In December 2012, a team of SU faculty, alumni, and students convened in Nicaragua with UCA faculty and students to initiate a design project for treating coffee processing wastewater. UCA students tested wastewater characteristics, SU students designed an appropriate treatment as their Capstone project, and the combined groups of students tested and implement the treatment systems on Nicaraguan coffee farms. To facilitate knowledge transfer and sustainability, two UCA students came to Seattle University for a week during summer 2013 to study water quality and water filtration system testing in SU campus labs. Finally, funds were raised and a contingent of professors, staff, students and alumni travelled to a local farm outside Matagalpa to complete the installation in March 2015.
In December 2016, a team of SU faculty and students, UCA faculty and students, and a professional engineer, traveled back to San Antonio, Nicaragua to assess performance of the coffee wastewater treatment system. The farm owner, Felix, was very happy with the system and had recently hosted a group of ten other farmers at the site where they expressed interest in implementing similar systems at their farms. Plans are underway for the next assessment and implementation trips.
