The Marquette University Water Quality Center brings together researchers, government, private foundations, industry and others to solve problems related to lake, river and groundwater quality. The Advisory Committee includes industry representatives. The problems solved often involve municipal wastewater, industrial wastewater, storm water runoff and drinking water. Research is often multidisciplinary and is performed by experts from engineering, biological sciences, mathematics, statistics and computer science, and other disciplines.

The Water Quality Center facilities include laboratories, computing resources and offices. The center laboratories, located in Engineering Hall, include more than 3,700 square feet of space and are equipped to perform physical, chemical and biological analyses of water, wastewater, soil and sludge. Examples of major equipment include environmental chambers, atomic absorption spectrophotometers, gas chromatographs, ion chromatographs, a carbon analyzer, ICP-MS and equipment for performing bench- and pilot-scale investigations. The center also has molecular biology equipment to characterize microbial cultures including thermocyclers, gel boxes and gel imaging equipment. Other laboratories available within the university share the following: scanning and transmission electron microscopes, X-ray diffractometers, and facilities for fabricating and evaluating integrated circuits and sensors.

The center computing facilities are available for faculty and graduate student researchers. The facilities include five personal computers, three data acquisition systems for chromatographs and other equipment, and three printers, including a large-format (42-inch) color plotter for producing posters and other large works.

The Water Quality Center offices, located on the fourth floor of Engineering Hall, include the director, laboratory manager and other faculty/graduate researcher offices.