For the month of September, the EPA will be joined by Dr. Levi M. Haupert, a physical scientist at the US EPA's Office of Research and Development, and Dr. Seth Darling, the Interim Associate Laboratory Director for Advanced Energy Technologies at Argonne National Laboratory.
Benzene Permeation in Polyethylene Drinking Water Pipes: Implications for Disaster Recovery
DR. LEVI HAUPERT
ORISE RESEARCH FELLOW, US EPA OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Polyethylene pipes are becoming increasingly common in water distribution networks and building water systems. Recent water contamination incidents resulting from wildfires and fuel spills have highlighted the need to better understand interactions between polyethylene drinking water pipes and organic contaminants such as benzene. Research is in progress at EPA’s Testing and Evaluation Facility to measure uptake and release of benzene in polyethylene drinking water pipes. The results of this research are expected to help regional, state, and local decision-makers develop sampling and decontamination strategies to assist communities recovering from contamination incidents.
Argonne National Laboratory
DR. SETH DARLING
Driven by climate change, population growth, development, urbanization, and other factors, water crises represent one of the greatest global risks in the coming decades. Advances in materials represent a powerful tool to address many of these challenges. Understanding—and ultimately controlling—interfaces between materials and water are pivotal. In this presentation, Dr. Darling will lay out the challenges and present several examples of work in his group based on materials engineering strategies for addressing applications in water. In each instance, manipulation of interfacial properties provides novel functionality, ranging from selective transport to energy transduction to pollution mitigation.