About Howe Water Science, LLC

Dr. Howe is an environmental engineer with over 35 years of water and wastewater treatment experience. His expertise is in physical-chemical treatment processes, membrane processes, desalination, and water reuse. He is an author of the 2 most prominent textbooks on water treatment, Principles of Water Treatment and Stantec’s Water Treatment: Principles and Design, Updated 3rd ed. 

• Worked for nationally recognized environmental engineering consulting firms for more than 12 years.
• Project engineer for numerous design projects, including the lead project engineer for a 100-mgd conventional surface water treatment plant in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• Project experience includes treatability studies, regulatory compliance analyses, master plans, pilot testing, predesign, detailed design, construction management, and drinking water treatment plant startup.
• Process design experience includes coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, granular media filtration, countercurrent packed tower air stripping, membrane processes, chemical feed systems, and pumping systems.
• Have conducted assessments to evaluate and optimize plant performance.

• Recently retired as a Distinguished Professor from the University of New Mexico after more than 20 years in academia.
• Principal investigator (PI) on over $14 million in externally-funded research at UNM.
• Director of the Center for Water and the Environment, a research center with over $3M in research expenditures per year.
• Primary research focus was the experimental investigation of membrane processes in water and wastewater applications including fouling of microfiltration, ultrafiltration, and reverse osmosis membranes, selective recovery and beneficial use of minerals from desalination concentrate, increasing water recovery in reverse osmosis by minimizing scaling, and removal of contaminants of emerging concern using reverse osmosis and ozone/biofiltration for potable reuse applications.
• Additional research experience with a wide variety of water treatment processes and topics, including coagulation, flocculation, membrane filtration, reverse osmosis, chemical precipitation, ion exchange, ozonation, biofiltration, membrane bioreactors, and removal of pharmaceuticals and other trace contaminants.
• Taught classes on physical/chemical water treatment processes, sustainable engineering, environmental engineering chemistry, intro to environmental engineering, statics, and senior capstone design.
• Author of over 180 presentations, conference proceedings, reports, and peer-reviewed journal publications.
• Holds a patent on a process to selectively recover minerals from reverse osmosis concentrate.

• B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• M.S. in Environmental Health Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.
• Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
• Registered Professional Engineer in New Mexico and Wisconsin.
• Board Certified Environmental Engineer by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists.