Monthly Blog

This year has brought challenges to us all, and in the era of a 24-hour news cycle and social media, it can be difficult to siphon through the negatives to find some positive news. There are still, however, uplifting and exciting efforts being put forth daily, so to kick off Fall 2020 I have put together a short list of some positive stories pertaining to water, or water byproducts, that might otherwise go under the radar.

• 1)     You may have heard that many of the beautiful, biodiversity-filled, tourist attractions known as coral reefs are in danger of disappearing entirely over the course of the next decade. Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be a list of positive news? Luckily, Rolex (yes that Rolex) has helped support individuals taking on major challenges to help improve our natural world. One of those individuals is explorer and marine biologist Emma Camp. Corals typically thrive in clean waters that boast little sediment and nutrients, along with a stable temperature and lots of oxygen. Many of these habitats are being threatened by climate change and acidifying oceans, but recently Camp has observed corals with the ability to survive in conditions that are more extreme than what is expected in the next few centuries. These species of corals survive, and thrive, in murky waters of mangroves and show resiliency to the conditions many of the world’s reefs are experiencing. Camp goes on to describe similar locations, or “hotspots of resilience,” found in the Great Barrier Reef. While reversing the destruction of the oceans that humanity has caused is of great importance, it is also important to learn how these corals survive, and use the resiliency of nature itself to help rebuild what has been lost. Her research, focused on the behavior and genetics of these hearty corals, will ideally be used to help repopulate reefs impacted by changing conditions, allowing them to maintain vibrant and diverse ecosystems throughout the world. Rolex has this story, and numerous others focused on meaningful change on their Awards Website. If only there were more efforts being put towards carbon capture and reversing the effects climate change have had on the oceans themselves…

• 2)     ...Never fear, aquatic plants are to the rescue! We all know how effective trees are with respect to carbon capture, but that carbon can also quickly be released (see wildfire examples across the country). What if that carbon could be sequestered for millennia or longer at the bottom of the ocean? A startup in Maine, Running Tide, is hoping for just that. Originally a shellfish farming company, they are shifting their sights towards a radical kelp project to help take some pressure off of forests on land. Offsets will be necessary if we are to change the course of our planet’s future, and a 2019 study showed that using just a small fraction of California coastal waters to grow kelp could fully offset the entire state’s agricultural emissions. Shopify, a tech company investing in other companies focused on sustainability solutions, believes this could have a huge impact on the environment and put Running Tide on their list of investments. Kelp farms typically require a good bit of attention to maintain quality and ability to harvest, but in this case the kelp would be grown specifically to sink carbon to the depths and once up and running, would require little effort to maintain. Targeted ocean currents with the right nutrients and biodegradable buoys that will allow the farms to sink after a certain amount of time, are the basis of this idea. More research will be done farther into the ocean to see how the farms perform, but the hope is that they provide long-term carbon removal that will become oil or sediment at the bottom of the ocean over the course of centuries. Given the rate at which carbon has been thrust into the atmosphere over the past few decades, this seems like a logical, effective solution nature has given us to combat climate change and our carbon footprint. The whole story, written by Adele Peters, can be found at the Fast Company website.

• 3)     The most valuable writer in this blog post, Adele Peters, continues her quest for ocean plant awareness with another hopeful article on seaweed. This article also has a bit to do with carbon capture, but far more to do with reducing emissions. Another startup with a brilliant idea, Volta Greentech, is about to begin commercial production of a red variety of seaweed.  Asparagopsis taxiformis can help reduce emissions in a far more unique way than you might think, by feeding it to cows. According to some estimates, cows produce the equivalent of 4-5% of total greenhouse gas emissions simply by belching methane. Researchers at UC Davis found that cattle feed consisting of just 1% seaweed reduced methane emissions by 60%, and tests in Australia noted that increasing the seaweed to 2% of the feed resulted in 99% reduced emissions! Production would ideally begin later this year, and the facility itself would use CO₂ from carbon capture technology at polluting companies to feed the seaweed. This would provide an outlet for some captured carbon to be recycled into a process that would further limit emissions once fed to the cattle. While burgers and steaks still come at a cost environmentally, this option might at least be effective at reducing the equivalent of the airline industry’s emissions each year. Get the full details of their sustainability effort through this link to the Fast Company website.

