Unlocking the Nationwide Potential of the Water Reuse EPA Grant

Research Team Highlight

Led by The Water Research Foundation (WRF), Unlocking the Nationwide Potential of Water Reuse (project 5197) is an ongoing United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant. This project consists of four different tasks that all work together to establish the technical and social legitimacy of water reuse. The tasks focus on developing community acceptance strategies and robust technical designs that include monitoring, feedback, and highlighting successful implementation stories. Project 5197 has many enthusiastic team members and research partners, including Dr. Katherine Crank and Angela Leone.

Katherine Crank is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA). She received her PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, where her research focused on quantitative microbial risk assessment. Katherine is a part of Task A and works with Dan Gerrity (SNWA) on characterizing wastewater pathogens using wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) and predicting pathogen risk from water after various levels of treatment.

Angela Leone is a Research Assistant at The Ohio State University. She received her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and her Bachelor of Arts in Sustainability Studies at Otterbein University. Angela is a part of Task C and collaborates with Assistant Professor Anais Roque to analyze existing research on the public perception of reuse and community engagement opportunities.

While Katherine and Angela are only a year into their work, both have already had formative experiences. Katherine had the opportunity to collaborate with Arizona regulators on their efforts to develop regulations for direct potable reuse (DPR) across the state. She and her team used the microbial risk assessment they were working on as part of this project to help inform Arizona’s DPR log reduction values. “Working with Arizona on the development of regulations for direct potable reuse was an incredible experience. Our risk assessment directly influenced Arizona’s decisions, and it's inspiring to see research on the EPA Reuse grant directly contributing to the establishment of guidelines for water reuse. What's truly surprising is that we're already applying our findings—seeing our research in action just a year into the project is both gratifying and motivating.”

Conducting her literature review, Angela was surprised to find that much existing research on community engagement focuses on individual perception or reaction to reuse. “Coming from a physical science background, it has been interesting to explore the social sciences side of research. It’s easy for me, as an environmental scientist, to inform communities about how beneficial (and non-‘icky’!) water reuse can be, but, as a social scientist, we know that actively engaging community members in decision making processes is integral to ensuring the long-term success of water reuse implementation. We hope that our framework for engagement will encourage stakeholders to do more than just send out surveys to gauge public perception of water reuse implementation,” said Angela.

Katherine and Angela’s research showcase the importance of technical and social science working together to achieve a common goal. Katherine’s work with WBE and her goal of creating dynamic treatment trains based on pathogens in a community’s water supply at any given moment of time is dependent upon community buy-in for reuse. Without community acceptance and improved community engagement, scientifically sound reuse projects will continue to shut down. Angela’s goal is to create a path forward for utilities and municipalities to feel supported in collaborating with communities throughout the implementation process. Education and community engagement can only be successful with community trust, which ties back to Katherine’s pathogen risk assessment and risk mitigation strategies for ensuring that treated water is safe for human and environmental health. To stay up to date with Katherine and Angela’s work, and to learn about what other team members are doing, check out the 5197 project page on WRF’s website.