Tampere's Water!

I was inspired by the architecture Valle (the scholarship program that’s funding me) students’ abilities to connect their work to the non-architects. So I’m giving it a try with my own work in Tampere. While my project in the lab is involves molecular biology, nucleotides, polymerase, statistical significance, and sampling plans, it also involves water. Civilizations are formed around convenient water supplies. We all swim, wash, transport ourselves and our things, and most of all, we drink water. The architects have the fancy interiors, exteriors, and photographically artistic presentation, but I have the substance that makes up more than half of your body and 70% of your planet’s surface. Tampere has its history, present, and future which, in order for it to survive, has been centered around water.

Tampere’s Water System

Tampere is geographically sandwiched between two large lakes, Näsijärvi (the largest lake in the Tampere area**, 257 km²) and Pyhäjärvi. The city was originally established on the Pispala ridge, around the Tammerkoski Rapids. These rapids run from north to south, out of Näsijärvi and into Pyhäjärvi. Since there is an elevation difference of 18 meters between the two lakes, the rapids can produce energy. Power plants from Finlayson, Tampella and Liljeroos were able to use the rapids as Tampere’s sole energy source until 1916. If you look down the Tampere Rapids today, the view is dominated by historical industrial buildings that were once used to produce cotton, wood, shoes and textiles. In spite of the drive for industrial development, Koskipuisto Park was deliberately left undeveloped for the public to enjoy. Tampere is the largest inland Nordic city and the third largest city in Finland, currently with 200,000 residents.

Tampere’s Water History

From 1835 to 1921, just after the industrial revolution, Tampere grew from approximately 1,600 to over 40,000 residents. At the beginning of this period, the major objective of a water system was to provide fire-fighting protection, but simultaneously led to improved hygienic conditions. Throughout history, Tampere’s water has been provided by both ground and surface water sources. The first municipal pumping station was installed in 1835 and was used to fill buckets for household distribution. Free-flowing ditches were later used to direct wastewater into lake Pyhäjärvi. In 1866 a municipal committee was formed to control drainage, as a measure to address the Typhoid problem that was worst in the least drained areas of Tampere (Germ Theory and microbes had not yet been discovered). This committee proposed a sewer network to separate sewage from drinking water. In 1876, the sewer construction began. The city’s first health official, A. Ahlberg- a civil engineer (like me!)- proposed the first modern drinking water distribution and sewage system in Tampere. He recommended charging for water by the household. He also suggested constructing a robust and sustainable system, rather than quickly solving the short-term water shortage problems. The city constructed the first waterworks in 1882, without using Ahlberg’s recommendations. Unfortunately, the system lacked the pressure necessary to provide water to everyone, did not resolve water quality issues, and did not meter water usage to equitably charge consumers. The sewer system was completed in various parts of the city between 1883 and 1894. A second drinking water system was constructed in 1898 with higher pressure, but still no water treatment. There was a serious Typhoid problem that was said to have spread along the water pipe network.

In the early 1900s, Lake Näsijärvi was considered polluted and Typhoid outbreaks were common. It wasn’t until 1917, when Tampere began to chlorinate its drinking water, that the Typhoid problem was contained. There have been no Typhoid epidemics since this time. To address taste and turbidity problems, the city opened a new treatment plant in Kaupinoja, which used both chlorination and sand filters to treat the Lake Näsijärvi’s water. A second plant was built in 1931 in Mältinranta to serve the western part of the city. In 1972 the water source was changed to Lake Roinejärvi, which currently provides 70% of Tampere’s water, while the other 30% comes from various groundwater sources. In comparison, Finland receives about 50% of its water from surface sources and 50% from groundwater sources.

It seems like Tampere is unusual with such a water centered history, but you'd be surprised. Do you know where your water comes from? Do you know why your city was founded where it is?

Warning: the following section contains more science than usual!

Artificial Groundwater Recharge (AGR)

Reija, one of my collegues at the lab, is focusing on AGR for her PhD work. The main idea of AGR is to load up aquifers with untreated water. The natural microbial processes in groundwater are capable of removing certain contaminants that are currently removed at the treatment plant. Her results may help the City of Tampere decide on its best future water treatment option.