• 4)     Sticking with the apparently ocean based vibe of this blog post, I bring you a statistic about fish waste in the UK: 492,020 tons of it. Rebecca Smithers of The Guardian summarizes a brilliant idea from University of Sussex graduate designer Lucy Hughes. Hughes tackles the issue of single use plastic waste alongside the large volume of waste that processing fish produces. She created a biodegradable plastic alternative, MarinaTex, that could be used in place of single-use plastic products. Through her research she found that fish skins and scales were a great source for a plastic alternative. Combining fish scale proteins and red algae created bonds that could be formed into sheets that look and feel very similar to plastic. The product appears as though it could be stronger and safer than oil-based plastics, while also having the ability to break down in soil in 4-6 weeks. Hughes determined that the waste from one Atlantic cod could produce 1,400 bags of MarinaTex. Now she has the opportunity to win £30,000 in the final leg of her James Dyson award nomination, and help prevent single-use plastics from continuously polluting landfills and the environment. Guess I’ll have to switch to shrimp ramen to make sure my chicken flavor doesn’t taste fishy… Glean more information and links via The Guardian website.

Honorable mentions:

•        If you’re into "hacking" and gardening, check out this article by Andy Corbley about researchers modifying plant proteins and enzymes to produce more yield with less water here.
•       The Ocean Cleanup has upped it’s game to preventing plastic pollution from even making it to the oceans, by intercepting plastic in rivers! Keep up to date with their progress since deploying their first system in 2019 on The Ocean Cleanup website.

This blog was written by Tyler Eldridge, a Wastewater Laboratory Coordinator for the City of Greeley, and volunteers with RMWQAA as the main contact for website related issues. He has 3 years of experience in the industry and holds a BA in Biological Science from Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

Full website links:

-https://www.rolex.org/rolex-awards/environment/emma-camp

-https://www.fastcompany.com/90548820/forget-planting-trees-this-company-is-making-carbon-offsets-by-putting-seaweed-on-the-ocean-floor

-https://www.fastcompany.com/90510673/this-factory-is-growing-a-new-kind-of-food-for-cows-a-seaweed-that-reduces-their-burps

-https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/19/scaling-back-graduate-invents-plastic-alternative-from-fish-waste

-https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/scientists-hack-photosynthesis-boosting-plant-yields-with-less-water/

-https://theoceancleanup.com/

I know this topic is on everyone’s mind as you walk outside to see and smell the smokey wildfires burning around the state. With the devastation of wildfires burning precious land and polluting the air, comes the aftermath of the detrimental effects on water quality in the watershed. After the fire burns, vegetation is burned up leaving ash and nutrients to flow into the source water.

Immediate impacts may occur as soot and ash increase solids loading, adding to the possibility of destruction to source water infrastructure and alterations to the physical watershed. It’s the aftermath and long-term effects on the ecology of the fire scorched landscape that will be costly. Runoff from burned areas contain elevated nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus with higher levels of organic carbon, turbidity, sediment and heavy metals which may have significant effects on the chemistry of the receiving water.  Higher nutrient loads from runoff could have an effect the on the water treatment process, which in turn, could create algae blooms in the storage reservoirs and lakes. Increases in organic carbon and turbidity will have a major impact on treatment abilities with higher chemical cost. Elevated carbon levels in raw water can result in higher total organic carbon (TOC) and turbidity in the distribution and result in higher disinfection byproduct (DBP) levels. Already low maximum contaminant levels (MCL) for DBPs, could cause non-compliance issues very easily with contaminated source water. There are also issues with pH adjustments and swings in alkalinity which need to be closely monitored in the water quality and treatment process.

Severe occurrences of heavy rainfall after a burn will cause mudslides, severe erosion and large debris running off into water delivery systems. These occurrences can make the water unusable or inaccessible, requiring a quick decision for switching to alternative water sources. Depending on the location of the fire, there also poses a threat of higher concentrations of contaminating heavy metals. In Colorado, there are possibilities of historic mining areas containing large amounts of iron, manganese, sulfates or even fire retardant that will runoff into the water. Even more severe is increased levels of naturally occurring mercury in the soil that could contaminate the source water and even elevate levels of mercury in native fish.

