CBEE students visit the Ashburton Filtration Plant

At the end of the Spring 2024 semester, Dr. Blaney’s Environmental Physicochemical Processes course (ENCH 412 and ENEN 612) visited the Ashburton Filtration Plant, Baltimore’s largest drinking water treatment plant. Students had the chance to see how the processes they learned about in class, namely coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, granular media filtration, and disinfection, treat 165 million gallons of drinking water for Baltimore every day. 

Mohammed Almafrachi, Engineering Manager for the Baltimore City Department of Public Works, gave an excellent tour. His in-depth knowledge of the treatment processes and on-the-ground experience managing the facility helped students understand how the concepts that they learned in class provide clean drinking water to Baltimore residents. He stressed the importance of being adaptable to challenges, telling the students “You can’t troubleshoot without trouble.” 

We also enjoyed learning about the importance of water quality testing throughout the distribution system from Deneen Gordon, the Laboratory Technical Administrator for Baltimore’s drinking water treatment plants. She emphasized the new challenges awaiting the next generation of water quality engineers and motivated our students to tackle those challenges head on.

Thanks to all of the other Ashburton staff members that shared their expertise with us during the visit. We left inspired by your commitment to ensuring the health and safety of Baltimore residents. Thank you for your service!