Bottlemania Homework Assignment

Over the last several decades drinking “fine waters” has become an emerging fad in elitist societies. For whatever the reason, people are paying up to several thousand dollars of water for a single bottle of water. After water has been filtered so many times and come from the most “natural” source, there has to be some other factors that differentiate one water company from the rest.

1.) Go to http://www.finewaters.com/Bottled_Water/index.asp and find the water that has been assigned to you. The water companies are separated by countries--click on the appropriate one.

CEB- Voss Water (Norway)
ACB- Equa (Brazil)
BAB- Aquadeco (Canada)
ASB- Island Ice (Australia)
CMCar- Aqua Pacific (Fiji)
CMC- Gota (Argentina)
GCA- Antipodes (New Zealand)
JBH- Te Waihou (New Zealand)
TJ- Hawaiian Springs (USA)
EAM- Berg (Canada)
DKM- Jana (Croatia)
TMM- Cape Grim (Australia)
JAP- Saint Geron (France)
TCR- Mondariz (Spain)
GSR- Tasmanian Rain (Australia)
RGS- Swiss Mountain (Switzerland)
VCS- Kona Deep (USA)
JWS- Bling H20 (USA)
CIS- Le Bleu (USA)
EAV- New York Springs (USA)
CV- Penguin Ice (Canada)
CMB- Walnut Grove (USA)
KAB- Iskilde (Denmark)
ACC- Peteroa 9500 (Chile)
JSD- Lelu (Micronesia)
DLG- Isbre (Norway)
SVG- DeVine (USA)
AMK- Malmberg (Sweden)
EGL- Icelandic Glacial (Iceland)
TSM- Himalayan Natural Spring (Nepal)—Google for web site
BGM- Vilas Del Turbon (Spain)
SMP- Karoo (South Africa)
CCR- Veen (Finland)
MARS- SoH20 (New Zealand)
RHR- Summit Spring (USA)
RBS- Sole (Italy)
CS- Cave H20 (Germany)
AHS- Blue Republic (South Africa)
MW- Etrusca (Italy)
ESY- Swisseau (Switzerland)

2.) View Fine Waters review of your bottled water company and then go to the company’s website.

3.) Answer the following questions in a word document and e-mail to Professor Low with Bottled Water Homework as the subject heading. You should be able to answer the majority of these questions from the company's website, but feel free to use google to find the answers you not listed on the site.

1.) Describe the source of the water? Is the water treated and how?

2.) What is their slogan? What is their hook/what are they selling? is it expensive, does it come from an unusually pristine environment? who drinks it?

3.) What is the virginality^TM of the water?

3.) What percentage of the people in the country had access to an improved water source in 2004?

4.) What is the minimum to maximum price range per 1-liter bottle cost?

5.) How many liters per year do they sell?

6.) How large is their company (in $)?

7.) Can you find any complaints by the local community about the company?

8.) Do they have a sustainability statement or use any other green-washing techniques? What are they?

9.) If you can find it, how much money do they spend on marketing?

10.) What is special about their water from taste to health benefits?

11.) Do they make outrageous claims about the taste or health or who recommends it?

12.) Use the information that you have gathered from the company website to write a 3 sentence promotional statement that would encourage someone to buy your specific brand of water?

13.) Describe the artistry inherent in the design of the bottle (if there isn’t a high level—just say it)

14.) Attach a picture of the bottle.

Blue Covenant Homework

1. Go to the resources page on Sakai and download the excel spreadsheet BCData.xls. This spreadsheet contains data from EarthTrends: The Environmental Information Portal and CIA The World Factbook.

2. You will be using this data to make three plots; the homework assignment will consist of these three plots, your interpretation of these plots, and some additional questions about the nature of the data. You will be looking at four sets of numbers for about 150 different countries.

a. Per Capita Actual Renewable Water Resources
b. % Access to an improved water source in 2004
c. % Access to improved sanitation in 2004
d. per capita gdp

3. Click on "Actual Renewable Water Resources: Per capita" at EarthTrends: The Environmental Information Portal, select "...or retrieve all data for this variable." and click on "View Technical Notes". Succinctly describe in your own words what is it that "Actual Renewable Water Resources: Per capita" measures.

4. Click on "Water and Sanitation: Access to an improved water source" at EarthTrends: The Environmental Information Portal, select "...or retrieve all data for this variable." and click on "View Technical Notes". Succinctly describe in your own words what is it that "Access to an improved water source" measures.

5. Click on "Water and Sanitation: Access to improved sanitation" at EarthTrends: The Environmental Information Portal, select "...or retrieve all data for this variable." and click on "View Technical Notes". Succinctly describe in your own words what is it that "Access to improved sanitation" measures.

6. Use the power of the internet to find a definition for per capita GDP. Succinctly describe in your own words what is it that per capita GDP measures.

