The Water Worker
(A Better Water Filter)
The Water Worker
Why?
Coal Ash Pollution
Dirty Water
Unnecessary Waste
Statistics
- Of Earth's water, 97% of it is undrinkable or in glaciers, leaving us with only 3% of that, which isn't very much.
- Approximately 70% of waste from factories is dumped into usable water sources.
- 15 million children under the age of 5 are harmed or killed from water pollution.
- In America, 40% of rivers and 46% of lakes are unsuitable for fishing, swimming and drinking. That is almost half of all rivers and lakes in America.
- Polluted water can cause Cholera and Typhoid.
- 80% of water pollution is domestic waste, meaning that almost all waste comes from us citizens, disposing of garbage inappropriately, every one has done it once, accidental or not.
- If we keep things going the way they are, by 2025 almost a third of the population will not have access to clean water.
- 1.2 trillion gallons of waste are dumped into water bodies yearly.
- Plastic is the main pollutant, from bottles to soda carrying rings.
- 700 million people drink dirty water every year.
- 1 in 3 people defecate in the open due to the lack of a sewage system, which can enter the water system.
- The extinction rate for aquatic life is five times that of terrestrial life.
Composition and Design
Composition
The 'arms' of the water worker have sensors that measure the distance between the device and any shore or wall, allowing for it to detect wildlife and debris well before contact, thus giving time for the Water Worker to make a safe maneuver. These arms will be made of steel, and reinforced with plastics.
Materials
- Water from the Big Ivy
- filtered water
- include water filter x25
- circuits, motherboard
- small propulsion jets
- carbon filter
- steel cylinders, steel claws
- dissolved oxygen meter
- pH meter
- turbidity tester.
Paper Work
Abstract
Data collection indicates that some bodies of water in north carolina are considered 35% threatened by the pollution in it. Data also indicated that 18% of those bodies of water are impaired by the pollution in them. Not only is this poor water quality bad for wildlife, but also local economy. Our goal with this research is to create a water purifying device, used to clean large, and small bodies of water. It will be small efficient, cheap, and self sufficient for the average consumer.
What's the purpose?
The purpose of this project is to control and lower pollution level in and around the Big Ivy River via a physical product. The information in this project will include the current problems with pollution in and around the Big Ivy River, new innovative solutions to neutralize the problem, and the goods and bads that come with these solutions. Research and experimentation will be conducted to find how well the product works and if the product is worth the materials it requires to mass produce.
Background
One of our group members lives near the Big Ivy River, and he, over the years, has noticed that there is an exceeding amount of harmful/visible pollution. After extensive research, we realized that there was no product to help reduce the physical pollution near this river. So we came up with the conceptual idea for the Water Worker. Its job will be to use a high density filter and patrol bodies of water, cleaning it. It needs to be affordable for the average consumer and self sufficient.
Procedure
Extract water from both of our sources with mason jars
Determine the exact pH level of the water extracted from the Big Ivy River
Determine the exact pH level of the water extracted from our secondary source
Determine the turbidity of the water extracted from the Big Ivy River
Determine the turbidity of the water extracted from our secondary source
Determine the dissolved oxygen levels of the water from the Big Ivy River
Determine the dissolved oxygen levels of the water from our secondary source
Begin designing the Water Worker’s lid and base through Autodesk Inventor *Steps 2-7 are testing the water we extracted from the Big Ivy and the secondary source before we use the water worker to clean it.
Q and A
Questions:
1- Will the water from the Big Ivy have lower quality (lower quality pH, lower turbidity, etc.) than water from other sources?
2- Which water quality (pH, turbidity, etc.) will have the most dramatic differences between our two water sources?
3- How much does civilization actually affect water quality?
4- What kind of difference will our mobile filter make towards the waters quality?
Hypothesis:
1- (1) If we collect water from a secluded part of the Big Ivy River it would have similar qualities to that of our other, cleaner water source.
2- (1) If we collect our water from a source where houses/industry is present, it would be more polluted.
3- (2) If we collect water from a stagnant body as our second source the turbidity would be the most dramatic change because of pond scum.
