LAST DAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!

OK SO TODAY IS THE LAST DAY OF WORK AND IM A BIT UPSET CUZ WE DONT GET PAID NO MORE. BUT I'VE LEARNED ALOT WHILE I WAS WORKING WITH THESE PEOPLE AND I'M GONNA MISS THEM. BUT THIS WAS A GOOD EXPERIENCE FOR ME AND I HOPE TO DO IT AGAIN.

Last Day

I'm so happy that this program is over with but while i was here I learn so much about water. This program help me learn how to write a resume and a cover letter. I think our group was the best presentation out of all the other groups.

Last day!

Today is our last day, I'm happy that it is over with and we are moving on to with we want to persue. have a fantastic summer bye everyone. I have learned alot about water I also think our group was the best. Our presentation was fantastic and we got a clear vision of and bettter unerstanding of water and where it comes from. Have a fantastic summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bottled Water Activists

Post by David Abel: Activists urge states to use less bottled water

They called on governor Deval Patrick to reduce the amount of money spent on bottle water. The state called on a emergency meeting to upgrade the states water system to reduce the spending. At a state rally in front on the state house environmental activist had conducted a survey and a experiment to allow citizens to drink Philadelphia's tap and to see if they noticed any Major differences

I think there points are valid. I also think they need to come up with a solution to the problem. They were still in the process of brain storming and coming up with new idea's, one idea that they came up with was to upgrade the states water system. Lisa Capone is a spokes women who deals with executive affairs and energy environmental affairs said the governor has signed the two executive orders in recent years urging the state to cut back on the expenses on bottled water.

Youtube Video Tries to Redeem the Bottled Water Industry.

"People who think the bottled water industry doesn't care about the environment don't know the industry very well," says the gutsy teen host of "Bottled Water's Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility," . She's ingenuous and gullible too, since the bottled water industry has her fooled into believing that they actually care about the environment and aren't more concerned with their bank accounts...but any who, back to the video. This video, is one of many that have been uploaded to a YouTube channel by the name of BottledWaterMatters, within the last five months. All of these videos have a common goal. To salvage whats left of the bottled water industry's once clean slate.

In another video entitled the "The Real Story of Bottled water," the idea that the demand for bottled water was manufactured by the bottled water industry by scare tactics and seduction is portrayed as crazy. The five gallon talking water bottle in the anti anti bottled water activist video says that the demand for bottled water is consumer driven, because its safe, healthy and convenient. Now according to the talking water bottle that isn't to say tap water is bad.. As a support to their theory that bottled water is more convenient and safe, an article about a pipe break in Boston is included. The break in the 10ft diameter pipe caused a boil order throughout the city. That's where bottled water comes in handy with its convienience and safety, is what the folks at Bottled Water Matters are trying to say. The animated water bottle then goes on to describe the health problems associated with dirty water, such as guinea worm diesease.

Anti Bottled Water Story!!!!!!!!!!!

The International Bottled Water Association is saying that Annie Leonard's video" The Story of Bottled Water" is giving false information. One of Annie's statements"Americans buy more than 500 million bottles of the stuff every week. It's second only to soda in popularity, and some industry analysts believe that by next year water will become the most-purchased beverage in the country"is said it may actually be a fact. But the I.B.W.A is accusing her of giving false information. i.e. She says the bottled water companies are scaring us, seducing us and misleading us. However most of her statements are actually true. i.e In the video there are blind taste testing surveys and they're saying that the tap water tastes alot better than bottled water. Also in the video she says that bottled water is less regulated than tap. But the I.B.W.A fights back by saying bottled water bottles are 100% recyclable and are the nations most recycled containers. I would have to say I'm on Annie's side. Check out the video and let me know what you think. go to youtube and type in the story of bottled water.

Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center

My group went to Fairmount park interpretive center we caught the train and were there in no time. When we got there the building appeared to be new and was well kept.We learned about were our drinking water comes from. The building once was a place for people to come swim. It also once was a ditch and it was a massive sewer. There once was a epidemic going on many people were dieing from the smell, and disease.

One exhibit that I found interesting was the one about the documentary it interested me the most because it spoke on how the history of water all started. The scuhkylkill river is a main river in philadelphia. The schuhkylkill river is one of the longest rivers in the country. Most of philadelphia's driking water comes from the schukylkill river, and Philadelphia's rivers started with schukylkill river.

