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Environmental Science Journal #5
Kursten Butler
Recently our Environmental Science class has been learning about the nearby reservoirs, and the effects there can be on the water we drink. There are ten reservoirs that we have recognized in class: Pine Hill, Kendall, Kettle Brook 1, Kettle Brook 2, Kettle Brook 3, Kettle Brook 4, Lynde Brook, Holden 1, Holden 2, and Quinapoxet. We mainly focused on six reservoirs though: Pine Hill, Kendall, Kettle Brook 1, Kettle Brook 2, Kettle Brook 3, and Kettle Brook 4. All ten reservoirs have different volumes of water, locations, and altitudes, making each individual reservoir important and unique. Since we drink these waters, it is important to have laws about waters such as the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act. Primary protection barriers of each reservoir to prevent pollution are also very important. All the reservoirs have different geography surrounding them, meaning different headwaters and watersheds. The Blackstone River watershed and the Nashua River watershed were talked about in our previous classes. Water is essential to life, and without clean reservoirs life cannot go on. (Will explain number of people in world with not enough water due to pollution in it) Water is very important to the world and learning about reservoirs makes everyone more aware of what needs to be kept clean to keep us living.
Focusing on the six reservoirs figure 1: Pine Hill reservoir.
our class visited, Pine Hill, Kendall, and Kettle Brook 1-4, each are all unique. Pine Hill has a capacity of 2971 million gallons of water, as well as an elevation of 744 feet. The Pine Hill reservoir is part of the Nashua River watershed. (see figure 1) Pine Hill reservoir stores 40% of Worcester’s public water supply. This past summer Worcester City officials and The Trust for Public Land announced a Watershed Preservation Restriction over 100 acres of land. This area, northwest of the reservoir, was unprotected, but not anymore. It contains over a mile and a half of brook frontage that needed to be protected and now is. (1) Kendall has a capacity of 792.2 million gallons of water, an elevation of 813 feet and is located in the Nashua River watershed. The Kendall reservoir is located in Holden and we observed it from Route 31. (see figure 2) While observing Kendall reservoir we took note that there were many trees, evergreens. Their growth pattern was odd though, so we came to the conclusion that it was unnatural or that a patch of the trees had been removed to create clean lines around the reservoir. Many deciduous trees bordered the reservoir; this means that the leaves fall off of these trees, landing into the water, making it more acidic after decomposition. If the water is tested to be too acidic, the coagulation/flocculation process will not work. If the pH balance is too low, chemicals cannot bind. Kendall reservoir has Route 31 going straight through the center of it, figure 2: Kendall reservoir.
many vehicles use this road. It is very possible then to have any leakage off of cars or trucks flow into the reservoir. People could also be careless driving by and throw something out their window into the reservoir. Pollution to the reservoir prevents us from drinking the water. Kettle Brook reservoir number one has a capacity of 19.3 million gallons of water, an elevation of 856 feet, and is in the Blackstone River watershed. It is located in Leicester and we viewed it from the Southwest corner of Mainville Street. (see figure 3) This reservoir is at high risk of contamination. The Leicester Recycling Center is located rather close to this reservoir. This is the smallest of all the reservoirs. After waters have flown out of this reservoir they are close to being drinkable after all of the steps. Construction on this dam was completed in 1920 and is owned by the city of Worcester. (2) Kettle Brook reservoir number three holds 152.2 gallons of water, is elevated at 1043.5 feet, and is part of the Blackstone River watershed. It is located in Paxton/Leicester and we viewed it from the eastside of Route 56. At this particular site it seemed as if the trees that were there were planted or perfectly aligned. Trees were either removed or planted to make such a straight edge along the reservoir. There were sites of white pine at this reservoir. The last reservoir we visited was Kettle Brook reservoir number four. This reservoir holds 513.7 million gallons of water, stands at an elevation of 1082.4 feet, and is located in the Blackstone River watershed. We viewed this reservoir from Paxton on the eastside of Route 56. Major roads intersect near this reservoir which may cause concern for pollution of the water from the litter that could occur. There are many trees around this reservoir; green pine, red pine, white pine, etc. The trees here were extremely tall, but it does not look like the trees were naturally grown. The trees seemed to be grown after farmland was no longer an option here. As of 1999, the largest recorded tree was a white pine, standing at 158.6 feet tall and 9.9 feet in girth. (3) I did not know trees could grow so tall, and knowing that they can, there is a reason they are so large at the reservoir.
The lands around the reservoirs were very crowded with trees, and there did not
figure 3: Kettle Brook reservoir 1. seem to be much free land. In past trips we learned about the use of land and how water may run off the land. At the Alta Vista Buffalo Farm there was a great amount of hilly land. This buffalo farm can have run off water, and if it happens to be contaminated it could pollute a nearby reservoir. Also, the land around the reservoirs would not be able to suit the buffalo we had visited, or the cows. Neither would have room to roam like they are used to. Also, at the Buffone Garden and Niceiwicz Farm their fruits and vegetables are always being attacked by aphids or other types of bugs and worms. At the reservoirs they have less of a worry about that because there is nothing but water. The main concern at the reservoirs is to keep the waters clean and not let it get polluted. Vehicles that could leak oils and falling leaves are the big concern for the reservoirs. Vehicles and leaves don’t necessarily affect the buffalo or cows at the other sites. A truck transporting buffalo meat or milk from the dairy farm could one day crash on a road nearby to the reservoir and deposit oil and whatever the truck held into the reservoir. This could be a tragic thing for Worcester’s public water supply. In conclusion, water is very important to Worcester and these reservoirs mean a lot. Keeping them clean is the goal.
