(Radio Iowa) – Iowa State University engineers have received a grant from the E-P-A for research to help small rural communities reclaim wastewater and rainwater for other purposes like irrigation, firefighting, and drinking. Project leader Kaoru Ikuma says they are searching for options.

“When it comes to rural small communities, like many in Iowa, really it’s a struggle to find more than one type of water that they can use, and have the plan B if something goes wrong,” she says. She’ll work with researchers from the University of Rhode Island and the University of California-Berkeley for the next four years.

“What we want to do in this project is to help these smaller rural communities that do not have the resources to broaden their view in how they think about water and treating water, using water,” Ikuma says.

She says the researchers will look at different technologies to treat water, and they’ll also be testing the treated water for contaminants such as forever chemicals that are harder to remove. They’ve received three million dollars for the research.