Month: August 2019

By Mark Sheely, NM WRRI Program Coordinator

Over the course of two weeks, two different events sent NM WRRI staff to two different states of Mexico to help grow binational collaboration efforts in addressing border water issues that affect both the United States and Mexico.

From August 8-9, 2019 the Healthy Borders, Healthy Waters Educational Curriculum Development Workshop was held at the Juriquilla campus of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) just outside of the city of Querétaro. This workshop connected the National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network CE³SAR to ongoing Border Solutions Alliance activities. The goal of this workshop was to facilitate binational discussions to foster collaborative partnerships that could ultimately lead to the development of a foundation for a “Water for Healthy Borders” curriculum. Throughout the two-day workshop, attendees made up of faculty and grad students from across the Southwest and Mexico identified key drivers to water issues on the US-Mexico border that could be distilled into online course modules intended for a high school or early post-secondary audience. The module frameworks developed by four breakout groups examined topics such as consumptive water use amongst different social actors, using a forensic crime scene framework to teach students about basic hydrogeologic concepts, illustrated shared water management strategies through a case study of border cities sharing the same water, and examined water conservation practices through the lens of water equity.

Several faculty of UNAM Juriquilla’s Geosciences Center presented on and demonstrated the hydrogeological research being carried out in central Mexico. The first day’s session also ended with a tour of the Geosciences Center’s lab facilities. Attendees also had the opportunity to visit the historic city centers of Querétaro and nearby San Miguel de Allende.

The following week, on August 15, 2019 a delegation from NM WRRI departed early in the morning for the five-hour drive to Chihuahua City to represent New Mexico State University at the Expo Agro Internacional Chihuahua / Foro de Agua in Chihuahua City.  Amidst stands dedicated to Chihuahua’s agricultural products, equipment manufacturers, and governmental organizations, prospective students thronged the stand shared by NMSU’s Water Science and Management graduate degree program and the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences to learn more about requirements and offerings of different degree programs from PhD student Jorge Preciado. The location of the expo in Chihuahua also made it possible for NM WRRI staff to visit Border Solutions Alliance collaboration partners from the Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua (UACH). UACH faculty treated NM WRRI Director Sam Fernald and Program Coordinator Mark Sheely to a tour of their university’s new chemistry department, part of a larger project to build a new campus on the edge of the city to eventually replace the original UACH campus in the city center. Throughout the meeting, continuing collaboration efforts were discussed in regards to the Border Solutions Alliance proposal and convocation in Washington D.C. in February 2020.

By Carolina Mijares, NM WRRI Program Manager

Janie Chermak joined the faculty at the University of New Mexico in 1995 and served as the Chair of the Economics Department from 2012-2016. Dr. Chermak’s research and teaching interests include interdisciplinary modeling, applied microeconomics, and natural resource and environmental economics with an emphasis in energy, water, and invasive species.

Professor Chermak received a BA in geology from Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado. Dr. Chermak obtained her MS and PhD in mineral economics from Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. From 2016-2017, Dr. Chermak was an invited member of the Science Advisory Council convened to review the science of the American Water Resources Association and the Journal of the American Water Resources Association. She also has served on the Albuquerque Bernalillo Water Utility Authority Technical Customer Advisory Committee since 2016 and is currently the Committee Chair.

During her time at the University of New Mexico, Dr. Chermak has supervised 25 graduate students (MA and PhD). Many of these students focused their research on water and water issues in semi-arid climates. Janie Chermak is currently the advisor of an NM WRRI Student Water Research recipient, Alyssa Latuchie. Latuchie’s research focuses on the New Mexican’s willingness to pay to treat produced water, which could provide an additional water supply to the state. The study utilizes a survey, administered to a sample of New Mexicans in order to assess the value New Mexicans place on this potential water source. The goal of the research is to consider the feasibility of produced water from a societal perspective, rather than from the private market.

Professor Chermak’s recent work focuses on modeling and comparing optimal residential water pricing options under conservation and capital investment objectives with heterogeneous consumers. In addition, she is just beginning a study of the potential impact on water resources to rural communities under changing energy production in the state.

By Holly Brause, NM WRRI Research Scientist

NM WRRI hosted the Border Water Solutions: Proposal Planning Workshop on August 1-2, 2019 in Las Cruces with support from New Mexico State University and the West Big Data Innovation Hub, and in collaboration with the Border Solutions Alliance and the Autonomous University of Chihuahua (Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua). Thirty-three participants attended, representing diverse disciplinary backgrounds from institutions in New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and Chihuahua.

