On friday the twenty second, my AP environmental science class had the opportunity to go the wastewater treatment plant in Franklin New Hampshire. The trip started with Alan pulling into the road the treatment plant was connected to. One the right we could see a river and on the left we could see what looked like a man made pile of dirt, which Alan pointed out was actually landfill. We followed the road till we reached a series of buildings, most of them brick. We all hopped out of the buss and into the cold. Alan led us into one of the buildings where we were introduced to Art and Ken, workers at the plant.

Ken began talking about basic information on the plant and then proceeded to talk about the Clean Water Act, an act establishing the basic structure for regulating pollutants released into the waters of the United States. Ken talked about how the Clean Water act produced the money to make the plant and others like it. Ken seemed thankful for the treatment plan as he recalled the condition of the river before the plant; “when you looked at a river all you saw was toilet paper, feces, anything that was flushed went to the rivers”. After our talk, ken led us outside and to the Headworks, where the water first enters the plant. Ken talked about how this is where they measure how much water enters the plant. After the brief stop at the Headworks, our class was taken to the primary clarifier where oils, greases, and solids are removed. Ken the listed the three types of solids that they remove from this tank. “It has three types of solids. You have floatable solids which is household grease or anything that floats… you have sedible solids that will settle out from the bottom… and the third solid is dissolved solids… those solids tend to be treated down the line” Ken then points out what looks like a huge dust pan that sits along the edge of the clarifier. Ken says that its used mostly to pick up the grease where it then gets pumped downward and removed. Once it was time to move on, Ken and Art took us to the secondary clarifier and aeration basin. Ken and Art then go on to describe how the secondary clarifier removes all the solids that the primary clarifier missed. Art then points out the aeration basin where microorganisms eat dissolved solids “All these tanks right here are full of microorganisms. There in there and there consuming a lot of those dissolved solids Ken was talking about” Art says. The group then moved on and down through an underground tunnel where the we got to see the more technical aspect of the operation. Ken and Art proceed to identified a number of pipes and pumps as we wandered towards the exit. Our final stop was at the filtration and disinfection building, the final stop before water is released back into the water. Ken and Art explain that using ultraviolet light is far better than using chlorine because adding chemicals is less eco friendly. That concluded our tour of the wastewater treatment plant and the class was then driven back to school.

Before going on this field trip I had never seen a treatment plant before so everything I saw there was totally new to me. I learned alot from Art and Ken who were super welcoming. I think one of the coolest things I learned about during my visit was how the treatment plant actually controls how many microorganisms exist in the aeration tank. I remember Ken talking about they treat micro organisms like humans. They need appropriate living conditions, and food just like us. Before coming on this field trip I could never really think of any large scale solutions the government has used to help the environment. Now I realize that the government does help and that the treatment plant is a perfect example. This field trip ultimately left me feeling more hopeful about our environment future than I was before.

Last week our AP environmental sciences took a field trip to the Andover transfer station. The station is small but then again so is Andover. The station was made up of numerous buildings, compartments and dirt roads. The first part of the station we visited was a small building with two men inside. One of the men’s job is watch out for trash that’s not supposed to be in the compactor and he does this through a window on the inside of the building. After introducing ourselves, the two men started talking about the transfer station. The transfer station handles aluminum, cardboard, paper, plastic, and glass. The sorting of these materials occurs in different containers in which trash can simply be throne into. After this some of the materials can be compacted. The men talk about how materials compact differently. One of the men says “towards the end, it is very hard to compact the plastic” and Alan notes that this is because plastic retains its shape. Since there is no value in compacting glass the men explain how they send it New London where it is used in road base. After this Alan brought up something we talked about in class, China and the price drop on paper. The men talk about how this isn’t necessarily an issue because the markets might improve before they can even afford to ship it. The next thing the men talked about was incineration as means to get rid of trash. The only thing they are aloud to burn is pallets and trees. This is because burning anything else may result in toxic chemicals polluting the area. E-waste is also another source of toxic chemicals, this is why electronics must be processed before their parts can be reused. This concluded our conversation and our group moved on to see the rest of the facility.

I personally enjoyed the field trip to the transfer station. The workers were very friendly and I could tell they enjoyed talking about their jobs to us. My biggest takeaway from the trip was how difficult it seemed to manage the waist and to avoid trash build up. Another thing that I thought about after the trip was how different my transfer station from home was. I feel the main difference in my transfer station is that since my town is more populated it needs more means to process trash. I really enjoyed this trip and it has definitely educated me on just how much trash the human race makes.

