EECE Seminar - Dr. Greg Harrington

Greg Harrington, Professor and Department Chair

Pieper Family Foundation Chair for Servant Leadership

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

University of Wisconsin - Madison

A Retrospective of UW-Madison's Discoveries on Nitrification in Drinking Water Systems

Abstract

Nitrification is a common concern for those drinking water systems that deploy chloramines for distribution system disinfection. Chloramines are deployed in systems that are either unable to maintain a free chlorine residual or produce unacceptable concentrations of chlorine byproducts. Chloramines are created by the reaction of free chlorine and ammonia, with ammonia often added in excess of stoichiometric need. In addition, ammonia is released as chloramines degrade. If present, ammonia oxidizing bacteria convert ammonia to nitrite, which consumes chloramines. This leads to loss of disinfectant residual and the potential for public health risk. This presentation will offer a retrospective view of UW-Madison's decade of award-winning research on this topic, with contributions ranging from fundamental science to engineering application.

Short Biography

Greg Harrington is department chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, where he has been since 1996. Administrative accomplishments include the creation of the university's undergraduate degree in environmental engineering. His research and teaching interests include drinking water treatment, distribution, energy use and regulatory policy. Greg also has 4 years of experience as a consulting engineer, having participated in design projects and numerous bench-scale, and pilot-scale studies for systems ranging in size from 1 to 1,000 million gallons per day. He has also participated in the development of federal regulations for control of disinfectants and disinfection byproducts. Finally, Greg served from 2000 to 2011 on the Board of the Madison Water Utility, with the latter two years as its president. His experience in research, teaching, practice, utility governance, and regulatory developme nt give him a broad perspective of the issues involved in the drinking water industry.