Abigail Cantor is a chemical engineer and founder of Process Research Solutions. She is leading a course through UW–Madison’s InterPro at the College of Engineering titled Corrosion Control and Water Quality Improvement in Drinking Water Distribution Systems. As an Online Anytime offering, you can engage with the course materials at your own pace. We sat down with Abigail to learn more about her background, her work, and this exciting course.
Who am I?
I have a master’s degree in chemical engineering and a bachelor’s in civil engineering. Since 1980, I have worked as a consulting engineer designing water and wastewater treatment processes. A significant change in my work occurred in 1991, when the lead and copper rule first went on the books as a drinking water regulation. I was assigned to help the city of Madison, Wisconsin come into compliance with this new rule. It didn’t take long to realize that there were many unanswered questions. Observations in the field did not match what I was reading in the technical literature. That fascinated me. Since then, I have focused on how to determine what shapes the water quality in a given water system and how it can be controlled.
To serve my clients and scientific principles properly, I’ve developed tools and methods to gather and interpret data from water distribution systems and guide water quality improvement.
What got me into this industry?
Working directly and technically with environmental issues was the draw for me into this industry. After graduate school, I worked at environmental engineering consulting firms, including my own. Solving water quality issues in municipal water utilities, large buildings, and residencies around the country has been a fulfilling way to help communities access improved water quality. This work appeals to me on many levels. First of all, I love contributing to the well-being of society. I know many of my colleagues feel the same way. On another level, the science behind water quality is absolutely fascinating. Additionally, this is puzzle-solving detective work. In every project we solve a puzzle. We figure out what factors shape the water quality and how we can control them.
What will this Online Anytime Course cover?
This course is divided into four modules with a series of 15–20-minute videos in each module.
- Module 1 introduces you to a comprehensive perspective of water quality. It then gives you a method to quickly determine the vulnerable locations in your water system for the release of lead and copper as well as other water quality issues.
- Module 2 teaches you how to write what I call a “living” desktop study. Here, you’ll learn how to gather existing information and data from a water system and understand the dominant factors that may be shaping the system water quality. If you update this study routinely, you can determine if you are heading toward lowered or enhanced water quality.
- Module 3 looks at tools and methods that are available for controlling these dominant factors. By the end of Module 3, we will have developed a monitoring plan specific to our water system and will have designed a complete demonstration testing and monitoring program for lead and copper control and other water quality issues in the distribution system.
- Module 4 explains methods of working with the monitoring and other system data. Then, it will show how to bring together the desktop study and the demonstration testing and monitoring plan into an overall water quality process control protocol, similar to quality control in industrial processes.
What is the “Comprehensive Perspective of Water Quality?”
Water comes to our water systems from nature, and is not just hydrogen and oxygen. It is a complex solution of chemicals and microorganisms. Many regulations, probably by necessity, oversimplify compliance methods. But, in practice, we can’t ignore the multitude of factors and the complexity that nature gives us. We can’t solve problems unless we obey nature.
What will you gain from this course?
This course is key to broadening your perspective to understand a water system and the factors shaping its water quality. While a main focus of the course is the control of lead and copper release, you will see that this naturally leads into the broader issues of distribution system water quality. This course, with its optional assignments, is a practical guide to operating a water system with enhanced consumer water quality. You can put your new knowledge to work immediately.
This course goes beyond the oversimplified regulatory approach to lead and copper control. It offers additional concepts and methods that give you the tools to understand distribution system water quality. It also gives you the tools to carry out the necessary detective work to solve water quality issues.
Who is this course designed for?
There are many roles that people play in the drinking water field, and this course provides information that can be applied to all of them. I want people who work at water utilities to have the knowledge and power to carry out fundamental actions that increase the quality of drinking water. Through my work as a consultant to utilities, I’ve realized that there are basic steps that every water system can take to stay in compliance with water quality regulations and to enhance water quality in general without the need of a consultant. I hope people who work at water utilities will take this course to be so empowered. I’m talking about water system operators, water quality managers, general managers, and even people who sit on utility oversight committees.
I also want to share this knowledge with other consultants. This course presents an organized approach, along with tools and methods, to understanding drinking water systems. I want to make sure that this comprehensive perspective is in everyone’s toolkit. For regulators, I hope this course clarifies where regulations stop and other factors begin.
I also encourage people who work with drinking water in other countries to participate in this course. Understanding this comprehensive perspective is essential for everyone. This is what nature brings to us and this is how we can work with it. The course helps you tame nature’s complexity while also respecting it. Nature will always be the arbiter of what works.
What do I enjoy most about teaching this course?
I feel very strongly that this comprehensive perspective needs to be known and put into practice. I’m very pleased that this video course can help spread this perspective and these methodologies.
Should you consider taking this course?
Think about your goals in taking a water quality course. If you want to understand your water quality and related system operations and apply this new knowledge immediately, this is the course for you.
Learn more and enroll now in this Online Anytime offering:
Corrosion Control and Water Quality Improvement in Drinking Water Distribution Systems
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