I learned that all water is not fresh even thougth advertisements make it appear to be. I also learned were I get my drinking, and were it comes from. I think this place exists as a interpretive center educate people about the history of philadelphia's drinking water and where it comes from. To also let people know water is reliable source people often take for granted.

Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center

On Friday, July 23rd our group visited the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center. It is located at 640 Waterworks Drive in Philly of course. TO get there we took SEPTA's orange line subway to Broad & Gerard and then caught the 15 trolley to 27th & Gerard. After this, we walked about two to three blocks before arriving.

Upon arriving, I noticed that the building looked old, but in tip-top shape.It's composed of beige colored bricks, and sections of the water works (where the water wheels used to be) are submerged under water. Before it became an interpretive center, the Fairmount Water Works in Philadelphia was our nation's first water treatment plant. In the late 1700's civic committee members chose a man named Frederick Graft to design a waterworks on the eastern bank of the Schulykill river, that would provide the citizens of Philadelphia with clean water, thus lowering the number of yellow fever cases.

The waterworks at Fairmount was sucessful for a while, until 1880's. Due to the industrialization of the area, the Schulykill was now a public sewer as well as the city's source of drinking water. Heavy pollution of the Schulykill's once pristine waters caused the water works to close down in 1909. Some time after it's closing it became an aquarium, public pool, and eventually the interpretive center that stands today.

During our visit, I learned alot of things that I didn't know before. For instance, before this trip I never knew that Philadelphia housed the country's first water treatment plant, or that wooden pipes once delivered water to Philly's citizens. My favorite exhibit in the whole center was a massive sculpture about pollution. It was very colorful and featured signs that said things about how pollution affects the environment.

Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center!

ok so about two weeks ago we went to the F.W.W.I.C and it was very informative. they had old water pipes from the first water system in the U.S. and the thing is that it is the first water system in the U.S. We learned alot about where they got their water from and how they purified it. We also learned about how they advanced their technology to fix any complications they had. there is a huge difference in today's water supply from back then. the main things that caught my eye was that they dumped all human wastes into the river of water they drank from; we still do it today. so i feel i got out of the trip that we need cleaner water and we need to be smart about our resurces and what w do with them!!!!!!!!!

Case Study 2

University of Rochester is located in the suburban of Rochester. This university is one of the most smallest and collegiate among the nations top research universities. This university enroll approximately 4600 undergraduates and 3900 graduates student. URoc is a private university.

There are four groups that help to get the refill stations installed. They also do sustainability like our project. There university want everyone to start saving their money instead of buying a bottle of water when you can refill. This should be apart of a larger enviorment campaign, they also do green cleaning and recycle. They trying to make the campus a safe place.

The sustainability group is trying to install 18 water fountain. They will attached a goose neck-spigots onto the water fountains that they already have. All the water fountains will be install before fall semester. 14 new spigots have been install already they have four more to go.!! The group caught people attention by saying instead of buying a new bottle why not refill it?!

I think that they are going in the right path with the water fountain but they need to give more details about why people would want to drink from it. They should also up grade there water fountain but I would refill a bottle from one of there re filler. I don't like the way the machine is set up because it look cheap and it didn't really catch my eye. I do like that fact that they are trying.

Case Study

At Penn State which is located in Central Pennsylvania, have a water refilling station on the first floor of the chambers building. It refill cups and containers, it also have a time that it turn off. Everyone can use the re filler students, staff, and outsiders. There are 800 and more students that go to the chambers building. The school is big and there is about 94,301 students that attend Penn Stare. Its is a public university.

The 3E-COE a student organization started the safe environment thing on campus. They hope that everyone learn there lesson about natural environment. This is a group that do the same thing we do at Office of sustainability but the difference between us and them, they research on nature and the world that is surrounding us. They hope to get refill stations in every building on the campus to prevent from using bottles. 3E-COE and numerous ecology-interest group was in involved getting the refill station installed. This is also part of a larger environmental campaign.

The type of unit that they install is a sensor-activated filling station, it have a touch less dispenser with an automated turn off timer. It is entirely new united ,they only install one in the Chambers building. They got there first break when they hosted a rally in front of the Old Main about water bottles after the rally there was a meeting. They tell people that water bottled are taking over landfills and roadways. The president of this organization name is Peter Buckland.

I think that this was a very good idea and I like the fact that people do use the water re filler. I like how u don't have to touch the machine, you can just put your cup or container up to it and the water come out.It is less grimy because the ones we got you have to push the button and a lot of people don't wash there hands that's another good reason that I would use the re filler. It do look good enough to draw people in.

