UNCW Troubled Waters: Activities

the activities

Grade Level:	Subject Areas
High School	Environmental Studies Biology Science Economics Contemporary Issues Ethics Technology

What’s Best for Everyone?
(Study of Water Scarcity Technologies)

Description: Students will participate in a class project and debate the current technologies being used in regards to water scarcity.

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Goals and Objectives

Procedure and Teaching Suggestions

Student Activity

Extension

Additional Resources

Skill Areas	Comparison/Differentiation Internet Research Library Research Oral Presentation Speech/Debate Collaborative Small Group Problem Solving/Decision Making
Vocabulary	water reuse gray water desalination/membrane technology reverse osmosis distillation microfiltration xeroscaping drip irrigation
Class Time	One semester (including field trip and presentation time for groups)

Goals and objectives

Materials and Equipment

"Troubled Waters" video

"Troubled Waters" script and interview transcripts

Internet access

As a result of this class project, students will understand the need for water technologies and the effects these technologies have on humans, economics, and the environment. They will use this information to make educated decisions about a future water supply. Students will have the opportunity to work collaboratively to:

Interview UNCW (or other university) and local Environmental Scientists as well as scientists from your own school on water scarcity technologies
Research water management and water scarcity technologies (locally, nationally, and globally)
Visit the local or closest water department, reuse facility, and desalination plant www.ci.wilmington.nc.us/utilities/wastewater_treatment.htm (Wilmington)

www.ci.wilmington.nc.us/utilities/water_treatment.htm

Interview plant engineer
Debate the pros and cons of water scarcity technologies from the view point of business, industry, municipality, and environmental science
Determine which water scarcity technologies are being used in your own city and compare to what they have learned about the technology

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Teaching Preparation

The amount of water and access to fresh water is being depleted, and it is vital to implement new technologies so that every person and community receives the necessary amount of water. Safe drinking water is fundamental to human health and well-being, yet much of the world’s population does not have access to this essential resource. Water scarcity will become a severe constraint on food production, economic development, and protection of natural resources if total annual water supplies diminish below 1000 cubic meters per person. Many countries are already below this threshold and with current population growth many more will cross into this category in the near future. A number of regions, including major cities like Beijing, New Delhi, and Mexico City are meeting current demands only by depleting groundwater reserves, a nonsustainable solution.

Despite the negative impacts of overdrawing water resources, growing populations create an ever-increasing demand for additional water for both irrigation and municipal use. In the United States, very few rivers remain undammed, and many are dammed at several points. Yet governments eager to please both people clamoring for water and businesses having economic interests in dam construction, persist in offering ever more extravagant plans for water projects. One example is a plan to dam the Yukon River in Alaska to create a reservoir that would flood nearly a third of the state and bring the water via canal all the way to the southwestern United States and to northern Mexico.

People are recognizing the inevitable trade-offs that occur with such projects and are considering them to be unacceptable. Bitter controversies between environmentalists and dam-building interests continue and are not limited to the industrialized world. The construction of the Three Gorges Dam in China is an example. For the Chinese government this project represents a focus of their effort to industrialize and join the modern age. But to others, some of whom have been jailed by the Chinese government for protesting, it is shaping up as an ecological and social disaster.

Another example is the Aswan High Dam, which was constructed across the Nile River in the 1970s to bring Egypt into the modern industrial age. The loss of fisheries and productive wetlands below the dam, the loss of land flooded by the reservoir above, and population growth have largely canceled out any gains. Residents are as bad off as they were before the dam was built.
Can a sustainable future cbe found in large-scale water exploitation and diversion projects? Fortunately, there are alternatives. They are based on the conservation and recycling of water. Nonetheless, water still has to be provided to meet the needs of our growing population. Municipalities (drinking and waste water), industry, agriculture, recreation, and individuals all compete for water. To meet their needs a variety of technologies have been developed. Each has its advantages and disadvantages.

