Communicating Science about the Gold King Mine Spill and Water Quality in the Animas River Project:
Essential Questions:
How have geological, biological and human factors created and exacerbated acid mine drainage and water quality issues in the Animas River?
What ecological and human health threats might be associated with the Gold King Mine spill: initially, currently and in the future?
What actions can be taken to improve the water quality in Cement Creek and the Animas River watershed?
What is the role of science in making policy decisions?
Chemistry Project Reflection:
To what degree do scientists have an obligation to communicate scientific concepts and data to the public in an understandable manner?
It’s very important for scientists to communicate scientific concepts and data to the public in an understandable manner because one of the very purposes of science is to understand things and their applicability to us. It’s important for people to understand scientific findings so that we can know how it impacts us, how it impacts things related to us, and what we should do with the information we know. With the Gold King Mine spill, scientists studied the spill and found this information. They found how the spill impacted us, at least health-wise, and how it impacted agriculture and the environment. They also found out how we could use . It’s important for people to be aware of how they came to these conclusions so that they can better understand what happened themselves. The data that the EPA had wasn’t exactly understandable. We as students could understand it only because we learned what certain things such as the MDL, sample locations, and sample numbers were. If a regular member of the community saw the EPA results, it might seem overwhelming or over-complicated to try and understand. So it’s important that we used the EPA data and answered common questions of the community in a comprehensible way. This way, more people can be educated about what happened during the spill and what we can do from here.
How has your understanding of scientific knowledge and/or the process of doing science changed throughout the semester as you’ve examined and manipulated data collected by professional scientists and performed analogous experiments to collect and analyze your own data?
My understanding of scientific knowledge has changed throughout this semester because I’ve learned so much about the processes used by the scientific community to understand the implications of the Gold King Mine Spill. I learned about how precipitates and spectroscopy work and how they were used to determine what metals were in the water. I also learned how water from the spill can be treated through titration. The area where I felt that I learned the most was in the area of spectroscopy. I was amazed at how I could understand things on a small, atomic level and the way that they were used to show what metals were present and how much was present. It was my favorite subject matter to learn about because I could understand and explain things on an atomic level. I’ve definitely learned how to write a good lab report through different parts like the introduction, abstract, discussion, etc. Before, I just thought that you needed a hypothesis, procedure, and a discussion to make a lab report complete. I wasn’t even aware that all these different parts existed. A huge thing that I’ve learned is that it’s okay to not know things. It’s not about finding the correct answers but understanding what you know and what you don’t know. I’ve found in labs where I get data that doesn’t make sense or isn’t what I expected it to be, I can explain what’s wrong instead of trying to make it right.
What ecological and human health threats might be associated with the Gold King Mine spill: initially, currently and in the future?
The ecological and human health threats that might be associated with the Gold King Mine spill were, overall, not extremely dangerous to human health. Initially, the spill caused the concentrations of metals such as calcium, copper, and iron to name a few, to spike dramatically. However, we can tell if these high levels have dangerous implications to the human body by using EPA water quality standards. These standards are determined by measuring the amount of a certain metal it takes for adverse side effects to happen in a person when they expose or ingest it over a period of time. For the EPA Surface Water Recreational Screening Level, the exposure level is 2 liters of surface water per day for 64 days. Although many metals surpassed those limitations during the plume peak, you would only see negative health results if you had consumed or been exposed to it for a long period of time. Therefore, we can assume that it wasn’t life-threatening or extremely dangerous. After the peak passed, the amounts of metals decreased to what their levels were before the spill. At these levels, most of the metals didn’t surpass any water quality standards, but there were several such as iron and aluminum. For the most part, these metals and therefore their health implications should stay the same. However, because of some of the leaking mines in the Animas River watershed, it’s likely that the amount of metals would rise as would the danger to human health. There were similar water quality standards for agricultural exposure to some of the metals, and their results were similar.
What is the role of science in making policy decisions?
The role of science in making policy decisions is huge. Science can help us determine whether certain policies are necessary or not. In the case of the Gold King Mine spill, one of the big debates was how to clean up the river. On one side, people wanted to designate the site a Superfund, which would use a water treatment plant to clean the river. However, others didn’t want this and wanted a more local-based effort. This is where the science of the spill comes in. We can use science to determine whether or not the levels of metals in the river are dangerous enough to be worth a water treatment plant. Science also determines what the water treatment methods are and if they are effective or not.
Spectroscopic Investigation of What Metals are in the Animas River Watershed Lab Report
In this lab, I found what metals were in the Animas River using spectroscopy. This lab helped me learn about spectroscopy and models of the atom, but it also related back to the Gold King Mine Spill by determining what metals were present and how concentrated they were.