Ted Stuart from Pretty River Academy in Collingwood is having a hard time carrying all of the awards he won at the Simcoe County Science and Technology Fair over the weekend.
The grade 10 student won best in all categories and a gold medal for his age group, including the Georgian College engineering award.
Stuart's presentation showed how he made a special carbon filter called Bio Char that can clean phosphorous from water.
“I looked at the bonding of it and the chemical structure and I saw that it would be perfect for removing phosphorous, so I built myself a Bio Char machine, produced it and ran a series of tests to see if it would work for removing phosphorous and I showed that it worked phenomenal.”
Phosphorous is a nutrient that feeds algae growth in water. It comes from urban and agricultural runoff, as well as sewage and septic systems. Stuart says he was motivated to find a solution to phosphorous pollution because he could see the impact it was having at his favourite fishing spots around Georgian Bay.
David Featherstone is an ecologist at the Nottawasga Valley Conservation Authority. He says controlling phosphorous is the key to protecting water quality in the region’s waterways.
“I think for Lake Simcoe, the Nottawasga River and Southern Georgian Bay is a concern and it's important to manage it and keep it at relatively low levels for all of our benefit,” says Featherstone.
Stuart says his filters could recycle phosphorous back onto farmland as fertilizer or be captured and repurposed, while saving rivers and lakes across the county.
“Lake Erie, Lake Simcoe, Lake Winnipeg in Canada alone are some of the largest areas where this is a problem. Around the world this is problem.”
Stuart and two of his classmates from Pretty River Academy, who also won awards, will travel to Fredericton in about month to compete in the National Science Fair Competition.
