Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (Pfas) In Treated Sewage Sludge From Michigan Wastewater Treatment Plants, Garrett Wesley Link

Masters Theses

Concentrations, compositions, and variability of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in sewage sludge are characterized using an extensive dataset of 350 samples from 190 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) across Michigan. All samples are comprised of final treated sewage sludge generated at the end of the wastewater treatment process. Concentrations of Σ₂₄ PFAS are log normally distributed with a range of 1 to 3200 ng/g dry wt. and of average 108 ± 277 ng/g dry wt. Compounds with carboxyl and sulfonic functional groups comprised 29% and 71% of Σ₂₄ PFAS concentrations, respectively, on average. Primary sample variability is associated …

Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (Pfas) In Treated Sewage Sludge From Michigan Wastewater Treatment Plants, Garrett Wesley Link

Masters Theses

Concentrations, compositions, and variability of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in sewage sludge are characterized using an extensive dataset of 350 samples from 190 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) across Michigan. All samples are comprised of final treated sewage sludge generated at the end of the wastewater treatment process. Concentrations of Σ₂₄ PFAS are log normally distributed with a range of 1 to 3200 ng/g dry wt. and of average 108 ± 277 ng/g dry wt. Compounds with carboxyl and sulfonic functional groups comprised 29% and 71% of Σ24 PFAS concentrations, respectively, on average. Primary sample variability is associated with …

Race, Gender And Rawls' "A Theory Of Justice.", Robert Carico

Honors Theses

Should we use the concepts developed by John Rawls in his A Theory of Justice to guide research questions relevant to issues concerning race and gender? This paper argues not only that the concepts from A Theory of Justice should not be used as the primary tool in any debate concerning race and gender, but it also challenges the abstract thinking of 21st Century Western Philosophers to develop a theory of justice that acknowledges the fact that people have their own interests and depending on what race and/or gender they identify with, might not have equal rights protected under the …

The Public Trust Doctrine: Roman Law Roots And Future In Environmental Litigation, Phoebe Liccardo

Honors Theses

The public trust is an ancient and enduring legal doctrine. With roots in Roman law, the public trust persists through English law, and into the United States. Scholars and jurists in the field of Roman and environmental law do not all agree on the history and continuity of the public trust doctrine (PTD). There are those who argue the Roman law introducing a public trust did not assert the same protections present in the doctrine today. Conversely, there are those who believe the Roman law did enshrine similar protections, and further, that it calls for an expansion of PTD in …

Pfas Mass Balance, Donovan Vitale

Honors Theses

First-generation, PFOS-dominant Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) concentrate of approximately 200 gallons was released to the sewer system from the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport on March 30, 2021. The AFFF release migrated to the Kalamazoo Water Reclamation Plant (KWRP), raising plant effluent above the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) PFOS water quality standard for a total of 46 days post-spill, although the influent concentrations exhibited sharp declines after only 7 days. By sampling influent, effluent, and biosolids daily, the only known long duration, high-frequency PFAS data set of an accidental AFFF release was generated. This study has …

A Remote Sensing And Machine Learning-Based Approach To Forecast The Onset Of Harmful Algal Bloom (Red Tides), Moein Izadi

Dissertations

In the last few decades, harmful algal blooms (HABs, also known as “red tides”) have become one of the most detrimental natural phenomena all around the world especially in Florida’s coastal areas due to local environmental factors and global warming in a larger scale. Karenia brevis produces toxins that have harmful effects on humans, fisheries, and ecosystems. In this study, I developed and compared the efficiency of state-of-the-art machine learning models (e.g., XGBoost, Random Forest, and Support Vector Machine) in predicting the occurrence of HABs. In the proposed models, the K. brevis abundance is used as the target, and 10 …

Quantifying Surface Water Capture By Municipal Pumping Wells In An Urban Watershed Impacted By Road Salt, Austen York

Masters Theses

The Spring Valley sub-watershed is located within the Kalamazoo Township contains Spring Valley Lake, a man-made impoundment that ultimately discharges into the Kalamazoo River. Elevated chloride levels in pumped water from the Kalamazoo Station 14 municipal wellfield, located along the shoreline of Spring Valley Lake, has resulted in less than ideal corrosivity values for the water distribution system. Specific project objectives include: (1) identifying the cause of elevated chloride, (2) assessing surface water capture by the Station 14 wellfield, and (3) characterizing of water quality in Spring Valley Lake. Monitoring along a series of sampling transects spanning the sub-watershed, focused …

"Not In My Town": A Community's Response To Water And Soil Pollution, Karolina Staros

