Lafayette Campus News (www.lafayette.edu), March 11, 2005 — The civil engineering and chemistry departments hosted an American Water Works Association webcast last month about the presence of the contaminant perchlorate in drinking water.

“Perchlorate is used in the manufacture of propellants such as rocket fuel, munitions, and fireworks, and has been found in some fertilizers from South America used in the United States,” says Arthur D. Kney, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. “Perchlorate is on the EPA’s Contaminant Candidate List, which means that it is a potential candidate for regulation.”

In anticipation of regulations regarding the levels of perchlorate in drinking water, chemical engineering major Paul Dimick ’05 (Quakertown, Pa.) and biochemistry major Steve Presciutti ’05 (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) have been working on a unique, sustainable perchlorate treatment process with Kney, Javad Tavakoli, associate professor and head of chemical engineering, and Steve Mylon, assistant professor of chemistry. The goal of the process is to remove perchlorate from drinking water and destroy the chemical in an environmentally friendly way.

Dimick presented the perchlorate research in November at the annual American Institute of Chemical Engineers Student Conference in Austin, Texas. Presciutti presented perchlorate research conducted by a multidisciplinary student team at last year’s 18th annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research.