Digital Notebook:
All About Arsenic Series
TOPIC: Arsenic and Public Policy
Arsenic occurrence in ME private well water
Based on Example 1 on the “Stories” tab of the All About Arsenic StoryMap
FOR TEACHERS:
Ideas on how to use the notebook and pairing with potential NGSS standards
More details on use with potential NGSS standards at the end!
Suggestions for how to use the notebook:
NGSS Possibly Covered in the Notebook:
This example uses the following data:
Navigating the digital interactive notebook:
This digital interactive notebook will walk you through five questions. At the end of each question, you are expected to write a short paragraph answering the question using the understanding you have gained interacting with the slideshow.
To consider (brainstorm your ideas in the “speaker notes” area below the slide)
Tasks to complete
[Write answer here]
Arsenic occurrence in ME private well water
Stay in edit format! Do NOT start the slideshow as a presentation.
Topic: Arsenic and Public Policy
Practice interacting with the notebook
What are your thoughts when you see this long process?
Why do you think this process is so complicated and long?
What is your name?
Answer:
1. Idea developed
(Put together your proposed law)
2. Bill drafted
(Write down the idea clearly)
3. Bill introduced
(Present the proposed law and it’s given a number)
4.Committee reference
(The proposed law is being directed to the right committee)
5.Committee action
(The proposed laws are taken into a public hearing)
6. Report of committee
(It receives the first reading and it’s analyzed)
7. Second reading
(It receives the second analysis more in depth)
8. Second chamber
(The proposed law gets final approval when it passes both chambers)
9. Governor
(Decides whether to pass or veto it)
10. Law
(Becomes law 90 days after the last session in which it was passed)
Answer:
Because it’s designed to prevent hasty or uninformed decisions on matters that can affect the lives of every Maine citizen
Question 1: Where does the water in our taps come from?
You have likely learned about the water cycle before and know that water exists in many different forms and moves through our planet’s atmosphere, surface, and underground realms. The diagram below shows the two common sources people extract their water from: groundwater and surface water.
Can you think of at least one surface water source? Put your guess in the box below.
Answer:
How do you think people extract water from the ground?
Answer:
Lakes, ponds
Hand or electrical pump
Ask yourself a question that can be answered by the diagram. Then do the necessary calculations or deductions and share the answer with your classmates. What do you find surprising?
Think about each industry/area and their water usage. Where is most water used? What is the water used for?
Do you think there are more people on public water supply or more people sourcing their water domestically in the US?
Which do you think will be the most affected one in the case of a drought and why?
Drinking water .
Both surface and groundwater are used in our homes and by different industries. The diagram below shows you who uses freshwater and where is it sourced from.
What percentage of domestically sourced water is groundwater? Show your calculations and answer in the box below.
Answer:
What percentage of public supply is sourced from groundwater? Show your calculations and answer in the box below.
Answer:
(3210 x 100)/3260=98.5%
(15200 x 100)/39000 =39%
Now, how does the water from the ground, the lake or the reservoir get into our taps? 15% of US population rely on private well water as their water source.In ME and NH it's more like half of the population who uses a domestic water source. The rest is on public water supply, which is treated by the town and then delivered to your home through pipes.
Is your home on public water supply or do you have your own well? Do you have both?
Point the arrow at your water source
Question 1: Where does the water in our taps come from?
Answer:
Now that you’ve seen the data, you can answer Question 1! Write a sentence or two in the gray box below.
It depends on where we live. In Maine more than 50% of the population relies on well water, so that means that it’s likely that our tap water is sourced from underground bodies of water.
Question 2: Why should water quality be monitored?
Though here in the United States we have one of the safest water supplies in the world, contamination can still occur and can lead to health issues.
Pick one of these contaminants and tell us about it. What is it? How does it enter the water supply? What health problems does it cause?
Answer:
Radon is a naturally-occurring radioactive gas. It comes from the breakdown of naturally-occurring radioactive elements (such as uranium and thorium) in soils and rocks. It can enter the water supply through the wells. It can cause cancer.
Different water contaminants can lead to various health issues. In this example, we are focusing on arsenic. Long-term low level exposure to arsenic has been linked to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancers of the bladder, lungs, and kidney.
Arsenical pesticides
Lumber treatment products
Metasedimentary and igneous bedrock
Match the images with three common source of arsenic in our environment.
Question 2: Why should water quality be monitored?
Answer:
Now that you’ve seen the data, you can answer Question 2! Write a sentence or two in the gray box below.
Because often we might not directly realise that we are exposed to very toxic pollutants in our daily water consumption. Some of these pollutants can be odorless, tasteless and colorless. So the only way to know if our water is safe to drink would be through testing (=monitoring).
Question 3: What protections are in place to monitor water quality?
Whose responsibility do you think it should be to keep water clean and safe?
Circle the option/options that you think should be responsible for monitoring water quality.
