City Talk

1.) Mrs. Byerly, who works as a project manager for the city of Eaton Rapids, came to talk to our class.
2.) The city upgraded our system for storm water in 2006 by putting in two parking lots that act as a filter because as all the rain water flows in the parking lot it goes through a rain garden where the water is naturally filtered through the layers of rocks and clay before it enters the river. Also all the construction that has been going on is the help make our river clearer by giving us a new sewage system so none of that stuff ends up in our river.
3.) These improvements will help our river water a ton by not allowing chemicals and other unwanted things into our water. For example, car brake pads that wear down into little particles that end up in our river and also oil and gas from the parking lots which will now be filtered rather than just flowing directly into the river.
4.) Since our group was responsible for the temperature of the river I don't think it will really be effected by the new improvements in our city. Im sure that many of the other tests our classmates did will have a big effect though because there will be a lot less pollutants in the water.
5.) I thought the two parking lots that were put in for filtering were interesting because i had no idea what those had another purpose besides added parking until she explained them to us. Also this might be surprising but I didn't know that our entire downtown is an island. I knew our town had the river going by it but I guess I never realized we are completely surrounded by it.
6.)  Our bio bottles are doing really well. The grass and peas seem to be growing great. My bottle is the control one but both my group members have plastic in theirs and it doesn't seem to really be effecting the plants.
7.) For our action project we are promoting plastic recycling.
8.) Our group hasn't even started our power point because we have no idea how to do it. Were hoping to get some help with it this week and be able to finish it soon.