Be smart, prepared, and develop a plan to monitor when a wildfire occurs in your watershed. Some things to consider: What analytes are of concern, what locations are impacted, upstream comparison data, long term solutions, and how to prevent excessive nutrient ash runoff or mudslides with debris.

Now is the time to create an emergency plan or update a previous plan that suites your water system. Some ideas to think about when planning for the future:

-Put a plan in place to fund mitigation of wildfire destruction and spread. Support local forest services or the Unites States Forest Service (USFS) to help remove mountain pine beetle destroyed trees that act as fuel for these fires. They can also utilize GIS- based decision support tools which can manage sensitive areas and create buffer strips.

-Plan ways to adapt to problems with redundancy in infrastructure and alternative canals or source water. Consider adjustable intake locations for canals and reservoirs due to broken trees, debris, and sedimentation causing blockages at intakes. Create redundancy with surrounding cities water sources and water towers in case of disruption of service.

-Plan for increased water treatment cost in chemicals with elevated turbidity levels and sediment with more monitoring for water quality issues throughout the system. Have an internal troubleshooting guide.

-Review other utilities case studies on wildfire management occurrences and possible solutions.

If you are interested in preventing wildfire and water treatment, I recommend getting involved with the Watershed Wildfire Protection Group. They consist of a broad range of utilities and companies that have great ideas to solutions with a proactive stance of protecting watersheds from wildfires.

I don’t mean to bring up another harsh issue as we are all dealing with COVID effects but now is the time to make proactive plans, write grants for forest mitigation, and prepare for possible catastrophic events with climate change making these events even worse or more frequent. To end on a positive note….forest fires also help in the natural cycle of forest growth, replenishment, and help new plants grow!

John Winterton is the Laboratory Supervisor at the City of Northglenn.

Antibiotic resistance strains have been an issue of concern for many years.  Researchers at Rice University have come up with a new strategy to deal with them in wastewater treatment, they call it “wrap, trap, and zap.”

Read the article below which was taken from Science Daily.

Better wastewater treatment? It's a wrap

A shield of graphene helps particles destroy antibiotic-resistant bacteria and free-floating antibiotic resistance genes in wastewater treatment plants.

The labs of Rice environmental scientist Pedro Alvarez and Yalei Zhang, a professor of environmental engineering at Tongji University, Shanghai, introduced microspheres wrapped in graphene oxide in the Elsevier journal Water Research.

Alvarez and his partners in the Rice-based Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) have worked toward quenching antibiotic-resistant "superbugs" since first finding them in wastewater treatment plants in 2013.

"Superbugs are known to breed in wastewater treatment plants and release extracellular antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) when they are killed as the effluent is disinfected," Alvarez said. "These ARGs are then discharged and may transform indigenous bacteria in the receiving environment, which become resistome reservoirs.

"Our innovation would minimize the discharge of extracellular ARGs, and thus mitigate dissemination of antibiotic resistance from wastewater treatment plants," he said.

The Rice lab showed its spheres -- cores of bismuth, oxygen and carbon wrapped with nitrogen-doped graphene oxide -- inactivated multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli bacteria and degraded plasmid-encoded antibiotic-resistant genes in secondary wastewater effluent.

The graphene-wrapped spheres kill nasties in effluent by producing three times the amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as compared to the spheres alone.

The spheres themselves are photocatalysts that produce ROS when exposed to light. Lab tests showed that wrapping the spheres minimized the ability of ROS scavengers to curtail their ability to disinfect the solution.

The researchers said nitrogen-doping the shells increases their ability to capture bacteria, giving the catalytic spheres more time to kill them. The enhanced particles then immediately capture and degrade the resistant genes released by the dead bacteria before they contaminate the effluent.

"Wrapping improved bacterial affinity for the microspheres through enhanced hydrophobic interaction between the bacterial surface and the shell," said co-lead author Pingfeng Yu, a postdoctoral research associate at Rice's Brown School of Engineering. "This mitigated ROS dilution and scavenging by background constituents and facilitated immediate capture and degradation of the released ARGs."

