Spring 2007 Officers

President Michael Jahne

Sophomore jahnema@clarkson.edu

Vice President

Elizabeth Carnie Senior

carniee@clarkson.edu

Treasurer Andrew Peer

Senior peeras@clarkson.edu

Secretary

Maxwell Martin Sophomore

martinma@clarkson.edu

in the same task. Teams were judged on their technical paper, oral presentation, poster, bench-scale model presentation and efficiency. The CE491 class chose one design task from a choice of seven. The task was titled "Bacteria and/or Virus Removal from Pond Water," and students were asked to develop and dem-onstrate a system that will re-move typical pond matter that may inhibit the function of an existing system, and bacteria and/or viruses from pond water often used by local produce

(Continued on page 5)

2006-2007 School Year

Volume 7

Clarkson University Student Chapter

bines. They are continuing to build more turbines and aim to reach a total number of 240 turbines by the end of 2007. The ultimate goal of the project is for renewable energy to supply 25% of New

(Continued on page 2)

Members Travel to Tug Hill Wind Farm in Search of Truth, Beauty and Wind Power

Senior Environmental Engineers Place Second at Design Competition in New Mexico

In early October of 2006, NY-WEA members embarked on a journey to Lowville, NY for an exciting tour of the Maple Ridge Wind Farm. The wind farm en-compasses approximately 12,000 acres of majestic landscape in the Tug Hill region that rests about 1600-1800 ft. above sea-level. The Tug Hill region is an excel-lent location for the wind farm because of its lake effect weather patterns that supply plenty of wind to the project.

Our visit to the wind farm began with a tour of the grounds lead by Lee Hinkleman, communica-tions manager of Maple Ridge. Lee gave our group the history of how the Maple Ridge Wind Farm project began and the di-rection and goals that it is trying

to reach in the future. Phase 1 of the Maple Ridge project was initi-ated in the spring of 2005 and the first wind turbine began producing electricity in December 2005. Currently, the wind farm harvests power from about 190 wind tur-

The civil and environmental engineering Senior Design class sent six students, along with Dr. Amy Zander, to the 17th Annual Environmental Design Contest in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Clark-son's team, known as the CURE (Clarkson Universality Remedia-tion Engineers) tied for second place at the competition, and the top three teams finished within

ten points of each other out of a possible 2,000. The CE491 class is multi-disciplinary, with civil and environmental engineering, chemical engineering, iE&M, and e-Business students.

The competition was held by WERC: A Consortium for Envi-ronmental Education and Tech-nology Development, adminis-tered by New Mexico State University. This international competition brings universities and schools together to compete and find solutions to unanswered real-world problems. Clarkson tied for second with Montana Tech, while the University of Waterloo's team took first place

Inside this issue:

Wind Farm Trip 1,2

Clarkson Senior De-sign Team Places 2nd

1,5

NYWEA Members Organize Adopt-A-School Science Class

2,7

Clarkson’s New Cam-pus Recycling Plan

4

Earth Day Spring Cleanup

4

NYWEA Members Attend Annual Con-ference in NYC

5

Engineers Present To Clarkson Students

5

New York Water Environment Association

bathtub). Then the students discussed ways to remove or lessen the affects of the hard water, including methods of water softening.

The ion exchange lab was an example of one method of water softening, as well as being a way that many industrial plants and waste water treatment plants remove pollution from the wa-ter. The students removed the color from a few different flavors

