Paul M. Berthouex Professor Emeritus Address/E-mail Program Affiliations Education Fields of Interest Summary

Contact Information

3204 Engineering Hall 1415 Engineering Drive Madison, WI 53706

Tel: 608/262-7248 Fax: 608/262-5199 E-mail: berthoue@engr.wisc.edu

Departments

• Civil and Environmental Engineering

Program Affiliations

• Wisconsin Consortium for Applied Water Quality Research

Education

• BS, University of Iowa
• MS, University of Iowa
• PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Fields of Interest

• water supply
• wastewater treatment
• industrial waste treatment, environmental statistics/modeling

Summary

My students and I analyze the behavior and economics of environmental protection systems. We pursue our interest in treatment process design and operations by applying statistical methods and dynamic process modeling. Recent and current work is on the fate of semi-volatile organic chemicals in wastewater treatment processes, fluidized-bed nitrification, biological removal of phosphorus, and metals removal in wastewater treatment plants.

Work on treatment plant operations includes developing a statistics-based expert system for data interpretation and plant control. This system is intended to free operators from routine decision-making so their experience and creativity can be devoted to the difficult decision areas. Current work involves using discriminate analysis and multiple time series modeling to predict potential process upsets one or two days before they are reflected in poor effluent equality. The goal is an early-warning system that will allow operators to prevent problems rather than take corrective action on them after they are recognized.

New environmental regulations focus on toxic chemicals that are allowed only in extremely low concentrations, often concentrations below the analytical limit of detection. We have been studying how to use the indeterminate "less than" values in judging compliance with effluent and water quality standards. We also have conducted work to quantify the precision of measurements at very low concentrations.

Risk assessment involves modeling the transport and reaction of chemicals in the environment and anticipating their exposure to man and other organisms in order to quantify potential, harmful effects. One current study deals with applying municipal sewage sludge that is lightly-contaminated with PCBs to farmland. This has involved a five-year field study to observe the biodegradation of PCBs in the soil, runoff, and possible crop uptake. We are interested in modeling and risk assessment as tools for making reasonable decision on air pollution control.