Dissertations

At the core of this dissertation is the acknowledgment that social movements are complex networks of people who face many obstacles in their efforts to achieve social change. One critique of social movements is that their goals and mission are limited to short term ideas and not long-term, systemic transformation. The lack of long term, systemic change can be observed when social movement groups mobilize for the same cause over and over again with what appears to be little progress over a period of time. The exact blueprint for a social movement’s success does not exist, but it is posited …

Per- And Polyfluorinated Alkyl Substances (Pfas) Cycling Within Michigan: Connections Between Contaminated Sites, Landfills, And Wastewater Treatment Plants, Ross W. Helmer

Masters Theses

The disposal and treatment of Per- and Polyfluorinated Alkyl Substances (PFAS) contaminated solid and liquid wastes, and associated cycling within the natural and engineered environment is a complex topic. PFAS data on contaminated sites, landfill leachates, the influent, effluent, and biosolids from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) within Michigan were compiled from publicly available and private sources. Most of the datasets are based on a 28-analyte suite generated using a modified form of the US EPA 537 analytical method, with a subset of data from the 18-analyte ASTM D7979-19 method. Approximately 70% of the 171 contaminated sites in Michigan have maximum …

Institutional Changes In Western Michigan University For Incorporation Of Education For Sustainability, Saman Khan

Dissertations

Higher Education institutions (HEIs) have the potential to be significant contributors in the pursuit of a sustainable world through the incorporation of Education for Sustainability (EFS). However, HEIs are entrenched with structures and values that are often resistant to change. The literature reveals that instructors’ beliefs and institutional contexts are the two main factors that impact the implementation of institutional change for sustainability education. Western Michigan University (WMU) has created new required curriculum “WMU Essential Studies” (WES) for undergraduate students and they have targeted sustainability as an essential learning outcome, by integrating and applying it in content courses. Using a …

An Integrated Approach For The Assessment And Monitoring Of Land Deformation In The Riyadh City And Its Surroundings For Identifying The Controlling Factors, Abdulaziz Ibrahim Aljammaz

Dissertations

An integrated approach (remote sensing, field, geodesy, geology, and hydrogeology) was conducted to assess and monitor land deformation at Riyadh city and its surroundings. Two settings were investigated. The first, Jinadriyah area (1.5 km²), an urban area located east of Riyadh city, was selected to assess deformation associated with urbanization over desert lands. The second location was Al Kharj area (19,790 km²) to the south of Riyadh city, a reclaimed desert land that was selected to assess the deformation associated with agricultural groundwater extraction from fossil aquifers. My investigations revealed high subsidence rates (up to -30 …

Building Institutional Knowledge Into Student Leaders: A Repository Of Student-Led Climate Change Initiatives At Wmu, Aida Amirul Bahri

Honors Theses

Students and registered student organizations (RSO) at Western Michigan University (WMU) have increasingly shown interest in climate change and environmental issues. However, student leadership roles are often held short-term due to the rapid displacement cycle of student bodies caused by graduation, institution transfers and other factors. New leaders often struggle with picking up where former students left off and advancing previously established efforts. WMU student groups lack an effective system of maintaining institutional knowledge, including student-led campaigns and accomplishments, to support a smoother transition that would empower student leaders and build upon prior progress. The goal of this project is …

Temperature Scale Influence On Perceptions Of Climate Risk, Chelsea Spaman

Honors Theses

This study explored how the use of the temperature scales Fahrenheit and Celsius in climate science communication affects climate change concern. The study specifically targeted Americans due to their familiarity with the Fahrenheit scale, which is not the primary temperature scale used in scientific communication. The study employed a survey, in which the anonymous participants read a short introduction about climate change and temperature rise and then answered a series of questions regarding levels of climate change concern. These questions covered concerns about climate change in general and its potential to harm individual survey participants, flora and fauna, future generations, …

Westbound, Genevieve Nicolow

Honors Theses

Westbound is a twenty-five chapter novella that aims to demonstrate ways in which creative writers can use climate fiction to overcome psychological barriers to act on climate change. The narrative follows Cassie, a character loosely based on a relative of its author, living in a future version of the United States that has been ravaged by climate change and its indirect consequences.

In the novella, Cassie and her mother Nia set out on a cross-country road trip as a climate disaster looms. The narrative explores their relationship and that with Cassie’s estranged father, the implications of projected ecological changes under …

Monitoring Salt Diapir Related Land Deformation And Distribution: A Geophysical And Remote Sensing Approach Jazan Province, Saudi Arabia, Hannah G. Pankratz

Dissertations

Salt diapirs are rarely preserved on the surface and seldom considered as environmental hazards. The Jazan city diapir (JZD) is located in southwest Saudi Arabia along the Red Sea coastal plain and outcrops in the middle of a rapidly growing port city. The intrusion of the diapir (~ 2 km²) into the overburden sediments continues to cause uneven surfaces, compromises building foundations and infrastructure, caused dissolution sinkholes, and limits the expansion of the city along the coastline. This research aims to better understand the distribution and deformation associated with salt diapirs in arid environments.

