Water Resource Management Commons^™

Anammox Polishing In Mainstream Wastewater Treatment To Meet Stringent Ammonia And Total Nitrogen Limits, Rebecca Mary Holgate

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

As nitrogen discharge limits are becoming more stringent there is a need for new processes that are sustainable and cost effective. Since anaerobic ammonia oxidizing bacteria (anammox) were discovered in the mid 1990s, there has been considerable success implementing anammox in many wastewater treatment plants to treat internally generated nitrogen rich waste streams (e.g. centrate). Recently, there has also been discussion of implementing anammox in mainstream wastewater treatment to exploit the benefits of autotrophic nitrogen removal.

A two stage A/B pilot study was conducted that included a high-rate activated sludge (HRAS) process followed by a two-stage de-ammonification process incorporating nitrite-shunt …

Feasibility Of Mainstream Nitrite Oxidizing Bacteria Out-Selection And Anammox Polishing For Enhanced Nitrogen Removal, Pusker Raj Regmi

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Short-cut nitrogen removal avoids nitrite oxidation to nitrate by nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) and allows a) reduction of formed nitrite to nitrogen gas via heterotrophic denitrification and/or b) oxidation of remaining ammonia with formed nitrite to nitrogen gas via anaerobic ammonia oxidation (anammox). The precondition for achieving shortcut nitrogen removal is suppression of NOB, which is favored by warm and high ammonia strength conditions found in internally generated ammonia-rich waste streams through anaerobic digestion of waste solids referred to as sidestreams or reject water. The discovery of anammox bacteria in the mid-1990s, which are capable of transforming NH₄+ …

Evaluation Of The Epa Swmm Model To Simulate Low Impact Development Features In An Urban Stormwater Environment, Holly Ann Carpenter

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This research thesis explores the use of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Stormwater Water Management Model (SWMM) to model an urban watershed with a developed stormwater management system and test the SWMM model's ability to simulate Low Impact Development (LID) features by proposing typical LID features that can be retrofitted to the developed study area. The SWMM model is established with an existing survey of the study area's stormwater management system, and due to the lack of field data for the study area, the model developed in this research thesis is calibrated with the consideration of a published stormwater model …

Evaluating The Contribution Of Groundwater To Wetland Water Budgets Central Piedmont Virginia, Kerby Morgan Dobbs

OES Theses and Dissertations

In the Piedmont region of Virginia, development pressures are increasing the demand for mitigation wetlands but appropriate construction sites are relatively scarce due to local topography and geology. Many existing water budget models used for planned mitigation sites exhibit considerable error when estimating groundwater fluxes, particularly for historical years that lack hydraulic head data. This difficulty has led many planners to neglect or underestimate the contribution of groundwater to wetland water budgets, resulting in mitigation sites that fail to create the appropriate hydrology for the desired vegetation community. However, reliable estimations of groundwater input contributing to wetland water budgets can …

Evaluating Alternatives For Augmented Water Quality Improvement Utilizing Oyster Restoration As Best Management Practice (Bmp), Stephanie Roberts Long

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Due to several anthropogenic influences, the Chesapeake Bay has experienced a marked decrease in water quality since the colonists arrived at the Jamestown settlement in Virginia during the 1600s. Higher concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus have enriched the estuaries and coastal waters via point sources (sewage treatment plants and industrial wastes), nonpoint sources (agricultural run-off and septic tank discharges) and the atmosphere (Newell et al., 2005). Restoring oyster beds is considered a Best Management Practice (BMP) to improve water quality as well as provide physical habitat for aquatic species and a healthier estuarine system (USACE Native Oyster Restoration Master …

Fecal Indicator Bacteria In Knitting Mill Creek With A Comparison Of Methods Used To Enumerate E. Coli, Manju Nagarajan

