Syllabus: CHEM 388
Environmental Chemistry and Science:
a.k.a. Pollutant Fate and Transport
Dr. Frank M. Dunnivant
341 Hall of Science
526-4751
http://www.whitman.edu/~dunnivfm/index.html
If you ask 100 scientists what encompasses environmental chemistry you will get 100 different answers. This illustrates the diversity of the field, which traditionally comes from the civil and environmental engineering disciplines. There is no way we can cover all of the important topics in environmental chemistry in one year of study, much less in one semester. I have selected a few of the more interesting, and timely, topics to cover with a central theme of pollutant fate and transport.
The goals of the lecture portion of the class include (1) introducing you to the many aspects (disciplines) of environmental chemistry, (2) teaching basic principals from engineering, chemistry, and physics to solving environmental problems, and (3) hopefully teaching critical thinking and problem solving skills. The lab portion of this course will be treated completely separately with respect to topics. This is simply a matter of practicality. What we will do in the lab is give you an appreciation of the difficulties surrounding the analysis of environmental samples, introduce you to a few extraction and analysis techniques, understand chemical speciation, understand fate and transport calculation, and improve your laboratory techniques.
The grading distribution for the class is discussed below:
v 3 Exams, 100 points each. These will be distributed evenly throughout the semester. Currently, I plan to give mostly take-home exams. You will find these exams a little different from those in other classes. For one, you will be designing problems to illustrate the concepts you are learning. You will be required to make assumptions in designing/working problems or conduct library/Internet research to find your input parameters.
v Special Report (100 pts)
v Lab (Lab grade is separate, 100%). In general, each lab topic will last two weeks, which is due to the complicated nature of environmental chemistry labs. Currently there are 8 scheduled lab reports/sheets. Two laboratory periods will not be used. In place of these labs we will be going to the Johnson Wilderness campus and monitoring Mill Creek for a 24-hour period. This will be done near the end of the semester. A poster board summary of our 24-hour monitoring is due before the last day of class.
This will be a demanding,
but hopefully incredibly enlightening and rewarding course.
General Introduction 1 day
Introduction to Fate and Transport Ch. 1: 1-2 day(s)
Chemistry of Fate and Transport Ch. 2: 4 days
Ch. 3: 4 days
EXAM 1
Introduction to Modeling Ch. 4: 2 days
Modeling of Lakes Ch. 5: 3 days
Modeling of River Ch. 6: 3 days
Modeling of Sewage Effluent in Rivers Ch 7: 4 days
EXAM 2
Modeling of Groundwater Ch. 8: 4 days
Modeling of the Atmosphere Ch 9: 3 days
Risk Assessment Ch. 10: 3 days
World Class Pollutants Ch. 11: 2 days
Environmental Legal Stuff Ch. 12: 2-3 days
EXAM 3
Monday, 1:00 to
~4:00
Environmental chemistry involves many interesting and complicated lab experiments. Due to the nature of these experiments they may take more than the allotted time. Some labs may extend slightly past the assigned time, while others will allow you to leave early but require you to check back on experiments during the week. Advanced Study Assignments must be completed before you come to lab and turned in immediately at the beginning of the lab period (NO EXCEPTIONS!).
Lab Date Lab Experiment
1 Check in; Lab notebook guidelines; Sampling
2 Exp 13.2 TSS and TDS (20 points)
3 Exp. 13.1 Alkalinity (20 points)
4 Exp. 13.4 The Winkler Titration (20 points)
5 13.5 BOD (20 points)
6 Exp. 13.6 Kd (I) (20 points)
7 Exp. 13.6 Kd (II)
8 Exp.
13.8 Dispersion in a river system
(20 points)
9 Exp. 13.9 Dispersion in a groundwater system (I) (20 points)
10 Exp. 13.9 Dispersion in a groundwater system (II)
11 Mill Creek Survey/Make Poster of Mill Creek Work (20 points)
12 Check Out!
Lab Notebook (30 points)
The field trip weekend will take place on weekends. We will leave for Mill Creek mid morning Saturday, start monitoring by noon, continue to monitor for ~24 hours, summarize the data, and return to campus late afternoon/evening on Sunday. We will cook all meals at the wilderness campus. Bring your sleeping bags, warm cloths, and whatever you may need.
Virtual Grade Book Secret Code
To participate in the Virtual Grade Book on my home page you must complete and sign the following form. The way this will work is that everyoneÕs grades are shown on the web page but no student names or official student numbers are given. What will be given beside your grades is the secret number that you give me below. When a student enters the Virtual Grade Book that will be able to see everyoneÕs grades, but without knowing your personal secret code, they will not know whoÕs grade they are looking at. (IÕve checked this out with the registrar and itÕs legal as long as you sign the form below.)
If you want to see what this looks like go to my home page and select the virtual grade book shown for other courses.
If you wish to participate select a 4 to 5 digit code that you will remember. Do not use all 0Õs, 1Õs, 2Õs, 3Õs, 4Õs É or numbers like 01234 or 12345. This will avoid duplication. If you do not wish to be involved, do not give me a secret code. You may end or start your participate at any time during the semester. Write clearly!
