Five days in the Windy City recently provided NEBRA Executive Director Janine Burke-Wells with a valuable opportunity to listen, learn, communicate, and collaborate with water quality professionals from all over the world. Her attendance at weftec, the Water Environment Federation (WEF)'s annual technical conference, was also a chance for thousands of industry professionals to be introduced to the North East Biosolids & Residuals Association and its work.  This year, more than 30,000 attendees brought their collective expertise and enthusiasm to the McCormick Conference Center in Chicago.

Burke-Wells, who was also attending as a WEF delegate for the New England Water Environment Association (NEWEA), said the conference offered non-stop activities from September 30th through October 4th.  “This was an invaluable experience, being at the biggest water quality conference in North America” she said. “We had the opportunity to network and get our message out about the work we do and the challenges we face in the Northeast -- particularly in trying to educate people about the relative risk of PFAS in their daily lives.”

On Sunday, Burke-Wells served as vice chair to NEBRA Carbon Trading Committee Chair Bill Brower for an 8-hour workshop on measuring and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from water resource recovery facilities. The workshop, which was sold-out, was sponsored by the WEF Residuals and Biosolids Community’s Greenhouse Gas Focus Group. Participants learned from their utility peers on approaches to GHG accounting, ways to reduce their carbon footprint, and integrate these practices into planning efforts.  The session included use of the Biosolids Emissions Assessment Model (www.BiosolidsGHGs.org) and an energy performance and carbon emissions model for the entire wastewater treatment system, ECAM (ECAM v3 (climatesmartwater.org) to gain insight into ways of reducing WRRF carbon footprints.

On Tuesday, Burke-Wells was tapped during the PFAS Task Force meeting in the morning to sit in on an afternoon panel that was missing participants, in particular federal regulators were not in attendance due to uncertainties with the government shut-down. Burke-Wells jumped in with updates on EPA activities around biosolids in a session titled PFAS Impacted WRFs: Knowledge Update.  “I would say that the most important point I shared with our peers was that that they must engage in PFAS communications with their customers.  Customers and the general public need to learn about the challenges of managing wastewater sludges, especially in the age of PFAS. And they need to hear from us, their local clean water professionals.”

On its website, WEFTEC describes the conference as a place where “networks expand, ideas become solutions, and water quality innovation and expertise are on display.” And Burke-Wells had a long list of meetings, workshops, technical sessions, panels, and walking the trade show floor that comprised her itinerary.  She expressed thanks to NEWEA for sponsoring part of her trip in her role as delegate. On behalf of NEWEA, she attended WEF House of Delegate meetings and invitation only WEF leadership events. WEF’s strategic plan and vision -- “a world free of water challenges” – and associated goals were discussed. 

Burke-Wells said it was rewarding to see NEBRA’s bright orange table on the exhibition floor thanks to some space donated by Board Member Chris Hubbard’s company, PW Tech. PW Tech also helped NEBRA with signage based on materials developed by the NEBRA Membership Committee last year. “It was a great opportunity for networking,” Burke-Wells said. There was also her beloved Rhode Island Operations Challenge team, RIsing Sludge, to watch and cheer on (they placed 1st in the process control event, 3rd in the laboratory event, and got bumped up to Division 1 next year).

“This is the biggest water conference there is,” Burke-Wells said and wastewater residuals and biosolids were a big part of the discussions. “Being there gave me an opportunity to learn from others and hear some of the latest best practices.  This was an experience that will definitely pay dividends for NEBRA and its members.”

On Saturday night, the weftec crowd came out for Jammin4Water at the Park West in Chicago. And Water quality professionals, including NEBRA's Janine Burke-Wells, had the opportunity to show off their hidden talents. The impromptu band rocked Green Day's She. Burke-Wells handled the lead vocals while Jay Sheehan (Woodard & Curran) drove it on the drums, Mike Headd (Woodard & Curran) played guitar and Eric Sullivan (SewerAI) played the bass. The event raised money for Water For People.