A team of marine scientists, a mussel farmer and youth volunteers in New York City recently stocked a raft with ribbed mussels to study whether the shellfish could be used to scrub the Bronx River Estuary of excess nutrients.

The group collected 32,000 mussels — native to the region — and attached them to a floating platform measuring 6 by 6 meters downstream from the Hunts Point Wastewater Treatment Plant.

After six months, the team retrieved 30 mussels and measured the amount of nitrogen stored in their tissues, estimating that the raft had removed around 6 kilograms of nitrogen from the river.

The study concluded that hundreds of rafts, fully stocked with 338,000 mussels apiece, could make a significant impact.

Source: Science Magazine

Teens Take Water Treatment Apprenticeship in Virginia

The Western Virginia Water Authority recently helped sell a group of teenagers on its water treatment apprenticeship program by taking them to its Spring Hollow Reservoir.

The reservoir features a 158-acre lake between some mountains. “They were really just in awe,” Mike Altizer, a water authority employee, told The Roanoke Times. “I think it challenged their minds, because they started putting things together.”

After the tour, five students were chosen after an application and interview process to be part of the authority’s inaugural class of apprentices.

Source: The Roanoke Times

Large Biogas Project Planned in Vermont

Middlebury (Vermont) College has announced plans to contract with a 900-cow farm in an effort to turn waste into gas fuel.

The college’s executive vice president says the project — now in its permitting phase — could help the facility further reduce its dependence on carbon-based fuels.

The anaerobic digester being planned will aim to produce the most renewable gas out of any digester in the state.

Source: The News & Observer

Wastewater Volume Expected to Double by 2025

Wastewater volume is expected to double by 2025 and the market for industrial water treatment technologies is predicted to grow by 50 percent by 2020, according to a recent report from The United Nations World Water Assessment Program.

In the report, there’s discussion about changing wastewater management from an attitude of disposal to one of reuse and resource recovery.

It also addresses new areas of industrial water reuse that are emerging and highlights some process technologies.

Source: UNESCO