The material presented here was used for a semester-long capstone project for a first semester freshman course entitled Mathematical Modeling and Introduction to Calculus. The goals for the students in this work were twofold: first, enable the students to gain insight into an actual problem that affects millions of people in the United States and worldwide; second, develop students' technical writing skills. The project was issued in three separate installments, each occurring after the requisite material was covered in the course. Each of the three sections was completed in groups of two or three students. (Contains 3 tables.)