Annual Meeting

Location: Gateway Concourse and Center

Location: Gateway Center

Location: Gateway Center

Location: Gateway Concourse and Center

Location: Baker Lab

1A: PFAS Treatment Technologies for NYS Waters

This session 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.

1B: Community Monitoring for Water Quality
Moderator: Peter Marchetto, Research Engineer and Instrumentation Scientist, FieldKit

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 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.

Location: Gateway Center

Location: Baker Lab

2A: How do we best manage risks of PFAS discharges to wastewater and waterways?
Moderator: Donald Hughes, Conservation Chair, Sierra Club, CNNY Group 

• 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 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?

2B: Climate Change Impacts to Water Resources
Moderator: Matthew Pacicco, Engineer, Carollo Engineers, Inc.

As climate change accelerates, its impacts on water resources are becoming increasingly evident, posing significant challenges to water availability, quality, and resilience. This series of 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.

Location: Gateway Center

Details: See call for posters for details and to submit your abstract for consideration as a lightning talk.

Location: Gateway Concourse

Details: TBA 

Location: Gateway Center