Author: Sue Hill

Sue Hill is the Digital Content Manager for the College of Engineering.

Veronica Webster on Intense Rain Events

Veronica Webster
Veronica Webster

HOUGHTON — Going by historical norms, the storm that hit the Copper Country on June 17 was a 1,000-year event.

But the combination of warmer, wetter weather and changes in land use means events like it could become more common, said Veronica Webster, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Michigan Technological University. Webster’s Tuesday lecture, “Is Intense Rain the New Normal? Understanding Our Risks” was the second in the Keweenaw Natural History Seminar Series, which is focused on the causes and effects of and responses to the flood.

As development increases, the community needs to consider how runoff could increase from changes in the climate or the watershed, and take into account how roadways affect runoff patterns.

Where we choose to build and how we choose to build impacts our resilience to the increasing risk of heavy storm events and flood events,” she said.

Read more at the Mining Gazette, by Garrett Neese.

Zhanping You on Ground Tire Rubber for Chip Seals

Avenue showing hot chip seal and rubber overlayZhanping You (CEE) was quoted in the story “Reducing Waste, Improving Roads,” in For Construction Pros .com.

Reducing Waste, Improving Roads

Michigan installs first recycled tire chip seal application in the United States

“The work in Kalamazoo demonstrated new applications,” Michigan Technological University professor of civil and environmental engineering Zhanping You says. “Ground tire rubber (GTR) has generally not been used much in chip seals and the products that are being used for this project are being used for the first time used in the U.S.”

“The project included reacted rubber for both the hot rubber chip seal (HRCS) and the hot rubber thin overlay (HRTO) based on the research development,” You says. “Michigan Tech researchers have used GTR in asphalt emulsion so that the GTR modified asphalt emulsion is used for a different rubber chip seal, which is very different than the HRCS.

Read more at Construction Pros.com, by Jessica Lombardo.

Daisuke Minakata Publishes on Potable Water Reuse

Daisuke Minakata
Daisuke Minakata

Daisuke Minakata (CEE), is one of the authors of the paper “Boron Can Be Used to Predict Trace Organic Rejection through Reverse Osmosis Membranes for Potable Reuse,” published in Environmental Science and Technology.

Environ. Sci. Technol., Article ASAP
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.8b03390
Publication Date (Web): November 16, 2018
Copyright © 2018 American Chemical Society

Extract

Potable water reuse is a viable option for communities with extreme water scarcity. Improvements in measurement capabilities and greater occurrence of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) have made the investigation of the removal of CECs through advanced treatment facilities essential for further reuse considerations.

The experimental results were used to develop a correlation between the removal of organics and boron.

Read more at ACS Publications with subscriber access provided by Van Pelt and Opie Library.

Highway Project Funding for Melanie Kueber Watkins

Melanie Kueber Watkins
Melanie Kueber Watkins

Melanie Kueber Watkins (CEE/MTTI) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $45,000 research and development contract from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The title of the project is “Letter of Intent for NCHRP Synthesis 20-05/Topic 50-02: Highway Hydraulic Engineering State of Practice.”

This is an 18-month project.

C2E2 Funding for Noel Urban

Noel Urban
Noel Urban

The Vice President for Research Office has awarded Century II Campaign Endowed Equipment Funds (C2E2) at the recommendation of the C2E2 Committee. Noel Urban (GLRC/CEE) received funding for his project GLRC Submission: Water Purification System in Support of GLRC Research and Education.

C2E2 is a program aimed at providing equipment money to improve the lives of faculty, students, and staff campus-wide.

Senior Design Project on Aquaponics at the Sustainable Development House

SDH Aquaponics showing a fish in a tankHOUGHTON — Students at Michigan Technological University’s (MTU) Sustainable Development House (SDH) have combined fish and plants into a sustainable farming system called aquaponics. The arrangement of pipes and tanks uses plants and bacteria in an inorganic substrate as the filter for fish tank water, creating an organic system that feeds the plants and keeps the fish healthy.

“We just added a ton of new fish Wednesday,” said SDH resident and project manager Rose Turner.

The aquaponic setup is part of Turner’s senior design project at MTU. It’s a combination of aquaculture and hydroponics, and has some of the strengths and weaknesses of each.

Read more at the Mining Gazette, by Joshua Vissers.

Rose is a senior environmental engineering student from Berkley, Michigan. This is her final semester at Tech and her last semester as the coordinator of the SDH.

Read more at the Michigan Tech Sustainability Demonstration House Facebook page.

Watkins and Mayer Discuss Father’s Day Flooding

Father's Day Flood showing a destroyed streetHOUGHTON — As high rain or flood events become more prevalent, many areas are putting a renewed focus on natural methods to mitigate flooding.

Michigan Technological University researchers spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at the Carnegie Museum Thursday on the changing climate patterns and extreme weather conditions which contributed to the severity of the June 17 flood.

As air gets warmer, it holds more water vapor, said David Watkins, a Tech civil and environmental engineering professor. At the same time, accelerated warming in the Arctic has shifted the jet stream that circulates air globally, turning it from a direct path to a “lazy river,” Watkins said.

By 2030, extreme weather events will be more likely, and urbanization will have accelerated, said Alex Mayer, professor of geological and mining engineering sciences and civil and environmental engineering at Tech. In 2030, a projected 60 percent of all urban areas will have been built in the past 30 years.

The talk is the first in a series of Father’s Day Flood presentations held by the Keweenaw Land Trust and Carnegie Museum.

Read more at the Mining Gazette, by Garrett Neese.

CIGLR Funding for Pengfei Xue

Pengfei Xue
Pengfei Xue

Pengfei Xue (CEE/GLRC) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $130,118 research and development contract from the University of Michigan-Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR).

The title of the project is “The Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research: Long-Term Data Assimilative, Temperature and Currents Database for Lake Erie.”

This is a one-year project.

By Sponsored Programs.

Stan Vitton Works to Stabilize Redridge Dam

Redridge Dam
Redridge Dam

STANTON TOWNSHIP — In the June 17 storm that caused flash flooding in many areas, the steel dam at Redridge suffered accelerated and aggravated damage and distress.

Stan Vitton, of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Michigan Technological University, is now the principal investigator for stabilization project to be funded by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Vitton and his team have worked to monitor the dam’s condition, needed repairs, and other stabilization procedures, Vrana said, and their work has been instrumental in keeping the project on the front burner since the study and restoration programs started in 2008.

Read more at the Mining Gazette, by Graham Jaehnig.