Experiment 1: Effects of Groundwater Contamination

Lab 2 – Water Quality and Contamination

Experiment 1: Effects of Groundwater Contamination

Table 1: Water Observations (Smell, Color, Etc.)
Beaker	Observations
1	Water is clear no odor
2	Water has sheen to it where you can see the oil and the water. There is a slight oil odor.
3	Water has a visible sheen to it. It also has a strong odor to it.
4	Water color has changed to a greenish it has a perfume smell as well as oily bubbles at the top.
5	Water turned a brownish with small dirt particles inside also had a dirty smell to it.
6	Water turned a brownish black color there is still sheen to the water as well as a slight odor and small dirt particles settling on the bottom of the beaker.
7	Water turned a slight darker a slight sheen to the water the vinegar smell has decreased soil settling at bottom of beaker
8	Water turned a lighter shade of green and also became murkier with the soil still not able to see the bottom of the beaker.

 

 

POST LAB QUESTIONS

1. Develop hypotheses on the ability of oil, vinegar, and laundry detergent to contaminate groundwater.

 

a. Oil hypothesis = Oil is thicker than water so it remains separate from the water and will not contaminate ground water as much.

b. Vinegar hypothesis = Vinegar and water combine rather well thus in effect it will contaminate groundwater very easily.

c. Laundry detergent hypothesis = Laundry detergent uses the water in order to achieve a reaction thus since it is dependent on the water it will contaminate the water.

 

 

2. Based on the results of your experiment, would you reject or accept each hypothesis that you produced in question 1? Explain how you determined this.

 

a. Oil hypothesis accept/reject = I would accept this hypothesis due to the fact that the water and the oil attempted to mix as little as possible and when left alone they continued to separate.

b. Vinegar hypothesis accept/reject = I would accept this hypothesis the vinegar and water mixed easily together making it difficult to separate the two.

c. Laundry detergent hypothesis accept/reject = I would accept the hypothesis the water and laundry detergent mixed together and would not separate easily at all. The fact that the detergent and water created another reaction when mixed together that would also make it extremely difficult to separate.

 

 

3. What affects did each of the contaminants have on the water in the experiment? Which contaminant seemed to have the most potent effect on the water?

 

Answer = Each of the contaminants created a sheen in the water. The oil when mixed attempted to remain separate from the water while the vinegar and the detergent mixed freely with the water. Of all three the contaminant that had the most effect on the water was the detergent not only did it completely change the color of the water and the odor it also created a reaction that created bubbles.

 

 

4. Using at least one scholarly source, discuss what type of affects these contaminants (oil, vinegar, detergent) might have on a town’s water source and the people who drank the water?

 

Answer =

 

 

5. Describe what type of human activity would cause contaminants like oil, acid and detergents to flow into the water supply? Additionally, what other items within your house do you believe could contaminate the water supply if you were to dump them onto the ground?

 

Answer = There are many different activities that can cause contaminants like oil, acid, and detergents to flow in to the water supply. The simple act of vehicle maintained can cause oil and detergents to flow in to the water supply. Changing the oil in your drive way or washing your car at home were the water will flow into the drainage.

 

 

Experiment 2: Water Treatment

 

POST LAB QUESTIONS

 

 

1. Develop a hypothesis on the ability of your filtration technique to remove contaminants.

 

Hypothesis =The sand, gravel and charcoal along with the cheese cloth are acting as a filter to remove a large part of the contaminations as well as improve the taste of the water. While the bleach will help kill any bacteria in the water to make it safer to drink.

 

 

2. Based on the results of your experiment, would you reject or accept the hypothesis that you produced in question 1? Explain how you determined this.

 

Accept/Reject = I would accept the hypothesis based on the fact that the contaminated water has a murky look to it as well as a dirty odor to it. While the “treated” is clear with no dirty odor at all as well as no particles floating inside the beaker.

 

 

3. What are the differences in color, smell, visibility, etc. between the “contaminated” water and the “treated” water?

 

Answer = The contaminated water is murk with dirt particles floating on top and bottom as well as having a dirty odor to it. The “treated water is clear with no visible particles floating anywhere in the beaker.

 

 

4. From the introduction to this lab, you know that there are typically five steps involved in the water treatment process. Identify the processes (e.g., coagulation) that were used in this lab and describe how they were performed.

 

Answer =

 

Experiment 3: Drinking Water Quality

Table 2: Ammonia Test Results
Water Sample	Test Results
Tap Water	No detectable trace of ammonia
Dasani® Bottled Water	No detectable trace of ammonia
Fiji® Bottled Water	No detectable trace of ammonia

 

Table 3: Chloride Test Results
Water Sample	Test Results
Tap Water	Slight trace of 500 mg/l of chloride
Dasani® Bottled Water	No detectable trace of chloride
Fiji® Bottled Water	No detectable trace of chloride

 

 

Table 4: 4 in 1 Test Results
Water Sample	pH	Total Alkalinity	Total Chlorine	Total Hardness
Tap Water	7	80	10	50
Dasani® Bottled Water	3	0	0	0
Fiji® Bottled Water	7	0	500	0

 

 

Table 5: Phosphate Test Results
Water Sample	Test Results
Tap Water	10
Dasani® Bottled Water	10
Fiji® Bottled Water	50

 

 

Table 6: Iron Test Results
Water Sample	Test Results
Tap Water	0
Dasani® Bottled Water	0
Fiji® Bottled Water	0

 

 

POST LAB QUESTIONS

 

1. Develop a hypothesis on which water source you believe will contain the most and least contaminants.

 

Hypothesis = The water that will contain the most contaminats is the tap water and the one with the least will be the bottled Fiji water.

 

 

2. Based on the results of your experiment, would you reject or accept the hypothesis that you produced in question 1? Explain how you determined this.

 

Accept/reject = I would reject the hypothesis that Fiji water would contain the least amount of contaminates. By measuering iron, ph, phosphate, alkiline, chlorine and total hardness I came to the conclusion that Dasani water contained the least contaminates while tap water contained the most.

 

 

3. Based on the results of your experiment, what major differences, if any, do you notice between the Dasani, Fiji, and tap water?

 

Answer = Dasani has less contaminates that both Fiji and tap water while tap water is the hardest of all three. Fiji contained more contaminates than I would have thought.

 

 

4. Based on your results, do you believe that bottled water is worth the price? Why or why not?

 

Answer = Based on my results I feel that bottled water is worth the price or at least adding a filtrations system to the current plumbing in order to decrees the hardness of the tap water in your home.

 

 

 

References

Any sources utilized should be listed here.

© eScience Labs, 2013