For the week 6 overview I met up with you Dr.glenn to talk bout the data readings. I have filled out the data physical assessment sheet and looked at eachs total habitat assessment score, their bank stability, vegetation Protection, some sediment deposit, and frequency of riffles. Looking at the total assessment scores HUC was 118, HUC 50 was 131, and HUC 60 was a 101. Now reading off of the grading rubric that you gave us recently, I can conclude for the low G total assessment for each: HUC 60 just being sub optimal , and HUCs 50 and 40 being sub optimal. However HUC didn't have that much data so it was hard to see a data change. HUC 60 once was at 136, but went up in quality. HUC 50 stayed just about the same the whole years.
I also looked with you on the new excel sheet for the chemical and mineral readings in the water. The chemical readings in the water I did not put into the paper, I only could do the physical because they were printed out, and I was having a hard time figuring out the excel sheet still, working around to navigate through it. I also did not have enough paper to print out that many pages.
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Chapter four mentions the importance of the dangers of nuclear power, if used in an improper and careless setting. Nuclear power is better for the environment than fossil fuels, however, if a nuclear power plant malfunctions, or a mistake is made and left unnoticed, there can be tragic consequences that can cost people there lives long and short term.
For example, to our neighbors next door in Pennsylvania, three mile island was famous for the amount of the toxic nuclear tailings that were emitted from the power plant, and went into the ecosystem. It contaminated the Susquehanna River and affected all plants and animals around it. Looking at the worst disaster in history, Chernobyl caused the death of over 50 people with radiation poisoning and affected thousands later developing cancer, which would cause them their lives. the entire city had to be evacuated and remains a ghost town. Chernobyl had a fire, and there was radioactive smoke that went into the air. I honestly didn't know there was such a thing as radioactive smoke. New Jersey Also had a history of radioactive problems. Next town over from Seton Hall/South Orange, was the town of Orange. Radium was used in building factories as a paint coating for objects that would end up glowing in the dark. I read the book Radium girls my freshmen year that showed what they did and how they got hurt from using it. The radioactive element radium was used with no protection by the workers and people even ingested it by mouth from paintbrushes to wet the tips. People also took radium supplements, believing they would live longer, when it made them go blind, crazy, lose fingers, and feeling in limbs, as well as Cancer. This wonder product, ended up being the health problems of many people and now because of the dangers experienced with it, there are safety regulations today with radium. Safety regulations usually form after the disasters already happen from our direct experiences. Hopefully nuclear power shouldn't be used by all nations, because there are countries where the regulations aren't up to developed countries like the US. So there could more likely be a disaster to occur and could increase the chances of harming the environment. Radiation goes into the air, and winds can shift over to other nations causing international problems. We should stick to harmless sources of energy that will give us safe and unlimited supplies of energy without hurting ourselves and the environment. For the fifth week, we got together before class started, and we divided up the data results by the three of us. I was responsible for area group numbers 40, 50, and 60. There is still a great deal of the data. We have not called the lady who's number you gave us yet. But tomorrow after my morning classes I plan on calling her to decipher the data. When I got the data sheets fro you that you so ever kindly printed for us, we took them for ourselves and divided them. My 60 and 50 zone area were even in length, however, my 40 zone area only had a page and a half. So either someone in my group has it, or there was only a page and a half compared to the other, which had 8-10 each.
I finally did manage to sort them out, and I will have to either look at the AmeriCorps spreadsheet again, or talk to my group. Sorry for the late posts. From reading chapter 3, the author mentions the drinking water process for the tap water that many Americans drink. There have been low levels of carcinogens and have been building up over the years with the populations intake. Many people thought that tap water was filtered in a clean process. However that is not what it seems. The process is outdated and people take in all of these carcinogens.
I grew up with my mother teaching me to never drink the tap water, our water was always hard from the rock quarry and large lime deposits in the area near me. We used spring water thankfully. However, we still may have ingested it by skin from running through the sprinkler or other things. From reading the second chapter, the author talks about the chemicals that get polluted into the water from industrial companies that pollute NJ's waters. They get absorbed by the fish and every living thing in the water, and we eat the fish in the water, as well as drink it in some cases. This gives the residents chemical intake from the fish, who intook it directly from the water, and suffer from cancer causing agents. If we do nothing the chemical will not go away, they will keep dumping.
Today we will be going over with Dr. Glenn how to interpret the extremely complicated datasheet. Hopefully we will know what to do After.
From reading chapter one of the book, it reveals many different diseases, especially cancer in New Jersey. It goes back to the Nixon administration where he creates a war on cancer. He ended up creating many environmental laws and the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency, which is pretty interesting because one, a republican made this, and two, environmental protection and legislation at the time was a bipartisan issue. It was later discovered around that time that many people’s sicknesses from diseases like cancer were linked to exposure to many different toxins over many of years. In fact, studies show that areas where there are highly industrialized areas and factories such as cities and places where resources are processed, there are higher rates of cancer. It was extremely hard to come up with this data, because for one data like this takes an extremely long time to record, not to mention the cost is very high. After these results came back, New Jersey was one of the first to take action with legislation. People soon became aware of the dangers that were around them in the water and in the air from these factories and industrialized areas. Other states soon followed from New Jersey’s actions, which led to what we have today.
Currently this week we will be going over how to read and interpret the data from the excel spreadsheet with Dr. Glenn. Hopefully after we will be able to view the trends over time, and then make our own readings and then compare them with the previous data.
Looking at the excel sheet, there are 10's of thousands of data samples and collections over the years. I really don't understand what all the numbers are for, but from trying to figure it out it has a list of measurements from PH, acidity, hardness, and other things such as calcium levels. I don't know what level is adequate for each, but I'm going to have to do more research and ask dr. glenn and my team to interpret this plethora of data.
River testing is extremely important and without it the people in communities can be at danger if something is or could possible pollute the drinking water. River testing allows us to not only monitor what's in our own drinking water, but allows the community to realize the area's limitations of what they can and cannot do to nature and raise awareness for their actions. Thanks to the previous river testing results from the last 20 years, we can compare previous trends with our future recording this semester in two locations to monitor and research on the possibilities of where, why, and how South Orange's water is being treated. We will be monitoring at the base of South Mountain reservation, as well as down by Cameron park. Hopefully, after we compare our data with the previous data, we can see if our data fits the previous trends, or if it deviates in any way. If is does deviate for better or worse, we should investigate why this has happened. Personally, I feel pretty excited to go out into the field and start doing something hands on that would benefit the community around us. This would be like getting ready to take off the training wheels and start to take control. I know our group will be ready, and hopefully this will give us a lot of experience for the real world. http://www.nj.gov/dep/greenacres/ga50/photocontest.html |
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