Society of Environmentally Focused Students is exhibiting on April 10th!

Title: Features of Water Treatment

Program Info:
The Society of Environmentally Focused Students (SEFS) is a student-run group of the Civil and Environmental Engineering department. The group comprises graduate students from the Environmental and Water Resources Division, whose focus areas span the range of Environmental Engineering.

Abstract:
Our display will be based on drinking water treatment, demonstrating the importance of three environmental characteristics in producing clean drinking water. Three interesting water treatment features will be shown:

(1) A simulation of the coagulation/flocculation process of water treatment:
This test simulates one step in the treatment of water to produce clean drinking water. It is a simple demonstration of the process by which solids are removed from water in drinking water treatment. The test is based on visual comparison, and therefore can be quite interactive through asking children to choose which water they would want to drink.

(2) Bacterial cultures from water samples before and after treatment:
Bacterial cultures originating from different water sources will be displayed. Water sources ranging from very dirty (wastewater) to very clean (drinking water) were chosen for this experiment as a way to visually detect differences in bacterial quantities and water quality.

(3) The role of pH:
pH is a measure of how acidic or basic a solution is. This is measured on a scale that ranges from 1-14, with 1 being the most acidic, 14 being the most basic and 7 being neutral. Pure water is said to be neutral, with a pH close to 7.0. The pH of human blood is usually slightly basic with a value of pH 7.4. To demonstrate the pH ranges we will use graphic displays and examples of various liquids that span the pH range, as well as pH indicators that can show what the pH of something is.