Communicating Science about the Gold King Mine Spill and Water Quality in the Animas River
Essential Questions:
a. How have geological, biological and human factors created and exacerbated acid mine drainage and water quality issues in the Animas River?
b. What ecological and human health threats might be associated with the Gold King Mine spill: initially, currently and in the future?
c. What actions can be taken to improve the water quality in Cement Creek and the Animas River watershed?
d. What is the role of science in making policy decisions?
Reflection
Communicating Science Project Reflection Ethan Sullivan
1. What ecological and human health threats might be associated with the Gold King Mine
spill: initially, currently and in the future?
There are not many human health threats associated with the Gold King Mine spill currently or in the future with proper cleanup, but initially some heavy metals such as Aluminum, Arsenic, and lead all exceeded the MCL, NSDWR, and Recreational Screening level at the plume arrival according to the data collected from Rotary Park by Mountain Studies Institute. Currently the river is safe for many uses as the amount of heavy metals present in the river has continued to decrease over time. People will always be concerned about the Animas River’s safety from here on out, but if you look at the data collected safety should not be a concern for humans, but what we should focus on is the ecological threats associated with the spill. The priority in this situation should be to protect the environment and make the river clean again because both humans and wildlife rely on it heavily. At the moment the river is safe according to multiple science organizations and the EPA, but the new treatment plan (superfund) for cleaning up the river will hopefully fix the acid mine drainage still pouring out of the mine and keep the river safe.
2.
What does the role of science play in making policy decisions?
The role of science plays a big role in making policy decisions because science can provide us with hard data that cannot be argued with. Policy decisions set the limits that an organization and members within it can take without changing the policy. My whole life I have always seen science trump opinion so it can prove whether the right decision is being made or what should be done. Last friday evening I attended a presentation about the Gold King Mine spill put on by scientists from Mountain Studies Institute. In the presentation there was lots of data which would have been tough to argue with so no one questioned it because of the strong use of logos by the scientists and the fact that data is normally not deceiving. Science plays a major in making policy decisions because of it’s accuracy and inability to be argued with.
3.
To what degree do scientists have an obligation to communicate scientific concepts and data to the public in an understandable manner?
Scientists should always feel an obligation to communicate scientific concepts to the public in an understandable manner because if it is not understandable people will not know whether or not they should trust the scientist. I relate to this to the form of doublespeak Gobbledygook. This happened to me during the presentation after exhibition a few times because I was confused by some of the scientific terms they used and was wondering what were they really trying to communicate to the audience. However, I did trust the scientist speaking because she is an expert in the field. Scientists should definitely feel an obligation to communicate their knowledge in an understandable manner because the public needs to be able to understand what is being communicated before they can trust the scientist.
4. How has your understanding of scientific knowledge and/or the process of doing science
changed throughout the semester as you’ve examined and manipulated data collected by
professional scientists and performed analogous experiments to collect and analyze your own
data?
I first heard about the Gold King Mine spill when I was up in Montana on a break from a summer volunteer program. All I could really do to try and understand what the affects of this were was by reading articles online from different news sites. Every article mentioned the millions of gallons of acid mine drainage that was released. At the time I didn’t know what acid mine drainage was or what the different metals released into the river could do. When I got back to school I was really excited to find out that we would be learning about the Gold King Mine spill. I always thought that interpreting data was something that was very easy, but it turned out not to be because there are many things associated with it. I really appreciated the amount of time we spent reading chart and graphs because it gave me a better sense of what the heavy metals were in the Animas River and how much of each element was present in the Animas River from looking at various locations along the Animas River watershed with dates and times. After doing many lessons about interpreting data I got much better at it and I knew that this is a very useful skill to have in life going forward. My scientific knowledge has changed drastically throughout the semester and now I feel like I have a lot of confidence pertaining to science which will be very beneficial to me going forward in this class and I know feel like I have a good understanding of the scientific content behind the Gold King Mine spill as this unit comes to an end.
1. What ecological and human health threats might be associated with the Gold King Mine
spill: initially, currently and in the future?
There are not many human health threats associated with the Gold King Mine spill currently or in the future with proper cleanup, but initially some heavy metals such as Aluminum, Arsenic, and lead all exceeded the MCL, NSDWR, and Recreational Screening level at the plume arrival according to the data collected from Rotary Park by Mountain Studies Institute. Currently the river is safe for many uses as the amount of heavy metals present in the river has continued to decrease over time. People will always be concerned about the Animas River’s safety from here on out, but if you look at the data collected safety should not be a concern for humans, but what we should focus on is the ecological threats associated with the spill. The priority in this situation should be to protect the environment and make the river clean again because both humans and wildlife rely on it heavily. At the moment the river is safe according to multiple science organizations and the EPA, but the new treatment plan (superfund) for cleaning up the river will hopefully fix the acid mine drainage still pouring out of the mine and keep the river safe.
2.
What does the role of science play in making policy decisions?
The role of science plays a big role in making policy decisions because science can provide us with hard data that cannot be argued with. Policy decisions set the limits that an organization and members within it can take without changing the policy. My whole life I have always seen science trump opinion so it can prove whether the right decision is being made or what should be done. Last friday evening I attended a presentation about the Gold King Mine spill put on by scientists from Mountain Studies Institute. In the presentation there was lots of data which would have been tough to argue with so no one questioned it because of the strong use of logos by the scientists and the fact that data is normally not deceiving. Science plays a major in making policy decisions because of it’s accuracy and inability to be argued with.
3.
To what degree do scientists have an obligation to communicate scientific concepts and data to the public in an understandable manner?
Scientists should always feel an obligation to communicate scientific concepts to the public in an understandable manner because if it is not understandable people will not know whether or not they should trust the scientist. I relate to this to the form of doublespeak Gobbledygook. This happened to me during the presentation after exhibition a few times because I was confused by some of the scientific terms they used and was wondering what were they really trying to communicate to the audience. However, I did trust the scientist speaking because she is an expert in the field. Scientists should definitely feel an obligation to communicate their knowledge in an understandable manner because the public needs to be able to understand what is being communicated before they can trust the scientist.
4. How has your understanding of scientific knowledge and/or the process of doing science
changed throughout the semester as you’ve examined and manipulated data collected by
professional scientists and performed analogous experiments to collect and analyze your own
data?
I first heard about the Gold King Mine spill when I was up in Montana on a break from a summer volunteer program. All I could really do to try and understand what the affects of this were was by reading articles online from different news sites. Every article mentioned the millions of gallons of acid mine drainage that was released. At the time I didn’t know what acid mine drainage was or what the different metals released into the river could do. When I got back to school I was really excited to find out that we would be learning about the Gold King Mine spill. I always thought that interpreting data was something that was very easy, but it turned out not to be because there are many things associated with it. I really appreciated the amount of time we spent reading chart and graphs because it gave me a better sense of what the heavy metals were in the Animas River and how much of each element was present in the Animas River from looking at various locations along the Animas River watershed with dates and times. After doing many lessons about interpreting data I got much better at it and I knew that this is a very useful skill to have in life going forward. My scientific knowledge has changed drastically throughout the semester and now I feel like I have a lot of confidence pertaining to science which will be very beneficial to me going forward in this class and I know feel like I have a good understanding of the scientific content behind the Gold King Mine spill as this unit comes to an end.