Researcher looks at keeping our drinking water safe

Access to safe drinking water is essential to human life. Researchers have the capacity to significantly advance science to help deliver safe drinking water under a constantly changing environment such as floods and wastewater spills to rivers and lakes.

Dr. Susana Kimura-Hara, PhD, assistant professor in the Faculty of Science, has an interest in keeping our drinking water safe. She is doing that by researching how compounds derived from human activities (i.e., industrial and municipal wastewaters) may be removed or transformed by water treatment processes.

With her research group, Kimura-Hara is developing methodologies that can assess the chemical formation and composition of disinfected waters and overall water toxicity. She is hoping to use this information to optimize engineering processes, develop new water treatment, and provide policy-makers the knowledge base needed to create guidelines for the safe use of wastewater-impacted waters today and build toward Canada’s water sustainability. 

Earlier this month, Kimura-Hara was one of eight UCalgary recipients of the Canada Foundation for Innovation John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF). This investment will support researchers by providing them with the highly specialized infrastructure they require to be leaders in their field.

Susana Kimura-Hara is affiliated with ACWA (Advancing Canadian Wastewater Assets), a partnership between The City of Calgary and the University of Calgary, as part of the Urban Alliance.

The ACWA Research Facility, embedded within The City of Calgary’s Pine Creek Wastewater Treatment Centre and the University of Calgary, bridges the gap between bench/pilot-scale testing and applications used in full-scale municipal wastewater treatment plants. ACWA replicates real-world situations and enables research that cannot be performed elsewhere in the world.