About This Project
The aim of this project is to compare the quality of well water, city water and well water that has been treated through reverse osmosis in private water supplies in Illinois, United States. Will County is the case study area. Research found contamination in each of the types. There are traces of a variety of minerals and chemicals within the water supplies such as Chromium, Arsenic, Lead, Radium and Iron.Ask the Scientists
Join The DiscussionWhat is the context of this research?
Throughout Will County there are glacial deposits varying from 1 foot in depth to over 200 feet which greatly affects the way groundwater travels underneath the surface. Groundwater will come into contact with different minerals and potential contaminants depending on which type of sediment it passes through. As groundwater travels across a landscape it
passes through and interacts with different types of metals, dissolved gases, organics, cations and anions.
Private well water in the United States accounts for about one sixth of households drinking water, thus enhancing the importance of this investigation.
What is the significance of this project?
The most recent data that was found readily available for the wells in Will county are from 1980 and only gives details about the water quality and contents at the time of installation. Since Will County consists of many up-and-coming townships and sub-divisions, the water supply quality tests for many individual areas are surprisingly limited and not in depth.
There appears to be very limited information available to the public about why one type of water system is so much "better" than another, especially when one considers the cost of highly purified water as compared to the cost of well water.
What are the goals of the project?
- To investigates the hazards of contaminated water to health.
- To collect water samples of all three types from sources in Will County.
- To test samples for traces of inorganic species.
- To evaluate and compare the level of inorganic contamination of samples.
Budget
In order to test for inorganic species in the water samples that are collected I will need to conduct water analysis tests. These test are done using lab equipment that charge per sample analysed. The minimum samples required is 4 to have sufficient data.
If funding exceed my target, all the additional money will be put towards more samples which will better enhance my results.
Meet the Team
Team Bio
My name is Timur Shevket and I am an American/British undergraduate student at Plymouth University in the UK. My family recently moved to Illinois which sparked my interest for this research. For my dissertation research project, I am pursuing the question "How does the quality of well water, city water and well water that has been treated through reverse osmosis differ in Will County, Illinois?”I have chosen Will county as my case study area due to the fact that when my family moved there this past summer, I was surprised by two facts. One being that the ground underneath Will county is made up largely of glacial deposits that can greatly alter the flow of groundwater and what the water interacts with compared to much of the rest of the United States and secondly that there is such a wide range of water supplies available for homeowner, which are all used.
Lab Notes
Nothing posted yet.
Project Backers
- 2Backers
- 112%Funded
- $225Total Donations
- $112.50Average Donation