AND CLEANER FLOWS THE DNEIPER

CUNY Engineers at Work in Ukraine

By Dr. Reza M. Khanbilvardi Professor of Civil Engineering and Director, Center for Water Resources and Environmental Research, City College

In 1993, the first American-Ukrainian conference on environmental study and control took place at Kiev State Technical University. Scientists from five CUNY colleges joined more than 200 Ukrainian scientists attending this conference.

Recognizing that ecological problems are increasingly international and global in scope, participants worked to identify projects that would make logical candidates for international collaboration. Contamination of the Ukraine's water supply emerged as a very pressing problem. Responding to this need, the U.S. Agency for International Development in 1994 provided $350,000 to the Center for Water Resources and Environmental Research (CWRER) to explore alternatives to the water supply problems of the Ukraine.

Our monitoring of Kiev's water distrubition system in 1994-95 revealed that, in terms of color, coli-index, turbidity (the suspension of matter that causes cloudiness), and concentration of chlorinated byproducts, we engineers of water purification had a major task before us.

Generally in the Ukraine, the water of surface sources is affected by natural contamination, as well as contamination from pesticides, heavy metals, and other substances in untreated wastewaters. The main source of natural matter is humic acids, which reside in different types of soil. In addition, pollutants such as aliphatic acids, phenolic compounds, and amines have been washed from the soil into natural waters. Concentrations of organic acids in the Dnieper River, the main river running from north to south into the Black Sea, for example, have reached dangerously high levels - up to two grams per liter of organic acids during vegetation time, for example, and a range of .06 to .28 milligrams per liter for amino acids.

After the initial evaluation, the CUNY team joined Ukrainian scientists to develop water purification units at such high priority sites as schools, hospitals, and communtity water supply outlets. The pilot plant system (pictured on previous page) was designed, tested, then installed as a demonstration unit at the largest children's hospital in Kiev.

This three-stage system consisted of a front-end ozonator and mixing tank for eliminating bacteria, then a granular-activated carbon filter for removing turbidity and dissolving organic compounds, and finally a mechanism for ultraviolet disenfection. The system proved satisfactory under a variety of water conditions, some of them quite extreme.

The success of this initiave encouraged USAID to provide an additional $550,000 this past summer to refine the efficiency, minimize the cost of constructing new models of the system, and plan for their manufacture and distribution.

A second important project of the Center, this one funded by the National Science Foundation, has focused on the movement through erosion of agrochemicals and radioactive pollutants within agricultural watersheds. CUNY scientists have established ties with the center for Radioecological Field Studies at the Ukraine Academy of Science to deal with the still unknown consequences of the Chernobyl meltdown.

For several months following the disaster, the fallout of radioactive aersols was observed around the site. Strontium and cesium were among the most dangerous components of these mists. In this sadly ideal experimental site at Chernobyl, within the 30-kilometer "closed" zone, we have laid out two run-off plots for analysis.

Our better understanding of how such radioactive compounds move through soil will contribute significantly to the protection of rivers, resovoirs, and agricultural lands. In addition to field experiments like artificial rainfalls, we will be developing computer models for simulating the migration of radionuclides during processes of sedimentation and episodic events like flooding.

Earthwatch, a nonprofit institution, has been funding a third area of ecological research in the Ukraine. Volunteers from around the world have been assembled for short-term summer field expeditions in which they assist scientists in confronting very specific challenges.

For example, over the last two summers Earthwatchers have assisted our Center scientists and those from the Odessa Hydrometeorological Institute in a study of "Complex Anthropogenic Impacts" on small rivers and other water bodies of the Ukraine. This team also included volunteers from Canada, England, Ireland, Belgium, and Japan. Its work, notably at the Kuyalnik Liman site near Odessa, garnered considerable media coverage.

The Center draws on the talents of faculty members on all the CUNY campuses. Among those working on these projects are Professors Samir Ahmed, Vasil Diyamandoglu, Leonid Roytman, Victor Goldsmith, Ali Sadegh, John Tietjen, and Dr. Vadim Khazin. In the last three years CWRER has attracted more than $1 million in external funding for its projects, but this is only a beginning. It is difficult to imagine a more useful application of the Center's expertise than the serious environmental problems facing the Ukraine.


This article appeared in the Fall '96 issue of CUNY Matters.