Thursday, June 07, 2007
LI News from yesterday
This was in the newspaper just yesterday. One of my main goals is to see that students who have taken my class understand everyday things that they may read regarding chemistry or science in general. Try to read this brief article and see whether the experience of the past 9 months enables you to get more out of what you now encounter:
June 6, 2007, 10:26 PM EDT
The Village of Hempstead for the first time has acknowledged that the level of an industrial contaminant found in one of its water-supply wells was the highest ever recorded at that well.
The water is safe to drink, village and county officials said Wednesday, but Well No. 5 remains off-line and the source of the contamination is still unknown. The well is one of nine used to serve the village's 56,000 residents.
Water from the affected well had 11.8 parts per billion of trichloroethene, TCE, an industrial solvent, when it was tested April 3, more than a week after a routine quarterly test showed a level of 10.1 parts per billion -- twice the allowable limit of 5 parts per billion, the notice said.
The 11.8 reading was "the highest ever seen in this well," according to the village.
The most recent sample, taken May 30, had a reading of 5.9, said Mike Taylor, superintendent of the village water plant. He added that the village was working with the Nassau County Health Department to devise a treatment that would bring the readings down to allowable levels, but there was no time frame.
TCE is hazardous to human health only after prolonged exposure. The notice said a typical person would have to drink two liters of water with the elevated level of TCE daily for 70 years to have an increased risk of developing liver problems or getting cancer.
So, that's the article. You know the formula for parts per million so the formula for parts per billion should be easy for you to figure out also. Could you draw the structural formula of TCE? Could you tell whether the molecule is polar or non-polar? Could you think of one type of organic reaction that TCE can undergo? I really hope that you can; that's important to me and it's important for you to have grown academically this year.
Hempstead contamination level a record high
BY WILLIAM MURPHYThe Village of Hempstead for the first time has acknowledged that the level of an industrial contaminant found in one of its water-supply wells was the highest ever recorded at that well.
The water is safe to drink, village and county officials said Wednesday, but Well No. 5 remains off-line and the source of the contamination is still unknown. The well is one of nine used to serve the village's 56,000 residents.
On Wednesday, officials began to give a more detailed report on the incident as the village mailed out notices to its water customers as required by state law.
Water from the affected well had 11.8 parts per billion of trichloroethene, TCE, an industrial solvent, when it was tested April 3, more than a week after a routine quarterly test showed a level of 10.1 parts per billion -- twice the allowable limit of 5 parts per billion, the notice said.
The 11.8 reading was "the highest ever seen in this well," according to the village.
The most recent sample, taken May 30, had a reading of 5.9, said Mike Taylor, superintendent of the village water plant. He added that the village was working with the Nassau County Health Department to devise a treatment that would bring the readings down to allowable levels, but there was no time frame.
TCE is hazardous to human health only after prolonged exposure. The notice said a typical person would have to drink two liters of water with the elevated level of TCE daily for 70 years to have an increased risk of developing liver problems or getting cancer.
So, that's the article. You know the formula for parts per million so the formula for parts per billion should be easy for you to figure out also. Could you draw the structural formula of TCE? Could you tell whether the molecule is polar or non-polar? Could you think of one type of organic reaction that TCE can undergo? I really hope that you can; that's important to me and it's important for you to have grown academically this year.
# posted by C @ 12:09 AM 
