News Release

UNC team wins EPA award
for water quality research

By KELLY OCHS
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- A student research team from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Public Health was one of seven recently selected to receive the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s first-ever People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) Award.

UNC’s team, from the department of environmental sciences and engineering, received $75,000 to continue research on point-of-use water treatment technology for developing countries. The EPA had last year given the UNC team, and 64 others nationwide, a $10,000 grant to begin research projects.

A panel assembled by the National Academy of Sciences judged the 65 teams, representing the work of more than 400 college students, when they presented their work on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in May. Award recipients were honored for the creativity and usefulness of their sustainable designs.

The UNC research team has been studying the effectiveness of three point-of-use water sanitizing methods for use in the homes of the more than 1.1 billion people worldwide who have no access to safe drinking water. The team tested the performance of low-cost sand filters, ceramic filters and a granular form of water treatment chemicals made by Procter & Gamble called PUR.

The next phase of the project, which will be funded by the P3 Award, will include an assessment of how point-of-use water treatments can reduce the adverse health effects caused by poor water quality.

The additional funding will allow the team to conduct field studies, one of which is already under way in the Dominican Republic.

Dr. Mark Sobsey, a professor in the department of environmental sciences and engineering, leads the UNC research team. Dr. Dale Whittington, also a professor in the department, will work with the team on the next phase of the project, which focuses on the cost-effectiveness of these water treatments.

The research team includes four graduate students in the department: Lisa Casanova from Tucson, Ariz.; Mark Elliott from State College, Pa.; Joe Brown from Chapel Hill; and Christine Stauber from Tempe, Ariz.

"Through their own creative efforts, the will to face the challenge of the task and incredibly hard work, they developed really innovative science and technology that made it possible for them to get this award," Sobsey said.

The UNC team also plans to raise funds to match the EPA grant, bringing the total amount for the project to $150,000. Procter & Gamble, the Center for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST), Samaritan’s Purse and various Rotary Clubs have already given money to fund the research.

"It takes a lot of money to do these studies, but now they’re within our reach, thanks to this grant," Casanova said.

Teams from Oberlin College, the Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Colorado at Denver, University of California at Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Michigan at Ann Arbor also received the P3 Award.

The P3 Award was launched last year to respond to the challenges of the developed and developing world in moving toward sustainability. This national competition enables college students to research, develop and design scientific, technical and policy solutions to sustainability challenges.

Support for the competition includes more than 40 partners in the federal government, industry and scientific and professional societies.

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(Ochs is a rising senior journalism and mass communication major from Winston-Salem.)

Note: Contact Sobsey at (919) 966-7303 or mark_sobsey@unc.edu.

UNC School of Public Health contact: Ramona Dubose (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.

News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu.