We are facing an ever increasing challenge to meet the world’s needs for clean, safe drinking water. The number of chemicals found in our drinking water is increasing annually at an astounding rate. Water quantity and quality are rapidly becoming critical issues, even in the U.S. where unparalleled drought and higher demand have pushed water supplies to point of exhaustion. In the winter of 2007/2008, some areas of the Southeast experienced water shortages, to the point that reserves were inadequate for fire fighting.
We all face the daily challenge to conserve water, reduce our contamination of the water, and/or treat the water so it can be used or reused for other beneficial uses. In most cases, there are no simple answers or solutions. Even a simple question such as, “Do disposable diapers use less water than cloth diapers?” becomes complex, because the disposables are made by different processes that consume different amounts of water, while washing cloth diapers at home consumes 2 to 3 times as much water as commercial laundries.
Exponent’s environmental scientists and engineers are working on a number of fronts to increase our supplies of clean drinking water. These fronts include devising innovative and practical means of recovering waste pharmaceuticals to prevent their entry into our rivers, streams, and lakes; testing new treatment technologies to demonstrate their ability to rapidly and effectively treat wastewater to allow recovery and reuse; development of innovative natural treatment systems to return clean water to the environment; and development of treatment systems to better use/reuse the water we are consuming.
We work with industrial and municipal organizations to determine the cause and source of process upsets that prevent cleaning of the wastewater. We also work with municipalities, building managers, and home owners to address water systems that fail to meet standards, and we investigate infrastructure and equipment failures with our engineering associates in other practices to determine the cause of these failures and to allocate responsibility.
Our services include:
- Testing of new treatment technologies and products to scientifically assess efficacy and efficiency
- Conducting process evaluations to determine the cause of upsets and the source of any foreign material associated with the upset
- Designing innovative natural treatment systems to treat wastewater and return it to the environment
- Analyzing process, operation, and equipment failures in support of litigation or litigation defense
- Evaluating water supplies and treatment technologies to meet clients’ drinking-water requirements
- Developing novel industrial water treatment and reuse systems to reduce water demand and meet wastewater treatment requirements