Syllabus: CHEM
388
Environmental
Chemistry and Science:
a.k.a.
Pollutant Fate and Transport
MTTh
11:00-11:50
Lab: Mon. or Wed. 1:00-4:00+
Field Trip to
Mill Creek: Apr. 23-24
Frank M.
Dunnivant
344 Hall of
Science
526-4751
http://www.whitman.edu/~dunnivfm/index.html
TEXT: Dunnivant and Elliot. 2006. A basic introduction to pollutant fate and transport: An integrated approach with chemistry, modeling, risk assessment, and environmental legislation. Wiley InterScience, ISBN-13 978-0-471-65128-4
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 your grade but will complement topics covered in lecture. 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 a 50% take-home and 50% in class closed book/notes 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 Lab (Lab grade is separate, grading is covered later in this document). In general, most lab topics will last two weeks, which is due to the complicated nature of environmental chemistry labs. Currently there are 8 scheduled lab reports/sheets. One or 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.
NOTE: This is a tentative schedule, but is based on my last two times teaching this course. Because of the integrated lecture-lab nature of this course, each week we will regularly discuss our plans for the next lab period and discuss data summaries from our most previous lab. These discussions always slightly alter our day-to-day schedule. So, please take this into consideration.
TOPIC TENTATIVE
SCHEDULE
General Introduction 1 day, Jan. 18
Introduction to Fate and Transport Ch. 1: 2 days, Jan. 19-20
Chemistry of Fate and Transport Ch. 2: 3 days, Jan. 25-27
Ch. 3: 6 days, Feb. 1-3, 8-10*
will have to be made up outside
of our normal meeting time
Paper Discussion 1 day, Feb.15
Macalady, D.L.; Tratnyek, P.G.; Grundl, T.J., J. Contamin. Hydrol., 1985. 1, 1-28.
EXAM 1 (Ch 1-3; non-timed, outside of class) Tentatively Feb. 11-14
Introduction to Modeling Ch. 4: 2 days, Feb. 16-17
Modeling of Lakes Ch. 5: 4 days, Feb. 22-24, Mar. 1
Modeling of River Ch. 6: 2 days, Mar. 2-3
Paper Discussions 1 day, Mar. 8
Capel, P.D., W. Giger, R. Reichert, and O. Warner. ÒAccidental input of pesticides into the Rhine RiverÓ, Environ. Sci. Technol., 22(9), 992-997 (1988).
And maybe an article on the Changjiang (Yangtze) River basin in China.
Modeling of Sewage Effluent in Rivers Ch 7: 5 days, Mar. 9-10, 29-31
Note that spring break falls in the middle of this chapter
Paper Discussion 1 day; Apr. 5
Eric D. Nelson, Huy Do, Roger S. Lewis, and Steve A. Carr, Diurnal Variability of Pharmaceutical, Personal Care Product, Estrogen and Alkylphenol Concentrations in Effluent from a Tertiary Wastewater Treatment Facility, Environ. Sci. Technol., December 28, 2010
and
Misc. articles/new clippings
EXAM 2 (Ch 4-7; non-timed, outside of class) Tentatively Apr. 1-4
Modeling of Groundwater Ch. 8: 5 days, Apr. 6-7, 13-14, 19
April 12 is the Whitman Undergraduate Conference
Paper Discussion 1 day, Apr. 20
Dunnivant, F.M., D.L. Macalady, and R.P. Schwarzenbach. 1992. Reduction of Substituted Nitrobenzenes in Aqueous Solutions Containing Natural Organic Matter. Environ. Sci. Technol., 26, 2133-2141.
Modeling of the Atmosphere Ch. 9: 2 days, Apr. 21, 26
Risk Assessment Ch. 10: 3 days, Apr. 27-28
Paper Discussion May 3
Michaels, D. 2005. Manufacturing Uncertainty: Contested Science and the Protection of the PublicÕs Health and Environment, American Journal of Public Health, Supplement 1, 95, (S1).
Environmental Legal Stuff Ch. 12: 2 days, May 4-5
World Class Pollutants Ch. 11: 1 day, May 5
As needed May 10
EXAM 3 (Ch 9-12; non-timed, outside of class) Tentatively May 6-9
As time permits:
Global Warming Special Lecture
Environment Success Stories
Regulatory versus Market-Driven Control of Chemicals in the Environment
NO COMPRENSIVE FINAL!
GRADES: Exam 1: 100 Points
Exam 2: 100
Exam 3: 100
Misc. HW 50 as needed
TOTAL 350
341 Hall of Science
Monday or Wednesday: 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.
Lab Date Lab Experiment
1 24,26 Jan. Check in; Lab notebook guidelines; Lecture(s)
2 31,2 Feb. Exp 13.2 TSS and TDS (20 points)
3 7,9 Feb. Exp. 13.4 The Winkler Titration (20 points)
4 14,16 Feb. 13.5 BOD I (20 points)
5 21,23 Feb. 13.5 BOD II
6 28,2 Mar. Exp. 13.6 Kd (I) (20 points)
7 7,9 Mar. Exp. 13.6 Kd (II)
8 28,30
Mar. Exp.
13.6 Kd (III) (may not
be needed)
9 4,6 Apr. Exp. 13.8 Dispersion in a river system (20 points)
10 11,13 Apr. Exp. 13.9 Dispersion in a groundwater system (I) (20 points)
11 18,20 Apr. Exp. 13.9 Dispersion in a groundwater system (II)
12 25,27 Apr. Exp. 13.9 Dispersion in a groundwater system (III)
13 2,4 May Check Out!
14 9,11 May Time off for Mill Creek Trip (maybe)
Lab Notebook (30 points)
GRADING: Lab notebooks will be taken up at the end of the semester and will be graded based on the lab manual criteria instructions given out in class. All lab experiments must be finished and completed in your lab notebook BEFORE starting the next lab; this includes all data analysis, plots, and conclusions. DO NOT wait until the last minute to complete them since this will be evident and will be reflected in your grade. Proper lab notebooks procedures will be worth 30 points of your lab grade.
Labs: 120 points
Lab Notebook: 30
Mill Creek 50
TOTAL 200 points
A summary sheet of what goes into a lab notebook and proper note taking and recording will be given out in your lab packet. ALL DATA FROM YOUR GROUP, YOURS AND OTHERS, MUST BE IN THE LAB BOOK ALONG WITH A DATA SUMMARY, A DISCUSSION OF WHAT THE DATA MEAN, AND A CONCLUSION.
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.
The Mill Creek field trip will take place on one of the last weekends of the semester, most likely Apr. 23-24. We will leave for Mill Creek early 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. All food will be provided and I have a sheet of personal items that you will need to bring.