Lindsey Brough ’08 Learns the Importance of Quality Assurance/Control

Civil engineering major continues her work with the ‘Student-Mentor Research Award Program’

Civil engineering major Lindsey Brough ’08 (Durham, Maine) is the lead researcher for the new “Student-Mentor Research Award Program,” sponsored by the Pennsylvania Water Environment Association (PWEA). Its purpose is to bring municipal officials, professional engineers, wastewater operators, and academics together to work on environmental research. Her adviser is Arthur Kney, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. The following article about the project is the second in a series written by Brough and was published in the winter edition of PWEA’s Keystone Water Quality Manager magazine.

This letter marks the second installment of my correspondence. When I wrote last, I was finishing my first four-week test period and compiling my data for my research project, entitled Monitoring the Nitrogen Cycle in Biosolids Under Various Environmental Conditions. In this letter, I will discuss some of the preliminary results, the importance of QA/QC (Quality Assurance/Quality Control) and data verification in research, and the importance of this research to wastewater professionals.

At the completion of the first four-week trial period, I found that the preliminary results were supported by literature; specifically observations of the nitrogen cycle: as nitrification occurs, pH decreases and conductivity increases; and denitrification proceeds rapidly in zones of reduced oxygen concentrations. Thus, it can be deduced from the first four-week trial that denitrification does not occur without enhancing the general conditions of biosolids, i.e. by changing the temperature, changing the pH, or creating an anoxic/anaerobic condition.

Currently I am completing analysis for QA/QC purposes, which I will discuss later in this letter. The next step is to complete another four-week trial period (which I began at the beginning of this semester); it is important to replicate the experiments to have reputable and publishable results.

QA/QC procedures are used to guarantee the precision, accuracy, and reproducibility of analytical data. QA is used to verify that an analytical process is operating within acceptable limits. QC is used to maintain standards. Performing these procedures is essential to proving the validity of my research. Because I am gathering data and presenting my results in a public way, it is very import to me, Lafayette College, Vermitech, and the Nazareth Borough Municipal Authority that there is a 100 percent confidence level in these results.

As my QA/QC is being performed at a local analytical laboratory, I have been running tests on my second four-week trial period. I have expanded my research team to include two Lafayette students: [civil engineering majors] Emily Bernzott ’10 and Stephanie Mason ’10. While meeting with my project advisors and research team at the beginning of this semester, we asked the question, “Which bins do we keep?” We decided that we would keep all the bins, except the anaerobic bin (i.e. the control bin, worm bin, high temperature bin, low temperature bin, high pH bin, low pH bin). The anaerobic condition is mirrored in the lower halves of all of the bins and therefore does not need to be monitored again. Additionally, the feasibility of maintaining true anaerobic conditions for a waste water treatment plant (WWTP) that runs aerobic digestion is not reasonable.

The next question we asked was, “What new condition should replace the anaerobic bin?” We decided to introduce a carbon enhancement. It is hypothesized that a readily available carbon source would enhance the denitrification process. The addition of methanol to wastewater is a well-supported and successful technique for sufficient nitrogen removal. However, we wanted to consider carbon sources that might be readily available as a waste product from current industry, One waste source that was suggested through the PWEA Research Committee was spent sugar. Therefore, for initial tests we decided to use molasses, a by-product from the processing of sugarcane or sugar beet into sugar; we called this new bin the “carbon bin.”

While performing research and attending classes has been a bit of a juggling act this semester, the importance of my research has become clearer. I have created a list of reasons why my research project should be of importance to everyone:

1. Phosphate is the limiting nutrient, so why should we be looking only at nitrogen? Why should nitrate be the only concern if there will still be phosphate to produce algae (and eutrophication)? The Chesapeake Bay Agreement in 1987 mandated a 40 percent reduction of nutrient loads to the bay.(1) Also, per the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement, WWTPs in Pennsylvania are now being required to reduce nutrients in their discharges. This increases the importance for managing both nitrogen and phosphorus constituents.
2. Even though nitrogen removal is a requirement at WWTPs, it is harder to remove, and phosphate removal is easier to achieve (for example, using alum to precipitate the phosphate out).
3. Nutrient credits! To quote the Department of Environmental Protection, “Nutrient Trading allows one source to meet nutrient reduction goals by acquiring reduction credits from another source within the same watershed. Credits are generated when a source reduces nutrient loadings to a greater extent than required.”(2) It is hypothesized that through controlling land application of biosolids with lower available nitrogen for discharge/leaching, WWTPs may be able to utilize those credits towards their effluent requirements. Thus, we want denitrification to occur in the biosolids and therefore, we need to research at which conditions denitrification occurs.

I conclude this letter by thanking everyone who has been involved with this project: Professor Arthur Kney at Lafayette College, Jeff Budzich of Vermitech, Dean Minnich of the Nazareth Borough Municipal Authority, and all of the members of the PWEA Research Committee. I believe that the chance to perform research at an undergraduate level is a valuable one, and the opportunity to work with professionals in the field is truly an invaluable one.

Notes
(1) DEP Fact Sheet: Pennsylvania-A Leader in Preserving the Chesapeake Bay, October 2002.
(2) DEP Fact sheet: Nutrient Trading-Chesapeake Bay Watershed, February 2007

• Lindsey Brough ’08 Leads First Project of Student-Mentor Research Program
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• Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Undergraduate Research