| click here for lab handouts | back to ENVS 149 lab page |
| This week will be the first of a three part tour of
Hartford's water and waste facilities. We begin with our water
resources, the water the comes out of our taps every day. The MDC's website
has loads of background information that we should all be familiar with
before touring the facilities. Access the site by clicking here:
MDC - Water Supply & Pollution Control
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a) WatershedsWhere does our water come from here in Hartford? You may immediately think of reservoirs off in some distant pristine location. Or perhaps the long and mighty Connecticut River. In fact, everyone in the City of Hartford and some surrounding towns gets all of its drinking water from two reservoirs not too far away: the Barkhamsted and Nepaug Reservoirs. Check out the location of these reservoirs using GoogleMaps. You can enter the name of the reservoir in the search and it will find the location. Change the scales of the map to see more detail or more regional area. The smaller the scale, the more area covered. If you are not familiar with map scales and topographic maps please refer to a page we use in our earth science class for a lab all about topographic maps click here. Click on the Terrain view in the upper right to see the topography of the region. Zooming in close to the reservoir will reveal the topographic lines of elevation. There will be a few pre-lab questions that will have you find features on the maps found on GoogleMaps. Both reservoirs are part of a larger system of streams, rivers and lakes called a watershed. All rainfall that falls within the watershed above the reservoirs eventually makes it's way into the reservoir. Part of your lab assignment after the field trip will be to delineate the watersheds of the Nepaug reservoirs using topographic maps. Watershed delineation is important in environmental science because land planners need to know where both runoff and groundwater flows. Development in one location may significantly affect the water supply of another region within the watershed. |
b) Drinking WaterBrowse the drinking water section of the MDC site and become familiar with the specific filtration system process at the Reservoir #6 facility. As you read the materials begin to formulate questions that can be answered by the MDC tour guide. |
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c) Watershed delineation Homework (Due next week
by 12 noon - note earlier time for lab field trip departure)
A basic skill in environmental
science is to delineate a watershed. This is simply drawing a
line the envelops every patch of ground that drains into a specified
body of water. smaller watersheds are included in larger
regional watersheds. For example the Farmington river
watershed (see handout maps #1 & #2) is part of a much larger
Connecticut River. Wateshed that dominates the western side of New
England.
ASSIGNMENT: You are asked by the City of Hartford delineate the
watershed of the Nepaug Reservoir. They need to update their
current land use maps and it is critical to know all of the
streams and brooks that flow into one of the city's drinking water
reservoirs. Use
map #3 of the map handouts to trace a line that represents the
boundary of the watershed. Then lightly color the watershed
with a colored pencil so that the topography still shows through.
When you are done, everything within the shaded region drains to the
reservoir and everything outside of the region does not.
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