Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Jason Hetrick was initially going to major in Sussex County Delaware is home to the highest
Civil Engineering, but then became interested in the concentration of chickens in the nation. Since it is also
clean up of chemical wastes and other environmental home to scenic beaches, fragile bays and vulnerable
issues. After visiting a wastewater treatment plant in drinking water sources, it is critical that the 300,000
high school, he made up his mind to major in wet tons of poultry litter generated each year be
Environmental Engineering with a focus on water managed to protect these valuable natural resources.
treatment. Now in his junior year, Hetrick has been Having grown up on a farm in Sussex County,
working in the Department of Bioresources Engineering Leigh Johnson came to
as a research assistant for the past year. Through his appreciate the importance of
job, he became interested in the research of his farmland and the beauty of
advisor, Anastasia Chirnside, Associate Scientist, who wide open spaces, as well as
has been exploring the use of a fungal bioreactor to the value of clean water.
treat pesticides in water. She became interested in
The objective of this internship project is to protecting water quality and
evaluate the ability of a fungal bioreactor to treat an remediating contaminated
industrial textile wastewater containing high areas. Her interests led her
concentrations of nitrogen and complex organic to pursue a degree in
compounds. These two contaminants have historically Environmental Engineering,
been resistant to conventional bacterial wastewater with double minors in
treatment schemes. Chemistry and History. Now
Numerous tests will be conducted, using a in her junior year, Johnson has been working as a
laboratory scale bioreactor, to evaluate the Research Assistant in the Department of Bioresources
efffectiveness of using a white rot fungus to degrade Engineering Water Quality Lab. Through her job, she
wastewater. Different hydraulic flow regimes, such as learned about the DWRC internship opportunity from
one containing a recycling flow to increase residence her advisor, Dr. William Ritter, Professor of
time versus one without, will be evaluated for their Bioresources and Environmental Engineering.
effectiveness in maximizing treatment. Johnson and Ritter will be working on a
Since the concept problem of major importance not only for Sussex
of using natural organisms County, but the whole DelMarVa peninsula: how to
to transform hazardous turn poultry litter and food waste into a product that
substances into a is economically feasible to market. Through the
harmless form has project, Johnson will be testing various ratios of a
intrigued Hetrick for some compost mixture of broiler litter, food waste and straw
time, he is looking for numerous parameters, including total carbon, total
forward to learning more nitrogen, different forms of nitrogen, soluble salts, pH,
about these organisms. temperature and moisture. The results of the tests will
Hetrick believes it will be used to determine the optimum compost mixture for
benefit him to learn about use as a soil amendment or potting medium.
the whole research Through her internship experience, Johnson is
process as well as the real looking forward to enhancing her data analysis skills
life applications of his and learning about the complete research process.
research.