1. What harmful chemicals are in Las Vegas’s waters? By KHK

2. Problem we are trying to solve We plan to learn as much as we can about water quality across Las Vegas lakes, drinking, tap, and shower water. Water is important to any community.

3. Hypothesis Our hypothesis is that the duck ponds would have a much higher ppm (particles per. milliliter). Basically, that means that any extra poop, feather bits, dirt, or other residue in the water besides H2O. Our hypothesis helped us with our experiment because, once we decided what would most likely show a wide variation, we could decide which water that we could test. We ended up testing one shower water, two tap water, two drinking water, and one hose water. We also tested four duck ponds.

4. Independent Variable, Dependant Variable, and Control The independent variable is the different ponds. The dependent variable is what the results are from that. Tap and drinking water (control) Constant- what we tested, which particle testing meter

5. Procedure 1. Came up with question 2. Researched/came up with hypothesis 3. Bought test strips 4. Got water samples 5. Tested them with test strips and particle tester 6. Worked on Mission folder 7. Worked on Powerpoint/website

6. Data Our data supports our our hypothesis. Our hypothesis was that the duck ponds would have the highest PPM. The data supports supports that hypothesis. I thought that basically everything would be higher in the duck ponds, from acidity to NO2 (nitrogen compounds). That was not at all supported or true. In conclusion, my hypothesis was partially supported.

7. What does GH and KH mean? GH “There are two types of water hardness: general hardness” “General hardness is primarily the measure of calcium (Ca++) and magnesium (Mg++) ions in the water.)” PH “Sometimes KH is confused with GH which is General Hardness. KH and GH are different and KH is not part of any GH measurement. Therefore KH and GH can be higher or lower than one another and provide no real indication of each other.” “A higher KH will make your pH much more stable, help prevent pH crashes and also provide some health benefits. Most people don’t know that KH is continuously consumed by beneficial bacteria and essential to biological filtration.”

8. What does pH, NO2, and NO3 mean? pH “In chemistry, pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity of an aqueous solution. Solutions with a pH less than 7 are said to be acidic and solutions with a pH greater than 7 are basic or alkaline. Pure water has a pH very close to 7.” NO2 and NO3 Nitrogen-containing compounds act as nutrients in streams and rivers. Nitrate reactions [NO3-] in fresh water can cause oxygen depletion. Thus, aquatic organisms depending on the supply of oxygen in the stream will die. The major routes of entry of nitrogen into bodies of water are municipal and industrial waste water, septic tanks, feedlot discharges, animal wastes (including birds and fish) and discharges from car exhausts. Bacteria in water quickly convert nitrites [NO2-] to nitrates [NO3-].”

9. Teammate #1's Data Desert Shores: GH- 180 KH- 80 pH- 6.5 NO2-.5 NO3- 20 PPM- 1,526 Tule Springs: GH- 180 KH-180 pH- 6.5 NO2- 0.5 NO3- 2.0 PPM- 361 Cottonwood Lake: GH- 180 KH-180 pH- 7.5 NO2- 0 NO3- 20 PPM- 339 Mulberry: GH- 120 KH- 180 pH- 7.5 NO2-.5 NO3- 20 PPM- 361

10. Teammate #2’s Data Drinking Water GH- 30 KH- 40 pH- 6.0 NO2- 0.5 NO3- 0 PPM- 395 Shower Water GH- 0 KH-120 pH- 7.5 NO2- 0 NO3- 20 PPM- 1,178 Tap Water GH- 15 KH- 70 pH- 6.0 NO2- 0 NO3- 0 PPM- 67

11. Teammate #3’s Data Drinking Water GH- 120 KH- 40 pH- 6.0 NO2- 0.5 NO3- 0 PPM- 14 Hose Water GH- 30 KH- 40 pH- 7.0 NO2-.5 NO3- 20 PPM

12. PPM

17. NO 2

18. Experimental Errors There could have been multiple sources of error in this experiment. 1. We did not collect water from the same part of the pond every time that we tested 2. We did not buy the same brand of test strips each time 3. We could have interpreted the test strips wrongly. Of these, the error that could have most thrown off our data would be if we interpreted our data incorrectly. The brand of test strips could change our results because if they show varying results, then all of our data could be off, which would then throw off our whole experiment.

19. Conclusion In the future, if we re-tested this experiment, we would certainly want to change my hypothesis. We would change it to: "We believe that any of the ponds that we test will have a much higher PPM, but that the pH, NO2 and NO3 will be fairly random from ponds or cleansed water. We expect the KH to also be higher in the hose water and pond water." We are not totally sure that this will have much usefulness to the community, considering that we already have the water authorities to do all of this for us. Even if we did not have water authorities out there testing samples at least once a week, we still don't think that anyone would be going around drinking out of duck ponds anyway. Most of this experiment just advances our own personal knowledge. We now know that you should not drink out of a shower, for it's higher particle level. If we were to change any experimental design flaws, then I would buy the same brand of test strips the whole time. We would also try to test in the same part of the pond at the same time of day. One more thing that we think that we would change would be to shake each test tube before using the test strips and the Particle Meter.

20. Bibliography 1) "Nitrate-Nitrite Nitrogen." Nitrate-Nitrogen Water Quality Information. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2014. 2) "PH." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Jan. 2014. Web. 03 Feb. 2014. 3)"Water Hardness." Water Hardness. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2014. 4) "What Is KH, °KH, DKH, Carbonate Hardness?" - Seneye. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.