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Chance Lauderdale: How HDR Helps Its Clients Address Pharmaceutical Contamination
C
hance Lauderdale, PhD, PE, is an expert in the field of water treatment specializing in biofiltration who today leads engineering firm HDR’s global drinking water program. Dr. Lauderdale’s reference publications and novel biofilter enhancement and monitoring strategies are used by utilities throughout the United States. In this interview, Dr. Lauderdale tells Municipal Water Leader about HDR’s global drinking water program—one of the largest in the world—and the services it provides to help its clients mitigate problems like pharmaceutical contamination in water reuse projects and successfully communicate their achievements to their customers.
6 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | September 2020
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PHOTO COURTESY OF HDR.
goal was to inform the potential development of a biology-based drinking water treatment approach. At the time, most water industry professionals considered biological treatment to be a wastewater-exclusive topic. However, biological filtration, or biofiltration, had quietly emerged as a practice for many water utilities. Biofiltration is an operational strategy in which a conventional drinking water filter is operated without a disinfectant residual, allowing the bacteria that naturally appear in the source water to grow on filter media and provide additional treatment. At the time, little was known about the bacterial communities present in drinking water biofilters or how they could be optimized. My research sought to help open that black box and identify bacteria capable of degrading the problematic compounds produced by blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria. Recently, we’ve seen news reports on how some cyanobacterial species can release toxins in our lakes and reservoirs. However, a much more common consequence of cyanobacteria bloom Chance Lauderdale inspects filters at the John F. Kubala Water Treatment Plant in Arlington, Texas. events is their effects on the aesthetics of our Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your background. drinking water. These organisms can produce compounds, like 2‑methylisoborneol and geosmin, that can change the Chance Lauderdale: I’m originally from Florida. I grew up way our water smells and tastes. My research partnered wandering our (and our neighbors’) properties on daily outdoor me with a Florida drinking water utility seeking a costadventures, curious about the animals and environments I found. effective solution to manage this issue. In the end, we Like others in my generation, I was also influenced by Dr. Seuss’s identified a naturally occurring bacteria in its drinking The Lorax, so it seemed natural to be drawn to a related field water reservoir that could sustainably remove these taste when I enrolled at the University of Florida. I chose a major and odor compounds, with the ultimate aim of using these in environmental engineering, without really knowing what I findings to develop a long-term treatment strategy. wanted to specialize in. All uncertainties vanished during my first After the study was complete, part of me did want to course in water treatment. I knew I was home and that I needed continue with my PhD. However, I was ready for a new more. I took the opportunity to dual enroll in a master’s degree adventure and chose to accept an entry-level engineering program as I wrapped up my bachelor’s obligations. position with a firm in Orange County, California. My master’s research project focused on the potential for biological remediation of select contaminants Municipal Water Leader: Are these taste and odor commonly found in surface water supplies. The ultimate compounds harmful to humans?