7. Plot 1: in excel, plot % Access to improved water source in 2004 (y-axis) as a function of 2006 & 2007 average Per Capita Actual Renewable Water Resources (Cubic meters (m^3) per person per year) normalized to % of world average (x-axis)(highlight your two columns of interest and "insert" an (xy) scatter (plot) with only markers). Modify the x-axis so that it is logarithmic (right-click on one of the numbers on the axis, select "format axis" and then click the box next to "Logarithmic Scale"). Print out the graph, label the axis, and succinctly describe any trends that are evident in the data; specifically, how do any observed trends compare with any trends that you might have predicted?

8. Plot 2: in excel, plot % Access to improved water source in 2004 (y-axis) as a function of per capita gdp as % of world average (x-axis)(highlight your two columns of interest and "insert" an (xy) scatter (plot) with only markers). Modify the x-axis so that it is logarithmic (right-click on one of the numbers on the axis, select "format axis" and then click the box next to "Logarithmic Scale"). Print out the graph, label the axis, and succinctly describe any trends that are evident in the data; specifically, how do any trends compare with any trends that you might have predicted?

9. Plot 3: in excel, plot % Access to improved sanitation in 2004 (y-axis) as a function of per capita gdp as % of world average (x-axis) (highlight your two columns of interest and "insert" an (xy) scatter (plot) with only markers). Modify the x-axis so that it is logarithmic (right-click on one of the numbers on the axis, select "format axis" and then click the box next to "Logarithmic Scale"). Print out the graph, label the axis, and succinctly describe any trends that are evident in the data; specifically, how do any trends compare with the trends from Plot 2?

10. Sort the data by “% Access to an improved water source in 2004”. When you look through the list of data, is there any general inference to be made about the different regions of the world? That is, do some regions’ countries tend to belong in one end of the spectrum, or in the middle? The regions are: Europe, The Middle East, Asia, Africa, South America, Oceania and North America.

11. This homework assignment is is due Friday, April 2 at the beginning of class as a printed hard copy.

Water Footprint Homework

So, for the water footprint homework assignment, I have decided to change things a little bit by having you compare the results of four different calculators. This is due to my dislike for each of the four calculators for one reason or another (see comments below).

The extended calculator at www.waterfootprint.org is the most extensive of the four and is quite thorough with agricultural and domestic water use but uses only income to calculate most of your industrial use. Also, while the domestic use inputs are relatively straight forward, the ag (food) are not. How long would it take you to determine how many kilograms of starchy roots, on average, you eat per week? For someone who really wants to get a good handle on their water use (particularly related to their food consumption), this is a good way of going about it; for our purposes, it is not. For the income input in this calculator, I would like for you to use the median income for 25+ years old with a Bachelor's Degree of higher ($60,493 for men, and $40,483 for women) according to the US Department of Commerce.

On the other end of the spectrum, Unilever via Go Blue has a promised One Minute Water Calculator which takes into consideration only domestic use, which, as we learned today accounts for only 9% of total water use in the USA.

The calculator at www.h20conserve.org is heavy on the domestic use inputs but also looks at a few additional non-ag consumption factors like bottled water, recycling, and rainwater harvesting. It also states at the end that the average American uses 1,190.5 gallons of water per day which is few less than the 1800 that is used more often (Hoekstra and Chapagain, 2007)

The Kemira water footprint calculator has a good variety of a limited number of inputs and certainly has the most impressive graphics.

Go to Sakai and complete a footprint using each of the four footprint calculators. Use your living situation here in Lex for your calculations. This homework assignment is set to "survey" mode and so I will only know whether or not you have completed the assignment, the specifics of your submissions will not be linked to you.

Homework Assignment 5: Superfund Sites Where You Live

For this assignment, you will use the EPA website Superfund Sites Where You Live to research the nearest site of known releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants from the National Priorities List (Superfund site) to your home that affects water quality. This will probably also be the nearest Superfund site of any kind since most (but not all) of the sites involve the contamination of surface and/or ground water. If you are unable to determine exactly which site is most proximal or if you have two or more that are equidistant from your home, you may pick the site that you think will be more interesting to research. Once you have found your site, go to our Sakai website and provide a brief description of the site and answer a few questions.

Some additional resources that may be of some help:

This map of Superfund sites provided by the The National Institutes of Health (NIH)

This list of ~90 contaminants that are monitored in drinking water by the EPA and the "potential health effects from long-term exposure above the maximum contaminant level (MCL)

For our foreign-born students, you may choose from the list of suggested important/infamous sites below. The first to e-mail me with their preference will will get their choice, the second will choose from the remaining four, et cetera. If there is another site that you would like research, you may do so as long as it is not the a site that one of your classmates is researching (see map below)

Love Canal Niagara Falls, NY: Quite possibly the most famous hazardous waste dump in the US (taken)

The Hanford Site Hanford, Washington: Plutonium processing site for the US nuclear arsenal... ...on the banks of the Columbia River.

WELLS G & H Woburn, Massachusetts: The "cancer clusters" which may or may not have been linked to this site were the inspiration for the book and movie, "A Civil Action."

Rocky Mountain Arsenal Commerce City, CO: Chemical weapons plant near Denver

Kim-Stan Landfill Selma, VA: Not terrifically important or infamous but the closest Superfund site to W&L

The questions will be:
1. What is your hometown?