4- (2) If we collect water from a less polluted body of flowing water as our second source then pH levels will have the most difference.
5- (3) If water is collected from a non-populated secondary source then we will find that civilization greatly affects water quality.
6- (3) If water is collected from a populated secondary source then we won’t be able to get a good measurement of how civilization affects water quality.
7- (4) If our filter is placed in a stagnant body of water for a long period it will make a noticeable difference whether visible or not.
8- (4) If our filter is placed in a flowing body of water for a long period it will not make a noticeable difference whether visible or not.
Article summaries
Justin
Dirty water is one of the world’s top killers. Dirty water kills millions of people yearly. People in non-fully developed countries have a very restricted source of clean water and is usually more threatening than war. There are many things we could do that are cost efficient, yet we haven’t tried them yet. We need to protect our water sources that are available, and also clean up potential sources that could be used. In years to come, there will be massive droughts and floods, and our water sources will be depleted. This is our call to action, we need to do this for the Earth, for each other, once our water is gone, it is gone. Then we will have to resort to glaciers, and if it is anything like how we treat oil, that won’t last either. This is why we must keep an available, clean source of water.
(nrdc.org/water)
Colby
This article talks about a human’s effect on water pollution, and how it would be different. We cause most of the water pollution on earth, and we don’t do much to stop it. All the trash we use is a huge contributor. The world uses over 2 million tons of sewage pollution seeps into our water supply every day. The pollution is causing not only problems for animals living in, and around it but us. There is always changing levels of pollution in different places in the world, but there are more places with increasing pollution the decreasing. (un.org/waterforlifedecade/quality.shtml)
Gus
This article posted by Raleighnc.gov on October 13th, 2015, is dealing with the same topic we are… Water pollution in N.C. They state that one of the main contributors to water pollution is illegal dumping into the storm-water drainage system, which feeds into our lakes, streams, rivers, and ponds. Sometimes, residents pollute the water inadvertently because most people seem to think that the storm-water runoff is treated before being released into rivers so they aren’t conscious of paint, oils, or anything else being washed away that is polluting our rivers. Raleigh’s Stormwater Management Division is working on the same thing that we are, but on a larger, county-wide scale. While we are attempting to build a product for every individual person, they are targeting the storm water runoff. The best idea as of now would be to 1st spread awareness to Raleigh’s citizens so that they won’t accidentally pollute the water and 2nd to create a water treatment plant that treats runoff before going back to the water sources. (Raleighnc.gov)
Annotated Bibliography
Pollution. (n.d.). Retrieved from water.ncsu.edu website: http://water.ncsu.edu
This site talks about the Cape Fear River basin, which is a river basin near our location. The Cape Fear River basin is a large river basin of over 9,000 square miles. It affect a large variety of wildlife it. 35% of it is considered “Threatened”, and 18% Impaired by pollution. This pollution is mainly caused by agriculture, construction, urban storm water, and waste treatment plants. There are currently 15 projects to reduce this pollution. There is not currently any programs like ours in the big ivy.
Pollution. (n.d.). Retrieved from darwin.bio.uni.edu website: http://darwin.bio.uni.edu
This article talks about how water pollution is somewhat of a world problem because it can make it hard to find clean water for a third world country. Specifically China is having this problem, and it is actually affecting its agriculture (food), society, and environment. So I tell you let China be example to us. It is less work in the long run to just take care of our water in the first place.
Pollution. (n.d.). Retrieved from water.epa.gov website: http://water.epa.gov
This article talks about how a onetime big companies were allowed to dump all of their trash in rivers, streams, etc. People do not realize that what they do effects there local river basin directly. For instance if you change your oil in your car and you dump it into the ground it will seep into your river basin. Even if you can’t see the pollution it can be there. There are invisible odorless chemicals, bacteria. Nature naturally filters this. But it can only filter so much, so it is important to not litter. And be aware of your local river basin.
