Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Sheri Smith / America’s landfill space is quickly depleting as the population continues to experience rapid growth; as the population grows the amount of daily waste generated increases at an alarming as well. In fact, by the year 2024, America would have exhausted all land areas dedicated to landfills. Currently, nationwide mandated regulations or standards to decrease the amount generated solid waste, construction waste, composting waste, or reducing waste at the source; do not exists. The following report researches effective practices that would make a waste management system sustainable. In order to rate the sustainability of the management system, a score sheet was created drawing from literature written. By creating a score sheet, individual waste management systems are able to determine if they are indeed sustainable and/or in need of improvement. The City of Chicago, Illinois, was chosen as the city to be measured and has proven to have a promising future as a prototype in effective sustainable waste management practices.

Anaerobic biological treatment of hazardous wastes and pollutants is playing an increasingly important role in the application of biological treatment technology. Research into the biodegradability of priority pollutants and the effect of those pollutants on the biological treatment system itself are vital to the understanding of how to economically and effectively apply the treatment system. The objectives of this research were to develop quantitative information about the fate and toxic effects of selected toxicants (2-nitrophenol, 3-nitrophenol, 4-nitrophenol, 2,4-dinitrophenol and 2,4-dichlorophenol) on an anaerobic propionate enrichment system and to study the usefulness of monitoring the headspace gases hydrogen and carbon monoxide as predictors and indicators of toxicity. Batch anaerobic toxicity assays (ATA) were performed with serum bottles to study the fate and effects of the selected nitrophenols and chlorophenols. Chemostats were operated at 10-, 16- and 30-day solids retention times (SRT) to study the fate and effects of 4-nitrophenol. The toxicity of the nitrophenols and chlorophenol studied in this research decreased in the following order: 2,4-dinitrophenol, 2,4-dichlorophenol, 4-nitrophenol, 2-nitrophenol and 3-nitrophenol. There is less inhibition of systems at 30-day SRT as compared to the systems at 10-day SRT with 4-Np up to 33 mg/l. The toxicity effect of 4-nitrophenol on the culture is primarily the inhibition of the propionate utilizers. The hydrogen utilizers were not affected and the effects on the acetate utilizers were masked. The 4-nitrophenol removal due to chemical transformation and sorption is about 12%, and since volatilization of 4-nitrophenol is negligible, at least 83% of 4-nitrophenol removal could be due to biodegradation. Hydrogen and carbon monoxide are not useful as parameters for prediction or monitoring inhibition of HPr degradation by 4-nitrophenol in propionate systems / acase@tulane.edu

A critical mass of adopters, a majority of which are usually opinion leaders, is required for the diffusion of any innovation to become self-sustaining. All public wastewater facilities in Vermont and New Hampshire were surveyed to determine which facilities exchange information, which have adopted UV, and what characteristics are common among adopters, non-adopters, and opinion leaders. Two networks, based on the exchange of general information and information about disinfection technology, were constructed using UCINET; they indicate UV has likely been adopted by a critical mass. Opinion leader facilities' employees interact with consultants and vendors. Opinion leader facilities' managers work closely with their staff and are active in professional organizations. Non-adopter opinion leader facilities are fiscally conservative while innovative opinion leader facilities are shaped by decisions of the community's elected officials. Distance between facilities was mapped using GIS software and did not influence the type of disinfection technology adopted / acase@tulane.edu

A pilot-scale test rig was constructed to simulate intrusion behavior associated with hydraulic transients. Initial tests were conducted using a high-speed datalogger to verify low/negative pressures. Results indicated negative pressures (maximum -12 psi) for 3 to 5 seconds following sudden valve closures. With steady state flow, three orifice diameters (1/8 ″, ¼″ and ½″ ) were overlaid with 3 or 4.5 feet of head to simulate cracks or leak points in a water distribution system. Based on volumetric measurements, average intrusion volumes associated with transients ranged from 47.3 to 550.2 mL. Based on chemical tracer (cesium) measurements, average intrusion volumes ranged from 11.4 to 71.2 mL for 1/8″ and ¼ ″ orifices, respectively. Differences were attributed primarily to dilution of cesium in the test rig. Results also were compared to theoretical and computer model predictions. Findings from this research demonstrate that external water and pathogens potentially can intrude into pipelines during transient events / acase@tulane.edu

