Environmental Engineering

Three faculty members headed out on Fulbright Program

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 19:45:41 +0000

Three faculty members headed out on Fulbright Program Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/11/2022 - 13:45

The U.S. State Department has offered four Fulbright U.S. Scholar awards to CU Boulder faculty members for 2022–23. The prestigious fellowships, funded through Congress and administered through the Institute of International Education, facilitate teaching and research abroad.

Karl Linden (Canada)

Linden is a professor and the associate director of the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering. Linden’s research in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia will focus on learning about water quality issues faced by rural and Indigenous communities—typically concerns around algal blooms and heavy metals such as mercury and arsenic from industrial mine tailings. These are topics in which collaborators at his host institution, St. Mary’s University, have regional expertise.

Linden hopes to help communities improve their water quality through treatment innovations and to broaden his own perspective through the fellowship, meeting with community partners, local water utilities and shadowing researchers at local universities. The issues he’ll study overlap with water issues in rural areas of Colorado and in Native American communities in the southwest, and this is a chance to bring ideas back to Boulder, he said.

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Air quality research in Denver schools highlighted by multiple media outlets

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 20:53:25 +0000

Air quality research in Denver schools highlighted by multiple media outlets Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 07/22/2022 - 14:53

Mark Hernandez's research to study air quality and COVID-19 in Denver Public Schools is being covered by numerous Front Range journalists.

Denver Public Schools is spending $1.5 million to track air quality in classrooms with new monitors installed by Hernandez and his students.

Hernandez, a professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, is an expert in genetic, biochemical and toxicological techniques to assess the efficacy of engineering interventions in sanitary and hygiene concerns.

His laboratory has a particular focus on aerobiology science for wide-area surveillance, indoor cleaning technology and the design of aerosol disinfection systems in the built environment.

The project is receiving coverage in the Denver Post, Denverite, 9News, and Chalkbeat Colorado

Denver Post: Denver Public Schools spending $1.5 million to track air quality in classrooms with new monitors

Denverite: DPS is adding air monitors in all of its schools

9News: DPS installs air quality sensors in schools

Chalkbeat Colorado: Denver schools to monitor indoor air quality using federal COVID money

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EPA awards $25,000 to CU Boulder to develop drinking water risk assessment tool

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 20:17:12 +0000

EPA awards $25,000 to CU Boulder to develop drinking water risk assessment tool Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/28/2022 - 14:17

The CHRIS project was conceived by CU Boulder alumnus Matthew Bentley (EnvEngr MS'17, PhD'20), who recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Professor Karl Linden and is now serving as an American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow at the United States Agency for International Development.

Bentley will serve as an advisor on the project.

Environmental engineering master's student Caleb Larison will be part of the student team, as well as numerous undergraduates who will be hired during the fall 2022 semester.

CU Boulder one of 16 student teams nationwide to be awarded funding to develop innovative solutions to environmental challenges

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is awarding $25,000 to a University of Colorado Boulder student team to develop a drinking water risk assessment tool as part of the Agency’s People, Prosperity, and the Planet (P3) Program.

CU Boulder is one of 16 student teams receiving funding for research and innovative solutions to address environmental and public health challenges.

Other projects include a smartphone app to monitor household lead concentrations, a mesh material to prevent shoreline erosion, and a household heating system for Tribal communities that’s cleaner and more efficient.

“The students honored today are leading the way when it comes to developing cutting-edge research to address some of our most challenging environmental concerns,” said Chris Frey, Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Research and Development. “I’m excited to support the next generation of scientists and engineers though EPA’s P3 program.”

With the funding, the CU Boulder team will develop an alpha version of the Chemical Health Risk Identification System (CHRIS) tool to assist in rapid chemical risk assessment and treatment selection for global drinking water sources.

“Chemical pollution is a contributor to global disease burden, and the CHRIS tool will fill an important knowledge gap by providing a wide range of stakeholders with knowledge about possible chemical toxin exposures in drinking water, along with appropriate treatment techniques for mitigation,” said Karl Linden, Mortenson Professor in Sustainable Development in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at CU Boulder. “Risk assessment tools such as this represent an important first step toward addressing the impacts of chemical pollutants on global health."

The team, using risk factors such as known chemical occurrence, common chemical sources, and other environmental risk factors, will develop unique risk profiles for drinking water sources under a systematic review process.

