The students in Ms. Armstrong's class studied the various bodies of water surrounding Newark, New Jersey. They used Google Maps and researched the Passaic River, Harbor Estuary, Kill Van Kull, and Newark Bay. Testing of sediments found dioxins, pesticides and other chemicals polluting these waters. Based on this research, the students decided to test the water in their own school to see if it was clean to drink. Their preliminary results found some water samples were darker than others, requiring further testing before conclusions could be made.

1. How Clean is the Water? Room 5: Ms. Armstrong’s Class Samuel L.Berliner School Newark, New Jersey

2. How Clean is Our Water? Our class did a study of water. We used SAFARI Montage to learn about aquatic ecosystems. We learned to log in and use playlists.

3. The Project We kept a journal about what we learned about water. We typed it up on our webpage. www.berlinerschool.pbowrks.com

4. The Project We learned to use Google Maps to explore the water bodies in Newark. We made a list of the water surrounding the Newark area and researched each one.

5. Welcome to Newark

7. Newark is the 65th largest city in the U.S.

8. It is only 8 miles west of Manhattan.

9. Newark is near the Atlantic Ocean on Newark Bay.

11. Passaic River The Passaic River is about 80 mi long. The river has many curves. The lower part of the river, flows through the most industrialized areas of New Jersey, including along downtown Newark. The river began being polluted in the 1990’s. The Passaic River flows along the northeast portion of the city of Newark on the west, passing Kearny and Harrison. Near downtown Newark the river turns and then goes south around Ironbound, joining the Hackensack River.

12. Harbor Estuary For over 300 years, the Harbor Estuary as a business center for the New York and New Jersey. The businesses are shipping, industry and commerce. These businesses and a large population have made the water polluted with harmful substances. The Harbor Estuary is one of the top 20 polluted estuaries in the U.S. Source http://www.harborestuary.org/pdf/hep_toxics.pdf

14. Harbor Estuary/ How clean is the water? Newark and New York City businesses along the river are responsible for the majority of the pollution. When it rains heavy, the river overflows with garbage, pesticides, car oils, and pesticides.

15. How Clean is the water? Pollution in the Harbor Estuary can also come from atmospheric deposition, when particles of toxic material fall into the waterway or through accidents and spills, such as the multiple oil spills that occurred in the Arthur Kill and Kill Van Ku11 in 1990.

16. Kill Van Kull (strait by Bayonne Bridge) The Kill Van Kull is a strait approximately 3 miles long and 1,000 feet wide separating Staten Island and Bayonne, and New Jersey. The name kill comes from f the Middle Dutch word kille, meaning "riverbed" or "water channel." Kill Van Kull connects Newark Bay with Upper New York Bay.

17. How clean is the water? Scientists tested the water around Kill Van Kull and found the water around the Kill Van Kull area, has been polluted for many years.

18. Newark Bay NewarkBay is six miles long and one mile wide It is located at the union of the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers. Port Newark, one of the largest ports for transporting cargo in containers. NewarkBay and is used to transfer goods from cargo containers to train and truck lines serving the area.

19. How Clean is the water? Dioxin, pesticides and other hazardous chemicals were found in sediment tested from the Passaic River. The contamination concentrated around the lower 6 miles of the river where many of the businesses are.

20. How Clean is the Water? Fines range from $100 to $3,000 for the first offense There was a fish and shellfish advisory the for NewarkBay area. Everyone had to be careful of eating blue claw crabs because they may cause cancer and harm brain development in unborn and young children. People who caught crabs in this area were fined by the state of New Jersey. www.state.nj.us/dep/dsr/njmainfish.htm.

21. How Clean is the water? Learning what we did about the water surrounding our area in our community of Newark, we decided to test our water in our school to see how clean our water is.

22. Our Hypothesis The drinking water in our school is okay to drink.

23. Our Experiment

24. Our Results We noticed that some of the water came out a little darker than other water in the school Further testing will be done to conclude how clean and safe the water is.