Here's a chemistry challenge...

[MtnTeaching]

As many have heard, we are dealing with some massive flooding here in CO.  My community is under a boil water advisory.  I am boiling water for a minimum of three minutes for cooking, bathing, dish washing, etc. (We are trying to use just bottled water for drinking).

 

The water district says no e. coli has been detected, but neighboring communities have tested positive.  I have also seen overhead shots of the treatment plant and it looks very bad.  I know for a fact that waste treatment plants up river have been breached. 

 

Of course, chemistry is on my mind since I am teaching it to (actually relearning it with) ds and dd this year.  

 

I know there are test kits that can be bought at box hardware stores and sent to labs with a sample of the water, but I was wondering if anyone knows if there is a way to test it here at home.  Does anyone know of a home chemistry lab that we could do to test our own water for E. coli and/or fecal coliforms?  I know - EEEEww- but I am geeky enough to want to try this if I can figure it out.  We have lots of great chemicals around here and it really would be nice to know what is going on with our water. 

[Hunter's Moon]

This is the first one I came across: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Bacteria-in-Water-Do-it-Yourself-Test-Kit-to-Detect-Dangerous-Coliform-and-E-Coli-Bacteria-in-Your-Water-BA110/202731825#specifications

 

You have the option of culturing your own colonies in a petri dish and counting them, and looking at the chart they provide to see if their is e-coli present, or you can send it to a lab for an additional $30 fee. 

 

 

[MtnTeaching]

This is the first one I came across: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Bacteria-in-Water-Do-it-Yourself-Test-Kit-to-Detect-Dangerous-Coliform-and-E-Coli-Bacteria-in-Your-Water-BA110/202731825#specifications

 

You have the option of culturing your own colonies in a petri dish and counting them, and looking at the chart they provide to see if their is e-coli present, or you can send it to a lab for an additional $30 fee. 

 

I saw this one, but I obviously did not read it closely enough.  I thought it was just a "send in" one.  I will have to see if my Home Depot is still above water!  Thank you.

[Julie of KY]

You must be careful when culturing things like this - you might have a very minimal exposure in your water, but a much more concentrated exposure if you grow it.

[Candid]

I suspect that boiling your water will take less time than culturing your water. And while it might seem that you could just run the test once and be done, I don't think that would be wise as what is in your water may change over time as the event changes over time. 

[MtnTeaching]

I suspect that boiling your water will take less time than culturing your water. And while it might seem that you could just run the test once and be done, I don't think that would be wise as what is in your water may change over time as the event changes over time. 

 

Oh, believe me, we are definitely continuing to boil our water!  It was never a consideration not to boil.  I was just geeky enough to want the kids and I to test it ourselves as a lab exercise.  It seems like a prime opportunity to put some biology/chemistry to work in a contextual way.

 

The water district just let us know on their website that the plant is up and producing water at a good rate now.  Unfortunately, it will take a while to get it filled.  They are busy doing testing and are hoping to have the boil advisory lifted within 48 hours.  Unfortunately, the clouds are still very threatening here.  In fact, I can now see that it has started raining again.

[MtnTeaching]

You must be careful when culturing things like this - you might have a very minimal exposure in your water, but a much more concentrated exposure if you grow it.

 

If we are able to find a kit, we will definitely follow all rules when dealing with it.  I had not considered this.  

 

Personally, I doubt we will find anything anyway.  The water district continues to state that they have not detected anything in the water, but they are adamant about us continuing to boil.  I know for sure that the plant was breached.

 

It just seemed like a prime opportunity to see what might be in the water ourselves as an experiment.

[swimmermom3]

If we are able to find a kit, we will definitely follow all rules when dealing with it.  I had not considered this.  

 

Personally, I doubt we will find anything anyway.  The water district continues to state that they have not detected anything in the water, but they are adamant about us continuing to boil.  I know for sure that the plant was breached.

 

It just seemed like a prime opportunity to see what might be in the water ourselves as an experiment.

 

I actually think it might make a great chemistry experiment, but then I am right there with you relearning chemistry. Our students are old enough to know intellectually that chemistry touches nearly every facet of their lives, but it can be difficult to connect a recrystallization experiment to everyday living. Testing your water for E. coli is in a sense, "practical" chemistry, as long as you can do it safely.

 

Stay safe and dry. We are thinking about your family and all the others affected by the flooding.

[Mom22ns]

I think of it as more of a biology lab than chemistry... microbiology to be specific. We grew lots of e coli in micro. Anyway, if you have petri dishes and nutrient agar, you can do a smear and see if anything grows. Just keep it nice and warm. Odds are nothing will grow and that will be the end of it. If it does grow, you can make a slide and look at it. Depending on what you have available, you might stain it and look again. This would be a very biology based method instead of a chemistry based method though. I'd still do it for fun... my sense of fun seems vaguely warped like yours :).

[swimmermom3]

I think of it as more of a biology lab than chemistry... microbiology to be specific. We grew lots of e coli in micro. Anyway, if you have petri dishes and nutrient agar, you can do a smear and see if anything grows. Just keep it nice and warm. Odds are nothing will grow and that will be the end of it. If it does grow, you can make a slide and look at it. Depending on what you have available, you might stain it and look again. This would be a very biology based method instead of a chemistry based method though. I'd still do it for fun... my sense of fun seems vaguely warped like yours :).

 

 Homeschooling for any length of time tends to pervert one's sense of humor and one's sense of what is fun. "Go ahead, honey. That flat squirrel on the highway of life will make a great biology project."

 

 

[MtnTeaching]

I think of it as more of a biology lab than chemistry... microbiology to be specific. We grew lots of e coli in micro. Anyway, if you have petri dishes and nutrient agar, you can do a smear and see if anything grows. Just keep it nice and warm. Odds are nothing will grow and that will be the end of it. If it does grow, you can make a slide and look at it. Depending on what you have available, you might stain it and look again. This would be a very biology based method instead of a chemistry based method though. I'd still do it for fun... my sense of fun seems vaguely warped like yours :).

 

It does look as if it would be more biology-related.  Still, I think it would be cool to try it.  :D   I think using the Home Depot kit would be the best way, though.  We have a great microscope and I am itching to try it out.  

 

Now, I just need to see how my Home Depot is doing.  There is major flooding just a block from the store.  Across town, my favorite Staples, sporting goods store, Best Buy, and shoe store are now in the middle of a river.  The Lowe's across the street was evacuated last night, but they lifted the order as of this morning.  Those stores were built right in the "Y" of two rivers coming together.  It has been an absolute mess.

 

A good experiment might take our minds off of it!  It also might be nice to get out of the house, it looks as if the skies are clearing a bit. There is still a 20% chance of rain tonight, but it does look as if it may be moving out of here after that.  Then it will be time to help with the clean-up!

[MtnTeaching]

 Homeschooling for any length of time tends to pervert one's sense of humor and one's sense of what is fun. "Go ahead, honey. That flat squirrel on the highway of life will make a great biology project."

 

:lol:

 

I agree.  I am told my water may have "poop" in it (as dd so gently put it) and the first thing I can think about is how this could make a great experiment!

[MtnTeaching]

It does look as if it would be more biology-related.  Still, I think it would be cool to try it.  :D   I think using the Home Depot kit would be the best way, though.  We have a great microscope and I am itching to try it out.  

 

 

On the other hand, I may actually have some agar left over from biology last year!

[MtnTeaching]

Well, they recinded our "boil water advisory".  They say they never actually found any contaminants in the water.  Awesome news since I was already tired of boiling water.  Ds (16), dd (15), and I worked the past two days helping some of the families that were hit hard by the flood.  Ds shoveled mud out of basements and dd and I would haul buckets to the street.  Personal items were mounded in piles to be back-hoed into dump trucks.  We would be absolutely covered in muck and mud with no water at home.  Fortunately, dh's parents live about 20 minutes away and we could get nice warm showers.