The tool will then suggest appropriate technologies and interventions to prevent community exposure to chemical contaminants. This alpha version will be validated against existing occurrence data for specific case studies where risk factors can be identified.

“This funding will help CU Boulder develop an initial version of a critical tool to empower people and communities to know more about the water they drink,” said EPA Regional Administrator KC Becker. “Using the tool, people will be able to make better and more informed choices to protect themselves from chemical pollution.”

EPA’s P3 program is a two-phase research grant program open to teams of college and university students working to design solutions for a sustainable future.

The 16 Phase I recipients announced today will receive grants of up to $25,000 each, which serve as their proof of concept. They will be eligible to compete for a Phase II grant of up to $100,000 to further implement their design in a real-world setting.

CU Boulder one of 16 student teams nationwide to be awarded funding to develop innovative solutions to environmental challenges. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is awarding $25,000 to a University of Colorado Boulder student team to develop a...

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CU Boulder researcher earns major award to study water quality challenges in rural Canadian communities

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 20:41:03 +0000

CU Boulder researcher earns major award to study water quality challenges in rural Canadian communities Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/09/2022 - 14:41

Jeff Zehnder

Karl Linden has landed a major fellowship to research solutions to water pollution in rural and First Nations communities in Canada.

Linden, the Mortenson Professor in Sustainable Development in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, has been selected as a 2022 Fulbright Scholar.

The prestigious U.S. State Department program offers scholars the chance to teach and conduct research around the world to expand American partnerships and share knowledge. Linden will spend the fall 2022 semester at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with a particular focus on water quality issues in Canadian First Nations Communities.

“The solutions engineers typically bring to small communities haven’t been working,” Linden said. “We have these intractable problems of water quality and treatment. We aren’t making the improvements in public health you’d expect to see. Somehow we’re missing something.”

Many First Nations communities in Canada are small and in remote areas, and some do not have safe running water or conventional sanitation.

“I want to help transform how we do engineering by incorporating more diverse solutions,” Linden said. “If we can build on engineering fundamentals but listen to and incorporate indigenous knowledge and values including the centuries of resilience embedded in these communities, we may find a whole new solution set of ideas and designs. It has to start with listening, rather than coming in with pre-conceived answers, which is how we engineers commonly approach problems. I am looking forward to taking the time to meet with communities and understand what kind of problems they want to solve, and then see what it takes to co-create solutions that work in the geographies and with the diverse cultures represented.”

Linden has focused his career on water quality and treatment efforts. He has made major contributions to the advancement of ultraviolet light systems for disinfection, which are now used by many municipal water systems.

“I’ve been working on UV solutions for decades, and it’s really exciting to see your research move into everyday use,” Linden said. “UV technology is now used for everything from single households up to disinfection for New York City, which has the largest water system in the world.”

A particular focus for Linden in Canada will be water quality issues due to algal blooms and heavy metals like mercury and arsenic from industrial mine tailings. These are topics in which his collaborators at St. Mary’s University have regional expertise.

“These metals and algal toxins impact the natural water quality, and the downstream users of these watersheds, including First Nations communities, are bearing the burden of this pollution, which needs to be treated to create safe and potable water,” Linden said.

He hopes to help communities improve their water quality and to broaden his own perspective through the fellowship.

“It’s a short time, just a few months, but I want to meet with community partners, local water utilities, and shadow researchers,” Linden said. “There are a lot of overlaps with water issues we have in rural areas of Colorado and in Native American communities in the southwest, and this is a chance to broaden my perspectives and bring ideas back to Boulder as well.”

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Smoke in the water - Engineers examine effects on land and water after wildfires are extinguished

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 15:33:51 +0000

Smoke in the water - Engineers examine effects on land and water after wildfires are extinguished Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/25/2022 - 09:33

The three largest wildfires in Colorado’s known history all occurred in 2020. More than 600,000 acres burned, with the Cameron Peak Fire alone causing $6 million in property damage.

Fernando Rosario-Ortiz
Professor, Environmental Engineering

While the last embers of the Cameron Peak Fire are long since extinguished, researchers are increasingly worried about how the remnants of those burns — and future fires — may threaten water supplies across the West.

Environmental engineering Professor Fernando Rosario-Ortiz said the chemical reactions that occur during a wildfire can lead to health and safety concerns when contaminants are released into water, in addition to the more visible and immediate effect on air quality.

“This is especially true in the context of fires at the wildland-urban interface, where if a home burns, we are talking about combusting everything inside those homes — from cleaning chemicals to, potentially, electric vehicle car batteries,” he said. “Better understanding all of those reactions with exposure to water is something that we will definitely need to explore further over the next few years.”

A researcher from Rosario-Ortiz’s lab collect water samples from a creek running through a burn area.

Wildfires are becoming increasingly common in Colorado and the West, thanks to climate change and land management processes over the last 30 years, which sought to suppress wildfires as quickly as possible. That combination has resulted in longer, more intense wildfire seasons that lead to larger, more intense burns due to dense vegetation growth.

When it comes to water and wildfire, though, Rosario-Ortiz and his colleagues are increasingly interested in the “burn scars” fires leave behind. Wildfires destroy the vegetation that holds soil in place. Without it, heavy rains can push mud and sediment onto interstate highways. Or carry bacteria and freshly formed toxic compounds from the fire into freshwater supplies — causing headaches for treatment facilities. Meanwhile, water contamination from burns could also limit freshwater sources during tight drought seasons.

Rosario-Ortiz and colleagues have been going into the field to collect samples from burn scars in California, Colorado, Kansas and Alberta, Canada, for analysis in the lab. They hope to better understand how ash can affect watersheds as it creates and spreads a wide range of potentially harmful organic compounds.

“Our results from that work show the complexity of how a wildfire can impact water quality,” Rosario-Ortiz said. “(Our recent study in Science of the Total Environment) is the first of its kind to identify a specific suite of aromatic acids in wildfire ash and surface water samples. And it will help with the broader discussion and understanding around the nature of dissolved organic matter and the impacts of wildfire on water quality and drinking water sources.”

While Rosario-Ortiz and others are focused on water quality and chemistry, Assistant Professor Ben Livneh is studying these kinds of issues from another direction. As a physical hydrologist, he and his research group explore how climate and landscape changes affect how much water is available in an area — and when. His work also examines how fires and rain can influence landslide risk.

His team is working on NASA-funded research that studies 5,000 landslide sites around the world. So far, they found that sites that had a fire in the past three years required less precipitation to cause a landslide.

Soil and water samples from Bennett Creek in the Rio Grande National Forest.

“But there’s also a lot of local variability that really matters,” said Livneh, who was also recently appointed director of Western Water Assessment. “We now have a lot of people who have built structures on steep slopes in these areas, so there’s a human element there, too. And the time of the year that it happens can be crucial. For example, when a fire occurs right before a large storm can be critical, like we saw in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, this past summer.”

Livneh added that as rain becomes more prevalent due to climate change, leaders, researchers and communities affected by slides and other interrelated problems will have to keep an open mind and work together to solve them.

“Management is a policy problem, and in the next 10 years we’re going to continue to have these big fires and see their impacts,” he said. “But the more open-minded we can be about managing for these things, the better. I’m kind of an optimist. As humans, we’ve overcome so many technical challenges, and I think we can continue to do so here and in the future.”

Up close at the wildland-urban interface

The effects of wildland fires hit close to home for the CU Boulder community in late December.

The Marshall Fire, which spread through Superior, Louisville and unincorporated areas of Boulder County, became the most destructive fire in Colorado’s history. More than 1,000 homes and businesses were lost, and approximately 6,000 acres burned. More than 60 CU Engineering faculty and staff were affected, as well as many undergrads, graduate students and alumni.

Researchers watch a drone take off from the Spanish Hills neighborhood.

CU Boulder researchers — including those from engineering — immediately swung into action to learn all they could to help in future disasters.

In February, Assistant Research Professor Brad Wham and colleagues from Oregon State and Purdue universities used drones to survey the damage as part of an initiative funded by the National Science Foundation that deploys researchers to disaster sites around the world.

Wham and his team hope to better understand the disaster from a uniquely engineering perspective: Why did some houses burn, for example, while neighboring homes survived? How did critical services like water, gas and electricity hold up during one of the worst disasters in Boulder County’s history?

“I think what we’re doing here is going to be beneficial in the future, especially with other communities that are going to have fires,” said Jessica Ramos, a senior civil engineering major who’s working on Wham’s research team.

The team planned to publish its initial findings through a publicly available report in March.