She has two sets of reactors installed at the local water treatment plant. She varies temperature and oxygen with time in one set. Some people worry that the CO₃^2- in the system will turn to organic matter instead of CO₂ and cause the AGR system to clog and shut down. She has some smaller fluidized bed reactors that provide a small, but perfectly porous material to simulate ideal aquifer conditions. In the fluidized bed reactors, Reija studies the effects of varying the hydraulic retention time, fluidization rate, temperature, and phosphorus and nitrogen concentrations on the microbial communities. She’s currently using stable carbon isotopes to measure the biodegradation rate. She’s getting approximately 30 to 50% biodegredation, based on the ¹²C:¹³C ratio.

Tampere’s Water Treatment Plant

The present-day treatment plant was built in the end of the 1970s and is located in Rusko, approximately 2 km from the Tampere University of Technology (TUT). It’s time for a renovation, but there is a hot political debate over whether to switch to artificial groundwater recharge (AGR) that is holding up plans for renovation. AGR is (not coincidentally) also a hot research topic in our lab at TUT. The city doesn’t want to renovate or build a new treatment plant if it is going to switch to AGR, which requires much less water treatment. AGR consists of pumping surface (or whatever type of) water into the ground and letting the microbes in the soil do the treatment. It would still require chlorination, but almost entirely eliminates the need for a water treatment plant. However, we need some science to tell us if it’s a viable option for Tampere.

The current treatment plant consists of 720 km of pipelines and five steps of treatment, with a flow rate of 1800 to 2200 m³/hr. These are the five treatment steps:

1. Calcium carbonate addition. This prevents corrosion
2. Hypochlorite addition. This prevents biofilm from forming on the sand filters.
1. It may also unfortunately cause disinfection byproducts to form, which cause cancer in lab animals at high doses
3. Rapid sand filtration. There is a one meter deep sand bed that is backwashed once per day. This process removes natural organic matter and iron. Some people think the rapid sand filtration should go before the hypochlorite addition to reduce the formation of disinfection byproducts.
4. Air flotation. This treatment process is considered advanced and efficient. Ferric sulfide sticks to the organic matter and forms flocs. These flocs adhere to bubbles that are diffused through the water column, bringing the organic matter to surface where it can be scraped off.
5. Activated carbon filtration. Water is filtered, the pH is raised to 8.5, and the final chlorination takes place before the treated water is stored in one of Tampere’s five water towers.

So wow! Before I drink that water, it sure goes through a lot! It's pretty nice that we don't get Typhoid here anymore. That's not the case everywhere!

By the way, there’s a new policy to keep the door shut at the water treatment plant in Rusko. Since you need an appointment to get into our water treatment plants in Seattle, and you have to go drive past intimidating signage that makes you think you have to go to prison if you make a wrong turn, I really noticed the cultural difference.

**Näsijärvi is nowhere near the largest lake in Finland, that was a mistake (see Sannamari's comment)!

Eurovision My-o-vision

Eurovision 2007 made me love Helsinki!

The Eurovision Song Contest is a tradition that started way back in 1956. Some say it was one of the traditions that lead to the formation of the EU, by bringing the war torn European community together. Each country submits a song that is performed by a corresponding singer. Each country selects its own performer, sometimes selected by voting… I think. The overall winner of the Eurovision Song Contest is selected by international cell phone voting. You can’t vote for your own country’s performer, but you can vote for your neighbors. There is obviously some politicking, especially considering some of the winners. It’s not entirely based on talent. Or maybe not at all based on talent. Last year, Finland won. In accordance with the tradition, this means that it also hosted this year’s contest in Helsinki. This is also the first time Finland has ever hosted because they had never ever won before.

