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The ECAR equipment used to
remove arsenic from water
Susan Amrose
Removing Arsenic
In other parts of the world, there
are different problems with drinking
water. Susan Amrose (1977– ), is an
environmental engineer at the University
of California, Berkeley. She has worked
with communities in Bangladesh where
most of the
groundwater
coming from
wells is poisoned with naturally occurring
arsenic. Arsenic is too small to filter out
of water. Most people know the water is
dangerous, but they don’t have anything
else to drink.
Amrose works with a team of engineers
to design an inexpensive way to remove
the arsenic. One method is electro-
chemical arsenic remediation (ECAR).
First, iron pieces are added to the water.
Then, electricity is run through the iron.
This speeds up the rusting of the iron.
The rust particles dissolve in the water.
The tiny arsenic particles attach to the
rusting iron and make much bigger
particles. Finally, the bigger particles can
be filtered out to make the water safe to
drink.
The iron is toxic after the arsenic
attaches to it. After this waste product is
filtered out of the water, it is mixed into
concrete and used for roads. When the
iron and arsenic are in the concrete, they
are very safe and can’t get back into the
environment.
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