— Dan Strain contributed to this report.

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Clearing the Air on COVID-19: Duo Campus Project Aimed at Keeping Schools Open

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 18:33:32 +0000

Clearing the Air on COVID-19: Duo Campus Project Aimed at Keeping Schools Open Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/20/2022 - 12:33

ColoradoSPH, CU Boulder combine NASA-inspired technology and innovative masks to monitor viruses in classroom

The classrooms of Barnum Elementary School in Denver echo with the chatter of students and the instruction of teachers. The white, waist-high, curved machine in the corner is quiet as can be.

The machine, which looks like a less-complicated R2D2, contains a NASA-designed HEPA filter and is part of a cross-campus initiative between the University of Colorado Boulder and the Colorado School of Public Health (ColoradoSPH) at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. The project’s goal is to test and clean the air in classrooms across the state, preventing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and keeping the state’s schools open.

Reading the air

Mark Hernandez, PE, PhD, S. J. Archuleta professor of environmental engineering at CU Boulder, is leading the air-filtration part of the initiative that monitors the biomatter in classroom air. The system, designed at CU Boulder, is borrowed from a military technology that was used for bioterrorism or biological warfare assessment.

“This crossed over in the civilian sector for indoor assessment,” Hernandez said. “And prior to COVID-19, it was used for flood-damaged buildings. So we go into the public schools, characterize the ventilation performance and look at that biological quality of what the kids are breathing in school.”

The monitoring system can separate inorganic matter from biological matter in the air, helping assess the levels of viruses, such as RSV, influenza, COVID-19, tuberculosis, whooping cough and COVID-19. Hernandez’s lab has been researching the characterization and control of airborne microorganisms for almost 25 years. The study uses the large bioaerosol chamber in Hernandez's lab.

“We are using classic methods for culturing mammalian viruses as well as emerging instrumentation from the Colorado tech sector that helps them characterize the identity, distribution and infectious potential of indoor airborne microorganisms — notably including coronavirus,” Hernandez said.

Testing student masks

After seeing Hernandez’s project featured on 9News, May Chu, PhD, a clinical professor in epidemiology at the ColoradoSPH, reached out. Chu and her team have spent the last year successfully implementing a COVID-19 testing program in Denver Public Schools and local universities. The project uses disposable face coverings (masks) with a polyvinyl alcohol strip inside, right under the wearer’s nose, used to detect SARS-CoV-2.

�鶹��Ժ who opt to participate in the study – which is currently testing at seven college campuses representing 73% of all the registered college students in the state and at four K-12 schools – pick up masks in the morning and return them three to four hours later. Once the student hands in their mask, the ColoradoSPH team works with COVID Check Colorado to administer a nasal swab PCR test to detect SARS-CoV-2. The school gets the results of the nasal swab testing in the evening each day.

The study, funded by the World Health Organization, also includes the University of Leicester in England. Using the strip, researchers can determine whether participants are COVID-19-positive, even those who are asymptomatic or test negative through a nasal swab PCR test.

While the ColoradoSPH team has received overwhelming support from schools that welcomed the help to test students, they have been slow to find new participants, as many are experiencing burnout with all COVID-related activities and discussions.

“Our theory is that someone could be infected with SARS-CoV-2 in their nose, but we want to understand how much they’re actually exhaling the virus, because it's the exhalation that makes the person infectious,” Chu said. “If it stays in your nasal cavity and is not detected by the strips in a mask, then there's a good chance you're really not at high risk of infecting other people. We believe there is a difference in being PCR-positive and being actually of some risk.”

Keeping levels at bay

While the machines testing and filtering the air from Hernandez’s project give easy-to-read levels that schools can monitor independently, the ColoradoSPH team is working to compare the levels of SARS-CoV-2 in the air with the mask and positivity rates from her study. The ColoradoSPH study is seeking evidence that may lead to delineating when people should or should not wear a mask.

“If it stays in your nasal cavity and is not detected by the strips in a mask, then there's a good chance you're really not at high risk of infecting other people. We believe there is a difference in being PCR-positive and being actually of some risk.” – May Chu, PhD

“These students are in congregate situations all day, in dorms, at parties, shouting at sporting events, etcetera. So we hope to determine the ways in which they’re transmitting the virus or not,” Chu said.

“We want to find out the metrics that we can use to measure a classroom by the level of infectivity in the students and teachers,” Chu said. “This will allow schools to stay open because they’ll be able to measure and test the viral content in the air, and hopefully meet the metrics of low transmission, low particles or have high particles with fast removal.”

“This partnership between the ColoradoSPH and CU Boulder is so important,” Hernandez said. “We are interfacing building science and engineering with epidemiology, which we have never done before.”

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Newest AAAS fellows honored for work on nuclear winter, water treatment, STEM education

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 17:13:59 +0000

Newest AAAS fellows honored for work on nuclear winter, water treatment, STEM education Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 01/26/2022 - 10:13

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society, today announced that three CU Boulder researchers will join the ranks of its newest class of AAAS Fellows.

CU Boulder faculty named to the prestigious fellows program are: Noah Finkelstein, professor and vice chair of the Department of Physics; Karl Linden, Mortenson Endowed Professor in Sustainable Development; and Brian Toon, professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and research scientist in the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). AAAS honored the researchers for their work studying everything from physics education and nuclear winter to using ultraviolet light to keep water supplies safe for drinking.

Noah Finkelstein. (Credit: Noah Finkelstein)

Brian Toon. (Credit: CU Boulder)

Karl Linden. (Credit: CU Boulder College of Engineering and Applied Science)

The 2021 class of fellows draws from 564 scientists from across the country. Nearly 30 other scientists from CU Boulder have also received this honor since the late 1970s.

“AAAS is proud to bestow the honor of AAAS Fellow to some of today’s brightest minds who are integral to forging our path into the future,” said Sudip Parikh, AAAS chief executive and executive publisher of the Science family of journals, in a statement. “We celebrate these distinguished individuals for their invaluable contributions to the scientific enterprise.”

Terri Fiez, vice chancellor for Research and Innovation at CU Boulder, saluted Finkelstein, Linden and Toon for their new achievements.

“We are thrilled that AAAS is honoring these three pioneering researchers,” Fiez said. “They epitomize CU Boulder’s commitment to research that can improve the lives of people around the world, and to ensuring that this spirit of excellence and innovation translates into education and opportunities for our undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs.”

A lifelong educator

Finkelstein likes to say he has been teaching continuously since he was 12. He first shared his knowledge of Hebrew and computer programming with younger kids through summer camp programs in the early 1980s.

Today, AAAS has recognized Finkelstein’s work in “establishing and advancing the fields of physics education research and institutional transformation in STEM education with an inclusive mindset.”

Finkelstein explores how students learn about physics—and how educators can improve the experiences of budding scientists in their classrooms. He’s studied how college physics classrooms can be more inclusive for women and people of color who are historically underrepresented in the field. In particular, Finkelstein said he wants STEM classrooms to be about more than just memorizing facts.

“If I could snap my fingers and do one thing, it would be to support people in broadening our definition of what education is,” Finkelstein said. “Education is also about socializing individuals so that students coming out of classes think of themselves as science capable and engaged– so that our majors can walk and talk like physicists. They can not only recognize and apply Schrodinger’s Equation but also make sense of it.”

Finkelstein serves as one of the directors of the Physics Education Research group at CU Boulder. He was also a founding co-director of the Center for STEM Learning and sits on the Board of Trustees for the national Higher Learning Commission. He received his doctorate from Princeton University and joined the CU Boulder faculty in 2003.

Clouds overhead

Toon has long had an eye on the skies. AAAS honored the scientist “for fundamental contributions toward understanding the role of clouds and aerosols in the climates of Earth and other planets, and for warning the world of the dangers of nuclear weapons.”

Throughout his career, Toon has examined “virtually every cloud and aerosol system in the solar system and some on exoplanets.”

He’s delved into how the plumes from massive volcanic eruptions and wildfires can influence Earth’s climate and studied the potential dangers of nuclear warfare. Toon and his colleagues previously discovered even a relatively small-scale nuclear conflict could kill tens of millions of people and wreak havoc on food crops across the planet.

“This work influenced the recent United Nations agreement to ban nuclear weapons globally as land mines, biological weapons and poison gases have been banned in the past,” Toon said.

Toon earned his doctorate from Cornell University and has been at CU Boulder since 1997. Among other achievements, Toon received NASA Medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement in 1983 and 1989 and was one of the lead scientists who contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

Clean water to drink

Linden, professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, works to help rural communities, municipalities and other entities to control the spread of harmful pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 in air, on surfaces and in water.