The event began with welcome statements from Héctor Rubio Arias of Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua (UACH) and Sam Fernald (NM WRRI), and followed with “flash talks” given by each attendee to introduce the participants to one another. Morning presentations were given on the topics of Binational Institution Collaboration, and Proposal Fundability. During the afternoon session, the participants were divided into small groups to identify unifying water concerns, integrative approaches to study those concerns, and desired outcomes of the collaborative research. Each group later presented their ideas, and a lively open group discussion followed.

On day two of the event, Saeed Languardi (NM WRRI) presented the possibility of working collaboratively on a National Science Foundation AccelNet proposal. Small groups then formed to discuss opportunities, actions, and desired outcomes of an AccelNet grant. The participants then reconvened to share ideas and for further discussion.

This event was a follow up to the June 11, 2019 breakout session, Innovative, Multidisciplinary Water Research to Address the Needs of the US-Mexico Border Corridor, that is part of the NSF sponsored Border Solutions Alliance (BSA). The goal of BSA is to bring together innovative research to address the needs and opportunities specific to border communities in both Mexico and the United States.

By Mark Sheely, NM WRRI Program Coordinator

Over the course of two weeks, two different events would send NM WRRI staff to two different states of Mexico to help grow binational collaboration efforts in addressing border water issues that affect both the United States and Mexico.

From August 8-9, 2019 the Healthy Borders, Healthy Waters Educational Curriculum Development Workshop was held at the Juriquilla Campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) just outside of the city of Querétaro. This workshop connected the National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network CE³SAR to ongoing Border Solutions Alliance activities. This workshop’s goal was to facilitate binational discussions to foster collaborative partnerships that would ultimately lead to the development of a foundation for a “Water for Healthy Borders” curriculum. Throughout the two-day workshop, attendees made up of faculty and grad students from across the Southwest and Mexico first identified key drivers to water issues on the U.S.-Mexico border that could be distilled into online course modules intended for a high school or early post-secondary audience. The module frameworks developed by four breakout groups examined topics such as consumptive water use amongst different social actors, using a forensic crime scene framework to teach students about basic hydrogeologic concepts, illustrated shared water management strategies through a case study of Ambos Nogales, and examined water conservation practices through the lens of water equity.

The workshop also saw presentations from several faculty of UNAM Juriquilla’s Geosciences Center, demonstrating for attendees the hydrogeological research being carried out in central Mexico. The first day’s session also ended with a tour of the Geosciences Center’s lab facilities. Attendees also had the opportunity to visit the historic city centers of Querétaro and nearby San Miguel de Allende.

The following week, on August 15, 2019 a delegation from NM WRRI departed early in the morning for the five-hour drive to Chihuahua City to represent New Mexico State University at the Expo Agro Internacional Chihuahua / Foro de Agua in Chihuahua City.  Amidst stands dedicated to Chihuahua’s agricultural products, equipment manufacturers, and governmental organizations, prospective students thronged the stand shared by NMSU’s Water Science and Management graduate degree program and the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences to learn more about requirements and offerings of different degree programs from PhD student Jorge Preciado. The location of the expo in Chihuahua also made it possible for NM WRRI staff to visit Border Solutions Alliance collaboration partners from the Autonomous University of Chihuahua (UACH). After several visits by UACH researchers to NMSU up to this point for workshops and meetings, this time UACH faculty treated NM WRRI Director Sam Fernald, and Program Coordinator Mark Sheely to a tour of their university’s new chemistry department, part of a larger project to build an enormous new campus on the edge of the city to eventually replace the original UACH campus in the city center. Throughout the meeting, continuing collaboration efforts were discussed in regards to the Border Solutions Alliance proposal and convocation in Washington D.C. in February 2020.

By Jeanette Torres, NM WRRI Administrative Assistant

Dr. Sarada Kuravi, Assistant Professor of Thermal Science and Energy in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Director of the Renewable Energy and Thermal Systems Laboratory at New Mexico State University, was recently awarded a Desalination and Water Purification Research grant for her proposed project concerning solar stills and improving their performance. This project entitled, Enhanced Solar Desalination using Innovative Approaches for Concentrate Treatment and Energy Recovery, will strive to not only increase the availability of fresh water in India but also in drought-affected areas within the Southwestern United States. With a budget of $300,000 (federal share of $150,000), the project period is awarded from January 2020 through June 2021.

Dr. Kuravi was awarded funding in 2017 through the Cooperative Agreement between the Bureau of Reclamation and New Mexico State University, Center for the Development and Use of Alternative Water Supplies. Her awarded project entitled, Low Cost, Low Energy Concentrate Water Desalination using Heat Recuperative Solar Still with Concentrating Solar Technology, spanned on designing an innovative solar still system to aid in water desalination by utilizing novel multidisciplinary engineering and science-centric elements to increase fresh water production and waste heat recovery. Kuravi has submitted three research papers on this subject for publication. Due to her findings and results from this Cooperative Agreement project, she was able to develop a solid foundation for her newly funded research.