Stress to students that access to enough water of sufficient quality is fundamental for all human, animal, and plant life as well as for most economic activity. In the past, water has been treated as an inexhaustible resource that can be taken for granted. This viewpoint has led to extravagant and wasteful use of water. There is not one answer to solve these problems. Appropriate technologies and institutions must both play a role. Watch the "Troubled Waters: The Illusion of Abundance" documentary with students and consider some specific measures being implemented to reduce water demands. Stop the video and discuss these topics as they are covered:

Where irrigation water is applied by traditional flood or center-pivot systems, about 60% is wasted in evaporation, percolation, or runoff. This loss can be all but eliminated by installing drip irrigation systems, networks of plastic pipes with pinholes that literally drip water at the base of each plant. With such systems less than 5% of the water is wasted. Although drip irrigation is being used more and more, 97% of the irrigation in the United States, and 99% throughout the world, is still done by traditional flood or center-pivot methods. With your students, investigate why drip irrigation is not more widely accepted. Search the "Troubled Waters" transcripts included in this Web site for information on drip irrigation.
Municipal systems report that water consumption of 100-150 gallons per day / per person in modern homes is mostly used for washing and flushing away waste. Numerous cities are facing the reality that it will be extremely expensive and in many cases impossible to increase supplies by traditional means of building more reservoirs or drilling more wells. These cities are taking real steps toward reducing water consumption and waste. Programs are being implemented so that leaky faucets will be repaired, and low-flow shower heads and water displacement devices in toilets will be installed free of charge. New York City and Los Angeles are providing rebates of $100-$250 to those who replace an old toilet with a new model that uses only1.6 gallons per flush. Phoenix is paying homeowners to replace their lawns with xeriscaping, which is landscaping with indigenous and/or desert species that require no additional watering. Check out the "Troubled Waters" interview transcript for Ryan Boyles, the Associate State Climatologist at the State Climate Office of North Carolina, and his answers to what municipalities are doing in North Carolina.
Gray water recycling systems are being adopted in some water-short areas. This slightly dirtied water from sinks, showers, bathtubs, and laundry tubs is collected in a holding tank and used for flushing toilets, watering lawns, and washing cars. During a water crisis in California many residents adopted the habit of standing in a plastic tub while taking a shower. They then used the collected water for watering gardens. Visit this site for more information on gray water. www.sustainable.com.au/greywater.html
A number of cities are reusing treated wastewater for irrigation, to conserve water and to reduce pollution of receiving waters. Some cities are developing systems to treat wastewater to a degree that it can be recycled back into the municipal system. Check the "Troubled Waters" transcripts for more information on water reuse in North Carolina.
With an increasing water shortage and most of the world’s population living near coasts, there is a growing trend toward desalinization, which is the desalting of seawater. Several thousand desalination plants already exist, primarily in Saudi Arabia, Israel, and other countries of the Mideast. Two technologies are in common use for desalinization: microfiltration, or reverse osmosis, and distillation. Small plants generally use the microfiltation process in which seawater is forced, under great pressure, through a membrane filter fine enough to remove the salt. Large plants, particularly where a source of waste heat is available, generally use distillation, which is evaporation and recondensation of vapor. Check the "Troubled Waters" transcripts for desalination uses and thoughts from Sandra Postel, Director, Global Water Policy Project, as well as alternatives to desalination. Also, check out the transcript for information from Robert W. Oreskovich, Director of the Dare County Public Utilities on the process of using membranes to treat salty and other types of water.

After the video, expand the discussion with students to include how other countries are dealing with shortages:

Singapore uses treated wastewater that is mixed and blended with reservoir water and then undergoes conventional water treatment to produce drinking water called Newater.

In Chile, water is harvested from clouds by putting huge nets on mountains to catch the vapor. The collected water can be used for small-scale irrigation and bathing.

In China, farmers are using storage tanks to collect rainwater in their fields, providing drinking water and extra irrigation for vast areas. China is also undertaking a huge project to channel water from the flooding south to the drying north. It has begun work on a massive system to channel billions of cubic meters of water from the Yangtze River to the dwindling Yellow River.

In Israel, farmers are planting less water-intensive crops and replacing them with crops like apple cactus that require little water and can produce fruit for 11 months of the year.

In Turkey, advanced agricultural technology has helped farmers to develop precision sprinklers and irrigation systems that drip water directly onto plants and crops.

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Student Activity

Students will review the Water Scarcity and the Potential for Warfare presentation located at: www.westminster.edu/staff/athrock/Foundations/Powerpoint/Water/
This presentation gives great information on water scarcity and what type of impact it is having around the world. After giving students adequate background information, have them use the "Troubled Waters" transcripts to find the vocabulary words listed above. Students will then research technologies and determine the pros and cons of each. Lastly, students will present and defend their positions on technologies being used in their region.