Print your name: __________________________
I agree to be involved in the virtual grade book. Signature: ______________________
Secret Code: __ __ __ __ __
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Tear the sheet here to keep a copy of your secret code for your records:
Secret Code: __ __ __ __ __
Laboratory
Notebooks
(also see
guideline sheet)
Chemistry is a laboratory science and an important part of this course that will to familiarize the student with proper laboratory techniques and recording of their work in laboratory notebooks. The practices we use here may seem rather detailed or ÒpickyÓ, but what you will do in this class is minor compared to the practices used in some industrial sectors. Laboratory notebooks of many environmental chemists are considered legal documents. They are commonly used as evidence in SuperFund actions and in legal actions concerning various forms of illegal chemical releases.
You must purchase a lab notebook. Almost any bound, 8.5 x 11 inch notebook will serve our purposes. Carbon-copy notebooks are usually used in the real world but are not required here. If you have a tendency to lose things or if you want to have a backup copy, then you may consider purchasing a carbon-copy notebook and keeping the one copy in a safe place (maybe stored in your lab locker).
You must keep an elaborate and highly organized account of each lab exercise in your notebook. I will be more ÔpickyÕ in this course as compared to others given the legal aspects surrounding environmental monitoring. Organization of your notebook: (1) Leave a few pages at the beginning for a table of contents (by experiment), a list of commonly used tables, and a list of commonly used figures, and appendices. (2) a copy of your Advanced Lab Assignments (planning, etc.) must begin each lab experiment. Next, comes your goals or objectives statement. (3) Neatness is important, but you must write in procedures as you plan them (in the lab) and enter data as you collect it (not on note book paper or napkins for later transfer to your official record; if I see this I will immediately dump acid on your napkin). (4) Record every detail in your notebook for future reference. Some items that may not be immediately evident, but should be included, are (a) the type, model number, serial number of equipment (serial number only if more than one piece of the equipment is available), (b) the type of glassware used in dilutions, standard dilutions, (c) referenced procedures, and (d) brand name and lot number of all chemicals used. (5) No skipped pages are allowed in official (legally defensible) notebooks without proper procedures. (6) Each page must be initialed (by you) and dated at the end of that day. If half pages are left empty, a single line must be drawn though the blank section, noted that it was intentionally left blank, and initialed by you. (In the real world, normally your supervisor and a QA/QC person would have to review and initial each page at the end of the day. Since there are a number of you in class, IÕll randomly pick one of you from time to time to review your notebook.) (7) All entries must be made with a ball point pin (not the alcohol-based, water soluble pens that are more commonly available). If you make a mistake, draw a single line though the mistake, and write in the correction. Do not obliterate a number that you think is in error as you may find that you actually need that number. (8) Remember that the goal of this entire process it to produce a document that you, or one of your peers, can pick up (even years in the future) and exactly reproduce your procedure and hopefully your results. (9) Everything that you do in the lab should be recorded in your lab notebook as you do it, including lengthy procedures (but reference published procedures) and calculations as you do them AND copies of instrument outputs (strip chart recording, chromatograms, etc.). (10) Data analysis from the computer should also be taped into your lab notebook. (11) If a lab report is to be turned in it will contain most of the above information, your data results, the results from other students, a discussion of data, a conclusion, and references. When we do a lab that does not require a lab report ALL DATA, YOURS AND OTHERS, MUST BE IN THE LAB BOOK ALONG WITH A DATA SUMMARY, A DISCUSSION OF WHAT THE DATA MEANS, AND A CONCLUSION.
GRADING: Lab notebooks will be taken up at the end of the semester. Given the number of you in class and my other many obligations, I will only grade one or two labs in your notebook. I will randomly select the ones to be graded and this will serve as your lab notebook grade. DO NOT wait until the last minute to complete them; this will be evident and will be reflected in your grade. Lab notebooks will be worth 30 points of your lab grade.
Lab Reports: Some of these labs will require two weeks for completion. Labs will only require a data summary, data analysis, and the answers to the questions at the end of the exercise. These are due one week after the lab has been completed.
Special Report Topics
Open format, 12-pitch font, scientific references (as in Smith, (2005) in text), you must turn in hard copies of all reading material and references.
Due: the first class period after spring break.
-The story behind Dupont, the major maker of CFCs, giving its patent to China/India so they would join the Montreal Protocol, and the agreeing of China and India to join
-Current makers, users, and locations of companies/plants that make chlorinated pesticides and chemicals banned in the U.S.
-Endangered birds in other parts of the world (endangered by chemicals)
-References and juicy stories in The Secret History of Lead and most importantly current leaded gasoline in the third world (makers, distributors, annual volumes, air and blood Pb concentrations, etc.)
-History of the automotive catalytic converter
-History of the Ozone Depletion (especially the early history)
-The distortion and disregarding of scientific facts for political gains and the scientists who protested by resigning
-The publicÕs perception of science and scientists, and their selective ambivalence at taking our advice
-Ethics repercussions in politics and science, a contrast
-The history of drinking water and sewage treatment and distribution in the U.S. and Europe
-The history of water borne disease in Europe and the U.S. and the cost of providing the world with potable drinking water and proper sewage disposal
-U.S. import policy and environmental degradation in exporting countries, the environmental cost of job flight overseas, how U.S. import policy should require or impose environmental standards on importing countries
Exam 1: chemistry: calc. pH of water in equil with CO2
definitions
factors
equil. versus kinetics
Calc. Kd
Sorption phenomena
Exam 2: modeling: Chapters 4-7 (general through groundwater)
concepts
HW problems
Exam 3: modeling Chapters 8-11
and risk concepts
HW problems