In our AP environmental science class we are carrying out an experiment, trying to figure out how much waste we produce as individuals. On the first day of the experiment we were given trash bags and told from then on put all of our daily trash in it. After one week of collecting waste our class started finding data on each of our trash bags. We collected data on the different types of trash, weight of trash, and number of pieces.

What category of solid waste was most common in the room?

Plastic

What are the health impacts of plastics life cycle?

A.) It gets into the ocean and hurts ocean life

B.) releases chemicals into soil

C.) bad chemicals from plastic can get into groundwater

If my parent were doing this experiment how would it differ?

I believe that since my parents have more disposable income than I do that they would make more trash than me. Also shopping for house supplies is something that my parents do that I don’t.

Did I change the way I bought/consumed things during this experiment?

Since I wanted to keep my trash bag on me I tried to make a point of keeping my consumption low so that I wouldn’t have to carry around as much waste. At times I would want to go to jakes but wouldn’t, because I didn’t want to make more trash. Also when I did buy jakes, I only bought items with a small volume.

Significant aspects of this experiment.

For me the most significant part of this experiment was seeing how I could lower the amount of waste I made by just being mindful about buy food. I feel that if everyone tried a little we could make a big difference with little change to our lifestyle.

Would I change anything about this experiment?

No

Kent Armstrong is apart of a company called Terrastryke. Terrastryke works in toxic waste removal and our class was lucky enough to listen to his experiences and what he does. When we had the opportunity to listen to Kent’s lecture he went over three main topics; regulations, remediation, and types of remediation. One of the first things that Kent talked about was the TSCA, or Toxic substance control act. This act was put into place to regulate existing chemicals and the introduction of news ones. “Sometimes regs get crazy” says Kent. When Kent was discussing regulations one thing that stood out was an incident where a Lowe’s violated many of these regulations. Kent begins by saying “they violated every law you could imagine.” The Lowe’s had PCBs in the areas soil. PCB is polychlorinated biphenyl and can cause respiratory problems, Chlorance , and skin lesions. One law that was broken was the RCRA law, which regulates where water is transported, instead of following these regulations the Lowe’s moved the soil off site and hid it under a tarp. One thing Kent mentioned in his presentation was the Love Canal site. This site was near Niagara falls and involved 70 acres of toxic landfill. This site had to be cleaned through a superfund site. A Superfund sites is a polluted area that the government takes into its program and cleans.

One of the last things we got to hear Kent talk about was different type of remediation. Kent described three types of remediation; excavating and disposing, thermal treatment, and bioremediation. Excavating and disposing is simply digging up the contaminated soil and moving it. The process is simple and cheap but risks spreading the contamination. Thermal treatment involves using technology to directly transfer heat to the soil, destroying toxins. This method is used for its highly predictable results. Bioremediation is using bugs or any life from to clean soil. Kent talked about how his job includes “teaching bugs how to eat toxins” this method is cheap but risks messing up the ecosystem in the area.

       

Although Kent’s presentation seemed at times all over the place, I found it to be very interesting. Kent really seemed to be passionate about his work which I found inspiring. I could really see that Kent was excited about talking to us. What I found most interesting about the experience was the bioremediation. Before hearing Kent I had no idea that living things could be used to clean up large scale contamination. The fact that we can manipulate microbes to eat toxins is quite amazing and it gets me thinking about what else we could use them for.

A.) I found more PBDEs in the meeting house. I think I found more In the meeting house because the furniture in there is much older than what’s in my room.

B.) The products I found that contained the most PBDEs were chairs. Most of the chairs in the meeting house had PBDEs including a rolling chair.

C.) the product I believe that gets the most use is chairs. The chairs in the meeting house get an especially high amount of use  

D.) I believe that the product the is the highest health risk is chairs. I feel this way because of how much time we spend in chairs. The chronic exposure from sitting in chairs would be great.

E.) I personally believe that the only way to address concerns over PBDEs is to find a way to make furniture flame retardant as well as non-toxic. We would have to devolve a new method for creating furniture or we could find a way to make retardants safe.

F.) After doing this activity and watching the movie I realized that PBDEs are inevitably going to be apart of someone’s life. I learned that we are all getting exposed to these chemicals on a daily basis. What I want to know is whether or not it is possible to make fire safe furniture without using flame retardants

Hello my name is Brewer Daley

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton