What civil engineers are reading this week

• US’s first direct-to-distribution potable water reuse facility soon to be built in Texas

  By treating secondary wastewater effluent to produce purified water, El Paso’s Pure Water Center will add up to 10 million gallons per day of high-quality water to the municipal system.

• Alaska residents want US military to clean up its toxic waste

  An Alaska community group has filed a complaint to the United Nations calling for an investigation of how military waste on Sivuqaq violate the rights of the Indigenous people who live there.

• Microplastics creating superbugs that defy antibiotics, scientists find

  Boston University researchers discover that microplastics don’t just pollute the environment, they may also be fueling the rise of drug-resistant bacteria.

• $8.4B: Enormous cache of rare Earth elements discovered in America

  Coal ash in the U.S. holds substantial rare earth elements, potentially reducing dependence on imports, with ongoing research and pilot projects working to make extraction economically viable.

• Accurately determining how fast concrete degrades in nuclear reactors is focus of research

  The accelerated experimental testing methods that have been the standard may exaggerate the amount of quartz expansion and concrete cracking. What approach did the researchers take?

• Online access to FEMA standards added to ASCE AMPLIFY platform

  The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities standards are available now on ASCE AMPLIFY, bringing 12 standards to the digital platform.