Water Contamination
Sierra Holmes
SCI 207 Dependence of Man on the Environment
Professor John Gomillion
June 14, 2016

Abstract The water treatment experiment gives insight on how water can become contaminated by everyday products such as vinegar, oil, and detergent which we tested by seeing how well the soil can filter the chemicals before it reaches the groundwater. We put the compounds through the treatment process which consisted of pouring each mixture of each chemical/water through a filter containing soil placed in cheesecloth which resulted in the oil being the only product to filter through the soil. Our water becomes polluted with dangerous chemicals which are why it is important actually to filter contaminated water. We used a filtering method that consisted of coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, and disinfection. We used soil and water to create a contaminated solution than the coagulation process took place by adding alum to the settlement. After we had solidified the filter, it was by pouring the infected content in the filter which contained sand, charcoal, and gravel which resulted in purified water that we disinfected with bleach. Drinking water could be contaminated with chemicals such as ammonia, chloride, and phosphate, and iron which are why we tested the quality of bottled water and tap water using test strips. After dipping each test strips in the Fiji water, Dasani water, and tap water, it resulted in Fiji water containing the most amount of chemicals.
Introduction
In this lab that contained various experiments, we explored the theory of how groundwater and drinking water can become contaminated by the inappropriate disposal of different household products. We used three sample products during this experiment which is: vinegar, detergent, and oil. After groundwater becomes contaminated due to harmful human