A pioneer in the field of water and wastewater treatment and one of my graduate school professors at the University of North Carolina, Dan Okun preached relentlessly on the multi-barrier approach to ensure safe drinking water: a pristine source, excellent treatment systems to remove pathogens and other harmful contaminants, and a disinfectant residual to everyone’s tap. With multiple graduate students at the University of Texas, I have spent 38 years learning and teaching about the excellent treatment systems that can provide that safe water.<br/> <br/>From particles to PPCPs (Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Projects) and from flocculation to filtration, I have been curious about the interactions between pollutants and processes and between chemistry and engineering. Along the way, I have had an occasional insight that perhaps has influenced how water and wastewater treatment plants are designed and operated; if that is true, I count it as a successful career. While such success is nearly impossible to measure, the accomplishments of my many PhD, MS, and even undergraduates is more easily seen; they truly have been my colleagues in the learning process, and for them I am most grateful. And my faculty colleagues, especially but not limited to those at UT, have been inspirational to me, enticing and pushing me to deeper understanding.<br/> <br/>Now my career enters a new phase—not complete retirement but a renewal, an opportunity to reflect, to perhaps earn the title of Doctor of Philosophy as I try to escape the narrowness of individual research projects and think more broadly about issues of water supply, water treatment, and direct potable reuse of wastewater, the ultimate non-pristine source.

Raw water to reuse: Reflections and renewal

255th National Meeting (2018)

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