6th Grade Water Tour
Water and Waste Water Treatment Tour
Full-day trip at various locations including: Loch Alpine Waste Water Treatment, Portage/Baseline Lake Waste Water Treatment, Barton Dam, and the City of Ann Arbor Water Treatment Plant.
(Depart school at 9:30 am and return at 2:00 pm)
(Teachers, please feel free to cut and paste this text into a new document to personalize the letter for your class. If possible, please also consider sending the letter digitally to save paper.)
Family Letter Translations (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish) **Korean coming soon
MORNING - Students meet two waste water treatment plant (WWTP) operators.
LOCH ALPINE
Mr. Rhulig at Loch Alpine will explain the system he uses, which discharges in to the surface water. Grease is something that Mr. Rhulig's system cannot handle, and he advises students on the best way to dispose of cooking grease. Note the "grease ball" to his left in the photos below!
PORTAGE/BASE LAKES
Mr. Kangas will explain the Portage/Base Lakes WWTP, which percolates into the aquifer. Note that Mr. Kangas' facility is the "schematic diagram" referred to the under Post-Trip Activities, pages 2 and 3. Some animals use the safety of the WWTP to raise their families - Mr. Kangas caught them on VIDEO.
The City of Ann Arbor's Waste Water Treatment Plant recently got an overhaul and tours to the public are available now! Read more about it in the February, 2016 Ann Arbor Observer article "Cleansing the Waters" by James Leonard.
AFTERNOON - Students tour Barton Dam and a water treatment plant.
BARTON DAM
The history and functions of the dam are discussed.
CITY OF ANN ARBOR WATER TREATMENT PLANT
At the City of Ann Arbor Water Treatment Plant, students see first-hand how clean drinking water is processed.
On a mission!
Students from Pittsfield Elementary headed out for their Water Tour field trip, with a request from Ms. Winters, Secretary to the Principal. "See if you can find out when our school's water was tested. It looks funny coming out of this faucet." At the City of Ann Arbor Water Treatment Plant (WTP), Alisha Seefeld, Administrative Assistant, provided the most recent testing dates (in April). Then, Larry Sanford, Assistant Manager, gave the students a testing kit to bring back for use at the school. Even though the issues with the faucet are not related to the drinking water source, WTP staff saw a great opportunity for the class to put their science skills to work! The students were most appreciative, as was Ms. Winters.
Click HERE to see information about water testing in AAPS buildings, and here for a video update from a Board of Education meeting in May 2019.
ADDITIONAL WATER SOURCES - For schools and homes EAST of CARPENTER ROAD, the provider of services is the Ypsilant Community Utilities Authority (YCUA). The source of drinking water is the DETROIT WATER AND SEWER DEPARTMENT (DWSW). This VIDEO shows the operations in Detroit, and many of the elements will be familiar from the City of Ann Arbor Water Treatment Tour.
FLINT - The crisis in Flint has raised concerns among students regarding safe water drinking supplies. Click on the following links for help discussing what happened in Flint.
BOTTLED WATER - What do you really know about bottled water? Use this interactive site to find out where the water comes from, and what the various words ("purified" "spring" "glacial" etc.) mean on the label.
GROUND WATER MONITORING IN ANN ARBOR - in the 1980s a plume of 1,4-dioxane originating from manufacturing at Gelman Sciences was detected in an aquifer under western Ann Arbor. Use this link to find current news from MLive regarding dioxane.
WHAT IS IT? - Three massive storage tanks are used by the City of Ann Arbor to maintain water pressure in different districts. Neighborhoods that are below the water treatment plant elevation are serviced through a gravity feed, but areas that are more distant and/or at higher elevations need additional pumps and storage tanks to maintain the pressure needed to distribute water to homes and businesses. Pictured above are two of Ann Arbor's tanks, plus Ypsilanti's historic tank.
LEFT: Looking up, this is the 500,000 gallon water storage tank near County Farm Park. This tank was painted with a new design in the fall of 2016, as part of routine maintenance. Click HERE to see which design won the community vote.
CENTER: The tank on Plymouth Road. (source: Dwight Burdette)
RIGHT: The City of Ypsilanti's historic tower, designed by William R. Coats and constructed as part of an elaborate city waterworks project that began in 1889. (source: Lost in Michingan)
POTABLE WATER IS PRECIOUS...AND HEAVY!
Many people around the world dedicate hours each day to fetching water for use in the home, for cooking, and for drinking. Students learn that one gallon weighs 8.5 lbs - and are asked to think about the challenges of carrying 24 lbs of water in a bucket on your head!
The HIPPO ROLLER is great "outside-the-box" thinking for a better way to transport water.
LIZ ELLING swam the 128 mile length of the Huron River
Liz's story is especially relevant for students studying clean water resources, hydrology, and volunteerism. Click HERE to learn how and why she did it!
