USU WEAU Takes Home Second Place in WEFTEC Student Design Competition

The USU Student Chapter of the Water Association of Utah returned from the Water Environment Federation’s Technical Exhibition and Conference last week, taking home second place in the water environment student design international competition.

The WEFTEC student design competition is based on problems relating to the protection of the circular water economy and is intended to include design projects that address challenges within the broader water environment.

Advised by Cazier Professor Ryan Dupont and Assistant Professor Austin Ball, the members of the WEAU student design team this year are Ross Allen, Abby Englund, Matt Farley, Chance Jensen, Abby Johnson, Donald Olsen and Parker Price.

“The team did a great job, and I couldn’t be more excited with the outcome,” Ball said. “We will continue to work hard to make sure we place again next year.”

The student design competition has two categories, wastewater design and water environment design. USU WEAU’s design was a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, removal treatment process for the East Canyon Water Reclamation Facility in Park City, Utah.

“The purpose of our proposal was to explore and recommend potential technologies for reducing harmful concentrations in the water at the East Canyon Water Reclamation Facility,” said Abby Englund, treasurer of WEAU. “We researched three ways to reduce these concentrations: using granular activated carbon, ion exchange resin that acts like a magnet, and a high-tech filter via reverse osmosis.”

These options were evaluated with regard to project cost, removal efficiency, space requirement, and overall environmental impact to recommend the best alternative. USU WEAU found that the best technology to implement would be the application of ion exchange resin, which can selectively remove unwanted ions— and possible contaminants — from drinking water.

“The use of ion exchange resin was a proven and effective treatment process capable of removing the contaminants,” Englund said. “This option reduced the concentrations with the minimum space requirement and environmental impact.”

After going dormant during COVID-19, USU’s WEAU student chapter returned to WEFTEC for the first time since 2019. This was the team’s first time placing in the water environment division and fifth victory in the competition overall since they started competing in 2009.

More information about USU’s WEAU can be found at this link.

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Writer: Sydney Dahle, sydney.dahle@usu.edu, 435-797-7512

Contact: Abby Englund, aenglund10@gmail.com