Is Dilution the Solution to

Pollution?

This is a common adage. During this class, you will

investigate the ideas of concentration to determine
if dilution ever is the solution to pollution.
We will use blue food dye to represent gasoline.

Using the following materials, determine a way to

dilute the 'gasoline' to a point you would feel safe to
say your sample is clean. At each dilution, determine
its concentration using fractions.

an ice cube tray with 10 drops of food dye in the

first spot
eyedropper
a glass of water

What did you find?

At what concentration did you determine your water was

clean? Now, continue diluting this until you've reached
1/1,000,000

The fraction 1/1,000,000 can also be reported as one part

per million or one ppm

Report your initial clean concentration in ppm

We can now reinvestigate our
original question, is
dilution the solution
to pollution?, by
looking at some
information from the
Gulf Oil Spill in 2010.

Is Dilution the Solution to

Pollution?

Crude oil contains many toxins, including

Benzene. By EPA standards, Benzene cannot
be present in drinking water (0 ppm) and water
sites are not considered clean until they contain
>5 parts per billion Benzene.
Dispersants were used during the 2010 Gulf oil
spill, to disperse (or dilute) the contaminants.
Given your experience with dilution, the
information above, and information you look up,
argue for or against the idea, dilution is the
solution to pollution