What Are Phosphates?: Phosphates are compounds made by the mixture of phosphorous (P) and oxygen (O). Phosphorous is usually found in water in the form of phosphates (PO4-3). It gets by means of rain and the water cycle. Once the phosphorous on/in the ground is caught in the runoff, it will travel to a pond or lake. How can they hurt the ecosystem?: When there is an increase in phosphates in the water, it can cause an overgrowth of aquatic algae, who feed on phosphates. This buildup is called eutrophication, which can be detected by a "rotten egg" smell. This buildup is also apparent with turbidity. The buildup can choke other plants to death, and completely take over the ecosystem. Also, the buildup is an ideal environment for aerobic bacteria, and they flock to the area. They then consume all the oxygen in the area, causing almost all aquatic animal life to perish due to asphyxiation. This relates to ammonia because after the fish die, they release ammonia into the surrounding ecosystem, which, in high concentration, can be deadly. This almost entirely eliminates the possibility of life returning to the general area. Where can phosphates be found?: Phosphates can be found in any proteinatious food. It is also found in cola drinks, biscuits, yogurt, cheese, dried beans, corn, spinach, milk, and oatmeal.	Example of Eutrophication
Can phosphates hurt us?: Not exactly. In fact, since foods with a lot of protein have phosphates, it is a good idea to consume them. Yet, phosphates can hurt you if you consume too many, such as phosphorus acid in cola (which can leech calcium from your bones). Controlling your phosphate intake is the key to not getting sick from phosphates.
	Method Here are the steps taken to test the water in our schools. 1) Firstly, we measured a 5 mL sample of  the water in a graduated tube. 2) Next, we added 15 drops of Phosphate Test Solution #1 and mix.  We let it sit for 3-5 minutes. A light yellow color appeared soon after that. 3) Lastly, We added 2-3 drops of Phosphate Test Solution #2 and we mixed it. 4) If there is phosphate, a blue color will appear almost immediately.   Results Based on testing several schools, we found that all their water contained phosphates.  We tested several schools, such as M.S. 104, P.S. 116, P.S. 234, P.S. 42, P.S. 11, and Beacon. Discussion Based on our results, our schools water is basically safe. Our test indicated that the schools don't have an especially high count of phosphates, even though it is getting to that point. Water in our schools have to be filtered better in order to get rid of all the high concentrations of harmful chemicals. Our method was practically fool-proof, especially since there were not a lot of difficult instructions to follow. Yet, we could have cross contaminated the water with our schools or others, hindering the reliability of the test. Several aquatic ecosystems are destroyed because of an overload of phosphates in the environment. We need to decrease the amount of phosphates in school water in order to protect ourselves from disease. There is no real way to clean phosphates out of an aquatic environment unless you drain the whole pond or lake that the phosphorous is found. Even then, the phosphates have been absorbed by the ground of the pond/lake. If no excess phosphates are introduced to an environment, the ecosystem has time to heal as the phosphorus seeps into the bottom sediment layers of the pond/lake. The only real way to prevent phosphorous is exactly that: Prevention.