Water Quality

 

Water is a necessary aspect of life. Humans need it, plants need it, and animals need water to survive. What contributes to the water quality that we consume? Turbidity, Alkalinity, nitrates, phosphates, DOC, conductivity, temperature, pH and even ecoli. What do these components have to do with water quality?

Turbidity is just a facy word for dirty water. It isnt healthy to consume unclean water. This might remind you of the Ohio River. Often, a transparency tube is used to measure the total amount of sedement suspended in the water. Toxic chemicals from factories contribute to turbidity, however they are not know of until after years of being in the environment.

Alkalinity is the water's ability to neutralize acids. If the water has a low alkalinity, then the water is acidic.This also goes with pH. When water reacts with CO2 it creates carbonic acid.

 

 

Nitrates are the primary plant nutrient. Phosphates are in fertilizers this is a source for eutrophication. Eutrophication often occurs from fertilizers and raw sewage in very high levels produce a large amount of nitrate. This can happen when algae dies, decays, and reduces the Dissolved Oxygen Content (DOC).

Dissolved Oxygen is the product of photo synthesis and diffusion. This goes hand and hand with temperature. The warmer the water is the less oxygen it can hold. Most organisms need 5to 6 ppm of oxygen and cold water holds 15 ppm of oxygen.


Temperature is important in other ways too. If there are rapid temperature change, it can stress aquatic  organisms.

Water conducts electricity because most water in our area is hard. Hard water means that the water contains elements that conduct electricity such as, salt, magnesium, and calcium.

One of the terrible causes of poor water quality is ecoli. Escherichia coli (ecoli) is a form of bacteria found in the intestines of warm blooded animals. This can cause kidney damage and diarrhea. Clean water is a vital aspect of human life and in society. Without these delecate balances, society can not thrive.







Anti-Mountain Top Removal Mining

Mountaintop removal mining is bad for the environment as well as the residents in the area.
MTR contaminates streams, involves forceful blasting, increased flooding and sludge impoundments. Residents often leave their towns because of the negative effects of MTR. The general health to the residents in the towns is deeply effected. Through water decontamination, residents experience various health problems such as tooth enamal damage, gall bladder removal, chronic stomach pains, and even death. The blasting ruins the foundations of buildings around the area, and lowers the value of a resident's home. The lack of trees in the area, allow run off water to become more prominent. The run off accumulates faster and with more intensity. This creates flooding and erosion. Sludge is another factor. When the coal is separated from rock, it creates sludge. This sludge contains dangerous metals. If a sludge impoundment fails, homes, schools, stores, entire communties can be destroyed. Mountain top removal's risks don't out weigh the marginal increase in my opinion. While it may be safer to the miners and cheaper for mine owners, at what cost do the residents suffer and pay?

Pro Mountain Top Removal Mining

Mountain top removal mining is not such a bad thing. Sure, the environment is changed but the economy relies on mining. Mountain top removal is so popular because its cheap and safe. People need to have jobs in order for our economy to work. Nature was created to be able to take care of itself. Nature can adapt but people need jobs to take care of their families. Mountain top removal not only just effects the miners, but also effects the economy as a whole. Coal generates electricty that provides jobs for all the people who need electricity: electricians, grocers, teachers, mechanics, all need electricity. Without coal, how can these jobs be sustained? There are benefits to mountain top removal, although they are more marginal than environmental, nevertheless they are still benefits. Delegate Mitch Carmichael of Jackson County says "Extracting and using natural resources is essential to the health  and well being of our communtites and American economy."

Coal Camp

New River Coalfield

 

The New River Coalfield is located in Raleigh County, WV and Fayette County, WV. The camp produced large amounts of bituminous coal. The coal company recruited white people who had recently immigrated to the States and African Americans from the South to work in the coal mine. The owners were Anderson and Thomas Orwell. They were brothers who went into business together and lost everything when the coal mine business fell through. It had a population of 5,000.  After 1945, the mine started to close.The Mine is now apart of the National Park Service . The NPS preserves the coal heritage in the area. 

