Restoring the DMV Area's Waters

Introduction

We aren't a regular group of scholars; we are The Aqua Track Project, and we are here to save Loudoun. We are here to address the significant pollution in Loudoun County that occurs daily. However, we do understand that this future will take an extremely long time, so we decided to take small steps first. Continue reading to understand our exact plan for the future of Loudoun County's large and small freshwater ecosystems.

Why Are We Doing This?

The Aqua Track Project was created by a group of Willard Middle School students with a concern for the health of waterways in the DMV area sustaining Loudoun County. We were restless from the constant runoffs. We have entered the Step Up Loudoun Competition as a beginning step for our journey. We first started when one of our members, Sudhit, went fishing in various rivers near the Potomac. He was disappointed, as he got no fish, and all he saw was algae and bottles of plastic. This really disturbed him. Then he complained to his friend, who also had the same experience. So, they decided to gather a couple more friends and started The Aqua Track Project. Later on, after researching the quality of our rivers, we realized how polluted they were and how stable water ecosystems rarely existed in Loudoun County waters. After reading this, we decided that this is our main focus. Thus, we began our journey to create a better environment.

Our Main Plan: Year One

So, what's our plan? First, we finished our research and created a contraption using an ESP32 that measures parameters for water quality that we are using. This system, after testing with tap water, sends us a two-sentence-long report describing the quality. With this contraption made, we are going around the Potomac area to test waters around that area. After we compile these findings, we add them to a map that we are going to feature on our website, called the pollution map. It is our way of visualizing these findings using a color-coded system we have constructed. The next part of the plan for year one is to compete in the Step Up Loudoun Competition to gain recognition from around the county to help us promote our goal. For this part, we decided to start using social media to convey our overall message.

Future

How we see it is that we want the future to be a place with more stable freshwater ecosystems. We hope to be a crucial stepping stone for this goal and to become an inspiration to many others who come around to try to help save water ecosystems. Maybe in 100 years, the water ecosystem could be better.

We are Aqua Track, and we are here to teach local communities about the real issues quickly arising issues with water pollution around us. We are a young group of middle school students who have noticed the issues with ponds in our local areas. Our group consists of Sreehan Bheemreddy, Sudhit Muppa, Pratheek Kumar, Ved Ayyagari, Yug Jindal, and Nihal Sripathi. Each of us has an extensive background consisting of leadership and engineering opportunities. Together, we have realized the issues with pollution in not only large river systems but also the pollution in our local ponds that can affect our day-to-day quality of life. Follow us on our journey as we focus on creating algorithms and machines that can help us evaluate the pollution levels of our local ponds. Let's promote the general welfare together.

What You Can Do

As the Aqua Track Project moves forward and continues to implement our plan, we understand that, realistically, it would be impossible for only a group of six scholars to fix all of the freshwater ecosystems in Loudoun County, let alone the entirety of Virginia. That is why we need YOU to take action for your community. One small step you can take to help us is to follow us on this journey. You can check our website for updates on the polluted areas, you can change your habits to prevent harmful runoff, and you can support us on social media to help raise awareness of the cause.

Why Should You Do It?

There are multiple reasons to try preventing harmful runoff. First, it helps the overall health of the water, giving us healthy water to drink and use, which is beneficial to us. Next, it helps the health of the organisms in the water. Water containing harmful chemicals can kill wildlife in rivers and oceans. Lastly, all sources of pollution that end up in the ocean start with pollution in rivers. This pollution slowly makes its way to major rivers and then to larger bodies of water until it reaches the ocean. This, again, causes the health of the water and wildlife to be impacted. So, cutting off the source of pollution can save the water and the organisms within.