I am doing my final pending internship at Tri-County Health Department (located in Commerce City, CO) working in the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Department as a Water Sampler. The Rocky Mountain Arsenal (RMA) was created in 1942 by the United States Army as a location to manufacture chemical warfare agents for World War II and again in the Cold War. Between the wars some of the plants and buildings were sold to Shell, a company that produces pesticides and other chemicals. The demolition of chemical waste and creation of harmful chemicals and pesticides on this land was continued through the 1980’s until in 1987 the Rocky Mountain Arsenal was put in the National Priorities List, a list of hazardous waste sites eligible for long-term remedial action, financed by the federal superfund program (aka taxes). At this time remediations were started to turn this hazardous waste dump into a National Wildlife Refuge (where Bald Eagles are now living).
The RMA was situated over many huge underground plumes (like underground lakes), which were the source of water for neighboring residential areas. The Tri-County Health Department was invited to aid in this cleanup to provide private well sampling and determine exposure pathways and the exposure levels of chemicals in the water. Since the project began the harmful chemical exposure radius has decreased from the original 27 miles to about 5.6 miles.
I go out and do the field sampling (collect the water samples from private wells) and then do the lab work to test for hardness, conductivity, nitrate levels, and fluoride. Then we send samples out to be tested for DIMP. I also do lot of paperwork, filing, reporting and charting on maps and things.
So hopefully this will help you understand what I do! I am a little more awake now, hopefully you aren't asleep!
1 comment:
how can you be sleepy when you could be out taking water samples. yawn. I got tired just typing that.
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