The main focus of Dr. Kuravi’s latest project will be on providing an enhanced and more reliable type of solar still that is capable of producing fresh water up to 15 times more efficiently than the traditional, non-altered design. According to Dr. Kuravi, “Novel and viable multidisciplinary engineering and science-centric elements (e.g., mirror technology, binary surfaces, composite interfacial layer, and external condenser) proposed in the project will cumulatively contribute to achieving a rapidly increased fresh water production rate and waste heat recovery at high temperatures.” Her prototype design will be used to address brackish water and reverse osmosis concentrate at the Brackish Groundwater National Desalination Research Facility in Alamogordo and the collected data will then be sent for analysis to determine its adaptability regarding salinity and water chemistry.

Dr. Kuravi will lead the study with the help of co-principal investigators Drs. Krishna Kota, Pei Xu, Young-Ho Park, and Huiyao Wang. She will also have the assistance of the National Institute of Technology located in India, where several scholars will help provide testing and feedback on the efficiency of the solar stills being tested. Others involved in the performance of this study include three graduate students, two undergraduate students and multiple capstone students who will be assisting to ensure the study progresses as smoothly as possible.

The successful completion of this research will help provide a better, alternative design to solar stills in order to greatly improve their current output of water production and desalination rate, thus enabling sustainable sources of fresh water to be produced at lower costs and give relief to struggling rural communities. Dr. Kuravi believes, “Solar stills have the potential to be the most affordable choice in remote and arid areas and are ideal for handling the water demands of distributed systems.” Without the costs of relying on fuel or electricity, solar stills are an affordable alternative to producing clean water and Dr. Kuravi’s alternative design will make solar stills a useful tool for mitigating water scarcity.

By Jeanette Torres, NM WRRI Administrative Assistant

Dr. Frank Huang, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, received a 104B seed faculty award, associated with the research grant between US Geological Survey and New Mexico State University in 2006 for his project entitled, Mitigation of Membrane Biofouling by Harnessing Bacterial Cannibalism. This grant is presented to researchers who show great potential and dedication to providing quality information concerning water availability, future consequences of water usage, and responding to water concerns as they arise. Additional funding from Sandia National Labs, and the State of New Mexico also helped pave the way for him to continue his research and provided the groundwork for his membrane experiments to flourish.

Dr. Huang’s research on membranes from 2005-2010 investigated several different properties (occurrence, prevention, and mitigation) of membrane fouling with a focus on biofouling and its environmental consequences (e.g., damage to the structural integrity of pipes and other structures). This issue was addressed in his study regarding bacterial cannibalism to help control biofouling in New Mexico. His research has resulted in a reliable solution to cleaning biofilm while helping reinstate membrane desalination to reclaim precious water for future usage.

With the success of this project came many other opportunities for Dr. Huang, including a 5-year National Science Foundation EPSCoR grant in 2013, which provided him with the necessary funding to further his development of membrane infrastructure, fabrication and characterization in order to improve water desalination and wastewater reuse. Dr. Huang’s successful studies continued to gain recognition, and in 2018 he was awarded funding ($399,488) from the United States Bureau of Reclamation for a Phase II, pilot-scale project entitled, Geothermal Membrane Distillation for Large-Scale Use. For this study, Dr. Huang will perform field research on membrane distillation in collaboration with Masson Farms and AmeriCulture.

In 2019, Dr. Frank Huang’s newest second Phase II, pilot-scale project entitled, Thermally Regenerable Pressure Forward Osmosis (T-PFO) for Concentrating High-Salinity Produced Water, was recently announced as one of only five national winners to be awarded funding for a Phase II study. Even more impressively, his project was 1 out of 30 to receive the maximum grant amount of $400,000. Dr. Huang describes his second Phase II, pilot-scale project, as one that will be used to perform field testing of a thermally regenerable pressure forward osmosis (T-PFO) process on concentrating highly saline produced water so that a techno-economic model can be developed to assess the commercial viability of full-scale systems. As his research and data collection advances, Dr. Huang and his team will hopefully discover more novel connections and gather results that will further the study of water research.

Information regarding Dr. Huang’s projects and research can be found at: https://sites.google.com/view/membranes-at-nmt.

Information regarding the Bureau of Reclamation award can be found at: https://www.usbr.gov/newsroom/newsrelease/detail.cfm?RecordID=66943