Activity 6 - Water Treatment

Use the resources listed below to help you complete this activity.

To learn more about this topic, visit the following web sites:

Water Treatment

"Drinking Water Treatment" - EPA
Online fact sheet reviews the steps water goes through before it is considered safe for drinking. Three page document can be printed and distributed to students. Note that file is in PDF format, so you must have Adobe Acrobat to view.

"Emergency Disinfection of Drinking Water" - EPA
This site gives a brief overview of the steps to take to disinfect water if their is an emergency supply shortage.

"Current Drinking Water Standards" - EPA
Table outlines the EPA's standards for safe drinking water, defining levels of contaminants and listing possible sources of these contaminants.

"Contaminant Transport in Massachusetts Bay" - USGS
Site shows how scientists at the USGS used information about the distribution, severity, and fate of contaminated sediments in the Massachusetts Bay to help in making informed management decisions about multiple uses of a coastal environment, including water treatment issues.

Part C: Water Treatment in Your Community

To complete the investigation, each student group will need:

• Copy of your community's water quality report:

American Water Works North American
Water Utilities
Select your state from the scroll down list. You will be taken to a new page. Click on your county or municipality to open the local water quality report. You may have to do some searching to find the actual report.

EPA Office of Groundwater and
Drinking Water
Click on your state to be taken to a new page that gives an overview of your state's drinking water and links to additional information. To view your water quality report, click on the "water quality report" link to view a list of reports that are available online.

 

Inquiring Further:

To learn more about recycling water in space, visit the following web sites:

"Water on the Space Station" - NASA

"Space Station Water Purification System Passes Test with Flying Colors" - NASA

To learn more about desalination, visit the following web sites:

"Seawater Desalination in California" - Pantell et al., California Coastal Commission
Online report reviews the basics of the desalination process and how desalination has affected humans and the environment in California.

MCWD Sea Water Desalination - Marine Coast Water District, Marina, California
Short article covers the steps of the desalination process used to assure that water is safe to drink. Click on link to view a color graphic of the desalination process.

To learn more about different water analyses, visit the following web sites:

"Ground Water Studies" - USGS Fact Sheet 058-95
Contains a review of the threats to our nation's water supply and the steps the USGS is taking to minimize the effects of natural hazards and environmental damage caused by human activities on groundwater supplies.

"National Field Manual for the Collection of Water Quality Data" - USGS
Online publication contains links that describe the basic techniques of water resource investigations, including water sampling. Click on links to open table of contents for a chapter on the particular technique. One chapter is devoted to preparations for water sampling, including tips on materials to take into the field, tips on field trip responsibilities, and advice on how to select sampling sites. There is is also a chapter that reviews the techniques involved in the actual process of collecting water samples.

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Last updated: May 11, 2010

This project is supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation and the AGI Foundation. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation.