Three major research areas are covered in the area of environmental engineering. These include animal waste management, sustainable design and ecological engineering projects, and optimization of chemical application in agriculture. Within the Water Quality Laboratory, procedures are in place to evaluate control and treated water samples from environmental engineering projects. Current projects include downstream impacts of water storage systems in the Mississippi Delta, the use of kenaf as a biofiltration media to reduce odor of the waste water in a commercial swine facility, runoff analysis of beef cattle grazing operations, the development and evaluation of best management practices for surface water management, evaluation of effluent from catfish farming operations, the restoration of coastal beaches, design and evaluation of mitigation wetlands, and the evaluation of spray deposition and drift of agricultural chemicals. These projects involve collaborative work with engineers and scientists in Chemical Engineering, Animal and Dairy Sciences, Plant and Soil Sciences, Poultry Science, Food Science and Technology, and Landscape Architecture.
USDA-NIFA funded project: On-Farm Water Storage Systems in Porter Bayou Watershed