Drink Up! part 2: UCF's Quest for a Greener Campus

In 2009 UCF (University of Central Florida), a metropolitan research university was on a quest. With a population of 53,000 students and 1,415 acres of land on their main campus, they were looking to drastically decrease their carbon footprint, or in other words go green.

The article I read at centralfloridafuture.com (written by William Buchanan) does not mention whether a group of students or faculty started the initiative. It does however link the new water fountain retrofits to a larger environmental campaign:UCF's effort to reduce all wastes produced.

The Water bottle refill stations have been retrofitted to all the water fountains in the Student Union, as well as the auditorium in Ferrell Commons and Brooklyn Pizza. The filling stations are all the same model from T&S Brass and Bronze Works Inc., and are very user friendly from what I've read. To refill a water bottle, all one needs to do is push the lever located underneath the tap with a bottle. Like magic out comes cold crisp water! Similar to the actions Tech Clinic & engineering students at Lafayette, a new filter was installed to certify the water's purity. "We wanted to make sure we provided a quality product to students,” said Mr. Adam Giery, the marketing and sustainability coordinator for UCF's Student Union.

Based on the information the article reveals,it is my contention that the student's reaction to the water bottle filling stations was a positive one. In the article Buchanan introduces us to John Ellis; a junior health sciences major, who says he drinks at least half a dozen bottles of water a day. To him as well as many other students who like to keep hydrated, these water refill stations are great because they're "cheaper and easier than looking for a vending machine."

*The photo above was is an example of one of UCF's many water refill stations. It was taken by Caitlin Bush.

Oberlin College!

Oberlin College located in Ohio is an urban four year liberal arts college and conservatory of music. Oberlin College was founded in 1833 by a Presbyterian minister and missionary. It was the first college to grant bachelor's degrees to women. The college is known for its academic and musical excellence and its commitment to social justice, sustainability, and diversity. Lastly Oberlin has a population of about 8600 students.

Oberlin has a program called Office o Environmental Sustainability. The Board of Trustees at Oberlin decided to this program because they believed we as a people need to help save our planet. They formed this program with faculty,students, administrators, and townspeople. They also believed refill stations will help us save plastics and drink cleaner water.

Oberlin College actually use refill stations. They named their refill stations after the city. It is called OberlinFilter. They install these filters mainly in the food areas where they have most of their water supply, and in the different academic buildings. The logo they use just says Oberlin in between two sets of 6 bars of metal. (pretty catchy.)

This is the filters logo.This is the filter.

I would actually consider using this filter because it looks like it gets the job done. This obviously drew me in so I think it'll draw others in to!

Drink Up! part 1: Lafayette's Water Bottle Filling Stations

Yes it's true. Lafayette College has embraced the idea of retrofitted water bottle filling stations.This small college, located in Easton, PA (60 miles north of Philadelphia) holds only 2,406 students. It is named for the French aristocrat Marquis De Lafayette, who was said to be a man of courage, talent and virtue.

On May 8th, 2009, seven refilling stations were installed in high traffic buildings. This effort was student led. The goal was to "decrease the number of disposable water bottles discarded on campus." This project was a result of Lafayette's 2007 Technology Clinic. Technology Clinic is a course at Lafayette that brings together students from different majors to solve real world problems. In the case of the 2007 Tech Clinic it was "reducing Lafayette's carbon footprint."

The water bottle refilling units installed are actually water coolers that have been retrofitted to water fountains. At first the students who came up with the idea weren't sure if students would actually use the filling stations or stick to their disposable water bottles. After all, it seems that they are more convenient. To solve this issue engineering students analyzed the quality of the water and also how it would affect the usage of the filling stations. They decided that to make the idea more "attractive" they needed to provide students with the best tasting water possible. So they conducted taste tests to find the perfect filter. To further promote their project, incoming freshmen were given BPA free water bottles.

At the end of the day, it looks as if the Lafayette student's project was a successful one. "People love the filling stations. I’d say most students use reusable bottles and the filling stations make it much more convenient to refill them," says Jenn Bell, a member of the class of 2011 and the president of L.E.A.P (Lafayette Environmental Protection and Awareness).


* The above photo is a picture of students posing by one of seven water filling stations on Lafayette's campus

Case Study

New york university has projects every year dedicated to improving the environment. Every year NYU has a project this year they decided to do one on a expert called the green grants project. The goal was to help implement some sort of progress toward sustainability. This university is the largest private school in the country it's student body is 21,269. NYU is a a university that really gets involved and comes up with different methods and strategies to make a difference. This university offers a broad range of job careers and a diverse majors.

