Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Disinfection By-Product Reduction Study Of A Small Central Florida Public Water System, Paul Staubus

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The disinfection of water for potabilization has proven to be one of the most significant public achievements of the 20th century. Although chemical disinfectants are successfully utilized to inactivate acute pathogenic organisms, they may react with natural organic matter (NOM) to produce potentially-harmful disinfection by-products (DBPs). As a result, the United States Environmental Protection Agency regulates DBPs such as total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs). The research herein is focused on the formation, removal, and control of TTHMs and HAAs in a small public water system (PWS) in Polk County, Florida (County). Pilot-scale tests were implemented to determine the …

Vegetation Mapping Of A Coastal Dune Complex Using Multispectral Imagery Acquired From An Unmanned Aerial System, C. Suo, Eugene Mcgovern, Alan Gilmer

Conference Papers

Vegetation mapping, identifying the distribution of plant species, is important for analysing vegetation dynamics, quantifying spatial patterns of vegetation evolution, analysing the effects of environment changes on vegetation, and predicting spatial patterns of species diversity. Such analysis can contribute to the development of targeted land management actions that maintain biodiversity and ecological functions. This paper represents a methodology for 3D vegetation mapping of a coastal dune complex using a multispectral camera mounted on an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) with particular reference to the Buckroney dune complex in Co. Wicklow, Ireland. UAS, also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) or drones, …

The Role Of Dense Slurry In Achieving Zero Liquid Discharge, D.M. Timmons, Istvan Kovacsics

Coal Combustion and Gasification Products Journal Archive

The Coal Combustion Residual (CCR) and Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELGs) rules pose significant technical and economic challenges for ash management and for treatment and discharge of flue gas desulfurization (FGD) wastewater at coal-fired power plants. Beneficial use is always a priority for ash, but only about half is being reused on a national basis, and the rest is destined for disposal. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency identified biological treatment as the baseline treatment technology for FGD wastewater in the ELGs. However, it is becoming evident that bioreactors exhibit high capital and operating costs, occupy significant space, and are sensitive to …

Investigation Of Volatile Organic Compounds (Vocs) Detected At Vapor Intrusion Sites, Mohammadyousef Roghani

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

This dissertation investigates unexplained vapor intrusion field data sets that have been observed at hazardous waste sites, including: 1) non-linear soil gas concentration trends between the VOC source (i.e. contaminated groundwater plume) and the ground surface; and, 2) alternative pathways that serve as entry points for vapors to infiltrate into buildings and serve to increase VOC exposure risks as compared to the classic vapor intrusion model, which primarily considered foundation cracks as the route for vapor entry. The overall hypothesis of this research is that theoretical knowledge of fate and transport processes can be systematically applied to vapor intrusion field …

Stormwater Capture In The Built Watershed: Fostering Public Awareness Of Water Conservation Through A Parcel-Level Approach To Stormwater Management, Benjamin Rigby

Pitzer Senior Theses

As California contends with climate change and more extreme cycles of drought and deluge, water management agencies and conservation groups are looking towards solutions to the decreasing reliability of imported water supplies. Stormwater has historically been perceived as a threat to development but when captured properly, it presents a resource that can augment local water supplies. Solutions to water supply issues in California have traditionally employed technical and centrally controlled methods for importing water, but there is a growing understanding that parcel-level capture through vegetated swales presents an opportunity for reducing the impact that development has on California’s hydrology. Vegetated …

Comparison Of Three Regionalization Techniques For Predicting Streamflow In Ungaged Watersheds In Nebraska, Usa Using Swat Model, Michael W. Van Liew, Aaron R. Mittelstet

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

This study compared three approaches, regional averaging, nearest neighbor, and donor techniques, to regionalize parameters in the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) on eleven watersheds located in the Dissected Plains, Plains, and Rolling Hills Landforms in the eastern portion of the State of Nebraska, USA. Within the Rolling Hills Landform, three watersheds were randomly selected as calibration watersheds while two were randomly selected as validation watersheds. Two watersheds were randomly selected as calibration watersheds while one was randomly selected as a validation watershed within each of the Dissected Plains and Plains Landforms. The seven calibration watersheds were used to …

Compressibility Of Fly Ash Under Ko Loading: Strain Rate Effects In Constant Rate Of Strain Testing, Jaime A. Mercado, Luis G. Arboleda-Monsalve, Tarunjit S. Butalia, Pedro J. Amaya