OES Theses and Dissertations

This research seeks to evaluate the impact of an urban, multi-use neighborhood on the bacteriological quality of water in Knitting Mill Creek, a blind arm of the Lafayette River, a sub-estuary of the lower Chesapeake Bay. A principal objective was to determine the effects of rainfall, a surrogate for run-off, on water-column concentrations of fecal-indicator bacteria (FIB). I collected water samples weekly (September 2009-December 2010) and biweekly (January 2010-December 2011) at a storm-sewer outfall and a nearby marina and quantified their E. coli and enterococci concentrations using Colilert-18 and Enterolert, most-probable-number assays. In addition, I took monthly samples for these …

The Influence Of Mechanical Circulation On Water Column Stability And Dissolved Oxygen In Stratified Lakes, Paal Engebrigtsen

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Surface circulators have been used in wastewater and industrial lagoons for many years, but only recently have they been designed for lakes and reservoirs as a water quality management tool. Their relatively low capital investment and operational costs make them an attractive chemical free option for ameliorating the symptoms of eutrophication. Little research has been conducted on their effectiveness in impacting water quality. Today many lake managers are waiting for independent research on surface circulators' performance before installing such systems.

The Occoquan Reservoir was the primary site for a study conducted to examine the influence of surface circulation on water …

Integrated Water Resources Management: A Theoretical Exploration Of The Implementation Gap Between The Developed And Developing Worlds, Jennifer S. Schiff

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

As part of its Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations acknowledges that solving the world's water woes requires giving one billion additional people access to safe and affordable drinking water, while also noting that this is a difficult goal to achieve considering present environmental challenges. Amidst this atmosphere of vanishing freshwater, the legislative policy community has begun to encourage diverse discourse on the topic of efficient resource management, but the form and function of such a solution present unique political and theoretical challenges for policymakers and scholars alike. The current consensus among water managers is that a multifaceted policy framework …

Mesoscale Dispersive Flux In The Lower Reaches Of The Elizabeth River Estuary, Byron Danrich Tracy

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Congress has mandated under Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act that Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL's) be established for impaired water bodies to further identify and regulate their waste assimilative capacity. To establish a TMDL, the sources of waste loading or pollutants must be identified, and a method of determining how each should be limited or removed must be developed. Using a water quality model is a typical method for determining these limits, and since new or changed limits will likely impact local businesses and government budgets, the model must be accurate. For most tidal systems larger than small …

Review Of Dripping Dry: Literature, Politics, And Water In The Desert Southwest, By David N. Cassuto, Cory Shaman

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Concentrating primarily on the environmental history of the last 100 years in the American Southwest, David N. Cassuto examines what he suggests is the nexus of political dispute regarding water in the region: the intractable tension between the ideologies of reclamation and restoration. After an initial chapter on John Wesley Powell and the 19th century origins of the hydraulic West, the book proceeds with an exploration of four representative texts in order to demonstrate what Cassuto has identified as the successive stages of the reclamation movement: "At the beginning of the twentieth century, Mary Austin believed in spite …

Writing On Water: Resources, Discourses, Reflections, Justin Scott-Coe, W. Scott Howard

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

We started this project in the shadow of the Great Tsunami of 2004, witnessed Katrina destroy New Orleans as submissions were coming in, and now publish during a record-breaking, nationwide—some say worldwide—heat wave. Is it any wonder the release of our journal issue on water appears as suspiciously timed as Al Gore's droning tome on global warming?

When The Well Runs Dry: An Exploration Of Water Conservation And Blue Theology, Margaret H. Ferris

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Worldwide, freshwater is becoming scarce as the Earth's population increases, the effects of pollution and global warming shrink available resources, and agriculture demands rise. As theological communities offer distinctive contributions to the dialogue, theologians need to address the crisis and provide appropriate analysis and solutions from the perspective of "Blue Theology". This paper formulates such an approach, offering some of the first efforts made towards addressing the global water crisis through a theological lens. Within the Abrahamic tradition, the essay examines: how water is specifically beloved by the Divine; and the implications of God's love of water. The paper next …