Because the wrapped spheres are large enough to be filtered out of the disinfected effluent, they can be reused, Yu said. Tests showed the photocatalytic activity of the spheres was relatively stable, with no significant decrease in activity after 10 cycles. That was significantly better than the cycle lifetime of the same spheres minus the wrap.

Story Source:

Materials provided by Rice University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

1.    Deyi Li, Pingfeng Yu, Xuefei Zhou, Jae-Hong Kim, Yalei Zhang, Pedro J.J. Alvarez. Hierarchical Bi2O2CO3 wrapped with modified graphene oxide for adsorption-enhanced photocatalytic inactivation of antibiotic resistant bacteria and resistance genes. Water Research, 2020; 184: 116157 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2020.116157

Rice University. "Better wastewater treatment? It's a wrap: Trap-and-zap strategy for antibiotic resistant bugs becomes wrap, trap and zap." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 20 July 2020. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200720164522.htm>

Blog post provided by Adele Rucker, City of Aurora and RMWQAA President. 

It’s 9:00 pm and I’m tidying up after my 8-year-old who is running through the house with the 11-year-old on her tail. They aren’t playing tag or hide and seek. They are saving moths from the evil clutches of our ravenous puppy. Like everyone in town, our house is overrun with moths – Miller Moths to be exact. The puppy loves to eat them, the kids don’t want innocent lives to be lost. It’s a continuous battle.

Miller Moths are a normal part of life in Colorado in the summer. Their lives begin as eggs which hatch into cutworms on the plains. The cutworms feed voraciously on alfalfa, wheat, and other plants and continue growing all winter. Then in the spring, they pupate underground and after a few weeks, they emerge as moths and migrate west to feed on nectar in the Rockies. The migration generally begins in late May to early June and lasts for 4-5 weeks with the first 2-3 being the worst. The number of moths flying around town depends on many things; cutworm predation, moth predation, weather conditions, and availability of vegetation to eat.

Experts say this is actually just an average year. The last four years have been below average, skewing memories to make this year appear particularly bad. It turns out 1991 was the “heaviest, most prolonged flight of Miller Moths across Eastern Colorado.” I remember spending hours setting up buckets and bowls of soapy water under lamps in attempts to capture the Miller Moths for removal. The moths were so bad that year they would pile up an inch deep in garage window frames.

In addition to our short memories, why does this “average” year seem so bad? Drier spring conditions in Colorado combined with the late April frost wiped out some of the vegetation, leaving less food and condensing the Millers around Denver to feed on the nectar from the remaining flowers. Whatever the reason, these moths have brought a level of excitement to our house every night. And you may be wondering why they are called Miller moths? According to the interwebs, the scales on the wings that frequently flake off reminded people of the flour dust that millers were covered in after their shift at the mill.

To learn more about Miller Moths, check out these great websites that I referenced to write this blog post: 1) www.denver.cbslocal.com. Think Those Miller Moths are Everywhere? You’ll Be Seeing More of Them. By Karen Morfitt. May 25, 2020. 2) www.animalsake.com Looking for Information About the Miller Moths? Read These Facts. Accessed June 26, 2020.

Natalie Love is the Lab Director at GEI Consultants, Inc. and realizes this story has nothing to do with water or the lab but has been curious about Miller Moths since at least 1991. 

In celebration of National Public Works Week which ran from May 17th through the 23rd, the City of Broomfield created this awesome video to celebrate the workers that are keeping the city running. See how many RMWQAA members you can count!

2020 NPWW Video.mp4

Lesa Julian has worked for the City and County of Broomfield for 29 years.  She is currently the Environmental Services Superintendent.

Hi! We hope this finds you and yours safe and healthy during this time!

In this era of COVID, most drinking water professionals, wastewater professionals, and those that work in labs and other professions that provide assistance to maintain critical infrastructure have been classified as “necessary”, and most are required to go in to work, even if it is on a modified schedule. This requirement exposes many to vectors that those that are working from home are not exposed to. Most are not ‘on the front lines’, but their services keep permit requirements intact, water quality high,   and reassure the public that a new public health crisis does not evolve from failing water treatment. Remember, through all of the craziness your contribution matters, and we appreciate all that you do!

