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BEST Evironmental Science students harvest worm fertilizer
The BEST Environmental Science class had a visit from Nancy Hovan, King County Master Recycler/Composter who helped BEST students start a worm bin last year. This time she showed us how to harvest the worm castings, a super concentrated fertilizer made by the worms eating our garbage. We separate the rich dirt-like substance, taking the worms and decomposing material back in the bin. Then we give the bin a remodel with 8” of torn, moistened white paper. Feeding the worms table scraps, coffee grounds, eggshells, and vegetable peelings of 1-5 lbs. a week will give us up to 5 gallons of rich plant food by next year. Many students were reluctant to touch any of it, even with latex gloves on, but by the end of class, everyone had observed worms up close and written a lab report on their observations. Thanks to King County Solid Waste Division for sending this trained volunteer to us.
Nancy Hovan and a few worms
Will and Tamara
Mia
Evelyn
Tamara
Janelle and Tamara ripping paper
Evelyn and Matt
BEST Evironmental Science students test tailpipe emissions
The BEST Environmental Science class compared the emissions of 5 of the staff’s cars by running cold engines for 5 minutes with tube socks attached to the exhaust pipes. We compared them with a microscope and found relationships between engine age, maintenance, and mileage. Then we visited a website to find out the “Tailpipe tally” on how much each engine pollutes. You can visit this site and enter the data on your car to find out just what your car is leaving behind in a year. Go to
http://www.environmentaldefense.org/article.cfm?ContentID=2282
and select Tailpipe Tally.
Andy secures a tubesock on an exhaust pipe
Darin helps test his car.
5 minutes worth of pollution
Evelyn takes off after getting tested
Mia compares exhaust particulate on the socks
The BEST Environmental Science class had a visit from Colleen Thumlert of King County Solid Waste this session. We did in-class activities classifying the different things found in healthy soil, and constructed a web with pictures of each component, most taken with electron microscopes. We explored why healthy soil is vital to water quality. Water quality is vital to salmon and their eggs. We then went outside in beautiful sunny fall weather and stencil painted the storm drains around the school. The message is "DUMP NO WASTE - DRAINS TO STREAM" with the image of a salmon. This message is vital to salmon survival. As we are learning in class, we are part of a web of all life. Whatever we do impacts other life. You can be a help to salmon by washing your car on dirt or gravel so that soap products are filtered by soil and don't run down the storm drains!
Amber and Shawte direct traffic while students paint a
salmon image and "dump no waste" on a storm drain.
Making connections of what's in our soil in our
"Soils for Salmon" workshop.
Courtney answers questions after learning about healthy soil.
The BEST Environmental Art/Science class went to the Houghton Transfer Station and Cedar Hills Landfill.
The purpose of the Houghton outing was to see where BEST's garbage goes and what happens to it. It gets dumped into a semi trailer which sits under a large opening in the dumping area. The person in the cab of a machine evens out and pushes down the waste as it's being dumped, and keeps an eye out for any items not allowed in the landfill. When the semi trailer is full, it pulls out, has its lid flipped shut, and heads for Cedar Hills Landfill. Another truck takes its place, and the process goes on. The students' impressions of the transfer station: "noisy" "smelly" "gross" We also noticed that 25-50% of the waste dumped could be recycled if it wasn't easier and cheaper to dump it.
The Environmental Science classes next visited Cedar Hills Landfill to see the final destination of our solid waste. One of them wrote what she learned there in this recount of the trip:
VISIT TO THE LANDFILL by Rianna Stracke
At the Cedar Hills Landfill, they are open from 6am to 4:30pm everyday. They are located in the Maple Valley area southeast of our school. Cedar Hills opened in 1964. At the time of opening, they had over 900 acres. Now they receive 25, 000 tons of trash a day and they have buried the trash into approximately 300 acres. They estimate that when they close in 1012, there will be 33 million tons of trash in the landfill.
Cedar Hills was a dump before the 1960’s when they weren’t too particular about the negative effects of the trash on the environment. The difference between a landfill and a dump is that in a dump there is no environmental control. In a landfill, however, they pay millions of dollars every year to help preserve the environment from the harmful parts of the trash, as in the gases, leachates and toxins.
Now that Cedar Hills is a landfill, they have several types of controls in place. There are controls for the gases emitted from the trash, there are controls for the leachate, which is the run-off water that is severely polluted, there are controls for the storm water, and several other types of controls.
The first thing you do when you build a landfill is to put down a two-foot thick layer of clay, followed by a half inch thick layer of plastic. Underneath your clay, you will have a leachate monitoring system that runs 24 hours a day to prevent leachate in the local soil. This is all then followed by a series of pipes, which pump out toxic gases and leachate. The toxic gas is either reused for energy at the landfill or it’s burned off, while the leachate is collected in the ponds nearby. Then, you are free to dump your trash, but everyday you have to bury it with a thick layer of compacted earth. When your pile is high enough that you can’t add anymore, you cover it with more earth and another layer of plastic. On top of this plastic is the storm water collection system, which takes the unpolluted rainwater and puts it in a separate holding pond, from which it will be transported out of the landfill.
There are several obstacles that the workers at the landfill have to overcome every day. One of these problems is ensuring that not too much toxic waste makes it into the fill every day. They do this by scanning the trash at the nine different transfer stations in the area. Another one of the biggest problems is birds. Since several types of local birds are scavengers, it’s a really easy way for the ten thousand birds that come in every day to find a good meal. The employees at the landfill have tried to get rid of the large number of birds by buying things to scare them off. Unfortunately, this has not worked. The only nice bird to see is the Bald Eagle, which is a local endangered species. Several of these birds live there, and they get their easy meals too.
The last problem I see with the landfill is that they have had to pay over ten million dollars in damages to the people that live in the area. This is for the noise, the birds and the smell of the landfill.
When the landfill is full, or in 2012, they will most likely build a ball field or recreational fields of some type. They cannot build structures on the land because the trash will settle for an estimated thirty years before it’s level on the surface again. They have to monitor this for the next fifty years, just to make sure nothing leaks, spills or contaminates our environment. I hope nothing happens. I have learned a lot from this field trip, and I would like to learn more now about the environment. Thank you.
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-Gases, fumes & particulate matter have decreased 79% (avg.) since incineration birth. -If incinerated through the gov. required process, solid waste may be reduced 89% of total mass. -Less required landfilling area for ash. -Useful energy is made from the transfer from heat to energy. |
-Fewer side effects through land filling process, due to plastic coating, leachate removal & methane extraction. -Methane gases retracted from enclosed landfill is transferred to energy through heat-transfer. -No harmful effects to biosphere. |
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| -Both methods of solid waste disposal have been modified for cleaner & less dangerous methods (contaminates, etc.) & requirements & continue to do so. |
-Release toxic substances -Negatively effects & alters the lifestyle of all living things. -Caused by human remains. -Harmful to ecosystem & the earth. |
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-Gases, fumes & particulate matter caused by combustion process are toxic & affect all living things that breathe our air. -Destroys & alters the biosphere. -Ash (remains of incineration), highly toxic, is buried into the ground, which causes harmful effects to soil, ground & organisms. -If buried improperly, ash WILL contaminate groundwater. -Altered from solid waste to gas format.
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-Leachate affects the ground, groundwater & everything that thrives on it. -Produces toxic gases (mostly methane), which affects the biosphere & all living things that thrives on it. -Much land is used for this disposal type. -Solid waste as is. |
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