ENDNOTES:
(1) Conserving Land for People. 2008.
http://www.tpl.org/tier3_cd.cfm?content_item_id=22431&folder_id=260
(2) Find Lakes.
http://findlakes.com/dark_brook_reservoir_massachusetts~ma00198.htm
(3) Big Trees of Massachusetts January 1999.
http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/mass/big_trees_ma_1999.htm
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Environmental Science Journal #6
Kursten Butler
Water is one of the most crucial products needed to live. Recently our environmental science class visited The Worcester Water Filtration Plant (Figure 1). There are ten reservoirs, all of which are not located in Worcester, but all must be processed in The Worcester Water Filtration Plant. All of the reservoirs are at different elevations as well as locations, requiring pumps and gravity feeds. Billions of gallons of water are stored at this plant. There is a multiple step process to filtering water and making it clean enough for the city of Worcester to drink. There are many different things that can occur while water is on its way to the plant. Water can easily be polluted when there are many trees, animals, and vehicles around the reservoirs. The Worcester Water Filtration Plant cleans the water and makes it drinkable. A lot of equipment is needed to run this plant; therefore there are many spare machines. The plant uses a lot of water everyday and every season, distributing much of it to Worcester everyday. In the plant there are many specific things that need to be protected and controlled because of the fact that the plant has electricity and water in it. Computers are also a very big contributor to this plant, controlling everything that runs mechanically. The Worcester Water Filtration Plant is very important to the town of Worcester and its people.
In the Worcester Water Filtration Plant all waters need to be pumped to the different elevated reservoirs. Reservoirs at the higher elevated areas have the waters pumped from storage tanks that allow the pressure to push the water to where it needs to be. While water is on its way to plant there are many possibilities as to what could happen to it. Many reservoirs are located along major Figure 1: Worcester Water Filtration Plant
roads that are heavily traveled, as well as surrounded by trees that bare leaves. Cars travel the roads and if they have any kind of leak it could run into the reservoir and pollute it. Trees that can bare leaves also allow their leaves to fall into the reservoirs. When leaves fall into the reservoir it causes it to be more acidic.
The plant uses extensive amounts of electricity to make everything possible in the processes needed to make water drinkable for Worcester. The plant uses about $290,000 a year on electricity. The electricity in the plant is a big risk though, seeing everything has water as part of it. Water and electricity do not work well together as we know. Moisture needs to be removed from the air anywhere there is electricity. There are refrigerant coolants that drop the air temperature and collect the condensation and then drain it. There are also twin towers as they call them in the plant. These towers contain air that is -100 degrees F. This means that the air would have to drop below that to create any sort of condensation on the pipes in which the water runs through. There is also a good amount of electricity used to run the computers which run the plant. These computers control everything that happens, and if they should shut down there is backup. If the plant loses power then there is a generator that runs the whole plant. If the plant happened to shut down for 6 hours or
more, the whole city of Figure 2: Color coated pipes.
Worcester would run out of water.
Also, all pipes in the plant are labeled. Some pipes carry non potable water. The pipes are color coated and labeled so that there is no cross connections in the plant. If there are any leaks the plant will also know whether the pipe that leaked will be a big threat to the water or not (Figure 2). Cross connections can pose many health risks; concluding in death in some. Cross connections usually happen outside the plant, in carwashes, processing centers, hospitals, metal plating and chemical plants, storage plants, sewage treatment plants, etc. (1) In most rooms of the plant there is no oil. If oil leaks happen to get into the water systems, it is undrinkable.
The plant began and regulations for it came from problems in Mississippi. There was on chlorine disinfectants before the plant was run by the owner now. Adam and polymer were also added to the water after the plant was started. There was a 99.9 % reduction after the coagulation started. Once the plant increased the pH balance then the copper count decreased greatly. There was also phosphate in the pipes to control lead.
Waste water is another big thing now because of the amount that is being obtained. Waste water treatments are available here, but in Italy they aren’t. Small communities in Italy cannot afford these advanced and specialized systems. Because of the growing interests in purified water in Italy, the demand for these systems is great. (2)
There are multiple steps to cleaning water so it is drinkable. Ozonation is the first step of the process, killing all bacteria, or most of what it can. The coagulation/flocculation (Figure 3) process is next. This is where chemicals are added to the water while mixing. The particles combine with aluminum sulfate and polymer, putting the water through coal, sand, and then gravel. Also chlorine and orthophosphate. If water is too acidic in the pipes they could corrode. This means lead and copper could infect the waters running through the pipes. Water is then pressurized to come out of the faucet.
Chlorine is the primary disinfectant for water in the U.S. as well as the world. Chlorine though, has health effects. Chloroform is a cancer causing agent, and by-products of the reaction between chlorine and the organic matter of water, create this agent. Chloramine has been tried in place of Chlorine, but it allows viruses. The use of chlorine creates less risk by far than if no chlorine was used. Figure 3: Coagulation/Flocculation.
There are no other alternatives that would not carry health risks. (3)
Water treatment is very important to living in America, as well as the rest of the world. The Worcester Water Filtration Plant is very useful, providing from the ten reservoirs. This plant makes water drinkable, removing all pollutants, and anything that could harm the people drinking it. Without clean water we could come down with deathly sicknesses. The Worcester Water Filtration Plant is very effective and convenient to us.
ENDNOTES:
(1) Ask The Experts.
http://www.nesc.wvu.edu/pdf/DW/ask_experts/OT_fall07_experts.pdf
(2) Lenntech.
http://www.lenntech.com/natural-wastewater-treatment.htm
(3) The Effects of Chlorine and Chlorination on Drinking Water.
http://extoxnet.orst.edu/faqs/safedrink/chlor.htm
