The goal of this project was to determine if the two different methods listed below would kill coli forms in contaminated water:
Boiling for ten minutes
Chlorine
My hypothesis for this project was that the boiling would kill the coli forms to a level considered safe for consumption because it is a well known method of water sanitation, shown on the television news reports as a safe method. I also predicted that the chlorine would sanitize the water to a level considered safe for consumption because pool owners use it to maintain the cleanliness of their pools and because the Chlorine Chemistry Council stated that: "Micro organisms that cause life-threatening waterborne dieases such as cholera, typhoid and dysentery often find their way into water supply system. Diseases associated with dirty water kill more than 25, 000 people per day - more that 9 million each ear - around the world, according to the World Health Organization. Since 1908, however, when chlorine was first used in New Jersey to purify water, such epidemic diseases have been virtually wiped out in the U. S. and Canada."
The results obtained from this experiment supports my hypothesis because my hypothesis stated that all methods of sanitation will kill the coli forms to a level considered safe for consumption and the results showed that both methods, boiling for ten minutes and the use of chlorine, killed the coli forms to a level considered safe for consumption.
The results of the first test showed that there were coli forms present in the water so that the rest of the project could be continued: the sanitation of the water by both methods and then the testing of the sanitized samples. The other two tests showed that the two methods did indeed kill the coli forms to a level considered safe for consumption.
The sources of error in this project were that the coli forms could have not have had enough time to incubate, or that the test kits were contaminated.
If someone was to continue this project, he or she could change the time of boiling, or change the temperature of the chlorine for when it is added to the contained water sample.
The test kits after tests.
From left to right: Before method: positive; Boiling for ten minutes: negative; Chlorine: negative
Containers A, B, and C.
The Pot ande it lid and contents, and the Funnel and the Cheesecloth and it's contents.