He is acknowledged by AAAS “for distinguished contributions to the field of water treatment engineering, particularly using ultraviolet light for pathogen disinfection and abatement of organic contaminants in water reuse.”

Municipal and industrial water treatment facilities around the world use ultraviolet disinfection to eliminate harmful pathogens like E. coli and Giardia from water supplies in seconds. Linden, however, wants to go smaller—creating nimble and durable technologies that rural communities and countries with limited resources can use to treat their own water supplies.

Linden leads a five-year, $15.3-million project called the Sustainable WASH Systems Learning Partnership through the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering at CU Boulder. In 2020, he won the Borchardt-Glysson Water Treatment Innovation Prize and was named the Clarke Prize Laureate for outstanding achievement in water science and technology.

“I am so honored to become a fellow of AAAS—an organization at the forefront of defending the integrity of science, promoting science-based policy and decision making, strengthening diversity in science and advocating for educational and career opportunities in science and technology,” Linden said.

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What the Marshall Fire can teach us about future climate catastrophes

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 17:17:28 +0000

What the Marshall Fire can teach us about future climate catastrophes Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/25/2022 - 10:17

Nearly one month after the Marshall Fire became the most destructive and one of the most unique wildfires in Colorado history, CU Boulder researchers from across campus—many of them personally affected by the fire—have pivoted and applied their expertise to the aftermath, hoping to learn from a tragedy in their own backyard and help prepare the country for the next “climate fire.”

“What makes this fire really unique is that it happened in a community that is full of researchers that study this exact topic,” said Natasha Stavros, director of the Earth Lab Analytics Hub at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at CU Boulder. “We are going to have measurements unlike anywhere else.”

What makes this fire really unique is that it happened in a community that is full of researchers that study this exact topic. We are going to have measurements unlike anywhere else.”
–Natasha Stavros

As a grass-fueled December wildfire in a crowded suburb, the fire was quite different than the state’s massive forest fires of 2020, resulting in many novel impacts on the environment and human health. More than a dozen research projects are already underway, investigating everything from its impact on air and water quality, to the fire speeds that drove it, and how changes in infrastructure and insurance could limit damage from future fires like it. Researchers hope the findings can help inform homeowners, local governments and communities today and shape policies for tomorrow.

“In between all of us, there is so much expertise to address the causes and the impacts of this fire,” said Joost de Gouw, CIRES fellow and professor of chemistry. “If we come together to produce and publish research, we can really change the future of how we think about wildfire.”

Recipe for a winter wildfire

Three ingredients contribute to fire on the landscape: fuel, climate and ignition, said Stavros.

Due to higher-than-normal snowpack levels in late winter of 2021, a wet spring and a rainier than normal July, grasses grew abundantly in the Front Range throughout the year. By the time December rolled around, fuel accumulation was up 60% to 70% compared with a normal year. These plentiful dry grasses, combined with a 3-foot snow deficit and fierce Chinook winds, set the perfect stage that day for a spark to spiral out of control.

Avery Hatch, a CU Boulder doctoral student in environmental engineering, monitors indoor air quality in a spared home after the Marshall wildfire. (Photo by Casey A. Cass/CU Boulder)

Environmental engineering faculty Julie Korak and Cresten Mansfeldt collect water samples. (Credit: Fernando Rosario-Ortiz)

This abundant fuel would not have existed without increases in precipitation and snowmelt in the first half of 2021, followed by a drastic lack of moisture in the second half of the year—both of which point to climate as the driving cause.

“It’s the first time in my career I have felt comfortable saying this is a climate fire,” said Stavros.

Climate change will continue to have a hand in the future of wildfire, increasing the length and intensity of fire seasons as well as changing how, when and where water is distributed, said Stavros.

In addition to analyzing the impacts of fuel growth, researchers in the Earth Lab are also examining the role of another major factor in the Marshall Fiire: speed.

The Marshall Fire only burned 6,000 acres, less than half the size of Colorado’s second most destructive fire in state history, the Black Forest Fire. Yet it tore through twice as much infrastructure, accounting for 39% of all homes lost to wildfire disasters in the state since 1999, according to Maxwell Cook, doctoral student in the Department of Geography and the Earth Lab.

The fire also now ranks in the top 15 most destructive wildfire events in the western United States, only one of two grassland fires in that list.

