Suez North America, the company that operates the Springfield Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility, has partnered with the University of Hartford’s Water Quality Engineering class this semester to learn more about how the Facility’s wastewater system is operating. The goal is to identify opportunities for improving treatment efficiency or for saving energy, which reduces both operational cost and carbon footprint.

Professor Todd Brown's civil engineering seniors, Hussain Aljafr, Sahan Bin Shawyah, and Geoff Hook, were at the plant on Tuesday, October 3, to measure the rate at which the microorganisms in the treatment system use up the oxygen in the water. This indicates both the amount of pollutants present at that point in the process and how quickly the pollutants are being removed.

In the CE 420 course, the students learn the physical, chemical, and biological theories of water treatment and wastewater treatment and disposal; operational principles of various treatment plant components; and state and federal regulatory standards.