Topic 2: LUST- Leaky(ing) Underground Storage Tank(s)- What are they? What do they usually contain? How common are they? What are the specific water quality hazards related to LUST? What are BTEX compounds? How can the specific problems of water quality related to LUST be addressed? Our atypical example of a LUST was the massive Greenpoint spill in Brooklyn, New York.
Topic 3: Desalination:
Blue: I can not taste any salt in this sample.
Green: I can taste some salt in this sample; however, I would be able to drink water that tasted like this.
Red: This sample is disgusting and I would only drink it if I was in Haiti or Bangladesh.
Why? -people live near the ocean (remember the 50-50- 50% of US population lives within 50 miles of the ocean) and there is lots of ocean water (97% of total near surface water)
How? -distillation (most = 85-90%) or filtration (reverse osmosis) (you should be able to describe the mechanisms for both techniques...)
Why not? -The big problem with desalination is that it is very energy intensive which means that it is expensive and it exacerbates existing pollution problems from energy. Quite a bit of research and effort is going into figuring out new filtration techniques that are more energy efficient (and cheaper). Other issues include danger to marine biota related to water intake (getting caught in poorly designed intake apparatuses) and discharge of highly saline waste water
On Wednesday, we will finish up with desalination with the "who?" and begin our discussion of dams. Please read the Introduction for Cadillac Desert before class.
Slides shown in lecture today have been posted as a .pdf to Sakai.
There is an outside lecture opportunity this Thursday.
The my maps page has been updated with the locations mentioned in today's lecture.
No comments:
Post a Comment