Using integrated Interferometric Synthetic …

Analysis Of Interdunal Wetlands And Ecosystem Dynamics Using Uas And Obia In Ludington State Park, Michigan, Claire Gilbert

Masters Theses

The Great Lakes sand dunes are the world's largest freshwater dune complex. There is a functional relationship between coastal wetlands and freshwater sand dune, referred to as interdunal wetlands. Interdunal wetland systems are highly dynamic and change dramatically seasonally and annually. Using geographic information systems (GIS) and unoccupied aerial systems (UAS), this thesis project is focused on understanding the spatial distribution of sparse and dense vegetation, and abiotic influence such as distance to coast, slope, and aspect influence interdunal wetland stability within a Great Lakes shoreline dune system. Object-based image analysis (OBIA) classification results extracted meaningful vegetation densities of growth …

The Assessment Of Co2 Exposures, Workload Demands, And Musculoskeletal Disorder Risk On Heart Rate For Select Craft Brewery Job Tasks, David L. Huizen

Dissertations

Americans have embraced craft beer, and the ensuing demand has resulted in an ever-increasing number of craft breweries opening over the past 20 years. Craft brewers are generally small employers and, as such, lack the resources necessary to address the safety and health of their employees adequately. Brewers face many safety and health hazards in their work environment. These hazards include exposures to carbon dioxide (CO₂), workload demand, and MSD risk. It is essential to evaluate these hazards in craft breweries as they handle carbon dioxide (CO₂) differently than large breweries by having the CO_{2 …}

Using Historical Maps For Contaminated Site Identification And Prediction, And Environmental Justice Implications: A Case Study In Grand Rapids, Michigan, Dana Heusinkveld

Masters Theses

As the production of synthetic chemicals has grown in the past centuries to increase production, lower costs, and generally make our lives more convenient, detecting and understanding the environmental impacts of these compounds has lagged significantly behind their mass production and wide-spread use. To combat this trend, sources of these contaminants, especially those that have been removed from the landscape, need to be quickly identified to make mitigation and remediation efforts more effective. In this study, historical Sanborn maps are used to extract and digitize historical site/land use in Grand Rapids during the early 1900s through the practical application of …

Is Niagara Falls Fake?, Daniel Macfarlane

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Award (FRACAA)

Niagara Falls became a type of machine blending the organic and mechanical, a hybrid envirotechnical infrastructure that is as much artificial as natural.

Air Quality And Environmental Justice: An Analysis Of County-Level Data In The United States, Alyssa Tittle

Honors Theses

This paper analyzes the relationship between air pollution and poverty and race/ethnicity at the county level in the United States. Using air pollution data from the Environmental Protection Agency and population characteristics data from the Census Bureau to model relationships in RStudio, results show that race/ethnicity, population, and median value of owner-occupied housing units are the most statistically significant variables associated with air quality.

Rain Gardens: The Return Of Ecosystem Services, Katie Dehaan

Honors Theses

In the modern world impervious surfaces, especially in urban areas, abound. These include roads, highways, sidewalks, parking lots, and roofs that have replaced permeable surfaces, mainly open land, forests, and wetlands. Rainwater runs off of these surfaces collecting pollutants on its way to permeable areas. Rain gardens collect and process rainwater. Native plants with deep root systems process large volumes of rainwater and the microorganisms living in the soils and roots can process pollutants. The purpose of my research was to find out what variables affect species presence or absence in rain gardens. Species presence or absence at the time …

Assessing The Impact Of 3d Printed Terrain On Teaching Topography In Introductory Earth Science Labs, Jay Alan Cockrell

Masters Theses

Learning to effectively read topographic maps is challenging for students, as these maps contain 3D representations of terrain displayed on a 2D surface map. This project assessed student learning when 3D terrain printed from a portion of the laboratory quadrangle map currently in use was introduced into an earth science course for non-science majors. Using a quasi-experimental design with nonequivalent groups across two semesters, performance on the Modified Topographic Map Assessment (MTMA) administered as a pre- and posttest was used to compare learning outcomes between the traditional lab and the 3D print lab intervention. Students in the traditional (n = …

Isolation And Characterization Of A Novel Terpenoid From The Needles Of Eastern White Pine (Pinus Strobus), And Its Potential Relation To Climate Change, Samantha Hack

Honors Theses

Climate changes is one of the most serious threats facing the future of our planet, and with is we will see drastic changes to water levels global temperatures, and atmospheric conditions. Modeling future atmospheric conditions is crucial if we are to plan for and mitigate the consequences of climate change – while important, these models will not be useful to future scientists unless various parameters, such as BVOC emission to the atmosphere, are accounted for and included in computer models. Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) are predicted to be a major component of future climax forests as their abundance increases …

