Teams of 3 to 4 students will select one of the following projects:

Fall 2006

Determine a sustainable was to treat wastewater from a community in the county of San Miguel in the state of Sonora, Mexico. Reuse of the treated water to irrigate food crops including grapes is desired.

Main design needs:

• Determine appropriate methods to treat the wastewater from the community
• Design collection sewers, as needed
• Determine if safe reuse of the effluent water for irrigation is possible
• Determine necessary permitting and regulations
• Determine capital and O&M costs

RFP  | 

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Fall 2006

A Colorado coop to produce products from their goat herds wants the facility to operate as efficiently as possible, minimize waste and use natural systems for waste management.

Main design needs:

• Develop a plan that minimizes the use of water and other resources
• Determine how to minimize waste from the dairy and cheese making operations
• Design processes that emulate natural systems in managing and mitigating any wastes

RFP  | 

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Fall 2006

Investigate how to reuse and/or treat the glycerol slurry that is produced as a by-product from a community-scale biodiesel production facility, so that it can be sold as a useful commodity.

Main design needs:

• Determine if the slurry can be burned and used as a fuel source
• Determine if the slurry can be cost-effectively processed into methanol
• Compare these two options with other potential avenues of product re-use and reprocessing

RFP

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Fall 2006

Students select one of 5 projects (wastewater or water treatment related), and enter in the nationwide competition

Main design needs:

• vary based on project selected

RFP

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Fall 2004

Determine an environmentally sound way to extract energy from or reuse fly ash and coal dust waste from a power plant in Canon City, CO.

Main design needs:

• Determine if fly ash, coal dust, and other locally available wood can be combined into briquettes
• Determine the energy benefits and pollution impacts of burning the briquettes with coal
• Determine if other ways to divert the wastes to reuse are possible
• Determine necessary permitting and regulations
• Determine capital and O&M costs

RFP  | Results

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Fall 2004

Retrofit an existing wastewater treatment plant in Center, CO, to reliably meet discharge limits for BOD and TSS.

Main design needs:

• Determine if the existing SBR system can operate efficiently as designed
• Determine if the sludge processing system should be redesigned to achieve better dewatering

RFP  | Results

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Fall 2004

Investigate how to remediate a site contaminated with PCB-contaminated LNAPL and prevent the associated groundwater plume from reaching nearby municipal drinking water wells.

Main design needs:

• Investigate the hydrology at the site to determine likelihood of impacting wells and when
• Determine how to remediate the LNAPL
• Determine how best to prevent the groundwater plume from reaching the wells

RFP

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Fall 2004

Drinking Water Treatment

Main design needs:

• determine a low cost method to reach the new arsenic level

RFP  | Results

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Fall 2003

Wastewater Management

Main design needs:

• current evaporative ponds are overloaded
• low-cost, sustainable treatment
• potential reuse for agricultural irrigation

RFP  | Results

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Fall 2003

Solid Waste Management

Main design needs:

• identify an optimal new location for the Intermediate Processing Facility (IPF)
• select equipment for recyclables separation, upgrading, and densification

RFP  | Results

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Fall 2003

Food Waste Management

Main design needs:

• conduct cost:benefit analyses of food waste management methods
• evaluate various in vessel composting equipment
• determine an optimal site at CU for the facility

RFP

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Fall 2003

Environmental Remediation

Main design needs:

• remediate chlorinated solvents (tetrachloroethene, etc) at the site
• find a low cost solution
• short term solutions are preferred

RFP

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Fall 2002

Site Remediation of Soil and Groundwater

Main design needs:

• off-site chlorinated solvent plume
• chromium treatment
• low-cost, rapid clean-up

RFP

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Fall 2002

Wastewater Management

Main design needs:

• replace cesspools
• low-cost, natural treatment

RFP  | Results

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Fall 2002

Gray water management

Main design needs:

• water supply
• redesign toilet system to prevent backup and leach field adequacy
• prevent stormwater from flooding classrooms

RFP  | Results

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Fall 2001

Pig waste treatment to useful products

Main design needs:

• treat pig waste to reduce water pollution, odor
• provide soil amendments to help local crops
• incorporate other village organic wastes as possible

RFP  | Results

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Fall 2001

Water Resources

Main design needs:

• Provide adequate water quantity and quality for village consumption and crop irrigation
• Treat wastes to prevent contamination of the water supply

RFP  | Results

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Fall 2001

Community Wastewater Treatment

General Needs for the Future:

• Convert residents from individual septic systems to a community treatment plan to prevent contamination of South Boulder Creek
• Investigate costs to transport wastewater to City of Boulder for treatment
• Investigate building a wastewater treatment plant in the community

RFP  | Results

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Fall 2000

Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade

Main design needs:

• Provide increased municipal wastewater treatment capacity
• Wastewater treatment complies with stringent nitrogen and phosphorus limits

RFP