Trend+of+Garbage+Found+in+the+Watershed


Jamison, Mitchell, and Jenna  Intoduction:

  Our group's project is focused on human impact on the watershed, specifically, the impact of garbage on the watershed. We came up with this experiment in order to show how the garbage found in the park has an effect on the environment. We decided to use the main stream in the park as the basis for our project. We chose to study how the garbage that originates throughout the park end up in our near the river, and furthermore the location and displacement of this garbage along the river. Hypothesis:

After we decided on an experiment we came up with our hypothesis: The trash that is disposed of throughout park trails will end up in the stream because of run-off (rain and wind moves lose objects down to lower ground) and the garbage will block up parts of the stream and change the natural flow of the water, while polluting the watershed. Furthermore, the majority of this garbage will end up downstream due to the watershed, flow of the river, wind, and other factors of nature. Methods and Materials:

We went to Flat Rock Brook with our Global Positioning Satellite (GPS), pens and paper, and camera and garbage bags. Our specific goal was to find the garbage, specifically closest to the river, and then obtain this garbage for further analysis. On our walk to the river, we had great trouble finding any garbage. This observation confirmed a part of our hypothesis that most garbage would be washed into the stream due to watershed run-off. We walked up and down stream, writing down the coordinates of points using our GPS, where we found both minimal amounts of garbage, and larger clumps of garbage. At each of these points, we took pictures of the garbage in order to document are findings and observe the different types of garbage. After all of our data collection, we were able to further analyze both the amount of garbage collected and the different types of garbage collected. We chose not only to collect the garbage for study, but also in order to make a cleaner and healthier environment. We visited the park on two different occasions, collecting garbage from both locations that we had previously collected from as well as locations along the stream we had not visited. After the final data collection, we were able to analyze all of our data as a whole to determine the amount, types and location of all the garbage, in order to further assess the validity of our original hypothesis.  The tools and materials we used when gathering information included the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) Device, camera, paper and pencil to record our data and two garbage bags to gather the garbage and clean the park.    Data and Description of Data:  The types of garbage we found when looking at Flat Rock Brook was mostly paper and plastic. There were also occasions when we found tin foil and cloth. We hypothesized that the garbage would end up down stream because of the run-off and rain. The reason the garbage is scattered throughout the river is because the rocks catch the garbage and either hold it steady, or push it farther down stream; otherwise almost all of the garbage would end up downstream.

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==<span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255)"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 70%; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"> The pictures above represent the garbage found in and along the stream. The picture to the far left is an old, plastic water bottle that has been resting on the rocks. The photograph in the middle shows a cluster of garbage including another plastic water bottle, some paper, and a blue, plastic newspaper bag. The picture on the right shows a large, decayed, plastic bag that is sitting on the rocks in the water. == <span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255)"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 70%; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">

== <span style="COLOR: rgb(16,0,16)">Here are three pictures of garbage in different locations. The majority of the garbage seen in and along the river was plastic. Here we have an empty bag of chips, a water bottle in the stream, and two empty plastic bottles on the side of the stream. ==

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Map of Flat Rock Brook Nature Center http://www.flatrockbrook.org/features/trails.html Analysis: After collecting all of our data, we organized it in a couple of different fashions. First, we separate the garbage collected into two separate categories, upstream of 40° 52.51 N, 073° 57.849 (a point that we determined to be about halfway up the river) and downstream of 40° 52.51 N, 073° 57.849. Just as our hypothesis stated, there was more garbage downriver from that point, then there was up river from that point. Due to the watershed, wind and other natural factors, the garbage accumulated downstream rather than upstream. While collecting garbage, we used two separate garbage bags, one for upstream and one for downstream. After two separate data collections, one in the month of April and one in the month of May, we combined the upstream garbage from the two separate collections as well as the downstream garbage from both data collections. We weighed the separate bags on a scale. The weighing once again confirmed our hypothesis that there was more garbage downstream than upstream. The weight of the downstream garbage was 1.5 pounds, compared to the upstream garbage weight of .78 pounds. Below is a graph that shows this information. The bar to the left represents the amount of garbage (pounds) found downstream from the coordinate 40° 52.51 N, 073° 57.849and the bar to the right represents the garbage upstream from that point.

The final way in which we divided the garbage was based on the types of garbage we found. Between the two data collections, we collected 60 "pieces" of garbage. As we expected, the majority of this garbage was plastic (mostly water bottles). Of the 60 "pieces" we collected, 37 of these were plastic, 17 were some sort of paper, and the rest was a mixture of glass, Styrofoam and metal. Below is a table that shows all of these findings Below is a graph that shows the data in the table above. As you can see, the majority of the garbage found was plastic.
 * > **Types** ||> **Pieces** ||> **% of Total** ||
 * > Plastic ||> 37 ||> 61 % ||
 * > Paper ||> 10 ||> 17 % ||
 * > Glass ||> 6 ||> 10 % ||
 * > Styrofoam ||> 4 ||> 7 % ||
 * > Metal ||> 3 ||> 5% ||

Discussion: After analyzing all of our data, we noticed a few trends. The first trend was that the garbage was usually found in groupings. During our data collection, we realized that it was rare to find an individual piece of garbage on its own along the river. This trend was usually caused by some kind of rock blockage, or a dry area in the river. In these areas, the garbage would oftentimes accumulate until the flow of the river eventually forced it to continue its journey downstream. We as a group came to the conclusion, that had it not been for these rock blockages and dry areas, then even more of the garbage found would've been downstream. The majority of the .78 lbs of garbage we obtained was found in one of these rock blockages, and without these, it is safe to assume that almost all of our garbage could have been found downstream. Possible Sources of Error: There were few possible sources of error that could have occurred in our project. One possible error depends on the season of the year. Because all the data we collected was from the spring, the information above is only a reflection of spring time trends, and not necessarilly year round. It is safe to assume that there probably would not be as much garbage in the winter because there are less people walking the trails and therefore a likely decrease in pollution and garbage accumulation. The basis of our project was the human impact on the watershed, which makes the next possible source of error quite ironic. Although it is true that human littering is the cause of all this garbage accumulation, humans can also take away from the garbage buildup. The park ranger along with other watershed groups was picking up garbage. These actions would alter our data, and is a contributing factor that we as a group cannot account for.

<span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 140%; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center">Conclusion: From the experiment and data analysis, we have concluded that our hypothesis was accurate. The garbage we found was mostly down stream as predicted. When we observed the stream closely, it was clear that when garbage was collected in one area of the stream, the water flow changed. The garbage created small rapid effects where the water moved faster in certain areas. <span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255)">