The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ) uses probabilistic monitoring to regulate the water quality of streams in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Of the 85 Eastern Virginia Sites (group 1), 24 do not meet minimum requirements. Of the 80 units sampled in Western Virginia Sites (group 2), 17 do not meet minimum requirements. Assume the data can be treated as independent simple random samples. To determine whether the proportions of streams that fail to meet minimum requirements in the two areas are equal or not, test the following hypotheses. a) State the null and alternative hypotheses in order to determine whether the proportions of streams that fail to meet minimum requirements in the two areas are equal or not .
(b) Calculate the value of the test statistic z.
(c) Determine the P-value associated with this observed value of z and draw the conclusion about the hypotheses using alpha=0.05.