Annual Meeting

Location: Gateway Concourse and Center

Location: Gateway Center

Location: Gateway Center

Scott Steinschneider
Associate Professor, Biological and Environmental Engineering
Cornell University

This talk will provide an overview of the challenges and opportunities in managing integrated water resource systems under climate change, with a focus on the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River (LOSLR) system and its impacts on New York State.  After offering a brief history of lake level management and recent challenges faced by the LOSLR system, I will discuss what we know—and what we still need to learn—about the impacts of climate change on the system and the broader Great Lakes region. I will then present research on how system management can (and cannot) support adaptation to changing conditions, as well as the role of individual communities in strengthening their resilience to the potential impacts of climate change. Throughout, I will highlight key lessons learned and explore how they might be applied more broadly across New York.

Location: Gateway Concourse and Center

Location: Baker Lab

1A: PFAS Treatment Technologies for NYS Waters

This collection of short talks will begin with a 15-minute presentation of PFAS contamination challenges posed by a variety of NYS waters. Specific examples will be cited including contaminated groundwater and surface water supplies used for drinking water, landfill leachates, municipal wastewater and industrial wastewaters effluents/biosolids. Source control through treatment is required to address these challenges, yet, destruction technologies used to remove PFAS from the environment are still in the early phases of developing solutions that can be applied to large-scale treatment facilities. Five entrepreneurs that have developed commercialized PFAS destruction technologies will provide short presentations on their technologies. These round robin presentations will include the scientific principles that make the PFAS-destroying technologies work; pilot-scale demonstrations of their effectiveness; and the pre-treatment/pre-concentration requirements required for its economical use when used to treat the types of PFAS laden waters seen in NYS. Each entrepreneur will address the scalability and economics of their technology. The moderator will facilitate approximately 20 minutes of questions from attendees.

Moderator

• Thomas F Seacord, P.E., Vice President, Carollo Engineers, Inc.

Presenters

• Eric Drugotch, Business Development Manager,Revive Environmental
• Thomas M. Holsen, Chief Technology Officer, DMAX Plasma Inc.
• Sarah L. Meyer, Chief Operating Officer, Enspired Solutions
• Selman Mujovic, CEO, Purafide
• Cory Theriault, PFAS Solutions Director, Revive Environmental
• John Tracy, Vice President, Aclarity
• Rosa Yu, Senior Technologist, Carollo Engineers, Inc.

1B: Community Monitoring for Water Quality

In water monitoring with its myriad forms, the greater the breadth and depth of the dataset the greater utility it can provide. Given that many New Yorkers are interested in the quality of water in their waterways, in their drinking water, and of the water on local public and private lands, community-engaged data gathering has become the focus of many organizations and individuals.

In this roundtable session, we’ll discuss ways forward for these groups, using environmental monitoring from viewpoints such as environmental justice, or emergency and disaster response in order to protect this universally shared resource; supplementing official datasets with ones collected by citizen scientists, and engaging the community to closely monitor the local environment.

Moderator

• Peter Marchetto, Research Engineer and Instrumentation Scientist, FieldKit

Discussants

• Liz Carter, Assistant Professor, CEE and EES, Syracuse University. Frontlines in urban water management: legacy infrastructure and
  modern observation systems
• Barbara Chase, Volunteer, Community Science Institute
• Grascen Shidemantle, Executive Director, Community Science Institute

Location: Gateway Center

Location: Baker Lab

2A: How do we best manage risks of PFAS discharges to wastewater and waterways?

• Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) comprise a family of thousands of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) used worldwide in a wide variety of industrial and non-industrial applications, including aqueous fire-fighting foams (AFFF), de-icing sprays, water-resistant fabrics, non-stick cookware, and manufacture of semiconductors. Initial use of PFAS began in the late 1940s, but regulations restricting their use have come into being only during the past decade. Most discharges of PFAS into waterways remain unrestricted.

  In this panel session we seek to explore the challenges faced by public and private wastewater treatment facility operators. PFAS are discharged to wastewater from multiple sources, and conventional treatment technology can alter but not destroy PFAS. PFAS are highly resistant to degradation, either biotically or abiotically.  As a result, PFAS chemicals in the influent stream are unchanged or only partially transformed, and either discharged into receiving waters or accumulated in biosolids (aka “sewage sludge”).  