 

Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled that the water district's system is clean.  People have been through enough.  But, I am a bit bummed we did not get to do our experiment  :D .

[swimmermom3]

Bummer about the experiment, but I am glad to hear you are all safe. The photos of the destruction have been chilling.

[katilac]

Pffft, I'll see your e coli and raise you one brain-eating amoeba:

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57603865/louisiana-emphasizes-drinking-water-safe-despite-finding-brain-eating-amoeba/

 

I do not think the words "safe" and "brain-eating amoeba" belong in the same sentence. Just calm down, people, it's safe to drink it and it's safe to shower in it, just don't get any up your nose. I realize I'm clumsier than most people, but getting water up your nose while taking a shower doesn't seem like the hardest thing in the world to do! For heaven's sake, I've been known to get water up my nose while drinking it.

 

This in near us but not our water supply (one of dh's workers does live there).

[Dicentra]

I think of it as more of a biology lab than chemistry... microbiology to be specific. We grew lots of e coli in micro. Anyway, if you have petri dishes and nutrient agar, you can do a smear and see if anything grows. Just keep it nice and warm. Odds are nothing will grow and that will be the end of it. If it does grow, you can make a slide and look at it. Depending on what you have available, you might stain it and look again. This would be a very biology based method instead of a chemistry based method though. I'd still do it for fun... my sense of fun seems vaguely warped like yours :).

 

:iagree:

 

It would definitely fall under the microbio category, not chemistry.  I know this is an older thread and I'm glad the threat has passed for the OP but I want to second the advice from a PP and warn everyone to PLEASE be careful when culturing anything from around your own body or around your home!!!!  I know - it seems like silly advice.  After all, if it's already living on you or in your home, how dangerous could it be?

 

VERY DANGEROUS!!!!!!!

 

When you culture bacteria, you are allowing it to grow unheeded without the natural defenses that would have limited its growth in your body or the less-than-ideal conditions that would have inhibited its growth on a surface in your home.  What looks like a smallish, coin sized bacterial colony in a petri dish can be enough bacteria to make you and your family VERY SICK if its of the infectious or harmful varieties and the cultures aren't handled and disposed of properly.  The bio teachers at the high school here have stopped doing the lab where the kids culture bacteria from surfaces around the school because of the risks associated.  Even when they did do the lab, the petri dishes had to have lids put on as soon as the agar was swabbed and then the dishes were sealed with tape.  After the bacterial colonies had grown, the kids were allowed to look at the colonies through the clear lid but UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES were they allowed to open the dish or create slides from what they had grown.  The sealed petri dishes were then autoclaved before they were disposed of.  It's not so much the type of bacteria, it's the AMOUNT.  If you looked at a sample of your water under a microscope, that's fine.  If you took a swab of the back of your throat and looked at it under the microscope, that's fine - even if you are sick.  But when you've grown a colony containing billions of bacteria, you've created the potential for the sheer amount of them to overwhelm your immune system and make you very sick.

 

I realize this is coming from a chem teacher but I would MUCH rather handle chemicals than unknown bacterial colonies.  There are very few chemicals that will cause you to have an extended hospital stay (assuming you didn't drink or eat them) but there is a much greater possibility that one of the cultures you could grow from in your home or community would land you a few days in your local hospital if handled improperly.

 

Is there a microbio person who can back me up?  Or am I just off my rocker? :D  I'm just going off of my conversations with the bio teachers at my former school.

