Session 7: Making A Difference

What can you do to change water pollution?
Learning about the role of water in your life and bringing it close to home (your school), should have you wondering about the things you can do to stop water pollution. Now you will learn how to make a difference in your community.

Try This!  

1 From Bad to Disastrous in Two Short Hours
2 Be A Good Neighbor
3 Quiz Yourself



1 From Bad to Disastrous in Two Short Hours Top

Read to Learn: Classroom
Imagine a place with these conditions and think of what might happen if something were to tip the balance—from bad to disastrous.

  1. Millions of gallons of partially treated wastewater are dumped into the town’s major river each day.
  2. Hog farming occurs on land near the banks of this major river where hogs outnumber people by about seven to one. Each day these hogs produce more fecal waste than all the people in the states of New York and California combined.
  3. A water treatment plant is near this river.
  4. There are many junk yards in this region.
This sounds like a place where disaster is just waiting to happen. But this situation is not made up—it is a real place.

The Neuse River (pronounced “noose”) begins near Durham, North Carolina. It flows southeast, winding through many cities, farms, and swamps, and emptying into Pamlico Sound, a body of water separated from the Atlantic Ocean by North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

And a disaster did happen here.

On September 16, 1999, Hurricane Floyd hit the coast of North Carolina. Floyd dumped 22 inches (56 centimeters) of rain on parts of eastern North Carolina.

Do to Learn: Classroom
Brainstorm in class: What do you think happened to the Neuse River after this flood?

Look to Learn: Computer Lab
Read about what happened in the two hours after the storm hit, and compare it to your predictions:
  1. Numerous large hog farm’s barns were almost completely covered and their lagoons (‘pools’ where hog waste is stored) were overflowing.
  2. Further up the river in the town of Kinston, a wastewater treatment plant was failing, letting untreated human waste flow into the waters of the Neuse.
  3. A short distance away, many junkyards were under water. Thousands of flooded cars and commercial businesses were leaking petroleum products (like gasoline) into the surrounding waters.
Do to Learn: Classroom
As a group, answer these questions:
  1. What do you think happened to the drinking water in southeast North Carolina?
  2. Did the polluting of the Neuse River affect your watershed or drinking water?

Extension Activity: Homework
Do a report (oral or written) about the Neuse River’s clean-up efforts since Hurricane Floyd.


2 Be A Good Neighbor Top

Read to Learn
Here are some ways adults have used voting to help save our waters:

Washington, D.C. 1972
The U.S. Congress passed a law called the Clean Water Act, which protects the quality of water. Now almost every city is required to build a wastewater-treatment plant. States also create their own laws to regularly check their water supplies for pollution.

Washington, D.C. 1974
Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act to protect drinking water from pollution. It created laws for cleaning drinking water and offered standards to control waste buildup underground that can pollute groundwater.

Washington, D.C. 1996
The Safe Drinking Water Act was strengthened. The changes asked states to do more to keep water clean. Since every community is different, water supply problems may depend on local problems.

Do to Learn: Computer Lab
Be a part of World Monitoring Day.


3 Quiz Yourself Top

Do to Learn: Classroom
Answer the following questions to see how much you’ve learned:
  • How many days do you think you can survive without a drink of water?
  • When you finally get that drink, could it be the same water the dinosaurs drank?
  • Does taking a shorter shower really matter?
  • Where does a leaking oil drip from a car or an oil change end up?
  • How much water does it take to make a burger or a soda?
  • Where do you usually find fresh water?
  • What is the percentage of usable water on Earth?
  • How do you think pollutants get into tap water?
  • Is it safe to drink water with high nitrate levels?
Explain your answers. 		Print this Session
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