One positive thing about coronavirus; it does not ‘survive’ water treatment. There have been no cases of coronavirus in drinking water. Likewise, standard wastewater disinfection also renders coronavirus incapable of transmitting disease. Just imagine how much worse everything would be if this was not the case!

However, coronavirus is known to be present in wastewater. This can cause extra concern for wastewater operators, lab analysts, and others exposed to raw wastewater. Whether or not the coronavirus in wastewater can cause disease is still an open question that needs more study. Some studies show that coronavirus can survive for several days in wastewater, while other testing has shown that coronavirus is inactivated by going through a human gut. In any case, the good news is that no known case of COVID 19 is known to have been transmitted via wastewater. The CDC calls wastewater ‘low risk’ for COVID 19. The CDC, OSHA, and WEF all agree that the normal engineered and administrative measures, PPE, and hygiene measures protect wastewater workers sufficiently from COVID 19. While the risk is low, wastewater workers must exercise extra diligence at work, even while already taking added measures like wearing masks and social distancing. Additionally, WRRFs are not assured of being able to get sufficient PPE because of the higher world demand.

While we hope that wastewater does not have extra risks for workers, the coronavirus in wastewater has the possibility of becoming an important weapon in the fight against COVID 19. Because coronavirus is excreted in the feces and urine of affected persons, coronavirus in a sewer can be an early warning of COVID 19, and can be representative of the spread in the sewershed. It can also give important and timely information to public health decision-makers. This is known as Water Based Epidemiology (WBE), or Environmental Surveillance (ES). This is a developing field related to COVID 19 and has several hurdles before becoming relevant, but it is looking hopeful.

Researchers in The Netherlands are credited for being first to test wastewater for coronavirus. They found coronavirus in wastewater even before the first reported COVID infection in the sewershed. Thus, they established that coronavirus in the wastewater can be an early warning of COVID 19 in the population.

There are also currently several efforts to analyze levels of coronavirus in wastewater, and then to correlate those levels to an estimated number of affected people in the service area. Wastewater is a different and more complex matrix that those normally used in virology labs and is analytically challenging. Additionally there is an unknown distribution of the viral pieces between liquid and solid in the wastewater. Known levels of quantification are not yet known, but would have to be low enough to be able to compensate for the dilution of the virus in the wastewater in order to be useful. Already a researcher at Arizona State University (ASU) claims to be able to detect one affected individual in a population of 2 million. Others estimate 1-3 cases per 100,000 people. Additional problems on the analytical side are getting representative samples, developing rigorous QA/QC protocols, unknown matrix effects, and unknown fate and transport of coronavirus.

Once detected in wastewater, there are additional formidable challenges of correlating the level of coronavirus in the wastewater to the level of COVID infection in the population. This requires knowledge of the population, flow, temperature, time in the sewer, industrial/residential discharge ratios, the fecal shedding rate per person, and many other factors. It will apparently also require knowledge of the average size of human poop. (No need to set up a study for this though. A professor at MIT has already determined this. It is 200 grams.)

Despite the challenges, the promise of WBE/ES - that wastewater could give us both an early warning of, and an accurate measure of COVID in the population – is enticing. It could detect COVID 19 in a population before there have been any confirmed cases. It could indicate when a second or third wave is beginning. It would be faster than individual testing. It would include asymptomatic carriers and would be more representative of the spread of the disease than the current biased numbers that are low since they are hindered by testing availability. It would be specific to each sewershed, so response measures could better meet specific needs. It could be scalable; from the entire service area of a large WRRF down to a sewer from a single neighborhood, school, or assisted living facility. Testing would be cheap, the sample abundantly available.

The study of analytes in wastewater as they relate to current issues in the service population is not new. Illicit drugs, malaria, salmonella, other viruses, etc. have all been looked at in wastewater. Each case provides its own challenges, but they all confirm the interesting hidden value of wastewater, and its important relationship to its service area. And in this current crisis, it is another reminder of the important work that everyone in the water field does!

