Sink or Source: The Role of Street Solids in Heavy Metal Pollution of River Water

Ben Sun

My parents, both Chinese citizens at the time, came to the United States in the late 80’s to attend graduate school. Later on, my mom got a job offer and they moved to the town I was born and raised in, a small town in North Dakota by the name of Grand Forks. We have been here since then. The Red River of the North runs through Grand Forks, and one summer, I was deemed old enough to ride my bike down to the river so that I could explore. It was then that I found the tubes. Big cement tubes. And there was something coming out of them. And whatever that something was, it was draining into my river. When I asked, I was told that those tubes were pipes that drained runoff water from the city to the river. That answered some of my questions, but not all. And later that winter when I found out about Science Fair, I knew what my project was going to be. That was the year of 2005. For the next four years, I studied river water quality and the river surroundings. A local research center supported my studies by providing the sampling devices and lab facilities that I needed for my project. My first two water quality science projects focused on the long term behavior of common water quality parameters such as pH, turbidity, and the levels of dissolved oxygen and ions. The latter two projects that I conducted focused more on the interaction between the city and the river in terms of how we may be polluting our water sources in ways we don’t realize…