AboutDavid L. Russell, PE Expertise I`m a Chemical,Civil and Environmental Engineer and have a number of projects in all phases of the environment.
I have worked in the chemical industry and am active in professional societies, and am currently on an industrial wastes committee for the Water Environment Federation, and have taught courses in remediation in the US and abroad.
I have written one book on Remediation of petroleum Contaminated Sites, and have a second book on PRACTICAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT to be published by John Wiley in September, 2006. I've also written over 30 articles on various elements of environmental problems and cleanup. Most Recently, I have addressed a NATO Scientific and Techical Conference on Ecoterrorism, and have worked with the same group on remediation of sites contaminated with Chemical Warfare Agent materials and othe materials as well. . I can answer q`s about Chemical and Environmental Engineering, land development, air pollution, water pollution, soil and water cleanup, combustion, international environmental problems, industrial processes chemical processes. Civil and Environmental and Chemical Engineering. Overall, I have over 35 years of experience in this area. Note: I do not answer homework questions
Experience I love work in the third world and developing areas
because it is challenging and one can get a sense of accomplishment.
Question Hi,
I am a grade 11 chemistry student. For my assignment i must test the water qualities of two substances. I have searched everywhere on the internet for methods on how to test the quality of water, yet i havn't found any methods. Apart form Ph levels, is there any other type of test i can conduct on water? if you could please just give me the name of the test, and i could google it myself that would be very helpful.
Thanks you so much for your help
Regards
Rishan
Answer There are a couple of things you can do to test the water quality. You may have to go to a local analytical laboratory to photocopy some pages out of Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater. The other source of analytical methods is from the EPA. I believe it's called SW 86 or something like that. It's available on the EPA website www.epa.gov.
Depending upon what your chemistry teacher says, the best test might be the BOD test, but it tends to be tricky. Something more at your skill levels might be 1) total solids, volatile solids, and suspended solids and Volatile Suspended Solids, because the tests only require a differentiation based on filtration and heating and weighing.
The second test might be a very old test which measured Oxygen in the water by measuring the ability of the water to reduce Methylene Blue to a clear state. It's an older test, not quite as accurate, but it should provide a good measure and it is reasonably accurate.
The test I would like to see you run is the Biochemical Oxygen Demand or the chemical Oxygen Demand Test. I prefer the COD to the BOD. Rather than direct you to Standard Methods, I would suggest that you call HACH Chemical company. http://www.hach.com
They have an 800 number and will sell you the ingredients required to conduct a simple COD test. Caution: You will need access to a colorimeter or a spectrophotometer. Yes, Hach sells those as well, but they tend to run a few hundred dollars, and your chemistry teacher might not have the budget. So check with him or her before going much further.
You can have your chemistry teacher contact me directly at dlr@mindspirng.com, and I'll work with him/her to develop some test methods within your abilities.