The Social Nature Of Natural Resources - The Case Of Water, Jamie Linton

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Of all things, water is among the most difficult to pin down. It is nevertheless characteristic of modernity that we ascribe to it an essence, on which basis particular kinds of human-water relations are made possible while others are denied. The ascription of an essential identity to water constitutes a social and political act by which it is both made known to people and made available for people. This paper explores the implications of ascribing to water an identity as "resource." Water was pronounced a resource in the United States early in the last century in the context of the …

Donors, Modellers And Development Brokers: The Pork Barrel Of Water Management Research, Julie Trottier

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Donors are shaping the mainstream research agenda concerning water management around the world. As large sums are made available within applied research programmes, many actors are competing to access them. This has led to the development of a new class of actors: the water research development brokers. Development brokers have mostly been studied in the developing world. They are usually defined as local actors who master the knowledge framework of donor organizations while their social positions and local networks allow them to act as intermediaries between the local population targeted by the donor and the donor itself. Such a position …

Overlooking, Rivers, Looking Over, T.S. Mcmillin

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

In this hybrid essay, composed of literary theory, cultural history, and fieldwork, T.S. McMillin attempts to connect the humanities to other disciplines and to connect scholarly work to the land. In the first part of the essay, he briefly develops a theory of palindromes and palindromic reflection. Palindromes connect thinking to movement and to reflection, and in turn serve as a model for experiencing texts or terrain. Occurring in music, literature, film and video art, mathematics, painting, even genetic code, palindromes underscore the complexity of the nature of things and the necessarily complex thinking that understanding the nature of things …

Review Of The Environmental Justice Reader: Politics, Poetics & Pedagogy, Edited By Mei Mei Evans Admson And Rachel Stein, Katie Ahearn

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

The editors of The Environmental Justice Reader: Politics, Poetics, & Pedagogy (2002) chose to include at least five scholarly essays, comprising one third of the book's content, that directly address the theme of water, thus illuminating the importance of this topic in the realms of environmental and social justice. Contributors to the anthology, ranging from urban activists to literary and anthropological scholars, address a wide variety of national and international environmental disasters from the complex vantage point of the intersection among race, politics, and class, so that the inevitable blurring of the boundaries between traditionally distinct academic disciplines …

Growing Up With Glen, Kathryn Miles

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Ecologists refer to it as 'shifting baselines.' Anthropologists call it 'environmental generational amnesia.' Both refer to the slow change in the ways we respond to and define the environment. As biologists and social scientists have deftly argued, definitions of environmentalism and sustainable resource use are often based on our earliest experiences with nature. We then use these memories as the basis for our understanding of the natural world and its use. Ultimately, this creates a generational approach to issues of conservation, particularly with regards to such contentious issues as water rights and the changing face of the American West. At …

Water, Development, And State Security In South Asia: Scenarios For China And India, Ray Chandrasekara, John M. Polimeni

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Conflict over water resources is rare and has not occurred for thousands of years. However, the dynamics in South Asia are changing so rapidly that a conflict in the not-so-near future may be unavoidable. Water shortages could have the nonlinear effects of food shortages, political instability, migration problems, and diminished economic growth. All of these factors, caused by water shortages, could be a driver of conflict in the region, causing territorial disputes. Global instability would be sure to follow as both the U.S., attempting to protect their national security interests, and China, reacting as the regional power, tries to intervene. …

Dams, Plants, Pipes And Flows: From Big Water To Everyday Water, Fiona Allon

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

This paper focuses on patterns of domestic water consumption. It develops an approach that emphasises the importance of seeing water use as part of a broader set of consumption practices associated with the space of the home, the garden and suburban living. Water consumption is considered as a practice that is embodied and embedded in daily life. The paper also presents the project Everyday Water as a case study of recent cultural studies research on domestic water use. The cultural approach adopted in the project represents a significant departure from much conventional resource and environmental management-based work. The Everyday Water …

Subterranean Loss And Gain Of Water In Mountain Lake, Virginia: A Hydrologic Model, Martin Jansons, Bruce C. Parker, Jacob E. Waller