Clarkson NYWEA Members Reach Out to Local High School

In early April, Max Martin, Mi-chael Jahne, Andrew Peer, Ben Bergen, Josh Brown, and grad student Kevin Hickey went as representatives of the Clarkson NYWEA chapter to the Potsdam Central School to teach some of the high school students a few things about the environment as part of the Adopt-A-School pro-gram. The group, with class par-ticipation, conducted two differ-ent experiments for the students that were environmentally-oriented: an ion-exchange dem-onstration and a hard water demonstration. The hard water demonstration was a lab that had a personal impact for quite a few of the high school students. Potsdam, New York is a very rural area and many of the students had wells. Many of the wells in the area have very hard water, and many homes around Potsdam have water softeners to remove the minerals from the water. To show the affects of hard water, detergent was added to de-

ionized water and water that had dissolved mineral salts, and after shaking vigorously the “suds” levels were compared: in the hard water, the detergent had much less suds than in the de-ionized water. The students then came up with other negative affects of hard water: spending more money, because one will use more soap or detergent to clean things; more pollution, because more soap will be in the water system; bad taste, and scum (like the ring around the

Page 2 New York Water Environment Association

of Gatorade by using anionic resin. The NYWEA students explained that this was a method of pollution control, and talked a little with the high school stu-dents about this method of envi-ronmental friendliness.

Finally, Kevin talked about the project that he had been working on with a few other grad stu-dents and staff members; an

(Continuesd on Page 7)

York’s electricity by 2010. Next, Lee led our group into the base of one of the turbines where he proceeded to give us some of the “specs” of these breathtaking machines. Each turbine is com-posed of three main compo-nents, the tower, the nacelle (machine house atop the tower), and the rotor. The turbines are about 260 ft. high, with each rotor blade reaching a length of 130 ft, and a speed of about 14 rpm. The nacelle is about the length of a school bus and is mainly used for maintenance purposes. Each turbine is con-nected to underground cables that channel the generated power via a step up transformer and power lines into the New York electricity grid. The power is distributed to towns and cities

across New York State.

After marveling at the architec-ture and function of the turbines, our group then moved onto learning about the impact these machines have on the surround-ing ecosystems. Bob Carnie, a researcher hired by independent contractors, gave our group an interesting overview of the study his group is conducting regarding the impact of the windmills on local avian species. “I count dead birds and bats; it’s a pretty great job!” Bob exclaimed. Bob and a team of researchers are deter-mining the number of birds and bats that are killed as a result of flying into the turbines. The study is monitored by the De-partment of Environmental Con-

servation, the Army Corps. of Engineers, and the Audubon Society. The results of the one year study were just recently

Wind Farm Field Trip Continued

Below: Students and Members con-duct a lab about water softeners.

Above: Local high school students learn about water treatment through a Gatorade Ion Exchange Lab

published and it was found that the Maple Ridge farm is within the accepted parameters for number of birds and bats killed in one year, specified for a wind farm of its size. The study is planned to continue for another two years.

As a parting note, Lee and Bob were anxious to tell us about the plans for a Maple Ridge visitor’s center which were already un-derway. Our group had a great time seeing and learning about the beauty of sustainable energy and we look forward to return-ing next year to see the progress that the farm makes.

-Elizabeth Carnie

Employment Opportunities From Our Sponsors

Page 3 Volume 7

feasibility of food composting of organic foods.

One of the more innovative recycling ideas brought forth by the maintenance and custodial staff was establishing a special recycling/reuse program for students in May. Graduating seniors or other students leaving Clarkson, who normally discard their unwanted chairs, tables, silverware, pots and pans, TVs, computers, can now donate these items to a program that will allow incoming students to use them in the fall or give them to the Lending Cupboard, which will greatly decrease the amount of unnecessary trash in the waste stream. Other future plans include pro-viding proper recycling accessibil-

students hope to have more influence and a greater impact around the Clarkson University campus.

As for new efforts, NYWEA, ECO, and Deep Ecology are planning to bring speakers from off-campus to talk about the environment and recycling, as well as work with the custodial staff to position more recycling bins in public areas throughout the university campus. Deep Ecology hopes to investigate the

Clarkson University is teaming up with students, the custodial, and maintenance staffs in a uni-fied effort to help improve in the recycling efforts across campus. Recycling is important because it helps save energy and prevents pollution, and it reduces the amount of greenhouse gas emis-sions that contribute to global warming.