If you really want to understand the contest, check out Lordi’s winning performance from last year. He and his band dressed up like monsters and played a hard rock/metal song called Hard Rock Hallelujah. The funny part of the story is, those monster outfits are the only way that the Finnish public knows Lordi and his band. That’s right; they’ve never made a public appearance without the masks. Aaaaand, the even funnier part of the story is that Lordi was invited to the Annual National Ball at the President’s house on Independence Day last year. He didn’t show up because masks were not allowed at the event (due to security concerns). There was lots of national suspense: would Lordi uncover his appearance and go to the National Ball? We were all left in disappointing wonder when he still hadn’t shown up by the end of the evening. What does his bright, shiny, death metal face look like? Still don’t know. The Finnish territory is covered with Lordi goods and paraphernalia that range from soda to action figures.

Here's their 2006 winning performance:

Most of the performances at Eurovision are very similar sounding pop songs. Lordy was different. Occasionally the winner makes it big. Some examples are ABBA, Olivia Newton John, and Celine Dion. You might notice from these examples that the nationality of the performer doesn’t have to correspond to the country that they are representing… if any of you non-Europeans want to give it a try. Most of the time, nothing becomes of the winner. It’s generally pretty awful music, but it’s incredibly entertaining to know about.

We were not able to get tickets to the actual Eurovision performance in Helsinki because they sold out faster than I could dial the number on my Nokia. However, we went to Helsinki to witness the mayhem anyway. It was nothing less than awesome! There were performers in the street, break-dancers, people displaying their national Eurovision pride by wearing their country’s flags, and free concerts. A whole lot of Europe actually came to Finland. Finland doesn’t get a lot of attention, so it was fun to witness. We also took a trip over to Suomenlinna, Finland’s island fortress, for a relaxing lunch. In Helsinki you can find both mayhem and relaxation on any given day! This weekend, made me LOVE Helsinki!

Vappu Wappu!

Vappu was huge. It was wild, it was crazy! The festivities start on the night of April 30th and continue (straight through for some) through May 1. Vappu is Finland's student and labor holiday. In Tampere, it seemed to be skewed toward the student celebrations, though there was a worker parade.



Vappu traditions vary from city to city in Finland. In Tampere, the tradition is to dip the first-year technical students into the very cold Tampere Rapids (why only technical students and not all first-year students? I don't know and I couldn't find anyone else who did) . There were two large metal baskets that held about ten engineers each. They very efficiently loaded one with students while dipping the other with a huge industrial crane. The students strip down into their undies and then climb in to the basket. Many of them bring champagne bottles with them, which they dramatically pop open after dunk #1. It's kind of a hazing thing, except a lot the students actually think it's fun to get dipped. One first year student on my soccer team told me that the crane dunked her batch of architecture students six times! I wonder if you can still walk after six dips.

At midnight, on April 30, the students cleaned and crowned this statue with a traditional student hat. Only after the crowning, are the students allowed to wear their own hats. They receive their's at the end of the high school equivalent (lukio). The technical students get a tassel during university. Many cities in Finland publish a joke magazine packaged in some sort of industrial container. This year, Tampere rolled the magazines into a caulking cartridge (you know, to be loaded into a caulking gun, to seal the bathtub to the wall). I couldn't really understand the jokes. When I asked people if they would translate one for me, they would say "OK let me find a funny one." And then they would flip through for a while, a long while, not laughing. I got the impression, it wasn't that funny.

In addition to celebrating students and workers, Vappu signifies the beginning of Spring. Thank goodness the weather was impeccable and the bicycles were everywhere. There is a big carnival with the typical carnival stuff and lots of salmiaki (black licorice flavored, sort of) candy. The kids all have large mylar balloons and lots of people go out to lunch on Vappu. So hyvaa Vappua to everyone! and congratulations to the first year students who are now official! It's spring time!These are some students waiting for the first-year student parade. They're sporting their student overalls that color code them by department.

My Oxnardian Culture

In response some recent misconceptions of American culture, I’m going to tell you about my culture. My culture includes the ideas and influences that shape my values and every day decisions. Similar to the stereotypes that aren’t always true, I can’t guarantee that my culture describes anyone else besides myself, definitely not the average American. I would say that there is no average American culture. We’re all pretty different. Even within the U.S., there are misconceptions on California’s culture. While my city, Oxnard, is turning into a suburb of Los Angeles and some of the California stereotypes do hold true, Oxnard has an interesting history, it is a unique Southern Californian city, and it is at the root of my cultural values.

