Water Testing

In environmental chemistry, I tested water from two different sources for different ions that could potentially harm us.  The first source I tested was the water fountain water in my school.  It all came back negative. So no one is going to die from taking a drink out of the water fountain. That's a plus.  The second water source I tested was from a sulfur creek down the road from where I live. I tested both water sources for carbonate, chloride, chromate, iron III, lead, phosphate, and sulfate. All of which are bad for your health.I expected my creek water to test positive for iron and sulfate, and it did.  YUMMY STUFF!!!!!!  The pollution is point source pollution, it is drainage from the abandoned mines that are everywhere around where I live.  No fish live in this creek, bugs don't even accumulate around it, so the water cant be good.  Think about the disgusting water bugs like to be around.  The creek water is even too bad for the bugs.  We have wells that we used to use for our hose water.  We would use it to give our animals water.  If the mine drainage seeped into the well water, it couldn't have been good for our animals, or anything else that drank the water.  This worries me.



This is the results of my water testing.  The wells on the left side show an example of a fully positive reaction.  The wells on the right show the reaction of my creek water.  You can see the reactions for iron and sulfur are positive.