So how exactly is Clarkson get-ting involved and what is actually being done on campus? Student organizations such as the New York Water Environment Asso-ciation (NYWEA) and the Envi-ronmental Conservation Organi-zation (ECO) have instituted recycling programs in previous years. With the help of Clarkson, and with the addition of the new student group Deep Ecology, the

Clarkson Implements Much Needed Recycling System

Page 4 New York Water Environment Association

Campus Participates in Earth Day Cleanup

ity during hockey games in Cheel Arena and giving presentations to administration workers, pro-fessors, and other staff members so they are aware of recycling and what they can do to help.

-Liz Urban

Your Ad Could Be Here! If you are interested in helping to support this student newsletter and receive advertising

to both professionals in the environmental field as well as those students on their way to becoming professionals please send an email to the

Chapter Adviser: grimberg@clarkson.edu

Above: Members of NYWEA, ECO, and Deep Ecology who helped contribute to the recy-cling campaign on campus.

Left: A popular student band at Clarkson, Gelatin Offramp, per-forms at Earth Day.

On April 22, NYWEA and ECO co-hosted Clarkson’s annual Earth Day Barbeque and Campus Cleanup. The event kicked off around noon, when students spread across campus to pick up litter and trash that had accumu-lated over the winter months. Even University President Tony Collins and his wife joined in to help out, doing their part to help keep our campus clean. Later in

the afternoon, beautiful weather brought over one hundred stu-dents out to enjoy our free bar-beque, which featured live music by the local band Gelatin Of-framp. As part of the revamped Clarkson Recycles! program, with which NYWEA has been affiliated with since its inception, a Recycling Sculpture contest was held, in which teams of stu-dents competed to build struc-tures using only recyclable goods. The entire event was a major success, with a great turn-out and tons of fun!

-Michael Jahne

tiveness of the UV unit, which is used to inhibit the remaining bacteria passing through the filter.

Both environmentally friendly and cost effective, the compost filters are comprised of packed composted leaves that have the ability to absorb metals and other organics from the water. The leaf litter compost needs to be replaced about once a year, but the old compost can be used as mulch on the farm after it has been recomposted.

The team designed a working bench-scale model as well as a full-scale system and evaluated

Clarkson NYWEA Members Attend Annual Conference Clarkson graduate students, Xiaodong Zhou and Bhavin Bha-yani, presented their environ-mental research. Xiaodong’s presentation dealt with the im-pact of outdoor air pollution on indoor air quality, and Bhavin’s “Investigations on the Efficiency of Enhanced Porosity Concrete in Containing Vehicular Oil Spills,” presented his research on the ability of pervious concrete to contain leaking oil in parking lots; both presentations were well received by everyone in attendance.

Three chapter officers (Michael Jahne, Sandra Johnston, and Eliza-beth Carnie) also attended the event, and discussed ideas about chapter events, membership drives, and other activities with the other student groups attend-ing the conference. Students were also able to meet with state officers and prominent Young Professionals, providing both an excellent networking opportunity and a chance to consider the importance of bridging the gap between the collegiate student chapters and

the Young Professionals division upon graduation.

Of course, the students took full advantage of their stay in Times Square. The group enjoyed dining in The View revolving restaurant and walking the bus-tling city streets, and several caught a showing of the popular play “Wicked”. Overall, the trip was an enjoyable, productive experience, and we look forward to the opportunity to return for next year’s conference.

In February, several graduate students and undergraduate NYWEA officers, accompanied by advisor Dr. Stefan Grimberg, attended the 79th Annual NY-WEA Conference at the Marriot Marquis in New York City.

The conference brought to-gether professionals from across the state for three days of semi-nars and presentations on the present and future quality of our water environment, and included a University forum in which two

farmers to dilute crop protection chemicals. Clarkson's team de-signed a system for a small 150-acre farm. Other task options included topics such as desalina-tion, silica removal from inland brackish water, carbon manage-ment and conversion of biomass to useful energy.

