Introduction

Our science project is about if the water at our school and the lake is drinkable without a filter.
We found that the pipes in the school make the water unsafe to drink but the fresh lake water is
drinkable. We should use filters on our taps in the classroom for safe drinking water. The main
purpose of this project is to make sure that there is safe drinking water in all schools and all
Indigenous Communities in Canada, and to educate people that this is currently not the case.

We tested 4 filters with the school water to see if it improves. It does. Brita is the most efficient
but not environmentally friendly. Moss is not as efficient but it is free and environmentally
friendly. However, this should be replanted and not overused. Charcoal is good too but comes in
a plastic packaging. Cotton, which is used at camps, is good as well. It is more environmentally
friendly than charcoal and Brita.

We found that 33 Indigenous Communities in Canada still have water advisories. Trudeau
promised in 2015 that all water in Canada would be safe to drink in communities by 2021, but
this is still not the case. The land is important to our communities as Indigenous peoples and so
is our water. It is not fair that our communities do not have safe drinking water. We recommend a
call to action to all people by writing to Trudeau as we have to make these changes quickly.

Questions
1. Is the water drinkable without filtering?

2. Which means of filtering the water is the most efficient (low cost to the
environment and financially)?

Hypothesis
1. No, the water is not drinkable without filter.

2. Moss is the most efficient filter and Brita filters are the second most efficient.

Materials

Charcoal filter
Brita filter
Moss (Sphagnum)
Cloth
Lake water
Water from different parts of the school
Plastic funnel
Glass mason jar
Large plastic test tube
Bucket for moss
Ziplock bags
Freezer
Water testers
Snowshoes
Ice auger
Skidoo
Shovel
Ice scoop

Procedure
Step 1 – Come up with our questions

Step 2 – Create a hypothesis

Step 3 – D research

Step 5 – Created a questionnaire and ask community members their insight and input on this
topic

Step 6 – Record answers

Step 7 - Get water from the different sources:

1. Lake
2. Downstairs Water Fountain
3. Downstairs bathroom
4. Upstairs Fountain
5. Upstairs Bathroom
6. Classroom sink

Step 8 – Test water with water testers

Steps 9 – Write our findings

Step 10 – Filter the water with different filters

1. Charcoal
2. Moss
3. Cloth
4. Brita
Step 11 – Test the water once filtered

Step 12 – Type our findings/data

Step 13 – Put findings into graphs to compare results

Step 14 – Record and write conclusion

Research

What is water pollution and what causes it?

Water pollution is when there is debris in the water. Water pollution can be caused by volcano
eruptions, animal waste, algae blooms, storms and floods, and garbage. This can kill animals and
it is not healthy for humans. We can get mercury poisoning and beaver fever from polluted water.
Beaver fever is when you drink water that is too close to a beaver dam. Mercury poisoning is
from water sources too close to mines. In our communities, our water can be polluted by gas
from our motorboats, lots of garbage waste, mines and beaver dams.

Polluted water in Canada:

There are 33 water advisories in 29 Indigenous communities across Canada that continue to have
water advisories meaning that this water is unsafe to drinks. Trudeau promised that all
communities would have clean water by 2021 but this did not happen so he has now promised it
will happen by 2026. These 38 communities have advisories all the time but many other
communities have advisories periodically including here in the Eeyou Itsche. This is supposed to
be a federal problem and fixed by Trudeau. The government often provide a certain amount of
money to fund projects for clean water like a water filtering plant but do not provide further
funding and training for workers to maintain the building, machines and function of it. In some
case, these buildings sit empty, doing nothing.

Rivers tend to be cleaner than lakes because they are always flowing. 5-10 million people die
each year from water pollution each year.

How can we prevent water pollution?

To stop polluting our water, we can have more garbage cans around the community, have fines
(example 250$) for the people that litter, have warning signs around the community about not
littering, educate our children, write letters to Trudeau (call to action), pay workers more to keep
the pipes and filtration up-to-date and strict rules about motorboats in our lakes.
 Filters
Brita: The standard pitcher filters use coconut-based activated carbon with ion exchange resin in
a BPA-free housing to reduce chlorine taste and odor, zinc, and the health contaminants copper,
cadmium and mercury. Cost of the Grand Brita Filter is about 45$ but the individual filters have
a hard-plastic casing which is not environmentally friendly and the filters have to be changed
every 6 months at a cost of 10$ each.

Charcoal: A charcoal filter costs 60$ for 4 so 15 $ each which is cheaper and better for the
environment than the Brita, and they last 6 months. Granular activated carbon is made from raw
organic materials (such as coconut shells or coal) that are high in carbon. Heat, in the absence of
oxygen, is used to increase (activate) the surface area of the carbon; this is why these filters are
sometimes referred to as “charcoal” filters.

Moss: Sphagnum moss is the traditional method used by the Cree to filter water. This is
obviously environmentally friendly and free but did not filter best.

Cotton Cloth: We used a piece of cloth found in our homes but cotton cloth filter can be bought
at 15$ specifically top filter. These are what are used currently at many Cree camps to filter local
water. These are more environmentally friendly than Brita because it is a natural fiber but not as
environmentally friendly as moss.

Conclusion
Brita
Pro – Most Efficient
Con – Plastic casing and Costly
Charcoal
Pro – Environmentally friendly and efficient
Con – Comes in plastic, cost some money
Cloth
Pro – Environmentally friendly and a little efficient
Con – Costs some money
Moss
Pro – Environmentally friendly, free and efficient
Con – Tough to clean and use too much, hurts the environment (we need to replant)

Seen from the results and the chart analyses, the Lead, Chlorine Dioxide and Floride 10 values
appeared to be way over the limit indicated on the recommended range of Drinking Water
(outlined in the color Chart provided with the Water Test Kit). Furthermore, the Nitrate, Iron, pH,
Copper and Cyanuric Acid values are at the limit. With this in mind, we should ask our local
environmental water technician to make another test before jumping to a conclusion.

Upon receiving confirmation that our results are valid from a third party, we think it would be
better to provide Brita tap-filters for all homeroom classrooms, since it will be a practical and
environmentally friendly answer to the problem that could slowly affect our health. The cost of
one tap filter is approximately 35$ vs the Grand Brita Filter is 45$ each. We also need to add a
supplement for each individual filter twice a year at the cost of 10$ for the Grand Brita Filter. All
Grand Brita Filters and small filters are made of plastic and since we know that water can be
polluted by micro plastic fibers, we want to exclude that option for the sake of our planet.

The moss proved to be an efficient filter for some values but adds up acidity to the water. It also
is important to harvest moss only when we need it, otherwise we will slowly participate in the
rarity of the sphagnum (type off moss used in this experiment) aka a shortage. We recommend
the Charcoal filters since they come from a clean source, but we would not recommend to the
teachers to buy them in an individual form since they come in plastic packaging. Meanwhile,
they prove to be less efficient, but less pricy than the Brita Grand Filter (60$ for 4 items so 15$
each time). The cloth filter as proven to be less efficient than the moss but it is more
environmentally friendly and is cost less since it can be reused many times (15$ each) if we
compare it to the 2 other methods that we can buy online, we can also access it in Mistissini.

The Brita filter water was also used to water some plants we are growing and did not really help
with the sprouting. So, in some cases, we might be better off using the lake water instead for
hydroponics projects, and plants.

Bibliography
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Ce que vous devez savoir sur la pollution de l’eau au Canada - WWF.CA

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