Virginia Journal of Science

Mountain Lake, Virginia is a small, unique, oligotrophic, subalpine ecosystem in the southern Appalachians. Previous studies have disclosed that this lake has manifested periodic prolonged low water levels during the several thousand years of its existence. The most recent low water level occurred during the drought years of 1999-2002. Measurements of lake level, precipitation, and other meteorological data including calculated evapotranspiration in the lake basin from 2/19/02 to 8/31/03 have enabled estimation of net subterranean water losses presumably through cracks between Clinch sandstone boulders and/or the recently discovered deep hole at the northwest end of Mountain Lake. These net losses …

Bacterial Degradation Of Disinfection By-Products In Drinking Water, Laura Inga Fauntleroy

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses & Dissertations

Chlorine became a major disinfectant for the removal of microbial contaminants in 1914. Current water chlorination procedures yield halogenated disinfection byproducts (DBPs), such as haloalkanes and haloacetic acids (HAAs), due to the reaction of chlorine with naturally occurring organic compounds. Various water utilities have observed decreased HAAs levels in maximum residence time locations (MRTLs), where they were expected to be higher. These MRTLs have low free chlorine residual and high heterotrophic bacteria plate counts. Xanthobacter autotrophicus, GJ-10, is a bacterium that has been shown to contain dehalogenase enzymes and, therefore, can biodegrade HAAs. A number of water-system bacteria were …

Performance Of Constraint-Handling Techniques Applied To A Genetic Algorithm-Based Watershed Management Model, Kwisun Park Yu

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Wet detention ponds are a commonly used structural best management practice to reduce nonpoint source pollutant loading into receiving water bodies. Design of these ponds is typically carried out individually to meet a target total suspended solids (TSS) removal level. An improvement to this approach is to generate cost-effective pond configurations that meet system-wide targets for removal of pollutant loadings, corresponding to a specific build-out land use plan. The cost-effectiveness can be further improved through appropriate land use allocation planning conducted simultaneously with the design of detention ponds. Harrell and Ranjithan (2003) presented an evolutionary algorithm- (EA-) based modeling approach …

The Role Of Physical, Chemical, And Microbial Heterogeneity On The Field-Scale Transport And Attachment Of Bacteria, Brian J. Mailloux, Mark E. Fuller, Tullis C. Onstott, James Hall, Hailiang Dong, Mary F. Deflaun, Sheryl H. Streger, Randi K. Rothmel, Maria Green, Donald J. P. Swift, Jon Radke

OES Faculty Publications

A field-scale bacterial transport experiment was conducted at the Narrow Channel Focus Area of the South Oyster field site located in Oyster, Virginia. The goal of the field experiment was to determine the relative influence of subsurface heterogeneity and microbial population parameters on flow direction, velocity, and attachment of bacteria at the field scale. The field results were compared with results from laboratory-scale column experiments to develop a method for predicting field-scale bacterial transport. The field site is a shallow, sandy, unconfined, aerobic aquifer that has been characterized by geophysical, sedimentological, and hydrogeological methods. Comamonas sp. strain DA001 and a …

A Comparison Of Phytoplankton Communities In Lake Prince And The Western Branch Reservoir, Suffolk, Virginia, Cara Marie Muscio

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Lake Prince and the Western Branch Reservoir are two eutrophic bodies of water located in Suffolk, Virginia. Lake Prince and its two small tributaries join the Western branch via a constructed spillway. This lake system is a source of water for the surrounding municipalities, and a recreational area for community citizens. In the past, these bodies of water had repeated incidents of low oxygen and nuisance algal blooms, particularly cyanobacteria species. As a result aerators have been installed in the main body of both Lake Prince and the Western Branch Reservoir. In addition, a pipeline has been installed from North …

Hydrogeological Characterization Of The South Oyster Bacterial Transport Site Using Geophysical Data, Susan S. Hubbard, Jinsong Chen, John Peterson, Ernest L. Majer, Kenneth H. Williams, Donald J. Swift, Brian Mailloux, Yoram Rubin

