Water Innovation at Marquette
Access to safe and clean water is a basic human right, yet hundreds of millions of people worldwide live without it.
At Marquette University, we apply a cross-disciplinary approach to solving critical water issues. Thought leaders among our faculty, staff and students have made Marquette
a center for the study and exploration of water scarcity challenges facing Milwaukee, the Great Lakes region, the United States — and the world.
| Goals |
Expertise |
Programs & Initiatives |
- Improve teaching & outcomes
- Foster industry partnerships
- Create solutions to societal water needs
- Strengthen water infrastructure
- Promote cooperation on shared resources
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- Water resilience
- Resource recovery
- Innovative materials and sensors
- Water sustainability
- Sustainable communities
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- In Defense of Water
- Water Quality Center
- Water Law & Policy Initiative
- Great Lakes Water Innovation Engine
- Science & Technology for Phosphorous Sustainability
- IUCRC Water & Policy
- Water Sustainability Lab
- Community engagement and partnerships
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In Defense of Water
Supported by Marquette’s largest-ever federal award for water research, the new In Defense of Water program brings together collaborators from Marquette and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to address water quality challenges to promote healthier environments for both troops and civilians. The team is working in several research areas.
Dr. Daniel Zitomer, chair and professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, serves as the project’s principal investigator of the first phase of funding (FY21 $3.8M), Dr. Krassi Hristova, professor of biological sciences, serves as the project’s principal investigator of the second phase of funding (FY22 $3.8M), Dr. Brooke Mayer, professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, will serve as the project’s principal investigator of the third phase of funding (FY23 $4.2M).
Areas of Focus
Lead, Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Brooke Mayer, professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering.
In the Contaminant mitigation in decentralized potable water reuse systems thrust, the multidisciplinary team is researching a multi-pronged approach aimed at linking decentralized potable water reuse unit operations and processes in series to mitigate both microbial and chemical contaminants. The emphasis is on treatment systems that are rapidly deployable, resource efficient, easy to operate, and produce high-quality effluent regardless of influent conditions. The research team is specifically assessing virus mitigation and identification of appropriate viral surrogates for testing technologies; the fate of antibiotic resistance genes in water reuse treatment systems; and the treatment of nutrients, solids, and organics using chemical oxidation paired with membrane filtration systems.
Co-investigators: Dr. Chris Marshall, assistant professor of biological sciences; Dr. Patrick McNamara, associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering; and Zitomer, also from civil, construction and environmental engineering.
Lead, Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Krassi Hristova, professor of biological sciences.
This team is addressing timely environmental health issues heightened by two coinciding trends: the dramatic and apparently lasting increase in the use of disinfectants in buildings during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the rapid rise of illness-causing pathogens that are resistant to antiseptics or antibiotics. In particular, the team is investigating the microbial ecology of biofilms that form on everything water touches in buildings including pipes, sinks and shower curtains. In addition to learning more about what is killed by typical disinfectants and what comes back after their use, the team is studying UV treatment and novel disinfection materials that are efficient to control growth of bacteria and viruses on surfaces and in biofilms.
Co-investigators: Marshall from biological sciences, Mayer from civil, construction and environmental engineering.
Lead, Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Chris Marshall, assistant professor of biological sciences.
Our team of biologists, engineers, and bioinformaticians are working on the destruction of toxic pollutants called "forever chemicals". Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are recalcitrant organic pollutants that were manufactured for many commercial applications in the US since the 1940s. PFAS can persist in the environment and bioaccumulate, leading to high levels of exposure in humans through drinking water and food. At elevated levels PFAS pose a variety of adverse health risks to humans, including low infant birth weights, cancer, and increased cholesterol levels. Therefore, a range of remediation strategies are important to develop in order to remove PFAS from different environments. We are taking a combined electrochemical and biological approach to remediate PFAS in both drinking water systems and in impacted environments like groundwater.
Co-investigators: Mayer and McNamara from civil, construction and environmental engineering; and Hristova from biological sciences.
Lead, Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Anthony Parolari, associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering
This team is pursuing an integrated data- and policy-driven approach to mitigate water quality degradation due to non-point source pollution. The team will develop data-driven models of water quality to improve understanding of how data and management uncertainty impacts the risk of water quality impairment. Further, they will develop novel treatment strategies to improve green stormwater infrastructure treatment performance. They will also identify policy roadblocks by evaluating and comparing legal, policy, and governance strategies that impact pollutant transport.
Co-investigators: Dr. Walter McDonald, associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering; Professor David Strifling, director, Water Law and Policy Initiative and adjunct professor of law.
Lead, Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Daniel Zitomer, chair and professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering.
Research and development of novel energy efficient sewage treatment. 
The project team is developing a novel sewage treatment system that is sustainable and creates energy from wastewater. The anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) relies on our new materials and downflow filter (DFF) technology in which select microbes convert sewage to biogas containing methane. The methane can be burned in a boiler or engine gen-set to provide heat and electricity. The new process uses less energy and is more sustainable than current sewage treatment methods. In the future, a large pilot system is planned for testing at a regional sewage treatment facility. Nutrient recovery and reuse for agriculture as well as advanced disinfection for water reuse are planned. A startup company, ThaneSource Technologies, has been established to market the new technology.
Co-investigator: Marshall from biological sciences
Lead, Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Patrick McNamara, associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering.
This team is researching the relationship between metals and the microbial communities within drinking water distributions systems. Metal materials, such as iron, copper, and lead are commonly used for drinking water pipes. Over time these pipes naturally undergo corrosion, which causes damage and forms corrosion products, but the presence of microbes can speed up this process. Our work focuses on determining how engineering factors such as disinfection impact microbially induced corrosion. Additionally, our work explores the impact of corrosion products within these dynamic systems on antibiotic resistance.
Co-investigator. Dr. Chris Marshall, assistant professor of biological sciences.
Lead, Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Walter McDonald, associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering.
This team is working towards ways in which we can apply remote sensing data from satellites and drones to support stormwater management and environmental monitoring. Current approaches to assessing stormwater practices that treat non-point source runoff and its impact on downstream environments require extensive resource-intensive on-the-ground assessments. This team seeks to overcome this challenge through the development of approaches to use remote sensing imagery and machine learning algorithms to both assess operations and maintenance status of stormwater best management practices, as well as the impact of non-point source pollution on downstream environments and water quality.
Co-investigators: Joe Lamanna, assistant professor of biological sciences.
Lead, Co-Principal Investigators: Dr. Jill Birren, associate professor of educational policy and leadership; and Dr. Amber Wichowsky, professor of political science and director, Marquette civic dialogues program.
This project examines public understanding of PFAS risks and mitigation efforts in Wisconsin. Our team is working to synthesize models of community resilience as they apply to groundwater challenges in Wisconsin. We are leveraging quantitative and qualitative data to map and test these models in impacted communities. This research will lend insight into community strengths that might be leveraged in crises, as well as pathways to strengthening the resiliency of communities potentially impacted by PFAS contamination. The team is a applying a similar methodology to examine risk reduction and mitigation efforts in communities with lead hazards.
Co-Investigators: Dr. Andrew Meyer, professor of economics, and Professor David Strifling, director, Water Law and Policy Initiative and adjunct professor of law.
WATER NEWS
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Articles below showing our latest news in Water Innovation