Please find references below. I also used some information from the Closing Ceremony of the WRF Virtual International Water Research Summit on Environmental Surveillance of Indicators of COVID 19 in Sewersheds, April 30, 2020. Please let me know if you would like more information, or if you have an interesting addition!

Rich MacAlpine is a Laboratory Supervisor at Metro Wastewater Reclamation District. 

References

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bostonherald.com/2020/04/09/massachusetts-scientists-probe-nations-sewage-for-coronavirus-clues/amp/

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.29.20045880v1

https://www.wired.com/story/one-way-to-potentially-track-covid-19-sewage-surveillance/

Arizona State University. "Novel coronavirus detected, monitored in wastewater." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 23 April 2020. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases

A few weeks ago, I was finalizing details for an upcoming trip to Paris and Bath, UK when I received an email from Natalie reminding me that I was due for a Blog post for the RMWQAA website.  It just so happened that I was simultaneously looking at a map of the small town of Saltford where the Airbnb I had booked for the trip was located. Less than a mile from the cottage was the Saltford Treatment Works.   “Brilliant idea!” I thought to myself.   I hoped I could pop over to the wastewater plant and see how the Brits are doing things.  I did some searching online, found Wessex Water on Facebook, and sent a message.  They were happy to arrange a tour of their facility for me.  Splendid!

Wessex Water is a district that serves about 2.8 million people in the areas of Bristol, Bath, Somerset, Dorset and nearby areas.  These cities are all in southwest England, west of London, and bordering Wales.  Although Wessex runs like a district, it is owned by YTL Power International out of Malaysia.

On the morning of my visit, I drove past the Avon River where Wessex Water discharges.  Due to a storm named Henry, the river had recently topped its banks and flooded the road so I felt lucky to have a clear day for the Assistant Treatment Manager Julian Collins to show me around.

Originally built in 1914, the Saltford Treatment Works originally had four (4) basins made of brick. They are still in use today.   Across the pond, they report in Liters per Second, which meant I had to do some conversions to figure out the facility’s current capacity.   Side note:  When looking for conversion calculators, I discovered there are American gallons and English gallons.  Plant capacity is between 11 and 13 MGD depending on which factors you use.   

Much of the treatment is the same as in Colorado.  The difference is they have combined sewer and storm systems.  Large dedicated basins catch the overflow and provide containment during rain events.  Their Environment Agency regulates the industry and has minimum and maximum “consents” comparable to permit limits of similar capacity facilities.  

 

Their Guidance Document details permit regulations.

In contrast to the older, smaller Saltford plant is the Wessex Water Operations Center in Bath also within the Wessex District.  The district runs all operations from their state-of-the-art green building, built using as much recycled material as possible.  The building is equipped with solar power heating, rainwater collection and use, and eco-friendly everything!  Security is top notch too. They even use fingerprint and retina scans. 

Wessex Water’s sister company, Geneco, operates multiple liquid waste treatment facilities that handle a variety of industrial and domestic wasteloads including dairy, septic, industrial cleaning products, landfill leachate, and food waste.  All residents have a food waste bin that is put out for regular collection along with the recycle and rubbish bins each week.   Food waste goes to the main facility in Bristol for large scale composting.  Sludge from the Saltford Treatment Works is also processed in Bristol for later biosolids application and generation of power from biogas. 

There’s much more to Wessex Water and all of their operations, but I will have to check out the rest on my next visit.  In the meantime, it’s great to have new colleagues and contacts across the pond.  Cheers!

Map taken from WessexWater.org

Michelle Neilson, Water Quality Technician, has been with Metro Wastewater for over 11 years.  She has a B.S. in Chemistry, and has 22 years of experience in the Environmental field.  Michelle has worked for USGS, contract laboratories, and several municipal wastewater and drinking water labs prior to Metro Wastewater. 

The prominent days that we think of for the month of February are typically Valentine’s day and President’s day celebrated on February 14^th and 17^th respectively. However, there is another important day that is celebrated worldwide on February 2^nd: World Wetlands day.  World Wetlands day (WWD) raises global awareness about the value of wetlands and originated in 1971 when the Convention on Wetlands was formed in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea.¹ The Convention on Wetlands is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.² The first celebration of WWD was in 1997 and continues to be celebrated today by government and community groups by promoting conservation, restoration, and the proper use of wetlands.

