Let’s explore the world of water ~

Where do you live? Do you know where your home’s tap water comes from? I live in Riverside, and my home’s tap water comes from groundwater system. According to Riverside Public Utilities’s Water Quality Annual Report, Riverside’s water begins as rain and snow that touches down in our local foothills and mountains and flows down through the earth into underground aquifers. With every storm, these water sources, located throughout the Riverside and San Bernardino basins, receive new water that is filtered through percolation, a naturally occurring purification process. They are saying that water in Riverside is safe to drink because water surpasses all state and federal standard set by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA). Also, they are saying that we do not need to filter our tap water to make it drinkable because a safe amount of chlorine is used to purify your water and prevent harmful bacteria and viruses from growing in water. The smell that one can smell from the tap water is because of chlorine. Although the Riverside Public Utilities say that the tap water is safe to drink. I personally do not want to drink because it seems not purified. The tap water in my house has some grey color and some smell like pool. I cannot believe that it is safe to drink, so I would drink bottled water.

Who is in charge of the standard of tap water and bottled water?

In 1996, the U.S. Federal Government re-enacted the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). This act sets the minimum quality standards for municipal drinking water throughout the United States. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the responsibility to set the minimum standards on a national level. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has set standards for bottled water based on EPA standards. Although bottled water, for the most part, is used for drinking water, it is considered a food product and is subject to the regulations guiding food stuffs.

Bottled water is convenient because one can basically just go to the grocery shopping and buy it. However, there are some concerns that the package of bottled water which is a bottle has been wasted because not all people recycle it.

Here are some problems with bottled water in environment.

• Plastic bottle production in the United States annually requires about 17.6 million barrels of oil.
• Worldwide bottling of water uses about 2.7 million tons of plastic each year.
• Transporting bottled water to market produces air pollution and emissions of carbon dioxide which contribute to global warming.
• The energy it takes to transport the water to market, to chill the bottles, and collect the empties is the energy equivalent of filling each bottle a quarter of the way with oil.
• About 86 percent of empty plastic water bottles in the United States land in the garbage instead of being recycled. That amounts to about two million tons of PET plastic bottles piling up in U.S. landfills each year.
• Many plastic bottles end up being incinerated, releasing toxic byproducts such as chlorine gas and ash laden with heavy metals into the air.

How "Green" is Your school?

Saving energy and going “Green” has been trend for public areas.

On the last Thursday, I walk around Riverside City College where I go to look for how the school is doing a green campaign.  

The campus has gone green because it uses the automatic system in the bathrooms, more recycling bins and provide transportation for students. In the Math and Science building, when going to the restroom the lights automatically turn on and off because the lights have a censor. When leaving the restroom, the lights turn off because the censor no longer senses a human. The bathroom also has automatic censors for the water and the paper towels. The water only turns on when the censor senses human hands. By having the automatic system it controls how much water is being used and how much electricity is being used. When someone is using a regular bathroom that has no automatic system uses more energy and water. When someone is washing their hands over the sink and turn on the faucet they keep the water running until they are done using it.

By having recycling bins around campus and the cafeteria it helps the environment and at the same students can say they help the campus become green. At the same time students can use full advantage of their tuition since the school provides transportation for them. Why waste mileage and gas when the school uses a small amount of tuition to provide free transportation. About 5 years ago, the school came up with the system because the school saw many students drive to campus and polluting the environment.

As I continue to walk around I could not find any sustainable effort in the classroom and grounds.

Lane Community College in Oregon, for example, has composters in its kitchens and holds clothing exchanges to reduce waste.

In Lane Community College in Oregon has found a way to reduce waste in the world. The school decided to have composters in order to turn food waste into manure. At the same time the school holds a clothing exchange that helps reduce the amount of trash clothing each year. By them having this exchange people get to meet other people and help the environment.

There are some restrooms still has not been changed to the automatic system. Currently, the school is changing some of the restrooms, but I do not know the process of which the school is doing them. In order for me to find out, I will go to interview Cynthia E. Azari, the chancellor of Riverside Community College District. I will ask her if it is okay to check the difference of a month bill of the building including water usage and electricity between the building having automated restrooms and non-automated restrooms. Also, to see how effect the change is I will create a simple survey containing age, year, and two questions asking the students how many times they use the restroom and if they believe if the automatic system works. Having this survey I will then sent it to Cynthia E. Azari to show her that this change is effective and should be used in all the schools.

Let's Try to Be Friend with Nature !

Everyone is getting stress when they focus on doing something. Naturally people want to take a rest. The same thing happened to me last weekend. On Saturday on September 28, 2013, I decided to go out to take a rest and walk around to stress away since I could not focus on studying. I had so much to do, so I just wanted to take a break doing nothing.

It was sunny nice Saturday.

I unintentionally walked to the International Village, around my apartment, which is a dormitory for international students around University California of Riverside. After I saw the place, I wanted to go to the behind of the building where the soccer and basketball field are.

Then I suddenly wanted to sit on the grass to feel the nature and think nothing like meditation. I wanted to try not to think about anything and tried to feel the nature and refresh myself.

I was sitting there more than 20 minutes, but I did not realize that I was sitting there quite long time. I was feeling good by doing nothing.

While I was there, I sometimes closed my eyes and opened my eyes to look around me.

I think I was closing my eyes about 5-10mins.

While I closed my eyes, I felt wind a little touching my skin; grass was moving around me and made some noise a little. There were also trees behind of me making some noise with their branches and leaves. I heard a bird sound around me, but I was not sure what the bird is.

Also, because of the clouds I could feel that I am under the shade although I was not sitting under a tree. When I was under the shade because of clouds I could feel that the air around me was a little cooler and I wanted to be out more. However, it was really hot and I felt I was burning when I was not in the shade.

Even though I did not move at all sitting at a position, the nature itself was moving and making some different. I was imagining the huge picture of nature, so I realized that I am a very small “thing” in the nature.

After I tried to feel the nature with closing eyes, I opened my eyes to look around what I felt.

There were many biotic things around me which I could not actually see them.

I tried to see the nature as much as I can see the details.

There were some small flies flying around me and annoying me.  

There were many ants working such as bringing some sweet things from unknown place.  There was a lizard was on the tree, and the lizard did not have the tail. I thought he had a hard time to survive.

Some birds were flying around the building and there were some people looking at me a little bit strange.

Some people were about to play basketball probably to stress away like me, or to have fun with friends.

It was nice experience trying to be a small natural thing. I would never know what are around me if I do not really care or try to feel. After being together with nature for my break, I could have been focus more for my study.We should not forget that we are a small species in the nature. We are living in the world with many things together including biotic and abiotic things. A lot of bugs and flies flying around me were moving from tree to other trees(mutualism), and ants working on walking in the nature and taking food from other area(commensalism). I could find easily producer such as grass, primary and secondary consumers in the food chain.