Cook is currently working with Jennifer Balch, director of the Earth Lab, to conduct research on the factors which make a fire most likely to burn down homes.

So far, their data shows speed matters most. This may seem obvious, but Cook, Balch and their colleagues have developed new data that now allows them to track and quantify that impact.

“The speed of the fire is also really what makes it difficult for emergency management personnel to respond, to get evacuation orders out in time,” said Cook. “Management strategies that are aimed at reducing the speed of wildfires could be critically important for communities.”

This could include creating fire/fuel breaks around suburban neighborhoods and removing vegetation next to homes—strategies already broadly in use in foothills communities around Colorado. Early detection systems and quick emergency responses are also key, especially in densely populated neighborhoods.

The Earth Lab is also involved in helping develop better maps of where homes are at risk of wildfire across the West, which can help communities and insurances companies better plan for and mitigate that risk.

“We may need to think hard about what we define as the wildland urban interface (WUI). There's a lot of flammable landscape and development out there that's maybe not accounted for,” said Cook. “Building smarter, both in terms of where we build and how we build, that's going to be a big thing moving forward.”

Clearing the air

Three weeks after the fire, homeowners and renters who did not lose their residences still face an important unknown: Is it safe to go home?

Buildings were inundated with smoke, full of unhealthy compounds created as the blaze burned paint, fried refrigerators and melted metals in nearby homes. These chemicals, absorbed by surviving structures like a sponge, now pose a previously unquantified problem.

Air quality scientists from CU Boulder, CIRES and NOAA quickly compiled an online resource about the impacts of post-fire smoke cleanup in homes. Led by de Gouw, they next installed instruments in several surviving homes to measure levels of harmful gases and understand the lingering effects of smoke on indoor air quality. Another team of scientists have also been driving through affected neighborhoods with a mobile laboratory to measure what the remains of buildings emit into the immediate atmosphere.

An interdisciplinary team including engineers, social scientists and chemists from across campus will continue to collect data indoors over the coming months to inform residents and local governments and learn more about lingering human health concerns that wildfires in urban areas can present.

Downstream effects

Meanwhile, Fernando Rosario-Ortiz and his colleagues are studying water.

For years, the associate dean for faculty advancement at the College of Engineering and his colleagues in the Environmental Engineering Program have worked to understand the implications of wildfire on water. But they usually study forests.

“Combusting homes is a whole different ball game,” said Rosario-Ortiz.

It’s not just wood that’s burning in a suburban fire: It’s homes, vehicles and all the stuff in them: fabric, plastics, electronics, batteries, you name it. Those remains and the compounds created can find their way into local water systems. When a fire is quickly followed by rain or snow, as was the case with the Marshall Fire, concerns about contamination are even higher, he said.

Julie Korak and Cresten Mansfeldt, assistant professors of environmental engineering, have partnered with colleagues across campus, local community organizations and municipalities, to collect surface water samples in the area, test for concerning chemicals and address questions of watershed safety posed by residents. In the next month or so, the team will have initial results to share with stakeholders.

“Everyone here takes their water very seriously,” said Mansfeldt. “This work provides a first fingerprint of how a fire like this impacts a community, and how we can assist recovery.”

Building back better

Now that we know a fire like this is possible, the big question the Front Range faces is: How do we keep this from happening again?

A first step in answering: To get a comprehensive, birds-eye view of the damage.

Read more

Fire resources

To that end, Brad Wham, assistant research professor in the Center for Infrastructure, Energy and Space Testing, will join a national team of colleagues this week to fly drones over the burn sites before cleanup begins, gathering valuable clues about what happened that day. The work is part of a larger collaborative research effort, supported by the Resilient Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity IRT (RISE) within the College of Engineering and Applied Science, formed in the wake of the fire to connect environmental engineers, social scientists, first responders, and policy experts conducting work on natural disasters.

And once rebuilding begins?

“It is entirely practical to build back better,” said Keith Porter, adjoint professor of civil, architecture and environmental engineering.

Porter explains that using fire resistant materials to build a home doesn’t only make it less likely to burn, but they’re a relatively cheap upgrade (less than $10,000 compared to replacing a home worth $600,000) and due to their longevity, can lead to immense savings over the life of the home.

