The Science of Sustainability: Carson City students take field trip to the water treatment facility
Many of us take for granted that we can turn on a faucet and clean water is immediately available for drinking, bathing and cleaning, but we often don’t think much about where it comes from and how it gets to us.
Thirty Pioneer Academy students had the opportunity to learn just that on a tour of the Truckee Meadows Water Authority Chalk Bluff water treatment facility last week.
The trip was organized by Envirolution, a non-profit located in Reno that focuses on connecting students with educational and career opportunities related to technology and sustainability. Pioneer has partnered with Envirolution for other field trips over the past couple of years, and they have never failed to provide a memorable and meaningful experience for the students.
Students first took a tour of the facility, starting with some of the input channels where water is diverted from the Truckee River into holding ponds for processing. Students were interested to learn that their drinking water mostly comes directly from the river, and had several questions about the process of making it clean enough to drink. Students then went inside where they learned about the processes of removing impurities via agglomeration and filtering while viewing the enormous tanks where those processes were happening. Finally, students learned about the chemical treatments used at the end to kill any remaining organisms too small to be filtered out.
The second part of the trip involved some demonstrations of the different types of testing done on the water both at the plant and out in the field. These included testing for acidity, salinity, turbidity (clarity), and bacterial cultures. Students got to observe and use some of the numerous testing devices used by the scientists there and understand why these measurements were important.
The employees at TMWA were great; they were knowledgeable and approachable and seemed to enjoy talking with the students and answering their questions. Pioneer would like to thank Envirolution and the employees of TMWA for giving us this opportunity and for making it an interesting and educational experience.