Today I taught water chemistry to the UNSW "Earth's Systems and Sustainability" class. We cover Earth Science and it's role in sustainable development.

It is the one day in the year where I buy a bottle of water, and ask the class to do the same (not susat in nable, I know). We use the water chemistry on the labels to understand the relationship between chemistry and the water source.

And we cover the unsustainability of the bottled water industry, and its impacts on meeting the Sustainable Development Goal 6 (clean water and sanitation).

This year that was made easier by a UN report released two weeks ago, and summarized here:

https://theconversation.com/how-the-bottled-water-industry-is-masking-the-global-water-crisis-201756

This is a global league table you do not want to be top of, and Australia is second worst globally, and the Asia-Pacific the largest users of bottled water. Time to do better....

#water #groundwater #sustainability #SDG6 #SustainableDevelopmentGoals #science #earthscience #waterchemistry #academia #HigherEd #unsw #scicomm #bottledwater
@unsw

Hi, my name is Lucy, and I recently completed my master's degree in #geosciences at #tugraz and will soon start my PhD. My previous project was a one-year investigation of lake #waterchemistry and chalk deposition at the #Weissensee freshwater lake in Carinthia (#Austria). I am interested in water and #elementalcycles, #mineralformation, #oceanography and the effects of #climatechange.

#Introduction #womeninSTEM #scicomm #Hydrogeochemistry #geology

I truly had no clear concept of how deep down the rabbit hole you could go about water chemistry and brewing. Fascinating while also a bit challenging to experiment with given how much time, effort and money goes into a batch of beer. At least my house water being rainwater I’m starting with a neutral water as a baseline.

https://www.brunwater.com/water-knowledge

#brewing #WaterChemistry

So yesterday we were working with an outside consultant to figure out how to solve a process upset that’s causing an over abundance of filamentous bacteria that’s causing our sludge bed to be so high. So we’ve been trying to track down the source and figure out what’s going on. Here are some pictures of the labs from various points throughout the day. #WaterScience #Wastewater #Science #WaterChemistry #microbiology

Definitely see the pH effects of a 300ml dose of NaHCO₃ in the image below showing snapshots of data captured over time.
The effect on pH was almost instant…(note: no animals inhabit this system as I’m doing this. A pH drop this quickly would stress, and likely kill, marine inverts and fish. Hopefully the effect is not detrimental to my bacterial colonies.)

#marinechemistry #marinebiology #reefaquaria #waterchemistry #coralreef