In the heart of Coppell Nature Park, surrounded by the gentle calm of the environment, the rushing rapids of water, bird chirping, bees buzzing, squirrels munching, and the members of CHS Eco club gathering to give a presentation they’ve been working on for many weeks.

On Thursday at the Coppell Biodiversity Center, CHS Eco Club presented its state of water presentation to educate the public. 

“We all here at the Eco Club find passion in taking initiative,” senior Eco Club officer Mehak Arora said.

The primary belief of the club is that “Education = Communication = Change” and so members hope by spreading more education, they can help to inspire change in their community. 

One especially unique facet of their presentation was their inclusion of various stations for meeting goers to explore, including a live chemical titration where spectators were able to see the testing of water samples in front of their eyes, and their Q&A panel to answer questions from the audience.

The main goal of the presentation was to inform about the health of water in our natural ecosystems here in Coppell, and what environmental and human factors could jeopardize its health.

For months on end, the Eco Club group collected various field measurements such as pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen levels, conductivity, transparency, and much more to gain a thorough understanding of the conditions of the various bodies of water around Coppell. Their results showed that overall, Coppell’s water sources are in good, stable condition which means they can support a healthier and more biodiverse ecosystem.  

However, one potential threat in terms of water preservation are the annual winter freezes recently in Texas. To better understand these weather phenomena’s impact, the Eco Club is currently working on a research project.

“We have designed a set of spheres, specifically designed to deal with the freeze, to collect and hold water that we can test later on to see how the water reacts,” Eco Club sophomore Kartik Koranne said.

The current hypothesis is that these extreme conditions are causing dramatic changes in the chemical attributes of the water, putting the abundance of organisms living in these waters at risk.

Another prominent issue that Eco Club noticed is the large amount of littering near the water sources they were testing.

Wind and rainwater can easily carry discarded litter into our lakes and ponds, polluting water and hurting all the organisms that live in it. This is why Eco Club holds monthly trash clean-ups in areas all around Coppell, to better protect our environment.

Additionally, the club still aspires to create a more environmentally conscious community to help protect the precious environment.

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