In 1974, after four generations of living in San Bernardino County, CA, my parents moved two hours northwest, to the City of Oxnard. It was a much different place back then. They lived in an apartment on the beach, which was considered a dodgy area at that time. Their groceries would get stolen if they didn’t lock the car while carrying grocery bags inside. My dad was just starting a new job as a reference librarian at the Oxnard Public Library, so they didn’t have enough money to buy a house yet. Today, beachfront property is highly coveted and very expensive. They’re old apartment was certainly taken down and replaced with a multi-million dollar home. My parents eventually bought a house, just outside of El Rio, in a neighborhood that was surrounded by farmland. There were orange trees and avocado groves, but mostly strawberries strawberries strawberries.

When I was in high school, a Wal-Mart shopping center was built about a mile from my house. In some ways, I liked it because it meant there were restaurants and things to do my neighborhood. It also made it easier to describe where I lived. Many people don’t really know where El Rio is, and the only other landmarks were fields of strawberries. “Are there houses out there?” people would ask when I tried to give them directions to my house, even though Oxnard isn’t that geographically complex. However, I was also a cross country runner in high school. I had a hard time with the new traffic problems that Wal-Mart brought with it. Where I used to run for miles without stopping is now covered with traffic signals on almost every corner. There are good sidewalks if you’re running east to west, but they aren’t so continuous in the north-south directions. Prior to the Wal-Mart shopping center, this area was occupied by strawberry fields. The strawberry fields sometimes made the neighborhood smell delightful, but it sometimes smelled like fertilizer. Where I went to middle school, in El Rio, was much worse, aroma wise. Sometimes it would smell so strongly of fertilizer that my clothes would still stink when I got home!

Oxnard is located on the Southern coast of California. The average daily high temperature is 23 degrees C (73 degrees F), and the average low temperature is 11 degrees C (51 degrees), with 37.5 cm (14.75 inches of average annual rainfall. As of 2006, the California department of Finance measured the annual median household income to be $48,600. Males had a median income of just over $30,500 versus approximately $25,000 for females. According to the 2005 American Community Survey, Oxnard is approximately 70% "Latino or Hispanic." There is really good Mexican food in Oxnard and many Spanish speakers. As a bilingual public librarian, my father often helped both English and Spanish speakers find information for school work, public services, or even obtaining citizenship. My mother teaches at the high school Adult Education Center. She teaches a variety of courses to adults who dropped out of high school and are now trying to earn their high school diplomas. She also teaches ESL (English as a Second Language) to people who are learning to speak English. My parents were pretty involved in the Hispanic community in Oxnard, which may be one reason why my sister and I also learned to speak Spanish later on.

Wikipedia has a long list of famous people from Oxnard, but I didn't recognize most of them, probably because I don't watch very much TV. The most notable was Cesar Chavez, a farm worker, political activist and union leader. He lived in the La Colonia Barrio of Oxnard during part of his childhood, and later organized boycotts and marches of farm workers and laborers to protest the lack of jobs for local Oxnardian residents (1950s). Colonia is the heart of Oxnard’s good Mexican food, which I miss a lot in Finland. I wish I could a gordita right now.

After high school I moved to California’s Bay Area for University, and later on to Seattle, but those cities are very different from Oxnard. Each time I’ve moved to a new city, it’s taken a little while to adjust to the culture. For example, in Seattle, people are very friendly on the street… but there’s not very good Mexican food. In the Bay Area, I was constantly accosted by homeless people, and it seemed very interactive, yet unfriendly at a glance. However, I formed many friendships in random places in the Bay Area, like on the bus or walking home from work.

Anyway, my city is full of culture. In spite of growing up in the States, I didn't turn out rich, spoiled, or stupid. And I don't own a gun or a car. American culture can mean many different things, most of which you just can't find in the movies!

Reality in TV?

I’m very comfortable with the fact that my country is imperfect. I may even be the one to point out its deficiencies. I feel a responsibility to do what I can to make the United States a better place, but I’m not embarrassed that we have our faults. While it’s not my favorite conversation topic with people from Europe these days, I am capable of having a factual discussion on problems in my country.

