final lab

Objective

While about 70% of our planet water, only about 1% of the water is fresh water. This is the only water that is safe for consumption. Transformation of saltwater to freshwater would be very expensive and is therefore avoided. Freshwater suffers the risk of contamination. It is therefore necessary to have in place methods of soil treatment to ensure contaminated water is not consumed. Fresh water comes in two forms, ground water, and surface water. With this in mind, this experiment attempts to measure the filtration effect of soil on groundwater. It seeks to understand if soil is able to remove contaminants that are spilled or dumped on the ground before they reach groundwater.

Hypotheses

Experiment 1: If oil is spilled on the ground on purpose or by accident, then the ground water will have traces of oil. If vinegar is dumped on the ground, soil filters out the vinegar such that the groundwater contains no traces of vinegar. If detergents are dumped on the ground surface, they do not make their way to the groundwater and so no traces of detergent are found in the groundwater. Experiment 2: If water is mixed with soil and the mixture passed through the filtration system, water comes out free of soil. Experiment 3: If samples of water obtained from the tap, Dasani bottled water and Fiji bottled water is measured for contaminants, tap water is found to contain the highest percentage. Dasani water is found to contain the lowest percentage of contaminants.

Materials and method

Experiment 1 requires eight 250mL bakers, a permanent marker, 3 wooden stir sticks, a 100mL graduated cylinder, 10mL vegetable oil, 10mL liquid laundry detergent, a 100mL beaker, 240mL soil, funnel, water and cheese cloth. The first step is to take all the eight beakers and label them numbers 1 to 8. About 100mL of water is then added into each of beakers 1-4 using the graduated measuring cylinder. 10mL of oil, 10mL of vinegar, and 10mL of liquid laundry detergent are added into beakers 2-4 respectively and stirred using a wooden stir stick. The observations for beakers 1-4 recorded in table 1. The cheesecloth is cut into five pieces big enough to line the funnel. The first 4 pieces are used for lining funnels while the fifth one is set aside for use in the second experiment. 60mL of soil measured using the graduated measuring cylinder and added into each of the funnels lined with cheese cloths. The funnels are then placed into beakers 5-8. The water in beakers 1-4 are then transferred into beakers 5-8 respectively through the funnels and allowed to filter out for about 1 minute. He observations are recorded in table one.

Experiment 2: This experiment requires about 100ml potting soil, (2) 250 mL beakers, (2) 100ml beakers, a 100ml graduated measuring cylinder, 4oml sand, 20ml activated charcoal;, 60ml gravel, one wooden stir stick, alum funnel, cheese cloth, bleach, stopwatch and water. This experiment seeks to determine if a filtering method is able to remove contaminants from water. About 100ml of soil is added to the 250ml beaker. It is then filled to the 200ml mark with water and poured between the 2 beakers about 15 times. The water is then decanted to obtain contaminated water. This water is then put into a clean 100ml beaker. 10grams of alum is added to a 250ml beaker containing the contaminated water. This mixture is stirred with a wooden stir stick slowly for one to two minutes and allowed to settle for 15 minutes. While waiting, the 250ml beaker is rinsed and a funnel placed on it. A piece of cheesecloth is folded fourfold and used to line the funnel. The cheesecloth-lined funnel is then layered by first pouring 40ml of sand into it, followed by 20ml activated charcoal and finally 40ml gravel. These are measured using a 100ml beaker. The funnel is filled with clean tap ater which is allowed to flow through it five times. The funnel is filled one more time and let to settle for about five minutes. About ¾ of the contaminated water is then added to the filtration system and let to filter. The filter funnel is then removed and some bleach added to the filtered water and stirred.

Results

Tables 2 and 3 show that the content of ammonia and chloride in all the three water types is 0mg/L. Table 5 shows that tap water and Fiji water contained 7mg/L each while Dasani water had 5mg/L of pH. The total alkalinity was found to be 1.0mg/L for both tap and Fiji water while Dasani water had only 0.2mg/L. the total chlorine present in tap water was found to be 80mg/L in tap water while both Dasani water and Fiji water as found to contain only 40mg/L each. Total water hardness was found to be 120mg/Lin both tap water and Fiji water while Dasani water contained only 50mg/L. The phosphate test showed that tap water contained 50ppm phosphate ions while Fiji water contained 10ppm of phosphate ions and Dasani water contained 0ppm. The iron test showed that the tap water contained 0.15ppm of iron while both Dasani water and Fiji water had 0ppm of iron.

Discussion

Experiment 1 found that the contaminants went through the soil to the water. The concentration of the contaminants, however, seemed lower after the water had passed through the soil. Soil, however, cannot be relied upon to filter out any of the contaminants. The experiment therefore confirmed the hypothesis that oil passes through soil to contaminate ground water. It however, rejects the hypothesis that soil would be able to filter out vinegar and laundry detergent. Experiment 2 found that some soil particles passed through the filtration system. It, therefore, rejected the hypothesis that the filtration system is able to filter out soil from the soil. Experiment 3 confirms the hypothesis that tap water contains the most amounts of contaminants followed by Fiji water and Dasani has the least contaminant level.

The experiments show a need for a water filtration system. The test in water contaminants

References

Van der Perk, M. (2013). Soil and water contamination.

Trivedy, R. K., & Goel, P. K. (1984). Chemical and biological methods for water pollution studies.

Gleick, P. H. (1993). Water in crisis: a guide to the world's fresh water resources. Water in crisis: a guide to the world's fresh water resources.

Sartor, J. D., Boyd, G. B., & Agardy, F. J. (1974). Water pollution aspects of street surface contaminants. Journal (Water Pollution Control Federation), 458-467.

Trivedy, R. K., & Goel, P. K. (1984). Chemical and biological methods for water pollution studies.