Spring 2025
Testing Drinking Water Quality and Building Science Communication Tools
Instructors:
- Dr. Katya Cherukumilli
- Jessamine Li (HCDE MS 2nd-year student)
The purpose of this Spring 2025 DRG is to advance two recently-funded research projects focused on increasing access to safe drinking water in institutional settings. Students will work in groups to (1) collect and analyze drinking water samples from fountains in select campus buildings, (2) analyze existing water quality datasets from WA State primary schools, and (3) develop effective communication artefacts (e.g., website, app., maps, info. sheets, etc.) to educate and persuade key stakeholders to make critical decisions based on the findings.
(1) Water Quality Testing on UW Campus: Through this project funded by the Campus Sustainability Fund, students will learn techniques to properly collect, handle, and store drinking water samples from 10 UW campus buildings. They will assist in submitting collected water samples to the UW Environmental Health Laboratory for sample processing. Students will visualize the water quality data and develop an appropriate communication strategy to share information about the condition of building infrastructure and options to mitigate potential concerns. In addition, students will develop fact sheets to educate campus users about the sustainability, health, and economic impacts of using plastic water vs. filtered tap water
(2) Lead in Water Remediation in WA Primary Schools: For this project, students will focus on building a web-based application to help connect WA school district officials to available state funding to remediate and address lead contamination of drinking water in WA primary schools. The web tool will summarize school-level water lead testing data collected by the WA Department of Health (e.g., % of lead-contaminated water fixtures, estimated cost of replacing water fixtures). Additionally, the tool will inform the general public and intended users about health concerns associated with lead exposure, sources of lead in water, and tradeoffs of different water remediation technologies.
Enrollment information
- This DRG can count toward the PhD directed research requirement
- Meeting time: Fridays, 2:30 - 4:30pm.
- Credits: 2 credits recommended (equivalent to 2 hours of in-person DRG class meetings and 4 hours of additional work per week).
- Who should apply:
- We are only recruiting upper-level undergraduates (juniors and seniors) and graduate students (M.S. or Ph.D) to participate in this DRG.
- Desired skills include data visualization, web development, science communication, and/or prior experience with experimental wet lab work or water quality testing.
- Desired interests include environmental and public health, public infrastructure, and/or water equity.
- To apply: Submit this google form before midnight on March 16th, 2025.
- Anticipated notification date: March 26, 2025
Questions? Email Katya Cherukumilli (katyach@uw.edu) and Jessamine Li (ljl555@uw.edu)
Winter 2025
Rebuilding the Nation’s Drinking Water Infrastructure - Where are the Lead Pipes and What Comes Next?
Instructors:
- Dr. Katya Cherukumilli
- Stephanie Hung (HCDE PhD student)
After the Flint water crisis, the U.S. EPA passed landmark federal regulation in 2021 called the “Lead and Copper Rule Revisions”, which established new requirements to protect people from lead exposure through drinking water. One requirement is for all community water systems to replace any lead service lines with an alternative material (such as copper, plastic, or galvanized steel) within the next 10 years! However, there is growing concern that these alternative materials may also contaminate future water supplies and pose a threat to human and ecosystem health.
The purpose of this Winter 2025 DRG is to gather, synthesize, and vizualize data from lead service line inventories submitted by community water systems to gain a snapshot of the plumbing materials being used across the United States. In particular, this collaborative work will help shed light on the following reserach questions: (1) Which regions across the U.S. are currently using lead (versus other materials such as plastic, galvanized steel, or copper) to transport water from water treatment plants to communities, households, and institutions? (2) Is there evidence that certain utilities are prioritizng plastic as the alternative material for service lines due to its low cost? and (3) Which regions are at higher risk of damage to their water infrastructure due to climate disturbances such as wildfires and other extreme weather events?
Enrollment information
- Meeting time: Exact meeting time will be jointly decided later on based on group availability.
- Credits: 2 credits recommended (equivalent to 2 hours of in-person DRG class meetings and 4 hours of additional work per week).
- Who should apply: We are primarily recruiting upper-level undergraduates (juniors and seniors) and graduate students (M.S. or Ph.D) to participate in this DRG.
- Desired skills include data visualization, data mining/aggregation, database management, and/or building online dashboards for science communication.
- Desired interests include environmental and public health, federal policy/regulations, public infrastructure, and/or water equity
- This DRG counts toward the directed research requirement for PhD students.
- To apply: Complete this Google Form by midnight on December 5, 2024.
- Anticipated notification date: December 15, 2024
- Questions? Email Katya Cherukumilli (katyach@uw.edu) and Stephanie Hung (sshung@uw.edu)