draft 2 drinking water in dorms

This topic submitted by Austin, Adam, Matt (lemkeraf@muohio.edu) at 7:07 PM on 9/18/02. Additions were last made on Wednesday, September 18, 2002. Section: Cummins

Natural Systems 1 Fall, 2002 -Interdisciplinary Studies-Miami University

The purpose of our lab is to compare the drinking water in 5 different dorms around campus to each other, using bottled water as our constant, and testing the water after it has been "purified" by a water filter, such as Brita. We will then compare our results to the standards for drinking water set by the EPA. It is our hypothesis that the makeup of the water of each of the dorms will vary, and that bottled water will be far superior in taste, and purity. We plan to test the water using various methods for elements present, and to conduct a taste test. In our experiment we will test for alkalinity, pH, hardness, chloride, pollutants, manganese, lead, iron and copper. We will also be testing the bacteria in the water.
Our expectations are that the water in the dorms will meet the EPAÕs standards, but that it wonÕt meet the students standards of taste. We want to find out why the water in Hepburn, and other dorms tastes sub par. We also want to discover how clean a water purifier can make the water.
We hope to involve the entire class in the taste testing, and in collecting water samples from various dorms.
Through our lab we hope to find out if students should be concerned with the quality of the drinking water in their dorms. Should students invest in a water filter? Is it needed, and does it really clean the water? These are questions we hope to answer in our lab, which is part water safety testing, and part consumer report for water purifiers.

Literature cited:

"Water Quality Report: 2002" City of Oxford. 2002

U.S. EPA, "Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS)" 2002
http://oaspub.epa.gov/

Kotz, Deborah "How Safe is Your Water?" WCP 121 articles.

"Water Resources of the United States" USGS

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