 

Surface Mining

Strip Mining- Used when coal is near the surface or overburden is unstable. Mining progresses and overburden is placed in the previous mine cavity.
Advantages: faster, less worker death, cheaper
Disadvantages: destroys the landscape, pollution


Contour Mining- strip or surface mining follows the contour of the hill or mountain leaving terraces in the mountain side.
Advantages: Easier to get to the coal, less worker fatalities
Disadvantages: The contour of the land is never restored


Mountain Top Mining- Tops of hills are removed to access horizontal cal seams. Over burdeb is pushed to high elevations. following reclamation, the original contour is not restored. Most controversial mining method.
Advantages: safer for miners
Disadvantages: foundations of homes are damaged from the blasts, deforestation and water pollution



http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/spring07/Bartlett/effects.html

Underground Mining

Drift Mining- Where coal seams intersect the surface; mine enters seam in a horizontal direction
Advantages: cheap and easy
Disadvantages- tunnels collapse


Shaft Mining- common method of accessing coal with elevators, deeper than 1000 feat below the surface
advantages: ventilation is okay, cheap
disadvantages: drilling the holes and charging them poses a huge risk









Room and Pillar Mining- half of coal left behind to support roof, Disadvantage: pillars put pressure on adjacent pillars leading to roof collapse. Roof falls are a constant danger.
advantages: high degree of flexibility, process is repititous.
disadvantages: cost of maintenance is very high


Continuous Mining- Machines usedwith drift mining or pillar mining, one miner operates the machine, varieties of machines used since 1940's. Paired with conveyor systems to transport coal out of the mine.
advantages: constant flow of caol out of mine, uses less workers.
disadvantages: sometimes the machines arent alway productive, then one loses money to pay for the machines to run without results

Long Wall Mining- highly effecient, huge machines support roof with hydraulics and once the coal os removed, the machine retreats and roof caves in.
advantages: can gather a lot more coal
disadvantages: more dust is generated at a dangerous rate



http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00461/shaft.htm

How Coal is Formed

     Coal formed in during the Pennsylvannian Period. Dead plant remains in swamp areas form peat. When the sun's light hits the plants it excites the electrons in chlorophyll. The high energy creates ATP and electron carriers. The ATP and electron carroers form bonds with CO2 to make carbohydrates.  After this the peat is pressurized and compacted over many years.

Excel Aerosol Charts

 

 

 

Aerosols Effect on Climate Change

I predict that aerosols will impact climate change in a couple ways. The aerosol particles that are the same size as the sun's energy waves will reflect the suns energy back into the atmosphere. This will reduce the amount of energy that enters earth's atmosphere and become absorbed by the earth's surface. However that does not mean that all of the sun's energy will be reflected.

 Most of the energy will enter the earth's atmosphere and be either reflected by a light surface or absorbed by a dark surface. In urbanized areas of the world, the energy is absorbed and re-emitted as long wave infrared radiation. This causes the urban areas to be much hotter. This radiation, is trapped on earth by aerosols. The more aerosols in the air, the more cloud coverage. According to Aerosols and Climate Change by Mary Hardin and Ralph Kahn, the clouds will trap the radiation on earth causing there to be a hotter climate. A hotter climate means that more moisture is evaporating and being soaked up by the clouds. This causes more rain fall but in various places. To add to the rain fall, the ice caps will melt and the sea levels will rise. 

Summary of Notes

The atmosphere is made up of a variety of gases. Some of which are contributors to the greenhouse effect. These factors are water vapor and carbon dioxide. Because of fossil fuels, carbon dioxide levels have risen 18% since 1958. To better understand the greenhouse effect and the things that contribute to this issue we also have to understand air pressure. Vertical air pressure decreases with height. So the farther you travel into outer space the less vertical air pressure there is to impact you.
Solar radiation involves two concepts, Albedo and Absorption. Albedo is the energy that is reflected back into space. Absorption is not reflected but re-emits the energy as long wave infrared radiation. This is important because this is a major component in the Urban Heat Island Effect. This means where ever there is a city or an urban area, the re-emitted energy is higher there, thus the temperature is higher.  Relative Humidity is the amount of water that the air can hold. Humidity is the water vapor stuck between air molecules.

My Group Analysis

When I worked with my group I found 3 things that I thought we did really well and 3 things I thought we did poorly.
1. Not to make me sound bossy, but I think my gorup took direction really well. I could tell them to do something and they would accomplish it.
2. Our power point was presented really well.
3. We made our calculations as acurate as possible.

1. My group got distracted easily.
2. I think we could have had a stronger work ethic.
3. My group had a problem with just wasting time, so at the last minute we were rushing to get things done because we wasted so much time.

Aerosols

Aerosols are a big part of our ozone. Aerosols are any particles that are suspended in the air. Although the aerosols themselves do not effect the ozone it is the gas inside the aerosol cans that effect the ozone. This gas is called CFC: chloral floral carbon.  This gas has a dangerous effect on our ozone layer. This gas is illegal to use for a propellant and it is illegal to put into the air.