NYU had conducted a experiment called filter for Eco challenge. They were doing a seminar on water stations. The graduates of the school had decided to create refill stations on campus for students to be able to refill usable water bottles all throughout campus. The cause of them deciding to install refill stations was to improve the environment and go green. The movement increased got so large that teachers and faculty got involved and reached out and decided to join.

Water meters were installed on all NYU buildings on campus. NYU is currently going throughout the process of creating 25+ installation for water bottles. Attached to the back of the water fountain is a lever that you place your bottle water underneath of the lever. All of this water fountains are placed all around he campus.

I think that there efforts will not go unnoticed. I think its a clean and effective way to draw people in. The fountain looks clean and sanitary to drink from that's why I think there is strong possibilities for this to become a world wide eventually. During reading this I became extremely intrigued about the amounts of people who decided to join. Often times people try to help the environment but are unsuccessful because people aren't willing to join and help, or people just aren't interested.

Meet and greet!!!!!!

Yesterday mayor street talked to us about success, and to educate yourself and build up your resume. He spoke on different ways to get successful. He informed us of different ways to begin in the process to get success. He played different games with the audience. In the end all the games we played he had logic reasons behind doing what he did.

He reasons of doing this was to educate the youth on how to achieve success. He also spoke on success and we as people get detracted and stray form our path. I think in his speech he wanted to have a honest and real way to do want you wanna do what you wanna do with out sounding ''commercial.'' That's why I think most people were inspired.

Over all I think his message was that people are going to turn you down you just have to know how to rise form it. My reaction to the speech was that it was very motivational. It gave us a deeper look at the mayor and allowed people to see more of the human side of mayor street.

-John Street Thoughts-

Hi everyone, yesterday former mayor John Street came to the bits program. He talk about why he love Philadelphia (mainly north Philly)so much and how he was as a young person. He was giving us good advice and telling us not to get distracted in life by making us play these games. He was telling us to stay focus and he was teaching us in a fun way, a way that we will understand and would want to learn. I think everyone enjoy there self and had a good time.

Mr.Street's made us play games, then he told us the good thing about the game and the bad thing about the game.One game he pulled people name's out of a hat and whoever name he called he gave them something. The game is all about luck, everyone that won something was very lucky, he told us don't depend on luck. Another game he played with us was u could not laugh or u lose. The lesson to that was be focus and don't be distracted. The last game was who can hold there breath the longest and the lesson was in a contest there is only one winner. He said who would want to play a game when there is only one winner.

I love the way how he explain these things to us, he gave a lesson and we wanted to be apart of it, everyone left yesterday knowing something that they didn't know. I think he is a great mentor and he give great advice to everyone. I think he was informative and funny at the same time, i didn't know he was so funny and outspoken I really think he is a great man.

How does the flow of water really come from??????

In many different countries all over the world water is becoming privatized!!!! Which means that if you don't Have the money to pay for it then too bad...these big water companies like Suez,Thames water,and Vivendi have been around for a long time but right now you are starting to hear a lot more about them, due to the fact that water is now being looked at as one of the biggest commodities on the market and they own many different water systems all over the world.These companies say that there all for the people and they want everyone to have access to clean water but really its all about the money like i stated in the beginning of my blog.Did you know that Of the 6 billion people on earth, 1.1 billion do not have access to safe, clean drinking water.
People please wake up and realize that we abuse our power to the access of clean water because there's people all over over the world who die everyday because they can't have clean sanitary water!!!!! These big water companies are not for the people and if we don't do something about it now our children children won't have water nor clean water if they don't have the money.So what are we gonna do?????

Who needs it!

OK SO THERE ARE PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD WHO DON'T HAVE ACCESS TO WATER AND WE HERE ARE THE ONEs WHO KEEP USING ALL OF OUR FRESH WATER. WE NEED TO DONATE MORE FRESH WATER BECAUSE A WORLD WITHOUT WATER IS LIKE A CHILD WITH NO MOTHER!!!!!!!!!!!C'MOM YA'LL WE GOTTA STEP IT UP!!!!!!!!!!!

flows of life

A topic that i found interesting about the flim was the experiment they did with the customers at the restuarant. They told the customers that the water had different brands , and gave them fancy names. The customers were fooled because it aws all tape water from the hose. It showed how people are more satisfied with water when there told its a certain type or a better brand.

