The New England Water Environment Association (NEWEA) is hosting its 2022 annual conference and exhibit in person again at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, Boston, Massachusetts, January 23rd through the 26th.  As a long-time collaborator with NEWEA, the North East Biosolids & Residuals Association (NEBRA) has lots of connections and NEBRA members contributing to the exchange of information at this event.  This year’s theme is Navigating the Tides: Fostering Diversity and Leading Change.  Here’s a preview of some of the highlights.  There will be something of interest to anyone remotely involved with wastewater and all of its by-products.

Along with the state wastewater operator associations, the New England Water Works Association, and other non-profits, NEBRA will have a booth in the Trade Show area.  Check the printed program for the exact location.  The NEBRA Membership Committee is looking to recruit some new members and Tech Environmental has donated a pair of tickets to see the Celtics play the Miami Heat on Monday Jan 31st which will be raffled off to anyone signing up [go to: The Benefits of NEBRA Membership — NEBRA (nebiosolids.org)] to be a NEBRA member before the end of the NEWEA conference. 

NEBRA member Howard Carter (Saco, Maine) and Reg-Leg Committee Chair Jeff McBurnie (Casella Organics) will assist Executive Director Janine Burke-Wells with a “reverse pitch” to innovators to solve the problem of PFAS in biosolids.  That event will be held in the Innovation Pavilion from 12:30 to 1:30 pm on Tuesday. 

The first Residuals Management Committee session will be Monday morning, 8:30 to 10:30 am.  Session #4 will include a variety of presentations related to residuals and biosolids study and planning.  NEBRA’s Burke-Wells and Justin Motta of Stantec will moderate presentations covering struvite management, biosolids drying, and odor control.  The final presentation will preview the results of the National Biosolids Data Project (www.biosolidsdata.org) by NEBRA and NEIWPCC which collected data for the project from the 6 New England states and New York.   

Session #21 on Tuesday afternoon is the ever-popular Regulators Roundtable being coordinated by NEIWPCC.  These are the residuals regulators for each of the New England states.  The session will be kicked off by NEBRA member Mark Lang of Black & Veatch with a thoughtful presentation titled “Regulatory Changes, Nutrient Management Practices and Public Concern’s Impact on Biosolids Management, the More Things Change… “ 

Also of interest: Session #14 on Tuesday morning was organized by the Contaminant of Emerging Concern (CEC) Committee, chaired by NEBRA’s Burke-Wells.  The session is titled “PFAS and PFurious” and will be moderated by two young professionals from the committee.  Following a series of shorter presentations about the PFAS problem, covering legal and technological developments and even PFAS in stormwater, the group will be asked to consider a series of questions on various aspects of the PFAS problem and come up with suggestions to inform the CEC Committee’s activities so it can help all NEWEA members in managing PFAS.