Clarkson's design consists of a mesh prefilter to filter out large particles and algae present in the water. A pump draws the water from the pond through the filtra-tion system-a pair of leaf litter compost filters-and a UV disin-fection unit. The compost filters are able to filter out large parti-cles that may hinder the effec-

Page 5 Volume 7

costs and ways to market the system to farmers via advertise-ments with magazines, internet and television, and visiting trade-shows. The system was designed to be small enough to fit onto a trailer that can be pulled by a pickup truck. Small farmers can create a co-op, which would decrease the cost of the system per farmer and allow the system to be used multiple times throughout the month, since most farmers apply crop protec-tion chemicals only once a month.

The six seniors that accompanied Dr. Zander to New Mexico were Lindsay Hoffman, Melissa

Kipp, Rebecca Riner, Jason Rom-mel, Liz Urban, and Chris Wood.

The team that took first place at the competition set a record for the highest score in the seven-teen years this competition has existed. Out of a possible 2,000 points, the University of Water-loo scored over 1,600-however, Clarkson finished less than ten points behind.

-Katie Jones

Thank you to Dr. Amy Zander for supplying the photographs for

this article.

Environmental Engineering Senior Design Competition Continued

Volume 7 Page 6

John Brusa and Bill Seifried Present to Clarkson Students

anaerobic digester for a farm a little north of Potsdam. The digester took manure from some of the cows, removed the meth-ane, and turned the manure into better fertilizer. The methane can also be turned into bio-fuel (after some processing). The problem has been designing a digester that is small enough to fit on a farm, but large enough to handle the farm’s output of ma-nure. Once again, this hit close to home in the classroom, as many of the high school students live on or near farms.

The college students also spent a little time talking about general college life and about Clarkson. The high school students were all interested to hear what it was

Volume 7 Page 7

Adopt-A-School Program Continued

like to finally be out in the world, and to know about what we were studying and how it applied to their environmental science class.

The participation from the stu-dents was great, and both the high school students and NY-WEA members learned a lot. The project seems to be a nice break for the students and hope-fully will continue to be a benefit in the future!

Above: Mike Jahne (standing, left) works with high school students during the Adopt-A-School day.

Last fall, John Brusa of Barton and Loguidice, P.C., a consulting firm out of Syracuse, New York, and Bill Seifried of the Develop-ment Authority of the North Country (DANC) spoke at Clarkson about the beneficial uses of landfill gas. Brusa began the talk by discussing how landfill gas is generated and typical uses of landfill gas and giving a brief overview of the DANC project. Seifried then described the Rod-man landfill and DANC’s search for an ideal use of its landfill gas.

Landfill gas, which is like standard natural gas but less pure, is gen-erated from the decomposition of waste. It is primarily com-posed of equal parts methane and carbon dioxide gas, and in typical landfills, it is passively vented to the atmosphere using a curved pipe attached to a collec-tion well dug into the landfill or burned in a flare as a control treatment. Landfill gas is col-lected for a variety of reasons, including government regula-tions, odor problems, and health

and safety concerns.

When present in a large enough amount, landfill gas can be col-lected and used as a green en-ergy source. Landfill gas is com-monly converted to energy in three ways: combustion in its primary state, cleaning to pipe-line quality gas, or transformation to liquefied natural gas, which is more energy-intensive than any other fuel except nuclear materi-als but is viewed by the public as dangerous. In the first form, it can be used to heat or cool buildings, power kilns for applica-tions like drying lumber, applied to fish farms, used to develop greenhouses, or combusted for power generation. Recovering landfill gas is beneficial to the landfill because it can improve facility operations, lower operat-ing costs, and reduce or elimi-nate the cost of the system to control natural gas venting. Landfill gas capture has benefits for everyone, too; it helps re-duce dependence on fossil fuels, limits the amount of greenhouse

gases vented directly to the at-mosphere, and provides eco-nomic benefits and jobs.

