BEES Graduate Research Seminar: Chi Ho Sham, PhD

Thursday, May 30, 2019

3:30 PM-5:00 PM

Chi Ho Sham, PhD, Eastern Research Group

Protection of Drinking Water Supply Sources: Approaches, Challenges, and Successes

American water utilities spend millions of dollars each year on source water protection and related measurements. They understand the importance of source water protection for maintaining a reliable water supply of optimal quality. They also appreciate that, by dedicating resources to source water protection, they are in turn saving resources that would otherwise have to be spent on water treatment or using alternative, more expensive, and less convenient supplies. Source water protection is often referenced as the front-line barrier in the multiple barrier approach to protect drinking water. Spatial variabilities associated with geography, history, ecosystem dynamic, land use, and policy make source water protection a highly site-specific process that reflects the inherent diversity of natural waters and the areas from which they are derived, along with other drivers that affect source water quality.

This seminar will examine the challenges, approaches, successes, and lesson learned as related to source water protection efforts – e.g., the relationship of forest cover and water quality, the impacts of agriculture practices on source water, the effects of public policy on wildland fires and water utilities, and the linkage between stormwater on water supply. This paper will summarize the findings of the study and identify future research directions to further quantify the relationship between watershed conditions and drinking water treatment cost.

Chi Ho Sham is a Vice President and the Chief Scientist of Eastern Research Group, Inc. Over the past three decades, he has worked extensively in drinking water protection and water quality analysis. He has been principal investigators for numerous water-related research projects and served on a number of National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine efforts. He is an active member of the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and is currently the chair of its Technical and Educational Council (TEC) – overseeing and coordinating technical and educational activities of the Association. He is also a member of the advisory board of the Urban Watershed Research Institute and the Conservation Law Foundation. Furthermore, he is an adjunct professor of the International Development, Communities, and Environment program and a research fellow of the George Perkin Marsh Institute at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He received his B.A. from the University of Regina in Canada and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University at Buffalo.

Chi Ho Sham, PhD Linkedin Profile

Contact Information

Amanda Leslie
215.571.4651
arl98@drexel.edu