by Cassidy Yates, Nicola Elardo and Castine Bernardy, University of New Hampshire
With the start of a new year comes new conferences focusing on One Water and the newest innovations for 2022. The events highlighted below also feature UV technology applications, sustainability, treatment of contaminants of emerging concern and water reuse.
The 37th Annual WateReuse Symposium will be held in San Antonio, Texas, from March 6 through 9. Planned in collaboration with the Water Research Foundation, this year’s theme of “Water Reuse: Shaping Our Past & Charting Our Future,” includes technical sessions addressing the changing earth, from floods and fires to droughts and pandemics. Presenters – national and international – will be part of six concurrent sessions focusing on the research, planning, technology, policy and communications within each lifecycle project phase. Additionally, a One Water panel discussion will be held covering motivations, challenges and benefits of applying the One Water strategy for San Antonio, specifically.
From June 12 through 15, water sector professionals will gather again in San Antonio, Texas, for the American Water Works Association (AWWA) Annual Conference and Exposition (ACE). This conference has technical presentations, competitions and an exhibit hall. In addition to the main conference, there also are preconference workshops and tours in which attendees can take part. One preconference workshop is “Implementing Biological Treatment Processes in One Water Applications,” which discusses the benefits, lessons learned and operational strategies when using biological treatment in potable water reuse applications. This three-day event will include other presentations related to One Water, with more details regarding session topics in the coming months.
The One Water Summit will be held in September in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, presented by the US Water Alliance. The US Water Alliance has a vision for a sustainable future for all by leading One Water projects that transform the society, economy and environment. The One Water Summit is a place for stakeholders to engage in workshops, site visits and networking to share the future of water and envision how they can help lead the movement. More information about the conference will be released as the year continues.
Events like these often showcase rising companies and innovative technologies to solve today’s water challenges. One such organization is ecoSPEARS, an environmental technology company ushering in the net-zero future of environmental remediation. As an exclusive licensee of technologies developed by NASA, ecoSPEARS designs and develops green and sustainable solutions to extract and eliminate polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins, 1,4-dioxane, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and other persistent toxins from the environment.
ecoSPEARS’ ecoCUBE technology is a mobile, modular and scalable ex-situ industrial wastewater and groundwater remediation technology to treat PCBs, dioxins, 1,4-dioxane and other persistent toxins. ecoCUBE is a pump-and-treat water remediation solution powered by Violet Defense. The system is designed with multiple UV bulbs wrapped with Violet Defense LLC’s proprietary non-fouling UV lens technology. The continuous batch flow system is capable of being deployed as a primary treatment system or inline with other complementary treatment systems. The use of UV by ecoSPEARS and others across the industry for improved water quality emphasizes the importance of UV technology in furthering the implementation of One Water in 2022.
Thank you to Noah Gutierrez and Henry Wang at ecoSPEARS for their industry insight and contributions to this column.
Contact: Cassidy Yates, cassidy.yates@unh.edu; Nicola Elardo, nicola.elardo@unh.edu; Castine Bernardy, castine.bernardy@unh.edu
The “One Water” column seeks to highlight the application of UV technologies to the traditional areas of drinking water, wastewater, water reuse, agricultural and industrial process water, and stormwater. The goal of the column is to further evolve the understanding and focus, driven by YP members, on sustainable water – reminding stakeholders that there is one water cycle on earth.
