In the course Aqueous Chemistry (CHEM 3010) at first I didn’t think it would be much of an environmentally focused course however, after the first class we had already learned so much about the chemistry of water and how important it is for life and the environment. In addition, this course also focused on different contaminants in water that are know to have negative impacts on different ecosystems. Understanding how a chemicals change and moves within an environment can help us better understand how to remove it and determine how toxic it may be to the environment and other organisms living in it including human.
In the course we did a project where we were assigned a different toxic chemicals from different industries. My chemical was resorcinol from the rubber and tire industry. In this report we had to determine the impacts it would have on the ecosystem if some amount accidentally spilled over into a lake. This project was a great real-world application of what environmental chemistry can be used for.
I created a report of the incident that outlines what happed and any recommendations that should be made to the city in regards to the spill. In additions, I also created a group presentation that combined my chemical with three other peoples chemicals in the rubber and tire industry.
Technical Report on Resorcinol in Kalamalka Lake
Rubber and Tires Chemicals Presentation
Reflection:
In this course I learned lots about applying environmental chemistry into practice. I also learned about the complexity of an environment and how this can change the course of action when thinking of environmental issues at a larger scale. I enjoyed that in this class I was able to think like an environmental consultant doing our report on toxic chemical contamination in a lake system. One of the main take aways from this project was learning how a consultant and the government would need to respond to an environmental disaster like chemical contamination. What chemists can detect as dangerous is different from how it might actually behave in the environment at lower concentrations. It was interesting to learn that governments must also keep in mind the public and revenue gained through tourism to ensure that a spill does not cause people to panic which is something I would have never thought to consider before when looking into environmental issues.