“Empowering Community Resilience with Sustainable Energy and Water Reuse Systems”  is a National Science Foundation-funded project that brings together researchers from University of Nevada, Reno; Louisiana Tech University; and Jackson State University to create Mobile Energy-Water Reuse Systems (MEWRS) to support reliable, safe drinking water supply in rural communities. 

Collaborative research involving university researchers and rural water system managers will inform MEWRS development. The aim is to help rural communities plan for and meet unexpected energy and water quality needs without reliance on external resources and/or expertise.

Our sustainability plan includes exploring federal/private funding and policies to demonstrate and potentially sustain MEWRS technologies in rural communities.

Our project will also recruit and train a future workforce in clean, renewable energy generation and storage, water treatment chemistry, and nanotechnology-enabled processes.

We collaboratively engage rural communities to: 

• Assess the critical water quality challenges facing rural water systems managers/operators.
• Use assessment results to inform MEWRS technologies development to improve their immediate utility in rural areas.
• Transfer MEWRS technologies through community engagement with rural water system managers/operators.
• Incentivize the creation of new businesses, jobs and tax revenues necessary for these technologies to sustain economic development and environmental protection. 
• Developing a diverse workforce by training/mentoring students, postdoctoral scholars and community college students to support the design, fabrication and testing of MEWRS. 
• Increasing awareness of of this new science and technology through courses, seminars, publications and presentations.