To begin group work, separate students into 6 groups. Each group will be given one of the water scarcity technologies to research. Explain to students that they will work together collaboratively to research and determine the pros and cons of their assigned technology as they relate to business, industry, municipalities, and environmental impacts. Give them time to research in the library, on the Internet, video conference (if available) with environmental scientists, school scientists, and plan an off-campus field trip to the local water department to observe and interview the plant engineer. Give students support throughout their research, provide appropriate resources, assist with scheduling interviews and group meetings when possible, and give timely feedback as needed.

Within the small groups, allow students to determine who will be assigned what tasks:

Researching water scarcity technology advantages
Researching water scarcity technology disadvantages
Interviewing environmental scientists
Interviewing school scientists
Interviewing water department employee and plant engineer

Students must complete a word search on the "Troubled Waters" interview transcripts and documentary script to discuss interviewee’s comments with one another and in their presentations. Students should set up a timeline for all these tasks to be completed. Students will come back together as a group to share all the gathered information. As a group they will develop a way to present what they have learned about their water scarcity technology to the class. This can be in form of a brief video, a PowerPoint, an experiment, etc., but must be approved (by the teacher) prior to creation of the presentation. After each presentation, the students in the audience will give the presenting group written feedback on their presentation as well as take notes for themselves.

To conclude the study of water scarcity technologies, students in each group will be assigned the part of a business leader, industry leader, municipality, or environmentalist. From that point of view each student will debate the issues of using these technologies for the benefit of their position.

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Extension

“One single technology or strategy isn’t going to solve all of our water problems. It will take a combination of technologies and strategies.
” Dr. James Leutze
UNCW Chancellor Emeritus

From the field trip to the local water department students should be able to discuss the technologies being used in their city as well as statewide. Have students investigate new policies that are being called for to achieve local sustainable water supplies. Students should determine policies that they would/would not support and promote as well as give a rational for each.

Have students investigate new improvements to the desalination process and plants at:
www.statesman.com/business/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/business_e37f7fe1747d313f1020.html and compare to the desalination issues they have discussed in class.

Students can check out other water scarcity technology alternatives involving fog at:
www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=90424

The Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Whitman has warned that demands for improved wastewater and drinking water treatment systems could surpass current spending by $535 billion over the next two decades. Whitman said that while our country has made huge strides in cleaning up rivers, streams and other waterways since the passage of the 1972 Clean Water Act, state and local governments face enormous challenges in maintaining and replacing deteriorating water treatment systems. "Much of America's drinking and wastewater infrastructure is aging. There are cities in America still using pipes that were laid when Lincoln was president." Water treatment industry leaders have urged Congress and the Bush administration to support long-term federal funding for programs focusing on core water and wastewater infrastructure needs. Treatment plants typically have an expected useful life of 20 to 50 years before they must be expanded or rehabilitated, while pipes have life spans ranging from 15 years to well over 100 years. Some East Coast cities have pipes in use that are almost 200 years old. Have students inspect the current physical and economical conditions of their local water treatment facilities. Are they deteriorating or need maintenance?

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Additional Resources

Articles

An Introduction to Drip Irrigation
www.urbanfarmerstore.com/drip/drip.html

Membrane Solutions for Water Treatment (Municipalities)
www.pall.com/applicat/water/

Grey water, Turing Grey into Gold by Dave Barista
www.csemag.com/magazine/articles/b03c042.asp

EPA’s Guidelines for Water Reuse
http://www.cdm.com/Ideas%40Work/Regulatory+Articles/Guidelines+for+Water+Reuse.htm?bc=archive

Books

“Desalination by Questions and Answers” by Fayyaz Muddassir Mubeen
For an introduction to the book, go to www.idadesal.org/pages/Publications/qest_and_ans/quest_intro.htm

Drip Irrigation by S. Dasberg, Dani Or

Water and Wastewater Technology by Mark J. Hammer

Places implementing these technologies:

Anson County, NC
Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority, NC
Town of Southern Pines, NC
Hatteras WTP, Dare County, NC
Appalachian State University, NC
Town of Carthage, NC
Washington County, NC
Camden County, NC
Tyrrell County, NC

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