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SALEM, Ore. (AP) — In a member exchange sent Sept. 10 about a student invention, The Associated Press erroneously deleted the first paragraph of the story.
A corrected version of the story is below:
Salem student's project takes on dirty water
Salem student's project takes on cleaning up dirty water from natural disasters
By QUEENIE WONG
Salem Statesman Journal
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Megha Joshi was researching natural disasters last year when the idea for an award-winning science fair project — a solar-powered water filtration system — popped into her mind.
Hurricanes, floods and tsunamis can pollute the water supply with bacteria and other contaminants, which can lead to illness for people who drink it.
"I wanted to do something that could benefit other people and I wanted my science project to be practical," she said.
Joshi is among 300 semifinalists in a national science and engineering fair for middle school students called Broadcom MASTERS. There are 19 semifinalists from Oregon, one from Salem.
In her backyard in Salem, the Blanchet Catholic School eighth grader demonstrated how the filtration system works.
The solar panels power a battery, which then fuels a pump that brings up the dirty water through a series of filters.
"It takes it through the pump and into the sediment and carbon filter, which takes out the dirt and the bacteria," Joshi said. "Then the UV disinfectant system just kills all the bacteria by rearranging its DNA sequence so it can't reproduce."
To test the filtration system, Joshi took a water sample from Pringle Creek last year. The water was sent to a private lab, and the test results showed the count for coliform bacteria dropping dramatically after she ran it through her solar-powered water filtration system.
Joshi said she won't know for sure though if the water is safe for drinking until more tests are run, and those are costly. The system can run for 8 hours, producing more than 1,600 gallons of water.
The science project, called Aqua Sol, also became a family activity. Her dad, Nitin, went shopping with her for supplies and her younger brother, Mihir, helped snap photos of the filtration system.
"It was a good learning experience for me," she said. "I had a lot of help from the people at Lowe's picking out all the parts and I asked my dad an inordinate amount of questions, probably to the point of annoyance."
Joshi will learn Sept. 17 whether she's one of 30 finalists who will receive an all-expense paid trip to Washington D.C. in October. Finalists enter a four-day competition for awards and prizes, which includes $25,000.
"I'm really proud of her," her father said. "She took on something really ambitious."
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