Animas River Project
How Does Water Treatment Improve Water Quality?
Discussion Questions:
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 are associated with the Gold King mine spill are very minimal currently and in the future. The EPA has determined that the water quality standards have returned to pre event conditions and the concentrations of metals are very small and do not have the potential to cause damage to humans or the ecological lifes. It is recommended that further actions be taken to prevent something similar to this from happening again because the excessive amount of concentrations that are involved with mines can be very dangerous in long term. The point of skepticism that I have, is the concentrations of metals could have found their way into the sediment of the animas and along the banks of the river, when spring runoff hits it could have the potential to stir up some of the metals and fluctuate it through our watershed. Overall, I have determined that the Animas River is safe to enter and safe for the organisms that are native to it.
What is the role of science in making policy decisions?
When it is required to use science in order to make policy decisions, it is crucial that the scientist communicates evidence to the public and policy makers that is understandable and backs up beliefs or solutions. Scientific evidence is almost used in everything while justifying something. For example when someone tries to promote a solution for cleaning up the animas river it's crucial that there is evidence to back up exactly why it will benefit the water quality and exactly what the scientific process is. Science is in everything so policy makers need evidence to justify a claim.
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?
Throughout the semester, my understanding of scientific concepts and processes has changed on a very large scale. I am very confident in my ability to break problems and data down to standards that I can comprehend. As we analyzed graphs and data taken from the EPA throughout the semester I felt that my understanding of the information being presented was very strong and I was able to break down professional work. I also believe that my understanding of labs and communicating data on my own improved dramatically from the beginning of the year. I was able to start writing solid lab reports that I felt were relatable and accurate and felt no shame when submitting them to Steve.
To what degree do scientists have an obligation to communicate scientific concepts and data to the public in an understandable manner?
When a scientist has to communicate scientific concepts and data to the public, it is essential that the scientists communicate the complex information in data in a fashion that frames the information in a way that is easy for anyone to comprehend and understand the whole concept. The information should be broken down into simple, relatable ideas but should not remove any data or complex information to do so. In particular, my project involved a wide variety of calculations that would be almost impossible to communicate to different audiences. Instead of trying to do that I broke the information down into relatable pictures, weights and scales to communicate the big picture of the project to any audience.
The ecological and human health threats that are associated with the Gold King mine spill are very minimal currently and in the future. The EPA has determined that the water quality standards have returned to pre event conditions and the concentrations of metals are very small and do not have the potential to cause damage to humans or the ecological lifes. It is recommended that further actions be taken to prevent something similar to this from happening again because the excessive amount of concentrations that are involved with mines can be very dangerous in long term. The point of skepticism that I have, is the concentrations of metals could have found their way into the sediment of the animas and along the banks of the river, when spring runoff hits it could have the potential to stir up some of the metals and fluctuate it through our watershed. Overall, I have determined that the Animas River is safe to enter and safe for the organisms that are native to it.
What is the role of science in making policy decisions?
When it is required to use science in order to make policy decisions, it is crucial that the scientist communicates evidence to the public and policy makers that is understandable and backs up beliefs or solutions. Scientific evidence is almost used in everything while justifying something. For example when someone tries to promote a solution for cleaning up the animas river it's crucial that there is evidence to back up exactly why it will benefit the water quality and exactly what the scientific process is. Science is in everything so policy makers need evidence to justify a claim.
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?
Throughout the semester, my understanding of scientific concepts and processes has changed on a very large scale. I am very confident in my ability to break problems and data down to standards that I can comprehend. As we analyzed graphs and data taken from the EPA throughout the semester I felt that my understanding of the information being presented was very strong and I was able to break down professional work. I also believe that my understanding of labs and communicating data on my own improved dramatically from the beginning of the year. I was able to start writing solid lab reports that I felt were relatable and accurate and felt no shame when submitting them to Steve.
To what degree do scientists have an obligation to communicate scientific concepts and data to the public in an understandable manner?
When a scientist has to communicate scientific concepts and data to the public, it is essential that the scientists communicate the complex information in data in a fashion that frames the information in a way that is easy for anyone to comprehend and understand the whole concept. The information should be broken down into simple, relatable ideas but should not remove any data or complex information to do so. In particular, my project involved a wide variety of calculations that would be almost impossible to communicate to different audiences. Instead of trying to do that I broke the information down into relatable pictures, weights and scales to communicate the big picture of the project to any audience.