Montclair State Professor, Students Earn $75K Grant From EPA

MONTCLAIR, NJ — A Montclair State University professor and a team of undergraduate and graduate students have earned a $75,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Earth and Environmental Studies Professor Yang Deng and the students at MSU will use the EPA’s “People, Prosperity and the Planet” grant to further their research efforts to remove contaminants from urban stormwater.

By removing contaminants from urban stormwater at their source, the students’ project, “Toward Sustainable Urban Stormwater Management with New, Green, Low-Cost Sorbent-Coated Wood Mulch,” will help to shorten water treatment time and make it more efficient to provide clean and safe water, MSU administrators stated. (Read the full article here)

“We are developing new methods to reuse municipal sludge for addressing issues in stormwater management,” said Deng, who recently received a Chinese-American Professors in Environmental Engineering and Science (CAPEES) 2018 Nanova Frontier Research Award in recognition of his research leadership, innovation and achievements in physicochemical water treatment technologies.

According to MSU, the EPA’s P3 program is a two-phase research grants program that challenges students to address environmental and public health issues with innovative solutions. In Phase I, teams receive a $15,000 grant to develop concepts and showcase them at the EPA’s spring National Sustainable Design Expo. These student teams are then eligible to compete for a Phase II grant of up to $75,000 to implement.

“This grant will enable our students and faculty to further the work being done to improve the quality of urban environments by using recycled municipal solid wastes as new adsorbents for removing heavy metal contaminants – such as lead and nutrient phosphorous – from stormwater at its source,” said Scott Herness, vice provost for research and dean of The Graduate School.

Deng anticipates that with funding from the EPA P3 grant, Phase II will take two years to complete.

“I am pleased to see the growth of our students,” Deng noted. “They applied interdisciplinary knowledge to pave the way to a sustainable approach that addresses a common urban environmental issue. Meanwhile, they have learned how to work together in a team.”

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