Honorable George Heyman, 

I have spent the past few days researching raw sewage in Vancouver and the impact it has on our environment. The many ways sewage can affect marine life and even humans. I have learned the real impact it has on society and the ways people can help keep our waters clean. The sewage seems to be becoming more of a problem over time due to the increase in population these past years. We have around 440 billion liters (about 116235680000 gal) of sewage treated every year. Vancouver has many treatment plants that ensure our sewage is being treated properly for disposal into oceans and rivers. The majority of Vancouver treatment plants treat sewage in two ways primary and secondary, which I believe is important to ensure it has been treated efficiently, although there is a way, we can further this process by using tertiary treatment. Tertiary treatment is normally only used when the sewage is going to be repurposed, such as for irrigation or industrial uses. Tertiary treatment has less of a risk for the environment and is cleaner, it is a more advanced treatment that removes 99% of chemicals and organic matter in sewage. Treatment plants should start using tertiary treatment as it has many advantages and few disadvantages. Although primary and secondary treatment seems to be effective, we still see the dangerous effects it has on the environment, specifically marine life. During my research, I found that sewage has two major effects on marine life. Algal blooms and boom towns are both known to kill ecosystems and marine life. If we started using tertiary treatment, we could potentially avoid this. The many advantages of tertiary treatment are reduction in colour, trace tannin, COD, and heavy metals, elimination of matter, cleaner (drinkable), reduces eutrophication, stabilize oxygen-demanding substances, and removal of nitrogen and phosphorus. Among all these advantages there are a few disadvantages such as it requires efficient pretreatment, membrane maintenance, and high-power requirement. Overall, I believe it should be necessary to use tertiary treatment in the future, as it has many advantages that will help keep the environment clean and healthy. 

Dalia Politeo  

1) Ask – What questions did you need to research in order to create your sway? 

• Will Tertiary Treatment be Necessary for the Future? 
• How does Vancouver treat its sewage? 
• How does raw sewage affect the environment? 
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of Tertiary treatment for raw sewage? 

2) Acquire – What new or familiar digital tools did you try to use as you worked through this project? 

• Gale Engage Learning 
• Creative Commons  
• Citation machine  
• Google  

3) Analyze – What was the process you used to investigate the topic and how did you verify and cite the information you found? 

The process I used to create my Sway was to take notes while researching and remember to site my sources once done. I did lots of research to ensure my information was reliable. I ensured that I used photos from creative commons only and did not copy from any websites. I used my own words to make an original text.  

 4) Assess – How did the process of completing this challenge go? What could you have done better? 

Regarding my final product, I believe I could have done more research to back up what I said in my sway presentation. I could have gone into further detail to ensure an understanding of my topic. This project was not difficult, it was more time-consuming because of all the research you must complete, finding the information needed, and ensuring it was reliable. The main challenge for me was using Gale Engage Learning. I had a difficult time finding the information necessary for my topic. I used keywords and made sure I read the whole site to ensure I was not missing important information.