Recent research, according to the New York Times, indicates that urban areas are about to get hotter — much hotter. Not exactly what blistering New Yorkers want to hear after one of the more brutal, record-breaking heat waves in memory. Of course climatologists (and most of the rest of us) have known for a long… read more

A story by Dan Egan in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on July 6, 2010 pulls together threads of sewage, drinking water, commerce, ecosystem deterioration, politics, health, geography, and Asian carp to create a picture of how big a mess we humans are capable of making for ourselves.

The good news is that the migratory birds and resident marine life of Jamaica Bay may be getting a reprieve. In February, Mayor Bloomberg, the State Environmental Council and the Natural Resources Defense Council announced an agreement that would improve water quality and preserve the wetlands of Jamaica Bay. The Jamaica Bay Watershed Protection Plan commits to restoring degraded marshlands and reducing nitrogen discharge into the bay by 50 percent over the next ten years at a cost of $115 million to the city alone. Federal funds and resources are expected to supplement the project.

I recently took a trip to the Gowanus neighborhood in Brooklyn to visit its infamously polluted (and smelly) canal. After decades of controversy, the Environmental Protection Agency recently named the canal as a Superfund site—one of the few such designations in an inner-urban area. In its report, the EPA found that the Gowanus Canal “has become one of the nation’s most extensively contaminated water bodies,” with contaminants including “PCBs, coal tar wastes, heavy metals and volatile organics.”

The Green Policy and Environmental Policy Discussion Group of the The New York Academy of Science and the Columbia Water Center are sponsoring a panel discussion on The True Cost of Water on May 6. The focus of this panel discussion is the importance of economic optimization of water usage in the present and in the future to establish long-term sustainability of water resources.

About 150 people attended the first New York City Water Summit on April 9th, which was organized by Professors William Becker and Kartik Chandran of the Columbia University Dept. of Earth and Environmental Engineering. The morning sessions dealt with drinking water issues, while the afternoon sessions concentrated on wastewater treatment.  The event had a focus… read more

Part 2 of CWC interview with research scientist Kartik Chandran: Nitrogen in wastewater removal and technology development.

“As part of the nitrous oxide research program we are also coming up with process designs that remove nitrogen from both the liquid and gaseous space. Not one against the other. This is actually going into place all across the United States.”

Kartik Chandran, an Assistant Professor at the Columbia University Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering and the Director of CUBES, spoke to CWC about microbial drug resistance and nitrogen in wastewater treatment, and its relationship with climate change.

Two of the most important, though less visible, environmental issues will have their day on April 9th. Attendees at the first New York City Water Summit will spend the day exploring the issues of drinking water and waste water, from technical and policy perspectives.

One of the main threats to health in both the developing and developed worlds is the increasing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics. On February 19, Kartik Chandran, Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering talked with Water Center staff and students about his study of the role wastewater treatment might play in this complex issue.