According to the EPA, Wetlands are areas where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of the soil all year or for varying periods of time during the year, including during the growing season. ³ There are two general categories of wetlands, coastal or tidal and inland or non-tidal wetlands, which support various types of vegetation and both aquatic and terrestrial animal species largely determined by the hydrology of the habitat. The functionality of wetlands is also essential in an ecosystem by acting as a water filter, through the absorption of excess nutrients and other pollutants before they reach larger bodies of water, and providing flood and erosion control, by slowing and absorbing floodwaters during periods of excessive rain.⁴ Additionally, wetlands are economically important due to recreational popularity and the commercial fish and shellfish industry. However, these vital habitats are disappearing at an alarming rate.

Wetlands only account for 6% of the Earth’s land surface and are disappearing three times faster than forests due to factors such as development and climate change.⁵  This impacts 40% of the world’s plant and animal species that live or breed in wetland areas and threatens to deplete the rich biodiversity that these habitats provide.⁶ Thankfully, governments and other organizations recognized the enormity of these impacts and have now increased efforts toward the conservation and restoration of wetlands. The general public is encouraged to get involved through volunteer monitoring programs, participating in restoration projects, providing support through donations, and to continue the education outreach of why wetlands are so essential to our environment.

References

1.) https://sws.org/Education-and-Outreach/world-wetlands-day.html

2.) https://www.ramsar.org/

3.) https://www.epa.gov/wetlands/what-wetland

4.) https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/wetland.html

5.) https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/wetlands-and-biodiversity-theme-world-wetlands-day-2020

6.) https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2081

Ashley Romero is the Laboratory Manager at GEI Consultants, Inc. and has a background in ecotoxicology.

Habits can have an enormous impact in the workplace—and we’re not just talking about nail-biting, junk food and cigarettes. Habits affect all aspects of a person’s behavior and they can influence how that person responds to the rules and regulations of a company, how they interact with their fellow employees and ultimately determine their performance level on the job.

For most people, their habits are so ingrained it’s like they’re operating on autopilot when the habit kicks in. This is true for both good and bad habits; good habits can make us more efficient, and bad ones can get in the way of reaching goals. 

Overcoming bad habits can be challenging, but being consciously aware of the change that needs to happen is the first step to establishing more effective habits.

When creating new habits there are a few do’s and don’ts you should follow to make those habits stick. These same rules apply to replace a bad habit with a good one.

First, you need to understand how habits work. Charles Duhigg, the author of The Power of Habit, presented a simple neurological loop at the core of every habit consisting of three components: cue, routine and reward. In order to more fully understand your habits, you need to break down your own habit loop. 

Start by asking yourself two questions: When does your bad habit happen? What is the cue (trigger) that sets it in motion? 

It’s important to identify the cue as the beginning of the routine. The reward that comes at the end is what prompts the routine to continue. Here are a few tips when trying to override a bad habit.

1. Change your cue. Without first identifying the trigger, it’s hard to make an adjustment when trying to change your habits. If you can control the cue it’s easier to maintain your commitment to change the habit. But you need to be aware of what triggers your habit. Once you’re able to consciously attribute the cue to the routine, you need to adjust that pattern to achieve a change in behavior. For example, if going to the cafeteria on break ultimately leads to you buying junk food, then you need to find a new location to have your break. The cafeteria is the cue that leads to the routine of buying the sweet reward of junk food. Because you want to change that pattern, a good start is to change the cue. 
   
   
2. Make a substitution. Cutting out the cues isn’t always going to be an option when it comes to an emotional trigger like stress. If you try eliminating a bad habit based on willpower alone or by quitting cold turkey, you could be setting yourself up for failure. Once the cue is identified, substitute a good habit for your bad habit so that the trigger will inspire a new routine of actions with a similar reward.  For example, often people go for smoke breaks at work to handle stress. Cue: Stress. Routine: Go outside for a smoke. Reward: Relief from stress. In order to change the bad habit to a good habit, when the stress trigger sets in, keep the habit of going outside the same but don’t go where the smokers are. Instead, take a walk. You’re still getting the break and taking time to calm down from the stress but you’re getting exercise instead of smoking. Often in this situation, the smoker finds it wasn’t really the cigarette that brought them relief after all but the break of being outside. 
   
