MERIAH:
I liked Gill Geesey because his info was my kind of information. Gill
is a microbiologist and he talked about water and water treatment.
ARIA:
He stressed the importance of water, not only to humans, but to every
living species on this planet. His information will be especially useful
when we visit the Water Treatment Plant on Thursday.
Some
questions I would like to ask when we get to the Water Plant: What amount
of chemicals do they use every day in order to purify the water that
Bozeman requires? How do they "pre-purify" the water before it undergoes
the treatment process? Where is all of the extra floc disposed?
JEFF:
He really gave us the Microbiology 101 information on how a water treatment
center works. Very interesting stuff running through my mind. Really
set us up for what we saw later at the plant, and what actually went
on at the microbiological level, not just at where we can see.
ARIA:
It
was almost depressing to find out that Bozeman will need water rationing
in about 5 years... That is definitely something I would like to look
into after Base Camp Earth is over.
IVY:
Gil gave us a quite uncomfortable talk about the state of our water.
The fact is that many pollutants are not filtered out or measured. I
don't think most people realize this. Another issue was the amount of
prescription drugs in our water. I'm
certain other students and teachers would want to know more about the
effect these drugs are having on people.
|
 |
CHRISTINE:
We are lowering the water table when we pump out more than re-enters the
table. And the ground collapses and then it can no longer hold water again.
IVY:
We have done irreparable damage. We talked with Gil about the *time* element
of different problems. Such as, oil spills on fish are bad only in the
short term, where collapsing land due to lowering water tables leaves
a lasting effect, as the soil can no longer hold water even if we stopped
pumping water out.
ARIA:
I thought that Gill's statistics and figures were extremely surprising
- and somewhat hard to believe!
MERIAH:
It is amazing how much water we use and only how much there is we can
use. Less than 1% of all water is fresh water, and less than 1% of that
is accessible.
CHRISTINE:
He told us that if all the bacteria on Earth died right now, all life
would be over in only 3 days.
IVY:
We know so little about the bacteria on our planet, yet we alter their
ability to survive constantly.
The food chain starts with the smallest critters and they are the most
sensitive to changes in pH, temperature, added chemicals, and so on in
the water.
ARIA:
And whenever we have to clean things out of our water, that increases
our ecological footprint for water.
|
