The Preliminary Engineering Report (PER) served as the capstone-equivalent component of the Decentralized Wastewater Treatment design elective (ENVE 443), providing students with the opportunity to synthesize technical knowledge, regulatory considerations, and practical design skills developed throughout the semester. The project required students to develop a preliminary report and conceptual design for a decentralized wastewater treatment system tailored to a real-world scenario in West Virginia, often reflecting rural or peri-urban settings where centralized infrastructure is not feasible or cost-effective.
The primary goals of the project were to:
Apply engineering fundamentals to site-specific wastewater treatment challenges, including flow estimation, loading rates, and treatment goals.
Evaluate treatment options appropriate for decentralized contexts, such as septic systems, aerobic treatment units, constructed wetlands, or package plants.
Incorporate environmental, regulatory, and public health considerations, including NPDES discharge standards, setback distances, and nutrient removal.
Emphasize system sustainability, operation and maintenance requirements, and community acceptance.
Develop skills in professional communication by producing a structured, technically sound preliminary engineering report and accompanying presentation.
This project encouraged students to think critically and holistically about decentralized wastewater solutions, integrating computational engineering analysis with the social, environmental, and regulatory dimensions of design.
Undergraduate civil and environmental engineering students Jessica Grant, Sarah Nelson (WVWRI student worker), and Alexandra Schultz took this project a step further by collaborating with the Buckhannon River Watershed Association (BRWA). Alongside instructor and PhD student Christopher Anderson, the group met with BRWA virtually and in-person during the project site visit in Adrian, West Virginia to understand the impact of both rural wastewater and acid mine drainage (AMD) in the area.
The PER developed for Adrian demonstrates a potential solution to the wastewater challenges faced by one of many small, rural communities today, and highlights the amount of work that must be done to address the environmental and societal impacts of underdeveloped wastewater treatment strategies. BRWA hopes to use the PER to aid in their next steps of remediating Bull Run, a stream impacted by AMD and fecal coliform, and developing a better decentralized wastewater solution for Adrian.