The objective of this research is to determine what is a time optimal control for diafiltration membrane separation processes. Diafiltration membrane separation is a dewatering process of a slurry from an initial bulk phase concentration (C0) to a final bulk phase concentration (C b,f). When rates of the material entering the system match rates leaving as a permeate, it is termed permeate matching diafiltration. Managing the controlled variables of the system in a time optimal manner maximizes the solid production capacity. Time optimal controllers have been used in many practical applications, but it has not been applied to water resources management The case study for this dissertation is a particular ultrafiltration process (UFP) to be used at the Hanford Department of Energy (DOE) facility, which is a pinch-point of a proposed Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) for the treatment of low activity waste (LAW) and high level waste (HLW). Improving the performance of the UFP will directly improve the performance of the WTP. It is asserted that the feed into the UFP and transmembrane pressure differential (TMP) should be allowed to vary with time to minimize the time needed to go from C 0 to Cb,f. This form of diafiltration is termed time optimal diafiltration It will be shown that permeate matching diafiltration and time optimal diafiltration are equivalent in terms of dewatering times, but that permeate matching diafiltration is open loop. Time optimal diafiltration will be shown to exhibit feedback through the use of sliding mode control. The advantage of this closed loop approach will be demonstrated. Furthermore, an empirical relationship is derived for the optimal time of dewatering associated with permeate matching diafiltration that can be used for sizing ultrafiltration processes / acase@tulane.edu

Garbage is a global problem. In Texas, soft regulations and landfill closures have made way for the dawn of the mega landfill. The reduction of landfill locations multiplied by extreme suburban sprawl, has forced the landfills to take on a vertical mountainous form to accommodate consumption and land boundaries. Such a metamorphosis has spawned coalitions to fight against the visual and sensory upheavals growing in their own communities; ironically it is only due to their own making. This thesis looks at three new paradigms of garbage organization and disposal that produce alternatives and finds positivity in the inevitable we already face.

The purpose of this study was to determine the removal efficiency of natural systems for the reduction of enteric protozoa (Giardia and Cryptosporidium), and enteric viruses in wastewater. The first part of the study used bench-scale soil columns to determine the potential effectiveness of Soil Aquifer Treatment (SAT) for the removal of Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cyst from treated wastewater. Sand and sandy loam were used to pack 18 to 200-cm long columns. Results from this study showed that removal of oocysts increased as increasing length of the soil column. Although substantial removal of Cryptosporidium occurs (>99.99%) within 200 cm of soil, oocysts are likely to penetrate beyond this depth. Giardia was removed far below detectable levels, probably due to its larger size. The next phase of the project investigated the removal of pathogenic and indicator microorganisms from untreated wastewater by a surface flow wetland, the importance of plants in wetlands, as well as the potential for groundwater contamination passed by pathogens with the use of constructed wetlands. This small-scale study was conducted in a large tank divided into two cells. Both cells were filled with sand and one cell was planted with bulrushes and the other was unplanted. About 90 percent of all microorganisms were removed by either of the systems. Neither Giardia nor Cryptosporidium were found to penetrate through the 2-m of sand in either the planted or unplanted cells. Lower numbers of viruses and bacteria were transported through the sand in the planted wetland cell versus the unplanted cell. This could indicate that vegetated wetlands are more likely to prevent microbial transport to groundwater. The objective of the last part of this study was to determine the survival of Cryptosporidium oocysts in wastewater effluent applied to a constructed vegetated wetland, when exposed to and when protected from sunlight, and the effect of temperature during different seasons. Viability of Cryptosporidium oocysts was determined using the excystation technique. Results from this study indicated that sunlight and/or temperature play a significant role in the survival of Cryptosporidium. Thus, it was concluded that oocyst reduction in wastewater applied to wetlands can be enhanced by natural die-off due to the effects of temperature or UV irradiation in sunlight, and greater removal could be achieved if designing of wetland systems take into consideration such factors.