Aerosols should be studied because they are emmitted into our atmosphere and effect our planet. Studying this concept will provide new ideas to solve the issue of our deteriorating ozone. Aerosols effect the amount of rain fall. So if aerosols are studied scientists can learn more about the water cycle. Not only will this study shed some light on the water cycle but also the track the effects of dust storms, volcanic eruptions and pollution across the world.

Why Should Surface Ozone be Studied?

Surface Ozone should be studied for a few reasons. First surface ozone is an issue. What is surface ozone? Ozone occurs naturally in the atmosphere. The stratosphere blocks Ultra Violet rays and the tropospheric ozone is a major part of smog. Smog damages plants, animals, and people. 
Tropospheric ozone is a major part of smog, damages plants, animals, and people.
Ozone is formed from UV reacting with NO2 from natural sources. It can be harmful to the environment. Ozone is made up from different levels of harmful ozone such as smog. In places like LA, smog is very prominent because the there isn't a natural breeze to carry all of the pollutants away. At certain levels of this toxicity, it may become lethal to humans.  The ozone is depleted from free radical catalysts such as, NO, OH, Cl and Br. The ozone can conflict with the plants ability to soak up Carbon Dioxide. This means that if the plants cant soak up the Carbon Dioxide, the gas will remain in the air and contribute to the global warming.

Secondly, we can research this subject we may be able to find ways to correct the problem. In the 70's refridgerators contained CFC's which are very harmful to the ozone.  Know one knew that CFC's were harmful to the ozone and now we know that. We know that through research. If we study this concept further we can know exactly how much ozone is in the atmosphere and know how much of a problem it really is. If we know how bad the problem is, we can know its progress and seek ways to correct this issue.

Transect Procedure

1. Mark off transect area of 100 square meters.
2. Measure circumference of a tree in section.
3. Identify the tree.
4. Calculate top and bottom slope, using a clinometer.
5. Calculate tree value using board feet calculations.
6. Use Arc GIS Software to estimate the amount of land on the HHS campus.
7. Calculate the value of the campus using the timber value from all the transects.

A Decision to Make

This year I had to make a decision of whether or not I was going to join the Speech and Debate team. This decision involved a few steps. First I asked the question of how much stress was this going to add to my life? How much stress would it add to my family's life and was I ready to deal with that extra stress?  This is my senior year and with being president of Thespians and aiming to be Stage Manager, was I ready to add another thing to my plate? Next I did some background research about all the work involved. Would I be dedicated to completing the work on time and doing my best in every aspect of the team?  I had to think about all the competitions involved. Would I be able to go to all of the tournaments? Finally after I analyzed the data, I drew my conclusion that to start the Speech and Debate team in my Senior Year would not be a wise choice. I would not be able to do these things to the best of my ability. I communicated my results to Mrs. Freeman that I would not be joining the Speech and Debate Team.

About Moi!

Good Afternoon! My name is Elizabeth but I prefer to be called Liz. I am involved in Theater. I am currently the President of our Thespian Troupe. I am very excited about this year as far as Thespians go. I am glad this is my senior year but I am also nervous about colleges. I plan on going to a Bible Institute after this year and had planned on going to Marshall but now I am looking at NKU or UK. I thought I was sure of my future but I guess nothing is ever set in stone.

This summer was one of the best summers of my life. I worked at a Christian camp as a counselor. Although I have done this before many things happened for the first time. To start it all off I taught a young girl adopted from Ethiopia how to read. That was very difficult. I tried to teach her that to say "Her is messy," is not correct but I think she may have been set in her ways. Next I shot a shot gun for the first time. Not at camp if thats what you're thinking. It was over the weekend. I also used a glock. WOW was that hard! Then I rode on a "crotch rocket" and in a Jeep for the first time. We raced in the Jeep against a friend on a four wheeler. The four wheeler won...

While at camp we had a skit night. My friend Jason and I performed a silly skit called "The Twins" he and I were twin brother and sister who could feel each other's pain. It was all improv and went quite well. My brother and I were in a skit called "Hot Koolaid" a tribute to Julian Smith a phenomenal comedian on Youtube. that went really well we changed a few things because we just do it from memory. We don't just do silly skits; we also perform serious skits with spiritual meaning. I believe the Lord worked in the lives of the young people who attended through skits, memory verses, morning and night time devotions and also chapel services. I am glad I was able to work at Camp Evangel this summer and look forward to another year!

http://campevangel.org/