OES Faculty Publications

A multidisciplinary research team has conducted a field-scale bacterial transport study within an uncontaminated sandy Pleistocene aquifer near Oyster, Virginia. The overall goal of the project was to evaluate the importance of heterogeneities in controlling the field-scale transport of bacteria that are injected into the ground for remediation purposes. Geochemical, hydrological, geological, and geophysical data were collected to characterize the site prior to conducting chemical and bacterial injection experiments. In this paper we focus on results of a hydrogeological characterization effort using geophysical data collected across a range of spatial scales. The geophysical data employed include surface ground-penetrating radar, radar …

Estauarine And Coastal Marine Waters: Bioassessment And Biocriteria Technical Guidance, George R. Gibson, Michael L. Bowman, Jeroen Gerritsen, Blaine D. Snyder

Miscellaneous Articles, Papers, and Reports

(First paragraph) This technical guidance document is based on the concept that bioassessment and biocriteria programs for estuaries and near coastal waters are interrelated and critical components of comprehensive water resource protection and management. Understanding how estuarine ecosystems function and respond to human activity requires a holistic approach to protection and management that integrates biological assessments into the more traditional chemical and physical evaluations. Section 101 of the Clean Water Act requires federal and state agencies to “restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters.”

A Buffered Advection/Dispersion Lake Water Quality Transport Framework For Modeling Lake Gaston Pipeline Intake Water Withdrawal, Lloyd Ashton Gatling

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Water quality response to reservoir water withdrawal is investigated in Pea Hill Arm of Lake Gaston, a non-tidal reservoir tributary, where the point of water withdrawal is in an upstream tributary and influences the direction of tributary flow causing longitudinal velocity null flow conditions to occur. The study also focuses on control of withdrawal rate and timing to optimize both quality of water remaining in the tributary and quantity of water that can be safely withdrawn.

Research was conducted assuming steady state conditions and later under spatial and temporal variability experienced in the reservoir with main lake pool elevation fluctuations …

Determination Of The N-Terminal Amino Acid Residues On Polypeptides In Secondary Wastewaters, Edward L. Creecy

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses & Dissertations

The N-terminal amino acid residues on polypeptides and proteins were determined in wastewaters prior to chlorination. The terminal amino groups'ere first derivatized with the well known derivatizing agent dansyl chloride, and then the resulting dansyl amino acid hydrolyzed from the peptide chain by a propionic acid/ hydrochloric acid mixture. The resulting dansyl amino acids were then separated and detected using reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection. The majority of N-terminal residues detected were the more polar amino acids. Concentrations ranged from 1 x 10^-10 to 3 x 10^-7 moles/liter. It is suggested that the shorter …

Comparison Of The Dichlorination Of Organic N-Chloramines By Caroate And By Bisulfite: A Kinetic Study, Said H. Lubbad

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses & Dissertations

Bisulfite is commonly used to dechlorinate chlorinated municipal wastewater. However, several studies suggest that bisulfite is not effective in dechlorinating N-chlorinated amino components of wastewater. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of an alternate dechlorinating agent, caroate (peroxysulfate), and to compare its rate of dechlorination of three different types of chloramines with that of bisulfite.

Four N-chlorinated amino compounds were investigated: N-chlorodiethylamine, N­ chloroalanylphenylalanine, N-chloroglycylphenylalanine, and N-[2-(N'-chloroimino)­ propanoyl]phenylalanine. These compounds were selected from different families of N­ chloramines to study the effect of structure on dechlorination by both caroate and bisulfite. At pH …

Evaluation Of Solid Phase Extraction Followed By Supercritical Fluid Elution Of Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds In Toxicity Characteristic Leachates, William Edward Corl Iii

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses & Dissertations

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) to determine the potential for unknown wastes to leach haz.ardous constituents into the environment. Methods currently being used for the extraction of semi-volatile organic compounds from aqueous TCLP leachates involve acid/base partitioning into methylene chloride. The concentrated extract is then analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The methods are either timeconsuming or labor intensive and they generate significant volumes of haz.ardous wastes themselves. Considering the haz.ards and disposal costs of methylene chloride wastes, great interest has been elicited by the EPA in other extraction techniques which would reduce …