  The wide variety of PFAS poses difficulties for regulators and wastewater treatment facility operators. US EPA has developed analytical methodology for about 40 PFAS compounds, yet thousands of other varieties exist. Research has shown that these so-called “dark” or non-targeted PFAS are a significant fraction of total PFAS in wastewater streams. In this session we seek to address these questions:

  • How effective are current NY State regulations in identifying, tracking, controlling, and mitigating the discharge of all PFAS compounds?
  • How well-equipped are wastewater treatment operators able to monitor and reduce inputs of PFAS into their facilities?
  • How pervasive is PFAS contamination in pre- and post-treatment wastewater and biosolids?
  • To what degree do “dark” (non-targeted) PFAS compounds pose a risk to human health and the environment?

Moderator

• Donald J. Hughes, Principal, Hughes Environmental Consulting

Presenters

• Roger C. Brewer, Environmental Scientist, TOS Environmental, LLC
• Dan Rourke, Executive Director, Saratoga County Sewer District, NYWEA President
• Lenny Siegel, Environmental Advocate, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
• Evan Walters, Assistant Engineer, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC)

2B: Climate Change Impacts to Water Resources

As climate change accelerates, its impacts on water resources are becoming increasingly evident, posing significant challenges to water availability, quality, and resilience. This collection of  short talks will explore the multifaceted effects of climate change on the New York water resources. The three topics to be covered are: 1) the rise in harmful algal blooms (HABs), driven by warming waters, 2) increased nutrient runoff from more frequent extreme precipitation events, and 3) increased frequency and intensity of drought conditions. The goals for this session are to:

1. Enhance understanding of the primary climate change impacts on water resources in New York.
2. Foster a dialogue around innovative approaches to mitigate and adapt to these challenges.
3. Encourage collaboration among participants to develop resilient water management strategies.

Participants will leave the session with:

1. A clear understanding of how climate change exacerbates HABs, nutrient runoff, and droughts in the New York watershed.
2. Knowledge of potential strategies and best practices to mitigate these challenges.
3. Insights into the importance of collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches to build resilience in water resource management.

Our water resources are increasingly vulnerable to climate-driven challenges, including HABs, nutrient pollution, and droughts, which threaten water quality and availability. By focusing on these interconnected issues, the session aims to highlight the need for adaptive strategies and foster interdisciplinary collaboration to build long term resilience.

Moderator

• Matthew Pacicco, Engineer, Carollo Engineers, Inc.

Location: Gateway Center

5 Minute Presentations

• Finger Lakes PFAS Project: targeted water sampling to identify per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in the Finger Lakes
  Laura Akey and Alex Van Den Hende, Cornell University
• Associations between fecal contaminants and nutrient concentrations in tributaries of northern Cayuga Lake, NY
  M. Emma Bland, Department of Environmental Biology, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
• Nanoparticle-modified upcycled waste adsorbents for phosphorus removal in eutrophic waters
  Ulfet Erdogan, PhD Student, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Clarkson University
• Induced Aluminum Electrocoagulation for Simultaneous Degradation of HAB-Causing Bacteria, Toxins, and Removal of Nutrients During Electrochemical Ozonation
  Athkia Fariha, MS/PhD Student, Graduate Research Assistant, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Clarkson University
• Monitoring and Optimizing Winery Wastewater Treatment: A Case Study at Fox Run Vineyards
  Taye Muslim Hamid, PhD Student, Environmental Resources Engineering, SUNY ESF
• Advanced thermoresponsive filter media based on functionalized cellulose nanocrystals for switchable aqueous PFAS adsorption and desorption
  Md Shahadat Hossain, PhD Candidate, Department of Chemical Engineering, SUNY ESF
• Portable 3D-Printed Patch for Rapid E. coli Detection
  Aqsa Khan, Ph.D. Candidate, Clarkson University
  Fatima, Lecturer, UTSA College of Science
  Silvana Andreescu,Professor/Chair , Chemistry & Biomolecular Science, Clarkson University
• Biogeography of Sediment and Fish Gut Microbiomes in the Great Lakes
  Amina Furrkukh Mughal, PhD Candidate, Graduate Program in Environmental Science, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
• Rational design of clay-based materials for removing PFAS from water- evaluating performance, regeneration and reuse
  Yanna Liang, Professor and Chair, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering, University at Albany
• Rapid Single-Step Detection of Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Using Low-Cost Portable Electrochemical Sensor
  Abd Ur Rehman, Research Associate, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, Clarkson University
• NY Drinking Water Source Protection Program
  Charles Rorick – NYSDOH/NEIWPCC
• Assessment of NYS Water Quality Data to Evaluate if Adding Spatial Complexity Improves Predictions of Nutrient Export
  Ryan Ruggiero, Graduate Student, Environmental Resources Engineering, SUNY ESF

Location: Gateway Concourse

Details: TBA 

Location: Gateway Center