[swimmermom3]

OP-

 

Thank you for asking this question, especially since it brought up Julie and Dicentra's warnings about culturing bacteria at home. Anything we have done previously has been from a kit with specific instructions, but the more advanced science we do, the more "experimental" I've become. Every time we do a chemistry experiment, I am poring over the MSDS and other safety rules, but I could soooo see me thinking on a whim that it would be a good idea to culture something for fun - after all I have plenty of petri dishes and agar. :tongue_smilie:

[MtnTeaching]

 

It would definitely fall under the microbio category, not chemistry.  I know this is an older thread and I'm glad the threat has passed for the OP but I want to second the advice from a PP and warn everyone to PLEASE be careful when culturing anything from around your own body or around your home!!!!  I know - it seems like silly advice.  After all, if it's already living on you or in your home, how dangerous could it be?

 

VERY DANGEROUS!!!!!!!

 

Thank you for the information, Dicentra!  I completely agree with you now that sanity has returned.

 

OP-

 

Thank you for asking this question, especially since it brought up Julie and Dicentra's warnings about culturing bacteria at home. Anything we have done previously has been from a kit with specific instructions, but the more advanced science we do, the more "experimental" I've become. Every time we do a chemistry experiment, I am poring over the MSDS and other safety rules, but I could soooo see me thinking on a whim that it would be a good idea to culture something for fun - after all I have plenty of petri dishes and agar. :tongue_smilie:

 

I agree it was good this topic opened up such an important discussion.  I really do like biology and chemistry and especially the labs!  Unfortunately, sanity does need to prevail.  I had visions of using the Home Depot kit to grow all kinds of cool looking things we could examine under the microscope, but after Julie and Dicentra's posts, that is the last thing I want to do now.

 

We have seen first hand right here in our household the kinds of things that can happen with exposure to contaminated water.  Ds, dd, and I spent two full days last week helping families who had been flooded by the storm.  A river ran directly through their houses and they had absolutely no warning.  They had to be evacuated by boats as they watched their cars floating down the street.  In fact, most if not all of them did not have flood insurance because they were told they were not in a flood plain. :confused:    

 

We pulled personal items, furniture, pictures, carpet, broken glass, and drywall out of window wells of basements that had been filled to the ceiling with river water.  Ds (16) was in the real mess actually in the basements.  At one point, he was up to his waist in flood water, mud and muck. He would help shovel mud, wet drywall etc. into buckets, had them out of the window well and dd and I would run them to the street where big backhoes would dump the mess into huge dump trucks.  Every single house in the subdivision looked like this.  Ds would come out, be sprayed from the shoulders down with clean water, then turn around and go back in.

 

Unfortunately, a town up river was pretty much destroyed, including the sewage treatment plant. There are also individual septic tanks, livestock pens, and oil rigs between here and there. We all had masks, gloves, and safety goggles, but ds still came out of that experience with "gastrointestinal  distress" :tongue_smilie: .  He dealt with that for three days, but seems to have fought it off.   I read in the paper yesterday that the number of people who have visited local healthcare sites for gastro problems has skyrocketed because of contact with the water.  Officials are also extremely worried about the standing water and mosquitoes. They are concerned about a West Nile Virus outbreak since the weather is still relatively warm.

 

Anyway, I am glad that I did not go with my initial giddiness and start smearing E coli all over everything.  We have dealt with enough of it lately.  Thank you ladies for the info and the reminder of "Safety First"  :001_smile:

[MtnTeaching]

Pffft, I'll see your e coli and raise you one brain-eating amoeba:

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57603865/louisiana-emphasizes-drinking-water-safe-despite-finding-brain-eating-amoeba/

 

I do not think the words "safe" and "brain-eating amoeba" belong in the same sentence. Just calm down, people, it's safe to drink it and it's safe to shower in it, just don't get any up your nose. I realize I'm clumsier than most people, but getting water up your nose while taking a shower doesn't seem like the hardest thing in the world to do! For heaven's sake, I've been known to get water up my nose while drinking it.

 

This in near us but not our water supply (one of dh's workers does live there).

 

Oh my goodness!!!!  You win!!!