Water Quality in the Animas River Watershed
Project Reflection
Through this project I was able to learn more about sewage treatment in Durango and its effects on the environment and economy. I was very interested in my topic throughout the entirety of this project due to the relevance of my topic on all Durango citizens. When I started my initial research for this project I was pretty shocked to see the data for how much material was going to a landfill every week. In the previous sewage treatment plant we were bringing eight truckloads of material to a landfill every week. As well as this, this material had not had the moisture taken out of it, so a lot of what we were bringing to a landfill was Animas River water, that could have been returned to the river instead.
One thing that stood out to me a lot was the fact that this is such an important topic (sewage treatment) and not a lot of residents know a lot about it. Many people I know, including myself, don’t know what happens to your sewage after it leave your house, and just assume the city deals with it well. Once I started to really look into the details of Durango’s sewage treatment I realized it is something every Durango resident should be interested.
One new skill I learned through this project is working well on group projects. Having three people doing one project left us with difficulties on dividing work and figuring out each other's strength and weaknesses. This led to us all kinda independently working on different parts of the project without keeping each other in the loop of what we were doing. After doing this for a while I saw that a better way would be working to delegate parts of the project to each member and letting each other know all the steps we take. Once we did this out project ran much more smoothly. It originally seemed we were all separately working on different projects but once we worked on our collaboration skills we were able to all work on the same project and know whats going on with each step.
I think it is very important to look inot water quality because I don’t think you see your impact on water quality until you start looking into the facts about it, and your personal impact. This was a big thing that stood out to me when we were looking into sewage processing in Durango, it’s such an impactful thing on the environment, and I knew pretty much nothing about it. Most people just forget about their sewage once it leave their house, and therefore don’t see the impact and will be less frugal with their water. But once you look into the facts such as, in the original Santa Rita Water Reclamation Facility they were bringing eight truckloads of waste to a landfill each week, you start to realize the impact on how much water you use. I believe that this was a good project to work on in a chemistry class because we can look into water quality deeper than just the surface.
One thing that stood out to me a lot was the fact that this is such an important topic (sewage treatment) and not a lot of residents know a lot about it. Many people I know, including myself, don’t know what happens to your sewage after it leave your house, and just assume the city deals with it well. Once I started to really look into the details of Durango’s sewage treatment I realized it is something every Durango resident should be interested.
One new skill I learned through this project is working well on group projects. Having three people doing one project left us with difficulties on dividing work and figuring out each other's strength and weaknesses. This led to us all kinda independently working on different parts of the project without keeping each other in the loop of what we were doing. After doing this for a while I saw that a better way would be working to delegate parts of the project to each member and letting each other know all the steps we take. Once we did this out project ran much more smoothly. It originally seemed we were all separately working on different projects but once we worked on our collaboration skills we were able to all work on the same project and know whats going on with each step.
I think it is very important to look inot water quality because I don’t think you see your impact on water quality until you start looking into the facts about it, and your personal impact. This was a big thing that stood out to me when we were looking into sewage processing in Durango, it’s such an impactful thing on the environment, and I knew pretty much nothing about it. Most people just forget about their sewage once it leave their house, and therefore don’t see the impact and will be less frugal with their water. But once you look into the facts such as, in the original Santa Rita Water Reclamation Facility they were bringing eight truckloads of waste to a landfill each week, you start to realize the impact on how much water you use. I believe that this was a good project to work on in a chemistry class because we can look into water quality deeper than just the surface.
Artist Design Statement
Elevator Pitch:
Our project is an infographic that shows the difference between converting sewage sludge left over from sewage processing, into usable fertilizer, and converting the sewage sludge into a dry cake material that is brought to a landfill. This infographic will be relevant to Durango citizens due to these are the top two options for the new Santa Rita Water Reclamation Facility in Durango. This infographic will show the pro’s and con’s of each method on the environment and the economy. And will show residents what each option will do to their backyards and their wallets.
Takeaways:
We want the observers to come out with a deeper understanding of the Santa Rita Water Reclamation Facility, and its impact on the environment, and realize that dry sewage has to go to a landfill, but making fertilizer is more expensive and the profit margins aren’t good enough for this to be a economic decision. We also want the readers to come out with an opinion on which system is better. As well as this, we want readers to be inclined to state their opinion and possibly cause a change resulting in less waste in landfill, or one that makes the facility more efficient. The last thing we want our readers to come out with is to be curious about how this decision was made, and what long term impacts it will make on the environment and economy.
