We had the pleasure of learning from Shaun O'Neil, a QAE parent and King County water treatment expert. I am proud to announce that our second graders know more about our local water treatment process than about 95% of adults do. What we learned was fascinating and will hopefully raise more environmentally conscience citizens out of all of us.
Here are some of the things we learned:
We are fortunate to live in an area where we get our water from the mountains, is available in the twist of a knob, and gets treated thoroughly before being sent out into Puget Sound. Most cities get their water from the same place it gets sent back out (such as Lake Michigan in Chigaco). Unfortunately there are many countries that do not have treatment facilities that purify waste water before being put back into the water source. This is one reason we have the global water crisis and this is where our learning will take us next…
Here are some of the things we learned:
- Some countries don't have sewage treatment plants and don't have clean water and can get sick and sometimes die because of unclean drinking water. (Hugo)
- When you flush the toilet it travels a far distance and finally gets to the treatment center. (Oliver)
- If you put grease down pipes they can clog and can overflow. (Joshua)
- There are big pipes and small pipes. Some pipes can fit a car inside. (Mollie)
- They use robots to get to pipes that are broken or to check that they don't have cracks. (Jack)
- When there are pipes full of bad stuff and no oxygen they send robots to check them. Sometimes they send in people when it's not as dangerous. (Sage)
- Less than 1% of the water in the world is freshwater to drink. (Juliette)
- Flushable wipes should not be flushed down the toilet. (Madeline)
- Chlorine kills a lot of bad bacteria. (Wyatt)
- The robots take pictures of the inside of pipes in the sewer. (Jenna)
- You only should flush toilet paper and things that come from your body. (Mason)
- There is a tube in the secondary step of treating water that clarifies the water with filters. (Zoe)
- Seattle gets fresh water from the nearby mountains. (Angelica)
- Scientists find large amounts of caffeine and cinnamon in waste water because our bodies don't break them down. (Ms. Leckie)
We are fortunate to live in an area where we get our water from the mountains, is available in the twist of a knob, and gets treated thoroughly before being sent out into Puget Sound. Most cities get their water from the same place it gets sent back out (such as Lake Michigan in Chigaco). Unfortunately there are many countries that do not have treatment facilities that purify waste water before being put back into the water source. This is one reason we have the global water crisis and this is where our learning will take us next…
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