For some reason, however, I get quite irritated when people tell me about what I do in my culture, especially if they’re wrong. When the discussion starts with “you know how you guys do blank,” or “in the States, blankety blank happens,” there is a very good chance that I am going to have to spend the rest of the discussion defending myself and pointing out that all Americans (many times myself included) don’t do blankety blank. First of all, my country is big. Even within California, there are social differences between the north, south, east, and west. San Francisco, for example, has a much different feel, food, and culture than Fresno. I even feel a little bit uncomfortable making a cultural generalization about the people from Fresno because Fresno’s culture is not my culture. But I know, just from passing through, that it’s different than San Francisco’s culture.

So if you visited your brother while he was studying abroad in Virginia, or if you watch American TV shows, you still might not have as good of an understanding of my culture as you think.

I got into a discussion last night with a guy who told me that U.S. worker salaries are much higher than salaries in the EU. He thought it was really great because everything is also so much cheaper in the States. There’s a high quality of life and everyone’s rich, he told me. I’m not an economist, and income of Americans vs. EU nationals is not a topic that I’ve ever been particularly passionate about, but he was totally wrong. I wondered where in God’s name he got that idea. In Finland, I haven’t seen a lot of poverty or gangs, which were important parts of my culture back in the States. I know people who do not have healthcare, or who don’t have an income back home. I don’t have experience all over the European Union, but in Finland there’s food, shelter, and medical care for everyone. I would say there’s a whole lot more wealth here.

My conversation partner gave me an example of a salary in my country that is higher than a European salary. “OK,” he told me. “If you go to school for law, you can make $200,000 per year, right after graduating.”

I tried to explain that lawyers aren’t exactly average Americans. And, if you’re one of the 27% of the people who graduate from university, only then are you eligible to apply to spend another three years (and tens of thousands of dollars) going to law school. It’s competitive and not many people can make it through law school. “OK, I have another example: doctors,” he was very matter of fact. “They make a lot of money in the States.” I was nearly exasperated. I couldn’t believe I was participating in a) such a boring conversation topic, and b) a conversation that required me to defend our state of poverty. We're not that poor, but we're certainly not all doctors and lawyers. I think it was his complete confidence added to his complete ignorance that kept me going. The number of Americans who are doctors and lawyers in my country is practically insignificant, when compared to the Wal-Mart checkers, fast food workers, and engineers, etc.

Where did this young man get his information, you ask? He got it from the television, my friends. That is what he told me. This is not the first time this has come up. There are many people that feel that Sex and the City is a documentary on American culture, not a fictional and logistically impossible story that was created to make money. Hollywood was not created to depict American culture and values in Europe.

In my culture, I was taught that television is not real. Some of the major differences between what you may find on the average television show and real American life are:

1. We age (unlike Bart Simpson).
2. We’re not all rich. We have a distribution of wealth, just like European countries. We have poverty, homelessness, as well as wealthy people.
3. We work an awful lot (unlike the characters in Lost and Friends). If we don’t work, it’s quite hard to find food and shelter. Work is not always dramatic fun (like in West Wing), though I usually like my work (I may be a minority).
4. We’re not 99% white. There is ethnic diversity in the States that is not portrayed on TV.
5. We’re not necessarily stupid (unlike our Reality TV counterparts), though I occasionally have my “not so swift” days.
6. We have pimples, wrinkles and other physical imperfections. You know how we’re one of the most overweight countries? Well, it’s true, and it’s not portrayed on TV.
7. We’re not almost all 25 to 40 years old. We have a distribution of ages.
8. The portion of the day spent in high-speed car chases, shooting each other, and having sex, is actually quite small compared to that of our TV/movie counterparts.
9. Most importantly, the U.S. is a real country. TV is fictional; it’s an industry that makes money in a capitalist society because people enjoy watching it, not because it resembles something that is possible in the real world.

It’s just too ironic that I have to convince people that I’m not stupid by demonstrating that television is not real. If you feel like it’s a good idea to share with me how stupid, fat, rich, or spoiled my culture is, please get your information from somewhere besides the television.