Target Audience:
Our target audience is not necessarily geared towards one group of people; it is geared towards all Durango residents and others concerned about the wellbeing of our town and our world in general. Our plan for this project is to educate anyone and everyone about a potential process that can convert sewage sludge into usable fertilizer. Our project will accommodate everyone regardless of their education, and will be interesting and easy to understand so anyone can enjoy it. We are looking for very little in terms of the thinking style of our target audience other than that they are open minded and curious about are project.
Interaction Length and Style:
We are aiming towards a project that draws people in and keeps them at our project for approximately 5 minutes. The title and front page of our infographic will be designed in a neat and eye catching way thus hopefully succeeding in drawing people in. Our title will be created to describe the purpose of our project in an interesting way which will engage our audiences’ mind to want to learn more, without having excessive information. We plan to present our pages including an introduction, pros and cons, why we chose to do this as our project, and a conclusion that leads readers to form their own opinion on which option they prefer. We are focusing on our information to be presented in an easy to understand way so it will be clear and interesting to everyone. Our main senses used in this project are sight and touch. The touch aspect will include a digital menu with boxes including certain topics of our project allowing audience to browse through the topics. The sight aspect will provide the audience with slides presenting pictures for them to see and text for them to read.
What we Personally Think:
We personally believe that creating a fertilizer isn’t economical due to the high production price and limited regional demand.Although we have a personal opinion on the topic, it was a hard decision to make due to each side having pros and cons, so our project will not push either side, but instead let our readers decide which option they prefer. Both methods will boost the positive effects on both the environment and economy over the original design, so either are a suitable option. But looking at both the pros and cons of each method, converting the sewage sludge into a dry pack material makes more sense considering the high production price and limited regional demand for fertilizer.
Our project is an infographic that shows the difference between converting sewage sludge left over from sewage processing, into usable fertilizer, and converting the sewage sludge into a dry cake material that is brought to a landfill. This infographic will be relevant to Durango citizens due to these are the top two options for the new Santa Rita Water Reclamation Facility in Durango. This infographic will show the pro’s and con’s of each method on the environment and the economy. And will show residents what each option will do to their backyards and their wallets.
Takeaways:
We want the observers to come out with a deeper understanding of the Santa Rita Water Reclamation Facility, and its impact on the environment, and realize that dry sewage has to go to a landfill, but making fertilizer is more expensive and the profit margins aren’t good enough for this to be a economic decision. We also want the readers to come out with an opinion on which system is better. As well as this, we want readers to be inclined to state their opinion and possibly cause a change resulting in less waste in landfill, or one that makes the facility more efficient. The last thing we want our readers to come out with is to be curious about how this decision was made, and what long term impacts it will make on the environment and economy.
Target Audience:
Our target audience is not necessarily geared towards one group of people; it is geared towards all Durango residents and others concerned about the wellbeing of our town and our world in general. Our plan for this project is to educate anyone and everyone about a potential process that can convert sewage sludge into usable fertilizer. Our project will accommodate everyone regardless of their education, and will be interesting and easy to understand so anyone can enjoy it. We are looking for very little in terms of the thinking style of our target audience other than that they are open minded and curious about are project.
Interaction Length and Style:
We are aiming towards a project that draws people in and keeps them at our project for approximately 5 minutes. The title and front page of our infographic will be designed in a neat and eye catching way thus hopefully succeeding in drawing people in. Our title will be created to describe the purpose of our project in an interesting way which will engage our audiences’ mind to want to learn more, without having excessive information. We plan to present our pages including an introduction, pros and cons, why we chose to do this as our project, and a conclusion that leads readers to form their own opinion on which option they prefer. We are focusing on our information to be presented in an easy to understand way so it will be clear and interesting to everyone. Our main senses used in this project are sight and touch. The touch aspect will include a digital menu with boxes including certain topics of our project allowing audience to browse through the topics. The sight aspect will provide the audience with slides presenting pictures for them to see and text for them to read.
What we Personally Think:
We personally believe that creating a fertilizer isn’t economical due to the high production price and limited regional demand.Although we have a personal opinion on the topic, it was a hard decision to make due to each side having pros and cons, so our project will not push either side, but instead let our readers decide which option they prefer. Both methods will boost the positive effects on both the environment and economy over the original design, so either are a suitable option. But looking at both the pros and cons of each method, converting the sewage sludge into a dry pack material makes more sense considering the high production price and limited regional demand for fertilizer.