2A. What is the name of the Superfund site that is closest to your hometown?

2B. What is the location (city and state) of the site?

2C. How many miles away is it?

2D. What is the Internet address for the main homepage for this site at EPA.gov?

3. How would you describe the owner or former owner of this site?
A. US federal government- military
B. US federal government- non military
C. State or local government
D. Agricultural
E. Extractive industries- energy: coal-related
F. Extractive industries- energy: petroleum-related
G. Extractive industries- mining (non-energy)
H. Industrial- chemical
I. Industrial- sanitary waste
J. Industrial- toxic waste
K. Industrial- other

4. Briefly describe the type of activities that led to the pollution at this site. For instance- if it is an industrial site, what is/was being manufactured? if it is a mine, what is/was being mined?

5. Does the contamination at this site involve a leaking underground storage tank (UST)?
A. Yes
B. No
C. I could not determine this

6. List the contaminant(s) of concern that have been identified at this site.

7. Why are these contaminants dangerous to humans and/or to the environment? (list the contaminant and then list the heath/environmental concerns)

8. What are the potential pathways for the contaminants at this site and local water resources? Is the site near a body of surface water? Is is up river or uphill from a populated area?

9. What has been done/is being done/has been proposed to "clean up" the site or limit the further spread of the contaminants at this site into local ground or surface water?

10. What was the/is the estimated clean-up cost associated with this site?

11. Pretend that you have to provide a sound bite for the main stream media around this site. Summarize the information that you have learned in no more that three sentences* using language and concepts that could be understood by someone who reads at an 8th grade level.

*normal, non-Victor Hugo length sentences

12. Before this assignment, had you heard of this site?
A. Yes, this site is (in)famous in my hometown; everyone knows about it.
B. Yes, but not many other people where I am from know about it.
C. No, I had not heard of it.

This assignment is due Monday February 15th before class.

Homework Assignment 4: Fish Consumption Advisories

As we discussed in class today, water quality assessment usually involves analytical testing of some volume of water taken from a lake, river, well, tap, puddle, et cetera. Another useful way to assess the surface water quality of an area is to look at fish consumption advisories for the rivers and lakes in a region. This came up from the correlation noted in Palmer et al. (2010) that there was a correlation between surface mining activities in WV and surface water quality. Your homework assignment for the weekend is to find the river or lake that is closest to your home (ei your parent's house) and find if there are any fish consumption advisories for it. If not, find the closest body of surface water with a fish consumption advisory. For instance, when I was in college, my "home" was about one half of a mile from the Chippewa River.


There is currently no "eating restrictions" for male adults on this river but female adults and children are advised to only eat suckers (pretty much the only fish in the river) during one meal per week or less.


To complete the assignment, go to Sakai and fill out five short questions.

Homework Assignment 3: Calculating Recurrence Interval

On Monday, we briefly discussed the flooding event that was going on during class and I said that is was a pretty big event. For this homework assignment, we are going figure out just how big it was by calculating the recurrence interval of the event. During news reports about floods, you will often hear of a flood being described as a 10-year flood or a 100-year flood. The time period being mentioned in these news reports (10 years, et cetera) is the recurrence interval of the flood being covered. The recurrence interval of a flood is the calculated probability that a flood of a given magnitude will occur at a certain interval. It is an estimate of the average time between past occurrences of random events; so, a 100-year flood (an event with a recurrence interval of 100 years) should occur on an average of once every 100 years.

The equation for calculating recurrence interval (R) is:

You will calculate the R for the flooding event that occurred on Monday using the dataset available at the USGS website and the spreadsheet and graphing program excel. If you are not particularly “computer savvy,” do not worry, I have provided detailed instructions and you are always welcome to ask me questions.

The assignment has been posted on Sakai (on the tests and quizzes page) and will be due before class on Monday, February 1st.

Homework Assignment 2

Last week in class, we discussed the source of our tap water here in Lexington. This week we introduced two different types of municipal sewer systems that remove liquid waste from our urban and suburban communities. Your assignment is to figure out the source of your tap water at "home" (as identified by you at the beginning of class) and the type of waste water treatment facility as well. You may investigate this using any resources you like. If you already know the answer, great (this will be a very easy assignment for you). If you want to ask your friends or parents, that is fine as well. If I was in your situation, for instance, this would be a very easy assignment for me. The water that I grew up drinking at home came from the private well located under the front lawn about 15 feet from my bedroom window and the septic system was in the backyard. If you grew up in LA, on the other hand, well, look into it and see if there is actually a way to determine if your water comes from the CO river, the Owens Valley, or the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Good luck with that!

The assignment has been posted on Sakai (on the tests and quizzes page) and will be due before class on Monday, January 25th.

Homework Assignment 1

For our first homework assignment, we will start off with something relatively easy. Please go to our Sakai page and go to "Tests & Quizzes" on the menu bar on the left side of the screen. Your assignment is to complete the assessment entitled "Student Questionnaire". It should be relatively easy and require only a few minutes of your time.