Pollution. (n.d.). Retrieved from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov website: http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
This article states that there is a correlation between poor water heath and bad local economy. Due to people with poor hygiene practices, and standard sanitation facilities can contaminate the water and pollute it. This if and when consumed by a human can make them sick, causing them to take off work. This has an effect on the economy. Not only can it cause short term sickness, but also long term sickness/dieses. This is why in 1991 government of Tanzania stipulated a water policy. But due to economic hardship it could not get proper funding.
Pollution Controls: The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. (n.d.). Retrieved from Econ lib website: http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/PollutionControls.html
This article states that most people believe that we must control the pollution of our air, water, and land. To fully understand this problem and its possible solutions we will be taking into account the ideas of several other potential problem solving people who are also concerned with this topic. Using this article to develop possible solutions based off its information will not only provide us with a sense of exactly what problems we are faced with environmentally, but also politically. According to this website, older factories aren't required to give off less pollution than their younger counterparts. This is because the retrofitting of older factories is extremely costly... Maybe developing solutions to help lessen the cost of renovating older factories or limiting the amount of pollution omitted near water will be a possible solution.
National Geographic Freshwater 101: Pollution. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2, 2015 from National Geographic website:
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/pollution/
This article was a reflection on how scientists were able to detect pollutants. With a heavy mixture of harmful products our lakes, rivers, and streams can be very dangerous. The main focus of the article is the amount of pollutants being put into our freshwater, which is clearly related to our topic in that we need to identify the main pollutants being dumped into populated river areas. National Geographic’s website highlights the political influences on water pollution as well, which gives us a good indication of what limitations we will be facing. The things that we cannot change are going to have the biggest impact on our research. We could potentially use this site for facts that we can put into our presentation to use as a kind of hook, or to make the audience realize the sheer amount of pollution.
Circle of Blue. (n.d.). Retrieved from Water News website:
http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/
This article, like the others is about water pollution. This article, however is a little bit different. This article talks about soil effect on water pollution. Experiments have shown that healthier soils and grasses reduce the pollution in the water. The soil that was perfectly grown had clear water when watered. The muddy nasty soil produced cruddy brown water that was obviously not good for the environment. It is quite interesting and we should look more into it.
"Water Pollution". (n.d.). Retrieved from
This article like the others is about this article like the others is about one pollution water pollution. This is a case however, of livestock waste ending up in the water flow. YUCK! How would you like it if poo was in your water? This is why water pollution is so serious and deserves attention. We are desperately in need of clean water, we have a limited amount, and a lot of it is already polluted. It is also important to control livestock, they are a point source pollutant that needs to be controlled.
Water Pollution Causes. (n.d.). Retrieved from
This article is about water pollution obviously and what it means for our future general and children today. It also talks about how water pollution happens. It occurs when any kind of anything that is harmful enters the water stream. We are already spread scarcely enough with the amount of water we have. Water pollution can be point, or non-point pollution.
Explain Water Pollution. (n.d.). Retrieved from
This article is about water pollution and the basics of it. There are some statistics about water pollution such as the Earth’s surface and how two thirds of it is water and of that two thirds only 3% is drinkable. And almost all of the good water is in glaciers in the polar caps. The rest is salt water and nasty. Population has contributed to pollution massively. This problem is serious and many chemicals are getting into our water supply. If the money were there, this would not be a problem. This is why many corporations have searched for grants to attempt to correct the problems with pollution.
Experimentation Photos
Experiment
Results and Conclusion
Results
Upon doing our tests, we found that the Big Ivy River has higher Dissolved Oxygen, pH, and significantly higher turbidity. This means that the water is ok to drink, but will more than likely cause diarrhea. The Water Worker will cleanse the water, lowering pH to around seven, and increase the turbidity, thus make it clean and safe to drink.
Conclusion
Based on our procedure, we found that the pH, turbidity and dissolved oxygen levels of the water from the Big Ivy were higher than that of purified water. With the need for new, clean sources of water, The Water Worker will prove to be cost and energy efficient, and since it runs on solar power, fuel efficient. Should we get the funding to make this, The Water Worker will prove to be well worth the money and will be mass produced for energy companies that dump coal ash into our water sources.