No more basement backups
Graduate Research Assistant Paige Peters’ technology will help cities handle torrential storms.
While developing her master’s thesis, “Advanced, High-rate Wet Weather Treatment,” Paige Peters, Eng ’11, has blossomed her research into the startup company Rapid Radicals Technology.
“For the last two years, I’ve been working to create a two-step process for the rapid treatment of wet weather flows for high-intensity rain events, so we can prevent combined and sanitary sewer overflows and basement backups,” she says.
Along with civil, construction and environmental faculty Drs. Daniel Zitomer, Brooke Mayer and Patrick McNamara as co-investigators, Peters is working with the NSF’s Water Equipment and Policy Industry-University Cooperative Research Center to develop the technology. Eventually it will be developed to handle overburden or blended flows at wastewater treatment plants; in the watershed for overflow treatment; and as a mobile unit for high-rate, high-quality treatment during disaster relief efforts.
“I am currently forming a board of directors and searching for a chief operations officer to help with our growth. My hope is that the technology will be able to handle wet weather flows to meet the needs of municipalities, and that our success will encourage similar efforts focused on water treatment, public health and environmental stewardship.”
