Mailing Water Quality Reports

 “Water Quality and Health in Alabama’s Black Belt”

Water Quality Report

Dear Customer Name,

As promised, in return for you participation in our study, The University of Alabama in conjunction with Hale Empowerment and Revitalization Organization (HERO) is pleased to present you with this water quality report.

Contact:

If you have any questions about this water quality report please contact:

Jessica J. Cook (JJ), University of Alabama Ph.D. student, at 205-499-0458, or jjcook@crimson.ua.edu

Joe Brown, University of Alabama professor, at 205-348-0418, or joebrown@bama.ua.edu

Thank you for your time and cooperation.

Sincerely,

Jessica J. Cook

Ph.D. Student Biological Sciences

Your Water Quality Results:

 

Indicator	Your Sample Results	Recommended Value	Meets EPA Recommended Value
Thermo-tolerant coliforms Bacteria		Zero in 100 ml sample	Y/N
Free Chlorine Residual		Detectable level of free chlorine (>0.1 mg/l)  at the household tap (applicable only for those customers on the water supply system (not well)	Y/N
pH		Normal pH between 6.5-8.5	Y/N
Turbidity		1 NTU	Y/N

 

PLEASE NOTE.  These data are based on one drinking water sample only and may not be indicative of your drinking water quality over long term periods.  We do recommend treating water by boiling if your drinking water sample tested positive for thermotolerant coliform bacteria, as this may indicate contamination.    To treat water by boiling, bring water to a rolling boil for at least one minute before consumption.   Note that many commercially available water filters (for example, Brita) may not be designed to remove bacteria or other waterborne microbes potentially present in water.  

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Above is the final water quality report that will be sent out to all of the residents of Hale County. For the past week I have been battling my printer to print out all of the labels for each of the residents that JJ/I collected samples from. As a "child of technology," I am afraid to say that I missed the majority of computer class. I had completely forgotten how to print an address directly onto an envelope. After a day of wasting envelopes and printing on them over and over again, I decided that labels were the way to go. I went to Office Depot and bought some Avery white blank labels and use an online software and have been knocking these addresses out. 

Some of the addresses on the excel spreadsheet JJ sent to me did not have names, so I typed "Current Resident" as the name. About 25 of the individuals that we collected water samples from did not have addresses. I used YellowPages.com to find those individuals addresses; if they did not have their address listed in the Yellow Pages I gave the individual a quick phone call. Each of these individuals I spoke with on the phone were very apprehensive about giving me their mailing address. On the first couple of phone calls I told people I was with The University of Alabama and they were confused. I decided after the first couple people to start by introducing myself and saying I am working with HERO. I figured everyone in Hale County has some sort of fimiliarity with HERO. 

I picked up the New College/University of Alabama official letterhead and hope to start filling in the data portion and customer name for each of the participants in this study. Hopefully, I won't have as many problems printing the actual report as I did printing on the envelopes. I believe we are going to send out the water quality report through the University. I am not really sure how that will work logistically, I will have to ask Margaret in the New College office.

I spoke with Dr. Brown today and he wants me to conclude this project with a paper that explains what I did in this study (participating in water sample and data collection, preparation and distribution of water quality reports, data collection for the EPA proposal) and outline how this study contributed to my learning and the people of Hale County.

For the rest of the week and over the weekend, I hope to complete filling out and printing the water quality reports.

Justinn

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

Contact Us

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

Last of the Samples Processed

An example of a run sample without bacterial growth

Incubate at 112 degrees

Samples inside Petri Dishes

Filtration Apparatus 

Some of the bottles used for the study

This week I met JJ in the lab in the mornings to help her run the last of the water samples. She needs each water sample run through the filtration apparatus, the pH, the total chlorine, and the free chlorine. 

Once the water had been run through the filtration system and all of the tests are completed we placed the petri dishes in an incubator for 18 hours at 112 degrees to encourage the growth of thermo-tolerant coliforms.

Tuesday: I cleaned some petri dishes and checked the pH, free/total chlorine

Wednesday: Continued checking pH, free/total chlorine 

Thursday: Continued checking pH, free/total chlorine and that afternoon I placed the petri dishes into the incubator for 18 hours.

This morning- I went to the lab and removed the petri dishes from the incubator and went through each sample to check for pink or yellow spots of bacteria growth. The presence of pink bacterial growth shows a great presence of iron in the water. The presence of yellow bacterial growth shows a presence of thermo-tolerant coliforms. 

I am also supplementing this work in the lab by reading a presentation that JJ sent me outlining the details of the biology/infrastructure of Hale County and I am slowly but surely working through the large packet outlining what is needed for the proposal.

I will continue reading through this packet this weekend and write again soon. 

Justinn

Beginning of Water Quality Independent Study (NEW 312)

During this independent study I will be assisting JJ Cook, a University of Alabama Ph.D. student in conducting and analyzing water samples from individuals throughout Hale County. Once 300 samples have been collected and analyzed, I will be working on the narrative aspects of this EPA proposal/grant. I will assist JJ in the lab with the last of the water samples and organize this data into purposes that fit into the specifications of the EPA grant/proposal.  I will explore the broader significance of this water quality test in regards to infrastructurE problems in the United States and throughout the world. Along with the lab work and proposal, I will be keeping a narrative description of this independent study by updating my blog weekly with pictures of what I am doing and what I am getting out of this work. 

This past week JJ and I collected 16 samples a day of water from the northern part of Hale County (near Moundville). Once we collected all of these samples we spent Friday morning in the lab. JJ briefly showed me how she tested the water for bacteria. She showed me a couple samples that we collected last week that were full of bacteria. We discussed the logistics of how I am going to help her in this project. I am really looking forward to every aspect of this project. 

I am going to meet JJ tomorrow morning at the lab at 8 AM. I will take some pictures and upload them soon.

Justinn

Week Six/Conclusion

Seedlings 

Progress of raised beds and tomatoes

Sunken Beds Progress

Monday's Harvest

This week was a little bit slow. I worked on adding mulch to the tomato bed to further suppress the growth of weeds. This week I continued to tend to the garden by weeding, watering, harvesting, and planting (eg. marigolds). 

I continued to work with the kids until 10 AM and then go with JJ to help with the water quality work. 

In short, this week was the same as the last.

CONCLUSION:

This experience exposed me to many different types of people (ex. M students/graphic design, architecture students, HERO staff). My exposure to the inconsistencies in the water quality and living conditions of the individuals of Hale County helped me realize I want to work on environmental social justice issues in the future. 

Working in Greensboro has shown me I do want to work in a city rather than rural Alabama. 

I learned about the importance of the professional relationships between people in work settings... and how that relationship reflects on every one's job performance. 

My experience in the garden was exceptional. It was very cool seeing the seeds grow to these large plants bearing vegetables within the five weeks I was there. It was a cool experience digging the sunken beds (although it was hot as hell) and learning various things from Pam, Lydia, and the gardeners around town. 

I am really glad I was given the opportunity to intern at HERO. It's hard to believe that the people of Hale County and the surrounding Black Belt counties are so impoverished and lacking in resources. I hope to help individuals similar to HERO in the future.