The International Wildland Urban Interface Code, for example—adopted in parts of Boulder County—requires that fire resistant materials be used in new construction. Porter points out, however, that unless cities and counties mandate this kind of fire code, homebuilders aren’t required to swap wood shingles for a non-combustible roof or to replace vinyl siding with stucco in new developments. When rebuilding, insurance companies may mandate that a house be replaced “like for like,” potentially inhibiting homeowners from replacing flammable building materials with fire resistant ones—even if it could save insurance companies money to let people do so, according to Porter.

As affected residents navigate their insurance policies, find temporary housing in a tight market and try to stay healthy during the omicron surge, fighting for fire resistant materials may not be able to be a top priority. This is why, Porter points out, the real power to protect public safety is not on the individual, but in the hands of local officials.

“Everybody else is affected by somebody else's house burning,” said Porter. “Both in an economic sense and in a moral sense, we really are all in this together.”

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Research In Focus: How Professor Sherri Cook Uses Sustainable Water Treatment Systems

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 23:27:21 +0000

Research In Focus: How Professor Sherri Cook Uses Sustainable Water Treatment Systems Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/01/2021 - 16:27

When working with University of Colorado Boulder Assistant Professor Sherri Cook, you'll push beyond the boundaries of what's possible. Watch and learn how she's building a more sustainable future, for everyone, through clean water systems.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0YzzbunfbI]

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McKnight named a CU Distinguished Professor

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 18:35:52 +0000

McKnight named a CU Distinguished Professor Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/01/2021 - 11:35

Jeff Zehnder

McKnight in Antarctica.

Diane McKnight is being recognized with the highest honor bestowed upon faculty in the University of Colorado system: Distinguished Professor, which is awarded to faculty for exemplary performance in research, teaching, and service.

A professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering; the Environmental Engineering Program; and the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, McKnight has spent her career studying ecological, biogeochemical and hydrologic processes in lakes, streams and watersheds, primarily in polar and mountain regions.

“I’ve been interested in hydrology and ecology since I was in college in the ’70s,” McKnight said. “It’s fascinating work and directly impacts our understanding of water quality and the influence of climate and hydrology.”

Her research has dramatically expanded knowledge about the relationship between natural organic matter and heavy metals in streams and lakes and led to her election to the National Academy of Engineering in 2012.

Much of her field work has been in extreme environments, especially polar regions – she has been to Antarctica more than two dozen times.

“The lessons that we learn in Antarctica get plugged in more broadly. The algae growing in streams there are very similar to algae growing in Colorado, but we can understand more clearly what’s happening there because there is no signal coming in from plants in the meadow or in the forest because there aren’t any meadows or forests,” she said. “They’re like naked streams. We can learn about fundamental processes.”

McKnight is one of the founding principal investigators of the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research Program in Antarctica, and she serves as chair of the National Science Foundation’s LTER Science Council.

“As we think about green engineering for green infrastructure, people are putting more value on sustaining rivers to help deal with floods in cities and various pollution issues. These ecosystem concepts are also very relevant to dealing with hazardous algal blooms,” she said. “There’s a realization that some of the water challenges can’t just be addressed by treating drinking water at the utility plant. We need a more holistic approach, a bigger view.”

McKnight earned her PhD in environmental engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979 and spent 17 years at the U.S. Geologic Survey, conducting field and laboratory research, before joining CU Boulder in 1996.

“I was at the USGS and had grad students working in my lab from CU Boulder, Colorado State, and the School of Mines. I really wanted to teach stream ecology. It’s an exciting field and the students are excited, too,” she said.

She was one of the founding faculty members of CU Boulder’s Environmental Engineering Program when it began in 1998 and has been part of its growth as an important discipline in the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

“We have as many students in a single environmental engineering class now as we had in the whole program when it started. It’s to CU Boulder’s great credit that this program has been supported and evolved,” she said. “I am glad to be part of how we deliver this curriculum and train our students. I am so indebted to my colleagues at INSTAAR and in environmental engineering who have been very supportive.”

Although McKnight is in the middle of a semester-long sabbatical, conducting remediation research on the hydrology of the Florida Everglades, she is eager to be back on campus for the spring 2022 semester.

“It’s a great privilege to teach a class and to advise and mentor students. You’re providing scope, being open to their ideas and also helping them stay focused and to take setbacks in stride,” she said. “They are so motivated and unafraid. It’s inspiring.”

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