ME
government
parents
Who is responsible for the quality of your drinking water depends on whether your water is a part of a public water supply system or whether you source it yourself domestically (e.g. with a private well on your property.)
ME
parents
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set standards, or Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) for different contaminants in drinking water. These standards are only enforced for public water supplies, NOT privately owned wells. Private well owners are encouraged to test their wells and treat their water accordingly if it is above the MCL.
What units are used for the MCL?
Answer:
Circle the EPA set MCL for arsenic.
ug/L
Measuring Arsenic Concentrations
Arsenic, and other elemental concentrations, are measured in µg/L, or micrograms per liter.
Micrograms per liter (µg/L) is equivalent to parts per billion (ppb)
Since:
So, a microgram is one-billionth of a kilogram! Or, one part per billion (ppb)
1,000,000 x 1,000 = 1,000,000,000
(million) x (thousand) = (billion)
How does this work? Watch the video!
Measuring Arsenic Concentrations
Often, elements that are dissolved in liquids such as water are measured in terms of their mass while the liquid is measured in terms of its volume.
A concentration is a ratio between the mass of the solute and the mass of the solution.
https://www.gilbertaz.gov/Home/Components/News/News/937/
Wiki Commons
�For Example:
Salt is a common solute that can be dissolved in liquid water forming a brine, a salt water solution
To better understand the current limits on Arsenic levels, let's look at the historic timeline of Arsenic in our environment and the legislature regulating it.
What was the first limit on arsenic in water?
Answer:
Why is there still arsenic in people's drinking water even though most products that contained arsenic were banned?
Answer:
Because anthropogenic origin is not the only source of As, in this part of the US we have a lot of bedrock formations with As. Also, the pesticides used before 1988 might have leaked into underground water bodies.
50ppb
While the EPA enforces the 10 µg/L standard throughout the United States, the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) allows individual states to apply for a reduced MCL. This is why MCLs might vary slightly among states, depending on which contaminants are high in different states.
The map on the left shows estimates of how many people might be drinking unsafe levels of arsenic.
Why might some states want to lower their limit on arsenic in water?
Question 3: What protections are in place to monitor water quality?
Answer:
Now that you’ve seen the data, you can answer Question 3! Write a sentence or two in the gray box below.
The mcl of 10ppb, which secures the public water supply yet the private ones are not monitored under the same restrictions
Question 4: What protections do private well owners lack?
56% of households in Maine are reliant on private well water and in some counties more than 70% of these households have never tested their well water for arsenic. Currently private well owners are not legally required to test their well. The Maximum Contaminant Level only applies to public water sources.
Can you think of at least two reasons why someone might not test their well water for arsenic? What barriers might there be?
Answer:
Arsenic?
What is that?
Financial limitations, lack of knowledge of the risks linked to As, not having the resources available near them
As you now know, there are barriers that prevent families reliant on private well water from having arsenic free drinking water. One way to approach these barriers is through establishing new laws that help these families.
What problems could these laws solve? How might these laws not be sufficient?
Answer:
These laws can help families afford the testing of their waters as well as ensuring that the mcl is at the safest level.
Another way to protect private well owners is through community outreach and initiatives such as the All About Arsenic project that you are participating in right now.
What are the ways in which you think that the AAA project has the most power when intervening on arsenic pollution?
Answer:
By raising awareness to the public about their water safety, this way people can 1) make sure their water supply is safe, 2) advocate and ask their local representatives for governmental guidelines and support to provide testings and filters
Question 4: What protections do private well owners lack?
Answer:
Now that you’ve look at some data, you can answer Question 4! Write a sentence or two in the gray box below.
Well owners lack the access to updated information and financial support to test their water
Question 5: What can I do to help with the arsenic issue and improve public health?
Just by participating in this project you have already helped at least one household learn about arsenic in well water. To have more impact:
Share what you have learned with your friends and neighbors!
As a citizen of this country you can actively participate in the legislative process and even come up with bills that could become laws too.
https://www.allaboutarsenic.org/data-to-action-toolkit/
https://www.allaboutarsenic.org/data-to-action-toolkit/
Brainstorm with a friend or by yourself and come up with an initiative or a bill idea that would raise awareness about arsenic in well water/ make arsenic testing or treatment better affordable/available.
Use the Data to Action Toolkit for information you might need. Below you can share an outline of a letter to your legislator, brainstorm of your project, or a draft of an op-ed:
Answer:
Question 5: What can I do to help with the arsenic issue and improve public health?
Answer:
Now that you’ve look at some data, you can answer Question 5! Write a sentence or two in the gray box below.
I can talk with my family, my family friends, my friends, neighbors and basically everyone I know to let them aware of the risks of As in drinking water. I can also testify in hearings, send OpEds and organise school testings with the help of AAA or the Data to Action Tool Kit
N
Synthesizing Questions:
After completing Example 3, what are some questions you are wondering about?
What types of data and/or maps are needed to answer the questions you are wondering about?
Answer:
Answer:
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