The Effects Of Climate Change And Forest Disturbances On Terpene Production Of White Pine (Pinus Strobus) And Red Pine (Pinus Resinosa) In Northern Michigan, Troy Dehagen

Honors Theses

The secondary impacts that climate change may have on the interactions between forests and the atmosphere through forest disturbances is of increasing interest as the climate continues to change. Anthropogenic climate change, which is a direct result of coal and fossil fuel emissions, is likely to impact forest ecology through increased temperatures and extreme precipitation events, thus increasing the frequency and severity of climate-induced forest disturbances. Forest disturbances may have a secondary impact on the production and emission of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) within forests. In the presence of oxides of nitrogen (NO_x) produced from fossil fuel …

Design Of A Portable Biogas Purification And Storage System, Anikumar Kosna, Bade Shrestha

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Award (FRACAA)

The objective of this study is to propose and design a commercial portable purification and storage system to commercialize biogas (which mainly consists of 45 - 75 % of methane and 15 - 16% of carbon dioxide), produced from household/non-commercial biogas plants. The selection of purification process is based on the portability of the purification system.

Geological And Environmental Sciences - 2019, Dept. Of Geological And Environmental Sciences

Geological and Environmental Sciences News

Annual newsletter for 2019 of the Geological and Environmental Sciences department.

• Faculty Updates
• The Resource Play (feature story)
• Dinosaur Park and the Schmaltz Museum
• Hydrogeology Field Course
• Alumni Awards
• Advisory Council and CoreKids
• Michigan Geological Repository for Research and Education (MGRRE)
• Michigan Geological Survey
• Student News (new graduate students, SEG, AAPG, Geology club)
• Department Achievements (grants, donors, awards, and publications)

A Structural And Stratigraphic Study Of The A-2 Carbonate In Southwest Michigan And Reservoir Characterization Of An A-2 Carbonate Gas Storage Field, Clayton Joupperi

Masters Theses

The Overisel and Salem gas storage fields of southwest Michigan annually store 34 Bcf of natural working gas in the upper dolomitized portion of the Silurian A-2 Carbonate. Porosity and permeability in these fields is thought to be enhanced by fracturing and dolomitization associated with the dissolution and collapse of underlying salt units. This study utilizes wire-line logs from 383 wells to explore the structural and stratigraphic controls on the deposition and diagenesis of the A-2 Carbonate in southwest Michigan. Core and thin sections from 4 wells serve as the primary data for investigating the depositional and diagenetic history of …

Use Of Fluorescein Dye For Characterizing Water And Solute Flux Across The Groundwater – Surface Water Interface, Ryan Nicholas Cascarano

Masters Theses

Quantifying groundwater discharge across the sediment—surface water interface remains a challenge due to streambed heterogeneity and the integration of disparate measurements over a continuum of spatial and temporal scales. In this study, mini-piezometers are first used to identify areas of groundwater discharge in lakes and streams, and micro-pulses of fluorescein dye are released at precisely known shallow depths as a conservative tracer. The use of fluorescein dye allows for visual dye detection regardless of light conditions, and measurements of dye concentrations over time using a fluorometer are used to generate high resolution breakthrough curves. Accurate determination of groundwater velocity and …

A Comparison Of Frankenbrew And Traditionally Manufactured Brewing Equipment, Daniel King

Honors Theses

Opening a new business can be a daunting task. Between the legal paperwork, securing the best perceived location, hiring new employees, the investment can require the use of a life savings. In the brewing industry, this investment can be amplified by the cost of purchasing production scale brewing equipment. Because of this, many start-up brewing operations have turned to the use of Frankenbrew equipment within their brewing process. The term “Frankenbrew” was coined by Tom Hennessy of Colorado Boy Pub & Brewery. The term refers to any equipment incorporated into a brewery that was not originally intended for that purpose, …

Assessing Land Deformation And Sea Encroachment In The Nile Delta, Egypt, Esayas Gebremichael

Research and Creative Activities Poster Day

Persistent scatterer interferometric analyses were conducted on a stack of 84 Envisat ASAR scenes spanning 7 years (2004 to 2010) over the entire Nile Delta of Egypt and surroundings to monitor the ongoing spatial and temporal land deformation, identify the factors controlling the deformation, and model the interplay between sea level rise and land subsidence to identify areas and populations threatened by sea encroachment by the end of the 21st century. Findings include: (1) general patterns of subsidence in the northern delta, near-steady (none) subsidence in the southern delta, separated by a previously mapped flexure zone undergoing uplift; (2) high …