Detecting Traces of heavy metals in contaminated water sources

Oscar Fleming- Science extension 2024 whspa

How contamination happens Objectives HYPOTHESIS TIMELINE

● Industrial projects near water sources can lead To measure levels of heavy metals in Water tested from high
to waste being purposefully dumped in order to water sources and determine safety commercial and industry areas Eg:
levels Term 4
avoid expenses of proper storage. sydney harbour will have higher
If unsafe levels report to local council ● Develop understanding of research poster
● Mass Agricultural practices can lead to metals amounts of heavy metals when
and work to bring back to safe levels ● Find and develop a research question
being drawn out of the soil from topsoil damage compared to low industry areas
● Read relevant data for research question
which result in metal and chemical runoff
Term 1
● Leachates (any type of water that runs through
● Further research into project
landfill) leeches both organic and inorganic
● Develop a research poster for assessment
contaminants from the landfill including metals
● Present research poster and get feedback
● Climate change increases seawater acidity level
● Further work on research question using
which then leeches metal particulates from
feedback
metals within water
● Mining near water sources leads to particulates Term 2
being blown in or the water directly running ● Conduct experiment and collect data
near or on exposed minerals/ores ● Analyse results
● Sewage treatment plants can spill and or dump ● Complete scientific report
raw sewage which contains contaminants into Term 3
local water sources ● Receive feedback on report
● Construction of pipelines or offshore drilling ● Improve and finilaise report
operations may cause oil spills with crude oils ● Submit final scientific report
containing many heavy metals
● Natural phenomena such as erosion and volcanic Impacts on local wildlife/environments
eruption leads to metals being released into ● People consuming contaminated water in high levels can result in Increase of heavy metal pollution as cement
water sources acute and chronic toxicity, liver, kidney, intestinal damage as well production increases research gate 2019
as armenia and cancer
● Contaminated food sources hamper growth for local wildlife whilst
Methodology also having the metals stay with them eg: zinc accumulation in the
● Collect 4 water samples each from Sydney harbour,
Illawarra steelworks, bondi beach, Dendrobium coal fish gills restricting oxygen supply leading to hypoxia and then
mine as well as a relatively clean fresh and salt water death
source ● Contaminated water can damage a specific species more then others
● Send the samples to a water testing lab, and allow which can lead to an ecological imbalance possibly causing certain
them to test for metal contents and amount with species to dominate the affected ecosystem
atomic absorption spectrophotometry (atoms and ion ● Excessive amount of metals can lead to plants absorbing them and
can absorb light at a specific and unique wavelength there core processes being disrupted such as photosynthesis leading
When this wavelength is provided, the light is
to death
absorbed by the atom. The amount of light absorbed is
measured and the concentration of the element in the ● Leads to loss of fertile soil
sample can be calculated.)
● Analyze the data gathered and draw conclusions Overall leads to a reduction of of food produced for the ecosystem
which often leads to ecological collapse

REFERENCES
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