The use of landfill gas for sup-porting greenhouses is especially interesting. For a typical green-house, energy costs are the sec-ond largest expense after labor costs. Natural gas is often com-busted to provide a heat source, but the costs of fuel have been steadily increasing in recent years. Many greenhouse owners are looking for ways to decrease their energy costs, whether by designing greenhouses that con-serve heat or switching energy sources.

In Niagara County, there is a company called H2Gro that runs a hydroponic greenhouse that produces 3.5 million pounds of vine-ripened tomatoes annually in its facility, which spans 7.5 acres and is entirely independent of fossil fuels. H2Gro partnered with Modern Landfill to create this immense greenhouse heated and powered entirely by gas generated from the landfill. In fact, combusting the landfill gas actually generates an additional 5.6 megawatts of electricity that is sold back to the New York power grid for a profit. The greenhouse’s electricity is pro-vided by combusting landfill gas, which gives off the heat required for the greenhouse. The heat melts snow from the roof in the winter, which is collected and

used for hydroponic production; condensation and rainwater are also captured and used to make up for losses due to evapotran-spiration. H2Gro’s project cap-tures a green energy source that is otherwise wasted, uses the waste heat byproduct for a bene-ficial purpose, and provides a sustainable food source for Western New York.

DANC is looking to implement a project similar to Modern Land-fill’s to utilize the landfill gas generated at the Rodman Landfill in Jefferson County. DANC plans to use landfill gas for elec-trical power generation at a power plant they will construct about 1.5 miles away from the landfill, which they believe is a reasonable distance to run gas pipelines. This power plant will produce energy that can be used to operate the landfill and other facilities at the site and also be sold to the New York power grid for a profit. DANC is look-ing into options for the waste heat that will be generated at the plant, including installing a hydro-ponic greenhouse. They also plan to build a commercial or industrial park on part of the property, looking to entice cor-porations by offering discounted electricity.

-Lindsay Hoffman

Left: Engineer John Brusa giving a tour of the Rodman Landfill to a Clarkson sen-ior-level Environmental Engineering class

The NYWEA Student Chapter

is an organization mainly for

students pursuing careers in

environmental-related fields,

but any student with an inter-

est in the environment is wel-

come to join. Most members

are pursuing degrees in envi-

ronmental engineering, civil

engineering, environmental

science, biology, or industrial

hygiene. Meetings take place

every other week, and they

focus on upcoming speakers

and field trips. Local chapter

dues are $5, and state dues

are $25 per student. Joining

NYWEA is a great way to

meet other students with a

common interest, as well as

professionals already working

in environmental fields all

around the state.

Interested in joining NYWEA??

EMAIL Mike Jahne at jahnema@clarkson.edu to be placed on Clarkson’s NYWEA Email, and Visit us on

the web at:

www.clarkson.edu/~NYWEA

Additional information can be found on the official website at:

www.NYWEA.org

Help Support This Student Run Newsletter!

If you are interested in helping to support this student newsletter and

receive advertising to both professionals in the environmental field as well as those students on their way to becoming professionals please

send an email to the Clarkson NYWEA Chapter Adviser: grimberg@clarkson.edu

Volume 7 Clarkson University

Student Chapter

Each year NYWEA officers and members dedicate a great deal of time and effort into recruiting new members. We feel that in order to maintain our integrity and reputa-bility as a NYWEA Student Chapter, it is vital to maintain substantial membership. Therefore, at the beginning of each semester and continuously throughout the year, our officers and current members promote NYWEA whenever and wherever possi-ble. New membership is vital to the sustainability of our Clarkson Chapter and is considered one of our top priorities. If you are interested in joining an organization that is concerned with protecting and maintaining our environment, then visit our table at the Open Houses and the Student Activities Fair, or send us an email.

New Member Recruitment