them to the bigger compost bin that is outside somewhere around the school.  After a period of time the composst will turn to dirt that the school can use to plant flowers around the school.
   In our bio. bottle we will be testing a sunchip bag.  With our bio. bottles we will also be focusing on composting.  We will see how fast a sunchip bag breaks down compared to the other brush likes leaves and things that we use.  We will have one bio. bottle that will have just the already excisting dirt along with leaves and grass, and in the other bio. bottle will be the sunchip bag with the other leaves and brush.
   When we do the river testing tom. we will be testing for BOD (biological oxygen demand).  This relates to our action project dealing with composting, because when we compost we keep less waist from going into the river where we are testing the water.  The water will essentially be cleaner the more we compost.  Also the amount of oxygen could increase once we use the dirt from composting to plant more flowers and things, because they give off oxygen.

Eaton Rapids Water Treatment Plant

At the water treatment center yesterday we learned about how water is treated to be drinkable.  A long process is followed to treat the water.  In our city are thirty eight miles of pipeline that moves the water around to where it is needed.  they code the inside of the pipes with phosphite, which is meant to help cleanse the water.  Also they use floride and chlorine in the water.  The floride is meant to help make the bones in our body strong.  We get our water from wells, we pump the water out of the ground and then it goes through the long treatment process.  Our town also has many generators that we have, so that if something happens to the system they are kicked on and keep it running.  They also have a lab at the treatment center which they use when they are testing the water.  They test the water for e coli and other harmful bacteria.  They visit every school in the district and the hospital once a month and take the water back to the lab to test.  They also have never had any problems with e coli in the past.

Lexis Link

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AX-47DhenpMmZGNndGZ3ZmhfMGdtZ21iN2Yz&authkey=CK_KoI4L&hl=en

Water Treatment Blog

1.  What happens towater to be made drinkable in cities?
      The U.S. Enviormental Protection Agency defines whether water is "safe", to meet those requerments it can't contain any harmful bacteria, or other desease causeing toxins.  Treating water so that it is drinkable is put into five different steps. The first is Aeration, during that they mix all the water together to liberate dissolved gasses.  The second is Flocculation, where they add compounds to the water so that any clay or other natural particals stick to the compound and create a big clup easy to remove.  The third, sedimentation, is when the water is left undisturbed so that the particals and compound that clumped together can settle.  The fourth Filtration, this is when the water is run through several filters to remove any particals still excisting in the water.  The last is Disenfection, which is when they treat the water so that any desease causing things still in the water can be killed.  After those five steps the water can be drank.

2.  What happens to water when it is flushed, how is it treated?
      After we flush the sewage regularly goes to a sewage tank in a persons back yard or to a sewage treatment plant, where it will be treated.  In 1995  data was gathered about how 26% of the sewage leaving your house either evaporates or is transpired from your yard and the other 74% is sent to the plant.  At the plant it is cleaned and used for other purposes like watering a golf course.

Footprint Blog

1. http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/


2. I think that it was a good sight to use it was really easy, and i think that it would be easy for younger kids also.

3. 14 tons

4. a. eat less meat

b. recycle my paper

c. use less water

5. I can help the watershed in our town by recycling, using less water and eating more organic foods.  Recyling will help the watershed in our town by not polutting the water that drains into the grand river.  By using less water i will help the water shed by creating less water that will run into the river.  By eating more organic foods less chemicals from the waiste will be entered into the river that runs through our town.