An inquisitive École McIsaac School student is headed to the 2015 Canada-Wide Science Fair.
Chloe Reitlo was among three students chosen to proceed to nationals at the recent Northern Manitoba Science Fair in Thompson.
Her project, “Can You Drink Wastewater?” was an expansion of her project from 2014.
“Last year I did one on just plain water, and I wanted to expand on that and I wanted to know if you can actually drink wastewater,” says Chloe, a Grade 7 student. “People always say you can drink wastewater, and some places do drink wastewater, so I wanted to know if that was true or not with Flin Flon’s wastewater.”
Chloe took three samples of water: one from Cliff Lake, one from Flin Flon’s wastewater treatment plant and one from tap water.
Samples
After the samples were taken, the water was treated. Chloe then looked at the Manitoba regulations of drinking water.
“For me treating it, I took polyaluminum chloride, and that is a coagulant,” she says. “The coagulant takes the bad particles in the water and it takes the attraction between the particles and it makes them clump together so they can be filtered out.”
Chloe eventually discovered that treated wastewater is drinkable.
Mervat Yehia, regional coordinator for the Northern Manitoba science fair, said Chloe displayed originality and passion.
The regional science fair, held April 18, saw 102 students take part. Twenty-seven projects were from Flin Flon.
The Canada-Wide Science Fair is scheduled for next month in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
– Thompson Citizen
