Semi-Fictional Challenge to the JR368 Data Visualization Class at Emerson College, Spring 2015

Is there too much salt in the streams and rivers around Boston? Is it impairing aquatic life? The municipal government says it's fine. Residents say there's so much road salt that it's killing their lawn and impairing stream life. Community groups are advocating for testing. What's your strategy to find out the story? You find myRWA online and contact Patrick Herron. Turns out there is a community already engaged in water quality monitoring and they have looked at various measuring options and found a coqui sensor that is low cost, fairly easy and engages people around the data collection effort. You, as the journalist, jump on board that effort in order to tell the story of what's going. The device hasn't been used before to monitor water quality.

Here is some research you have found regarding the threats chloride poses to freshwater systems: MA Appendix H pp. 9-11 about chloride regulations, River chloride trends in snow-affected urban watersheds, Increased salinization of water in the Northeastern US

How do you begin to research this scenario? List your group members & write-up your preliminary research below in at least 500 words.

Group 1: Don, Catherine, Patrick

• Look for road salt data in the Boston area
• Find community groups that care about water quality
• Where does drinking water come from in MA?
• Where are some stockpiles of salt in Greater Boston?