   
3. Be realistic. When making habits, one rule of advice is that you have to be prepared to fail. This is not to say that you should give up before you start, rather it indicates that it’s going to be hard so you should anticipate setbacks and not allow them to derail you completely. There are a lot of things that people tell themselves when it comes to habits. These excuses include thinking you need to start all over when you’ve had a slip up. Rather than give up when you slip up, just be sure to get back on track and move forward in a positive and healthy way. Another thing to keep in mind is that you should start small. Rome wasn’t built in a day and your habits aren’t going to become automatic immediately either.

Don’t forget, you don’t have to do it alone. Letting people know about your intentions of changing your bad habits will also invite those people to keep you accountable. And who knows, you may inspire them to make a positive change themselves.

This Blog was originally posted by SafeStart and is re-posted here for educational purposes. Click here to link to the original blog post: https://safestart.com/news/how-to-replace-a-bad-habit-with-a-good-one/

Wastewater is a valuable resource that can be reclaimed into many beneficial products. The mix of biological, chemical, and physical techniques used in this form of reclamation is forced to become more creative as discharge requirements become stricter. Nutrient requirements are a good example. As phosphorus and nitrogen limits drop for many wastewater treatment plants, we have to get creative to find new and cost effective ways to remove these analytes from our treated waters.

Algae is one solution to our nutrient woes that is getting attention from different utilities and research groups. Algal treatment can be applied to treat for ammonia, nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand (cBOD). Low operational costs paired with the added sales of harvested fertilizer makes this technology realistic for many utilities.

Gross-Wen technologies (GWT) has developed a revolving algal biofilm (RAB) system where algae grows on a treadmill-like belt that is suspended vertically above the wastewater. The belt rotates in and out of the wastewater allowing the algae to consume CO₂, nitrogen, and phosphorus until it is harvested and used to make bioplastics and/or fertilizer.

Fig. 1. Gross-Wen Algae Treatment Technology.

Unlike most off the shelf organic brands of fertilizer, this algae fertilizer has slow-release properties that prevents nutrient leaching and polluting of our waterways.

GWT installed a commercial pilot program at Metropolitan Wastewater Reclamation District in Chicago, Illinois. During the three-year study, 64 tons of algae was produced per day and $30 million a year was made from selling the pelletized algae. Researchers at GWT project that a commercial-scale facility could process between 200,000 and 1 million gallons of wastewater per day.

CLEARAS is another research company using algae to clean wastewater and harvest recycled algal biomass. Their technique is different than GWT in that it directly mixes the algae into the nutrient-rich wastewater. After the recovery of nutrients and CO₂, the mixture is filtered apart, leaving a clean water stream and a return activated algal stream. Results of their nutrient reductions are shown in Figures 2 and 3.

Fig. 2. Total phosphorus results comparing influent and effluent. Data set includes 234 separate trials. Average incoming phosphorus = 1.91 mg/L. Average treated phosphorus = 0.02 mg/L.

Fig. 3. Ammonia results comparing influent and effluent. Data set includes 234 separate trials. Average incoming ammonia = 14.09 mg/L. Average treated ammonia = 0.49 mg/L.

CLEARAS claims that their system is zero-waste, incurs lower operation and maintenance costs due to the lack of chemicals used and disposed, produces ultra low-levels of phosphorus, nitrogen, biochemical oxygen demand, and total solids, and the ability to easily scale to your facility.

Regulatory changes and needs of our communities create the opportunity for utilities to innovate systems to become more sustainable, clean energy based, and cost effective. When making choices in the future regarding nutrient removal, algal treatment systems may be a good fit for your utility.   

Danny McCausland is a Laboratory Analyst for MWRD. He has 6 years of experience in the industry and holds a BA in Environmental Science from Metropolitan University of Denver.

Full Website Links:

1.     https://algae.com/

2.     https://www.clearaswater.com/