activity 5 _edited_spring20

Name: Sherry So Yeon Kim SCI 105 The Flint Water Crisis – Chemical Reactions Introduction This handout contains a series of activities that lead you to explore the Flint Water Crisis and the chemistry of the problem. You will be examining the science and politics behind the crisis, which relates to chemical reactions and water treatment. Pre – Activity 1. Determine the coefficients to balance the following chemical reactions: ___ 2 __Na 3 PO 4 (aq) + __ 3 __FeCl 2 (aq) à ____Fe 3 (PO 4 ) 2 (s) + __ 6 __NaCl(aq) ___ 2 ___Na 3 PO 4 (aq) + ___ 3 __Pb(NO 3 ) 2 (aq) à ______Pb 3 (PO 4 ) 2 + ___ 6 __NaNO 3 2. Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=872Xz63b9VU and answer the question below. Based on any prior knowledge, what do you know about the Flint water crisis? I personally think it is a significant problem. Usually people boil water to decrease the number of bacteria inside water. However, people are still suffering from the Flint water crisis. Flint Water Supply 1. Read the text below and answer the following questions: a. Why did the governor of Flint move the city’s water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River? The governor of Flint moved the city’s water supply from Lake Huron because of financial emergency. b. What is your initial perspective on this case and how would you propose resolving the issue? I think it is most important to take care of the citizen’s health. Thus, the government should tell their citizens about the effect of drinking toxic water. 1

Name: Sherry So Yeon Kim One method for resolving the issue is to find other chemicals that could eliminate the toxic in the water, or to supply the citizens with fresh water. On April 25th, 2014, officials in Flint, Michigan held aloft glasses filled with water from the Flint River, in a toast to the city’s new public works project. For nearly 50 years, the city purchased treated water from Detroit, but in 2013 the City Council approved the construction of a pipeline that would bring water directly from Lake Huron into the city. The Flint River would provide the city with water until the pipeline was built. Switching the water supply was considered above all else a necessary cost-cutting measure for the city. The birthplace of General Motors and a booming center of the automobile industry for much of the 20th century, Flint’s financial stability began to falter in the 1980s, as General Motors began outsourcing, offshoring, and automating autoworker jobs. In 2002, Michigan Governor John Engler declared a financial emergency in Flint, and installed what would be a series of unelected emergency managers who were given authority to oversee the city’s finances. From 2002 to 2018, these managers began laying off city workers, cutting benefits, eliminating social programs, and raising water bills in an attempt to balance the city’s budget. Fatefully, the city managers also decided–without approval from the city council–to bring an end to the city’s reliance on Detroit water before the completion of the Lake Huron pipeline by drawing water from the Flint River. Almost immediately after the switch, residents began to grow worried about the smell, taste, and appearance of the water. Some started reporting sudden medical concerns such as rashes and hair loss. By the beginning of 2015, the Flint City Council voted to move the city back to water from Detroit, a decision that was denied by emergency manager Gerald Ambrose, who argued the switch back would be too costly. Upon retiring from the position, Ambrose then signed orders prohibiting other Flint officials from revising any of his past actions for at least a year. In the meantime, scientists and doctors grew concerned with the safety of Flint’s drinking water. Local and national researchers found dangerous levels of lead in the drinking water, among other pollutants, and doctors in the area began to warn parents against using tap water. In response, state regulators continued to claim the water was safe to drink, even after it was revealed that Flint’s emergency managers did not add corrosion control to the Flint River water treatment process as a cost-cutting measure — a vital step to insuring lead from plumbing does not filter into tap water. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality even tampered with research data and dismissed the results of other tests to maintain this stance that Flint’s drinking water was safe. Finally, in October 2015, a year and a half after residents were first exposed to toxic drinking water, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder ordered the city’s water supply switched back to Detroit. Three months later, Snyder declared a state of emergency in the city, and began distributing bottled water and filters to residents. 2

Name: Sherry So Yeon Kim dichlorobromomethane (CHCl2Br), trichloromethane (CHCl3)—better known as chloroform—and tribromomethane (CHBr3). b. What is considered safe levels of lead in human blood in parts per million (ppm)? What concentration (ppm) of lead in drinking water is considered dangerous (“action level”) by the US EPA? No level of lead is considered safe. Th US EPA has set a maximum level of lead contamination in the tap water in 90% of homes at 15 ppb, which is considered as the “action level”. c. What are the effects of water contaminants and lead on children? What are sources of lead? Brain damage, develop nasty skin rashes, elevated lead level in blood. Sources of lead are the lack of a protective layer in the iron pipes that can cause similar oxidation reaction to the one occurring in the lead pipes. d. What happens to the Flint River water as it goes through the city’s pipes? Why? (This answer needs to be explained using chemistry!) Lack of a corrosion inhibitor, high chloride levels, and other factors cause the pipe passivation layer to dissolve and fall off, leading to increased corrosion in Flint’s pipes. As the pipes corrode, chlorine disinfectant breaks down. 3. Watch the video https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4802321/user-clip-dr-mona- hanna-attisha-onthe-flint-water-crisis# and answer the questions below. a. What caused lead to get into the water? Was lead present in the Flint river, or did get into the water in another way? Lead was present in Flint river. As getting water source from green lake was too expensive, people started to use water from the Flint river. b. How could the Flint water problem have been prevented? Watch the video https://www.scientificamerican.com/video/corrosive-chemistry-how-lead- ended-up-in-flint-s-drinking-water1/ and explain the process of removing heavy metals from water resources. Water managers add orthophosphate to the water to prevent corrosion. The orthophosphate bonds with lead in the pipes, making a protective coating between the lead and water. 4

Name: Sherry So Yeon Kim 4. We have learned about water treatment in a previous chapter. Examine the diagram in the link https://teachrock.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Water-Treatment- Process.png?x11095 and answer the following question; a. What component of the water treatment process is Hanna-Attisha and the Scientific American video referring to? Anti-Corrosion agents b. What might have caused the city of Flint to not include this component in the treatment of the Flint river water? Maybe adding the corrosion agents cost a lot of money. Summary Based on what you learned in this activity, answer the questions below. 1. Why did the Flint water crisis occur? Was it a problem that required new scientific research or technological innovation to solve? Or was it something else? The Flint water crisis occurred due to the change in water resource. It is a problem that require technological innovation. 2. What implications does this crisis have for older cities across the US? What can be done to stop a water crisis from occurring in other cities? What are the obstacles cities face? Some cities have hard time achieving fresh water from freshwater resources. Thus, as some cities lack with money, these are some obstacles. Writing Prompt Write a short essay (200-250 words) about the following prompt. Include enough specific details to support your opinion. The Flint water crisis reveals that science and scientific research never exists in a vacuum–it is connected with issues of politics and economics. Given this fact, do you think it is part of a scientist’s responsibility to be politically and socially involved? Or, is a scientist’s primary role to focus on conducting research and advancing technologies, leaving issues of politics and economics to others? Simply put, are activism or advocacy essential parts of being a scientist? 5

Name: Sherry So Yeon Kim crisis#.XFh7olxKiUk Why is it possible that Flint River water cannot be treated to meet federal standards http://flintwaterstudy.org/2015/08/why-is-it-possible-that-flint-river-water-cannot-be- treated-to-meet-federal-standards/ Flint Water Crisis: What's Being Done to Help Children Exposed to Lead http://abcnews.go.com/Health/flint-water-crisis-children-exposed-lead/story?id=36376739 7