Coal Combustion and Gasification Products Journal Archive

Coal combustion processes produce large volumes of fly ash. The compressibility of fly ash was studied using moist tamping and drypluviation methods to achieve different void ratios before subjecting the material to compressive oedometric Ko loading (i.e., zero lateral deformation throughout the test). The class F fly ash used in this research was produced at a Midwest U.S. power plant. The material was initially characterized with hydrometer and specific gravity tests, and maximum and minimum realizable void ratios were determined. The compressibility characteristics of the fly ash material were studied at four strain rates, 1%/h, 10%/h, 40%/h, and 100%/h, and …

Influence Of Flow Rate On Leachability, John L. Daniels, Gautham P. Das

Coal Combustion and Gasification Products Journal Archive

The leaching potential of coal fly ash is often approximated with laboratory-based methods that expose columns of compacted material to synthetic precipitation. While this procedure can simulate aspects of the field condition, it remains difficult to replicate site-specific thermodynamic and kinetic constraints on geochemical processes. This article explores one aspect that contributes to the field/laboratory disparity, namely, the influence of flow rate and intermittency. Seven column-based leaching experiments were conducted with the same ash but with different flow rates and intermittency (i.e., infiltration pulsing), and results were evaluated in terms of aqueous sodium, calcium, and chromium concentrations in the effluent. …

Kinetic And Thermodynamic Parameters For The Adsorption Of Methylene Blue Using Fly Ash Under Batch, Column, And Heap Leaching Configurations, J.H. Potgieter, S. Pearson, C. Pardesi

Coal Combustion and Gasification Products Journal Archive

In this article, the use of fly ash, a low-cost adsorbent, for the removal of a toxic cationic dye, methylene blue (MB), from aqueous solution has been investigated. Fly ash is a waste by-product generated from coal combustion. Contrary to many other reported investigations, the fly ash was not treated prior to the experiments for this investigation. The study was done in order to ascertain the viability of using the waste material to remove cationic dyes from wastewater. While MB adsorption has been described often in batch studies, batch, column, and heap leaching studies were carried out under the same …

Universal And Excavatable Controlled Low Strength Material Using High Loss On Ignition Fly Ash And Limestone Screenings†, James T. Locum, L.K. Crouch, Daniel Badoe

Coal Combustion and Gasification Products Journal Archive

Limestone screenings and high loss on ignition (LOI) fly ash are by-products that are stockpiling because of their unintentional production and the negative effects when utilized in portland cement concretes. The research objective was to investigate whether these by-products could produce controlled low strength materials (CLSMs) meeting the three types of Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) 204.06 flowable fill specifications. TDOT defines these CLSMs as the following: general use, excavatable, and early strength. Each type is required to have an inverted slump flow of not less than 15 inches (38.1 cm) while meeting ASTM International D6024 at 24 hours. Because …

Inertial And Liquefaction-Induced Kinematic Demands On A Pile-Supported Wharf: Physical Modeling, Milad Souri, Arash Khosravifar, Stephen E. Dickenson, Scott Schlechter, Nason Mccullough

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Results of a centrifuge test on a pile-supported wharf were used to investigate the time-, depth-, and row-dependent nature of kinematic and inertial loading on wharf piles in sloping rockfill. P-y models were calibrated against recorded bending moments in different piles and different depths. It was found that full kinematic demands and full superstructure inertia should be combined to estimate bending moments at pile head and shallow depths (less than 10 diameters below the ground surface). On the contrary, it was found that applying full kinematic demands alone was adequate to estimate pile bending moments at large depths (greater than …

The Effects Of Long-Duration Subduction Earthquakes On Inelastic Behavior Of Bridge Pile Foundations Subjected To Liquefaction-Induced Lateral Spreading, Jonathan Nasr, Arash Khosravifar

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Effective-stress nonlinear dynamic analyses (NDA) were performed for a large-diameter reinforced concrete (RC) pile in multi-layered liquefiable sloped ground. The objective was to assess the effects of earthquake duration on the combination of inertia and liquefaction-induced lateral spreading. A parametric study was performed using input motions from subduction and crustal earthquakes covering a wide range of motion durations. The NDA results showed that the pile head displacements increased under liquefied conditions, compared to nonliquefied conditions, due to liquefaction-induced lateral spreading. The NDA results were used to develop a displacement-based equivalent static analysis (ESA) method that combines inertial and lateral spreading …

Treatment Wetland Remediation Via In Situ Solids Digestion Using Novel Blue Frog Circulators, Kyle T. Sipes

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

After 33 years of operation with little maintenance, the treatment wetlands at the Arcata Wastewater Treatment Facility (AWTF) suffer from reduced treatment capacity and internal loading issues, leading to reduced performance in recent years. The next NPDES permit for the facility will regulate discharge ammonia concentrations, and internal ammonia loads, associated with accumulated solids in the system, may lead to future regulation violations.

