MPA ESP Students Dive into the World of Water Management Issues

Students in the Masters of Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy program get real world experience in water management, politics, and science through interactive courses. The summer semester for the class of 2007 includes courses in Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Toxicology, Hydrology, Climatology, Ecology and Biodiversity, as well as two social science courses, Earth Systems and Environmental Politics, Policy, and Management and the Workshop in Applied Earth Systems Management.

As part of a Hydrology lab, the class received a close-up view of the operations of the Edward Descher Secondary Wastewater Treatment Facility to see how it contributes to water conservation via recycling. Dr. Tim Eichler, Professor of Hydrology, said, “With water becoming an increasingly valuable commodity, it is important that we not only protect our current supply, but also find ways to conserve it. As it becomes increasingly difficult to discover new sources of water, recycling the current water supply is a logical alternative.”

To learn more about the recycling process, students visited the water treatment plant located in Elizabeth, NJ, which serves the Essex & Union Counties in NJ. Plant superintendent, Joseph Bonaccorso, gave the students a one-hour presentation on the treatment plant’s history and water treatment methodology. Students learned about the facility’s plans for future growth, the plant’s responses to heavy rain events such as flooding, the various stages of the water sanitation process, and the evolution of the wastewater technology over the years towards a more efficient process.

Samuel Wade ’07 felt that the trip was helpful in grasping the pressing nature of water management issues, saying, “The plant manager’s talk gave us an excellent real-world overview of the many political, managerial, and scientific intricacies associated with this type of complex facility.”

The lead science coordinator and professor of the Ecology and Biodiversity course, Dr. Kate McFadden, accompanied the students on their tour of the facility. To McFadden, the most valuable aspect of the trip was to see first hand where and how wastewater is treated for a large urban city. “I think it's really easy for us to take clean water for granted,” said McFadden. “Understanding the process of cleaning our used water is an important component in understanding how to most efficiently utilize our resources.”

Students were also impressed that the treatment plant is planning to deploy a large-scale cogeneration system that will generate electricity by burning the methane produced during anaerobic digestion of the waste. The methane will be used as an energy source to run the treatment facility in the future. Jon Philipsborn ’07 said, “I was inspired to see that the facility was very innovative in terms of environmental improvements and methods to change conserve and work towards the future of the facility and the communities/ecosystems that it affects.”

In the Hydrology course, students are introduced to the hydrologic cycle, the processes governing water quantity and quality, and how the atmosphere, oceans, and freshwater systems interact to affect the hydrological cycle and climate. The course focuses on basic physical principles (evaporation, condensation, precipitation, runoff, stream flow, percolation, and groundwater flow) as well as environmentally relevant applications based on case studies. Through this course, students are exposed to water issues from global to regional scales, and how human and natural processes affect water availability in surface and groundwater systems.

As future environmental professionals and policy makers, the MPA ESP class of 2007 is learning the science behind environmental challenges through interactive labs such as the Edward Descher Secondary Wastewater Treatment Facility tour.

More information about the program and the courses can be found on line at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/mpaenvironment/. Prospective students are welcome to sit in on classes and talk to students and faculty. For more information please email Louise Rosen at lar46@columbia.edu or call (212) 854-3142.