A coupled process one-dimensional model with two-region transport, two-domain nonlinear sorption, and nonlinear biodegradation is formulated in this research. A numerical code is developed for this complex system with two sets of initial/boundary conditions. The second order upwind method is used to solve PDEs of the system, and the Adam-Bashforth three step method is used to solve ODEs of the system. By nondimensionalizing the governing equations for transport and nonlinear biodegradation, we show that biodegradation is controlled by three characteristic combined factors: the effective maximum specific growth rate, the relative half-saturation constant, and the relative substrate-utilization coefficient. A diagram with type curves was constructed based on the three characteristic factors to show the conditions under which complete and incomplete biodegradation is observed, and the conditions for which the linear, first-order approximation is valid for representing biodegradation. Analytical and numerical approaches were used to study the effect of substrate boundary concentration on biodegradation in a coupled-process system. For a system with fixed biotic and abiotic properties, substrate input concentration could be positively or negatively correlated to the magnitude of substrate degradation, depending on the time scale of the process. The relative scale of substrate concentration and its half-saturation constant is very important for the success and efficiency of bioremediation. It is found that bioremediation can be more efficient for higher concentration contaminant under certain conditions. The impact of biodegradation on solute transport with linear or nonlinear, equilibrium sorption was studied by using moments analysis. Computation results show that linear biodegradation has no impact on spatial moments of transport with linear instantaneous sorption. Conversely, it has an impact when sorption is nonlinear, since nonlinear sorption is enhanced by biodegradation. Nonlinear biodegradation causes preferential non-uniform substrate degradation and, therefore, affects spatial moments of transport with linear or nonlinear sorption. The oxygen constraint decreases the degree of nonlinear biodegradation and increases the degree of preferential degradation, thus it also impacts spatial moments of transport with linear or nonlinear sorption.

The piazza is failing as a typology of public space in Florence, Italy due to sprawl, tourism, and the profuse use of the car. However, the city of Florence keeps building new piazzas to act as a public space inside the Centro Storico and in sprawling Florence only to find them empty and unused. Instead of creating new piazzas, the city should be looking towards the successful types of public space which include the parks outside of the historical center. What if needed infrastructure is used to fund public space? Currently Florence dumps all of its untreated wastewater into the Arno and consequently pays 1/2 billion euros annually in fines to the European Union. In addition, the Arno floods catastrophically with the last major flood occurring in 1966 causing over 10 billion euros in damage to date. While the city image of Florence is very different than the realities of Florence, even tourists can not escape the consequences of the sewage filled Arno which floods. Building a wastewater treatment plant within the city limits and turning it into a contemporary public park would fulfill the Florentines' needs for communal/public space while also cleaning the water.

The objective of the research presented here is to determine how the representation of the spatial variability of aquifer properties affects ground water flow and contaminant transport modeling at the United Creosoting Company site in Conroe, Texas. Simulations are performed using spatial distributions of aquifer properties generated by each of three methods: constant value estimation, polynomial trend surface estimation, and kriging point estimation. The significance of using a representation of an aquifer property is dependent on the modeling purpose. In natural gradient ground water flow simulations the representation of hydraulic conductivity and bottom elevation significantly affected model calibration. The representation of aquifer properties generally did not affect model calibration of natural gradient contaminant transport modeling, but do affect the shape and size of the simulated plume. The representation of aquifer properties was very useful for identifying feasible ground water recovery options.