Dr. Irene Xagoraraki, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Michigan State University, had been exploring wastewater’s promise as a public health tool years before anyone had heard of SARS-CoV-2.

March 22 was World Water Day. See some of the ways Spartans are working to safeguard this vital resource.

Priyanka Jayakodi is the recipient of the 2024-25 Rose Graduate Fellowship in Water Research, awarded through the MSU Water Alliance and the Graduate School.

In essence, sustainable agriculture involves farming in a way to protect the environment, aid and expand natural resources, and make the best use of nonrenewable resources. But how does sustainable agriculture affect food safety, and thereby, public health?

A research team spearheaded by Michigan State University scientists has recently published findings in two journals detailing the impacts low levels of water contamination have on the behavior, simulated growth and survival of fish.

Scientific causes and health effects: We know that at least 400,000 gallons of untreated wastewater was spilled due to Helene. Also pipes and treatment plants were washed out.

Michigan State University Research Foundation Professor Pouyan Nejadhashemi has been named director of the MSU Institute of Water Research effective Oct. 15, 2024.

Using a combination of equipment and techniques such as magnet fishing off of the bridges, grappling hooks, and motorized equipment, the day’s effort produced almost 1000 pounds of materials from the natural area and river. This included furniture, shopping carts, car batteries, bags of trash, tires and much more.

Michigan’s rivers and lakes were once cold enough that fish were protected from some infection-causing parasites. As the Great Lakes ecosystem warms, a Michigan State University researcher is investigating new pathogens that may become relevant to the fish that live here.

They are found in the food we eat, and the water we drink. Microplastics are small plastics, about the size of a human hair, that are found in our environment due to being broken down and discharged through various processes from industrial productions to daily activities, such as opening a plastic bag of snacks or running a washing machine. Studies show that packaging for packaging makes up 40% of our plastic production.

On any given day, the MSU Water Treatment Plant pumps about 4 million gallons of water to ensure the 60,000 students, faculty and staff on campus can fill their water bottles, flush toilets and wash dishes.

The decision dramatically narrowed the scope of the Clean Water Act, undoing protections that have safeguarded the nation’s waters for more than 50 years.