To begin addressing this problem, the City of Arcata entered into a rental agreement with Absolute Aeration to install two Blue Frog circulators in Treatment Wetland 3 (TW3). The goal of this project was to determine if …

Effect Of Chemical Cleaning Regimes On Ageing Of Microfiltration (Mf) And Ultrafiltration (Uf) Hollow-Fiber Membranes, Mariny Chheang

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Membrane fouling is a major obstacle in microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltration (UF) in wastewater treatment and water reuse. Fouling and membrane cleaning have been extensively studied in batch experiments at a short filtration time, but long-term membrane property changes (e.g. ageing) are not fully explored. Thus, this dissertation focused on changes in physical and chemical properties of the PVDF membranes, and membrane ageing. Impacts of feed water composition (tannic acid and tannic acid+Fe2O3) and chemical cleaning regimes (NaOH, citric acid) on the membrane performance and property changes were investigated. UF and MF membranes rejected iron oxide particles perfectly. Whilst both …

Hydro-Climatological Summer Trends In The Continental United States, Naya Mairena Flores

REU Final Reports

We investigated trends in air temperature, stream temperature and discharge for rivers across the continental United States from the summer months of 1996 to 2016. Using GAGES II from USGS and PRISM and programming language R we analyzed specific hydrological trends in Mann-Kendall’s tests. After collecting the slope values whether they were negative or positive and the P-Values, the significance of that slope, we mapped slopes of trends in GIS. Stream temperature increased 12% of stations across the summer, while air temperature increased 22% of stations, and discharge decreased 15% of stations, respectively. Seven day moving average of daily maximum …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Biochar For Treating Wsu Parking Lot Runoff, Alan-Christian Thomas

Research Opportunities for Engineering Undergraduates (ROEU) Program 2017-18

Various pollutants including pesticides, herbicides, automotive fluids, and excess nutrients from fertilizers are found in high concentrations in urban runoff. There are many technologies that can be used to control and redirect the water flow such as retention basins, constructed wetlands, and rain gardens; however, these methods are specifically focused on controlling water and not necessarily the nutrients and contaminants in the water. There has recently been an increased interest in the potential for using additional materials (e.g., compost, charcoal) to enhance the pollution treatment ability by either adding them to the soil or by engineering prefilters to remove pollutants …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Bioswales In Southeast Michigan, Grace Crowe

Research Opportunities for Engineering Undergraduates (ROEU) Program 2017-18

Bioswales are modern storm water management structures that utilize biological components in a traditional wale to more effectively filter out contaminants. Because of its modern nature the installation and management practices for bioswales is still developing. Perfecting the practices surrounding bioswales in southeast Michigan environment can aid in the advancement of green infrastructure in the state. Wayne State installed a bioswale in one its parking lots in New Center with the help of the Detroit Biodiversity Network (DBN). We wanted to monitor the progression of this existing bioswale throughout the year, observing the system components effecting overall bioswale performance. The …

Surface Water Flooding, Groundwater Contamination, And Enteric Disease In Developed Countries: A Scoping Review Of Connections And Consequences, L. Andrade, J. O'Dwyer, E. O'Neill, Paul Hynds

Articles

Significant volumes of research over the past four decades has sought to elucidate the social, infrastructural, economic, and human health effects of climate change induced surface flooding. To date, epidemiological and public health studies of flooding events have focused on mental health effects, vector-borne diseases, and infectious enteric disease due to floodwater contact (i.e. typically low consumption rates). The inherent nature of groundwater (i.e. out of sight, out of mind) and the widely held belief that aquifers represent a pristine source of drinking water due to natural attenuation may represent the “perfect storm” causing direct consumption of relatively large volumes …

Day Laborers & Extreme Heat: Recommendations For Reducing Heat Stress, Sandra Mena

REU Final Reports

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has various Global Climate Models (GCM). One of them, models three greenhouse gases. The increasing amount of greenhouse gases are just a fraction of factors that fuel global climate change. According to the IPCC 2014, climate related extremes such as heatwaves are likely to occur more regularly and are likely to increase in duration. Since 1979, there has been over 9000 deaths that occurred from heat-related incidents in the United States (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2016). Which brings attention to population groups who are exposed to hot temperatures on a frequent basis due …

2018 Nebraska Groundwater Quality Monitoring Report

Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality: Reports

The 2001 Nebraska Legislature passed LB329 (Neb. Rev. Stat. §46-1304) which, in part, directed the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) to report on groundwater quality monitoring in Nebraska. Reports have been issued annually since December 2001. The text of the statute applicable to this report follows: “The Department of Environmental Quality shall prepare a report outlining the extent of ground water quality monitoring conducted by natural resources districts during the preceding calendar year. The department shall analyze the data collected for the purpose of determining whether or not ground water quality is degrading or improving and shall present the …