Water

ALRITE I NEED PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND THAT THE WORLD HAS GOT TO STOP DRINKING WATER FROM PLASTIC BOTTLES IT IS NOT HEALTHY FOR YOU DRINK THE DARN TAP WATER. JUST MAKE SURE U GET A FILTER AND YOU'LL HAVE LESS OF A CHANCE OF GETTING SICK! THE WORLD IS REALLY RUNNING OUT OF FRESH WATER, SLOWLY BUT SURELY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Things you did't know

Flow the flim was very informative to me. This flim explaned how many babies in different countries die from dieases. I've had previous nolgy of dieases babies suffered from in countries such as Africa. But I wasn't aware of the survarity of the of. One thing that really caught my attention was when they were talking about how most children don't live past 5 years of age. People every day spend money on bottles of water, and are offten fooled by false aidvertisements. These products are perseved to be more pure and taste better. But in all actuallity its just about he same as tape water.

-Water Will Not Be Here Forever- Flow

Today i watch a movie called FLOW it talk about different places where water is not clean or drinkable. In Africa many kids die before the age of five, due to the fact that they are drinking dirty water and its killing them or they going days without water. Many can not afford water in Africa so they are force to drink the dirty water from a river which have all different types of deceases. In India many don't have the money to pay for water or electrics and it get cut off, leaving people in the dark thirsty. They have to drink water that had nothing but trash in it. I forgot the name of this country but they have a slaughter house that dump the blood from killing animals into a stream that lead to the river that they drink out of. This is a big problem that need to be handle. Image you living in a country that is already poor and you have to buy water and if you don't have the money you don't get any water. You force yourself to drink dirty water that everyone put trash in which is very grimy but you want to stay alive but there is not a guarantee that u will wake up the next day. How would you feel? Remember Water Can't Last Forever

FLOW

So go to this link and check out this clip and let me know what you think. This is crazy!!!!!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGd9D4J0lag

Source of life

Water is a main source of life. If someone is unable to purchase water why should they be turned away? Goning a certain amount of time without water you can die, so now stores are helping contribute to the death population, all for money.

"Blue Gold"

Today i viewed a film about our water resource and it made me realize that people take our water for granted. We, the people are polluting it with chemicals, wasting it thinking that the Earth could never run out of water. There are other people in this world who have to walk more than ten miles to get water for their families to drink. There are people who don't even have clean water to drink and get sick and die. There are people who fight for their life against industries who steal their water inorder to make items that is no good to our planet, such as Coca Cola, Dasani and more. This global issue needs to end.

new discoveries!!

Today i watched a documentary about different discoveries about water.During watching this, I learned that access to water is not as easy as it appears to be. In different countries it is becoming very difficult to get access to water. Water should be free. Children and adults are dying in different countries from diseases that resulted from an inability to purchase clean water. A thought that entered my mind was why couldn't countries ship over water and goods to try to help salvage the cause, but today everyone is now trying to make a profit.

-Need Water To Survive- Blue Gold

Today I watched a movie that was about water, its called 'Blue Gold'. I learned that the world has 97% of salt water and 3% of fresh water. Everyone needs water to survive we drink water and our food grows from water. Many places such as Asia, Africa,and india all have little access to water. There was a lake that was so big it was called the Aral sea,but today there is no water there at all. The reason why is because everyone was taking water from the lake to grow food, but they had no way to put the water back. In Africa a woman lost her two daughter because their shack caught on fire while they were in it. There was no water to put the fire out, all the neighbors could do was watch helplessly. There are big company's that can try to change salt water into fresh water but its takes a lot of energy and what the company is going to do is charge for water. Water is free but now you have to buy it. In Califorina there is a tunnel that they get their water from, but its more than 25 miles aways. But where they getting there from is taking from the people that live in that country or town. To save water u can turn off the water when u brush your teeth & many other things that can save water. Remember everyone we need water to live.

What is wrong with this world!!!!!

Ok so today i watched this documentary called Blue Gold it basically informs you on how us as human beings are taking our water resources forgranted......did u know that 97% of the worlds water is salt water and the other 3% is Fresh water so what does that make you think about? what does that let you know about our natural Resource that we thought would be here forever that we would never run out!!!!!

bottle water vs tap'd water

Today i learned that the qualiy of tap'd water is better than bottle water. See visit this site

www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-861T