Formulating Water Quality Reports

Over the past week and a half JJ has asked me to research what a water quality report looks like. I looked at various water quality reports from New York City, Tuscaloosa, and various ones from the EPA's website. 

Every water quality report had these basic components:

Title

Goal of report/what was being tested

Outline where water came from

How the water is treated

Table of contamination and Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) 

Definitions for words that readers may not be interested in

Planning/Improvement

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I sent JJ a water quality report with each of these topics. JJ suggested that I add more flow and explain more about the logistics and contamination testing of this study. JJ asked me to explain the MCL and health problems associated with the problems this water quality report tested for: turbidity, pH, residual chlorine, and thermo tolerant coliforms. She suggested that I add an explanation about each of these problems and give directions to the participant of how best to fix them. 

I am having difficulty finding an explanation of residual chlorine that will help me understand its importance in regards to environmental/public health. I sent JJ my most recent copy of the water quality report and I haven't heard back from her yet. I hope it is all right, it was much more difficult to create a water quality assessment from scratch. I have definitely grown an appreciation for those who create these professional, easily understood, and relatively short documents. 

I emailed Sue and Margaret in the New College office to try to find a quote for using the New College letterhead, envelope, and stamps. Margaret informed me that I should have the post office weigh the final water quality assessment to have a more accurate postal stamp fee for all 300 reports. Margaret also told me that they buy New College letterhead in bulk, so it would be difficult to estimate how much it would cost to print each report. 

Since school started I haven't heard much from JJ, and I am very anxious to help her finalize and send out each of these water quality reports to the residents we collected samples from in Hale County. 

Justinn

http://www.epa.gov/safewater/contaminants/ecoli.html

Continued Research/Update

For the past couple of weeks I have been sending JJ the articles she requested using the keywords on the previous post. I found a good number of articles on a new database I found about all things sustainable a "green" called GreenFILE. It was very easy to find new and interesting articles on this database. I found some articles about well contamination and various gastrointestinal problems associated with rural water. 

JJ seemed excited about some of the articles; not all of them applied directly to the research but provided good background research or methods that could be useful for her research. 

I helped JJ complete a Water Systems Table. In this table I called various water departments throughout Wilcox and Sumter County. I asked the appropriate person (usually the individuals who the phone didn't know the answers to the questions I asked)if the water was public or privately owned. Then I asked what the connection fee is (not including the meter cost) and the basic rate/overcharge for water. The final question asked them to estimate how many people were not connected to water in their area... most people had no idea. 

The people I spoke with were genuinely rude. They were impatient and seemed annoyed. On this table JJ filled in the blank if the water department had ground or surface water and if they had surface water I had to ask a couple extra questions:

1.  If the water system uses surface water (you can get this info from the table), then ask where the water is coming from, what is the source?  

2.  If the water system uses purchased surface water, where do they purchase it from?

I had no idea the way water was charged to individuals. I didn't realize there was a rate for 2000 gallons (usually) and then an overcharge rate per 1000 gallons used. 

I am waiting for a phone call this morning to see how I can help her today. It's hard to believe there has been a death and a birth in my family within two weeks, thus I have been in Birmingham a lot. JJ mentioned sending out the water quality reports to the 300 residents as part of my next task. 

I am looking forward to being back in Tuscaloosa post finals, birth, death, and ready to help here. 

-Justinn

Water Quality Work-Research

I met with JJ last week and she discussed her plans and expectations for me over the next week.

I will be working on a Lit. Review of the following topics:

• rural water systems
• U.S., Alabama
• Black Belt 
• problems associated with the water system
• efficient water systems
• Selma chalk formation (layer in Black Belt, keeps ground from perking, keeps well shallow/sanitation issues, where it is located in areas of groundwater and sanitation)
• data on failure of water systems 
• public health impacts

She explained the main goal of this project/lit review is to quantify impact of people's health as a result of water. 

I asked JJ about how the money will be awarded for the proposal and she explained this proposal will force legislation to fix the infrastructure problems. Essentially, this research will supply the EPA with the knowledge that something is wrong rural water quality and needs attention. 

____

This past week my grandfather's health was extremely bad so I went home each day. My grandfather passed away on Thursday and everything has stood still. I have sent JJ a couple articles but not enough... I plan to send more later today.

Best,

Justinn