Students to Participate in Water Quality Workshop
April 9, 2013
Urban Forest Management Division
703-324-5821 or 703-324-5500, TTY 711
Sixth-Grade Students to Participate in a Water Quality Field Day Workshop
Eighty 6th grade students from Woodley Hills Elementary School will participate in a water quality field day workshop from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, April 12, 2013, at The Noman Cole Pollution Control Plant. The plant is located at 9399 Richmond Highway, Lorton, VA.
The workshop fills a curriculum need to supplement and reinforce what students learned from their book, “What Do You Know about H2O?” and to bring their water lessons to life. Three main areas of water will be covered: drinking water, stormwater, and wastewater.
The drinking water section is sponsored by Fairfax Water. Students will participate in an interactive activity as they work with scientists from the James J. Corbalis Jr. Water Treatment Plant. Students will measure the hardness of water to determine if it is safe for the fish in the Chesapeake Bay, and they will learn about and see a demonstration of chromatography, which is a collective term for a set of laboratory techniques for the separation of mixtures.
The stormwater section is sponsored by the Stormwater Planning Division of Fairfax County and includes an introduction to benthic macroinvertebrates from a local stream. Students will work at the “Give a Bug and Hug” table with two county ecologists. Students will learn the connection between land and water, why benthics are used as indicators of watershed health and how the health of local watersheds affects the Chesapeake Bay.
The wastewater section of the workshop is sponsored by Wastewater Management. Scientists and engineers located at the wastewater treatment plant will participate as instructors for the wastewater section. Students will work with engineers to follow the wastewater treatment process, learn about pH and its importance to the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Students will work with scientists in the Noman Cole laboratory to measure a variety of household products to determine their pH value, and they will learn about microorganisms and how they are beneficial to wastewater treatment.
Employees of Wastewater Management and Stormwater Management of Fairfax County, Department of Public Works and Environmental Services, and Fairfax Water organized and will participate in this event.
Fairfax County is committed to nondiscrimination on the basis of disability in all county programs, services and activities. To request this information in an alternate format, or for reasonable ADA accommodations, call 703-550-9740, ext. 423, TTY 711.