Features

WEFTEC.07: It's A Wrap!
A Look Back to San Diego, Looking Forward to Chicago, New Orleans

With WEFTEC.07 in our rearview mirror, it’s time to reflect on what was and look ahead to what’s to come at WEFTEC.08.

This year’s WEFTEC, held Oct. 13–17 in San Diego, set a number of records and remained the largest water quality event in North America. This year’s conference featured 119 technical sessions focusing on various aspects of the water sector, such as climate change, workforce planning and succession, and microconstituents.

WEFTEC.07 also had the most attendees in the conference's 80-year history, with 19,929 attendees and 1017 companies occupying 268,405 ft² of floor space. The previous record for attendees was 18,704 at WEFTEC.02 in Chicago.

Coming up in 2008, WEFTEC heads back to the Windy City, then takes a trip south to Orlando, Fla. in 2009. The following year, WEFTEC.10 hits the Big Easy in New Orleans, where the convention center has regained its momentum and is hosting large-scale meetings and events.

New Orleans’ Ernest N. Morial Convention Center — which suffered damage during Hurricane Katrina — has been operating at full capacity for more than a year. With approximately $60 million in restoration work and several million more in renovation upgrades, the majority of the Center reopened in June 2006, with 741,257 ft² of exhibit space, 99 meeting rooms, a 4000-seat auditorium, and a 36,000 ft² ballroom. The remaining areas of the Center — four halls, 41 meeting rooms, and a 32,000-plus ft² ballroom, opened in November 2006.

“We are more than pleased to report that this fall, New Orleans is consistently hosting successful and important meetings in all sectors of domestic and international business,” said Stephen Perry, president and CEO of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau. “This trend continues into the new year, with many other special events and meetings in store."

WEFTEC.07: Sustainability Moves to the Forefront
The Opening General Session officially kicked off WEFTEC.07 on Sunday, Oct. 14. Keynote speaker Perry L. McCarty, the 2007 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate, spoke about sustainable solutions to both new and long-standing challenges the water and wastewater sectors face.

“Each of us must do our part if the overall problem is to be solved,” McCarty said. “Water is such a precious resource, something we often forget unless we are forced to do without.” 

The Stockholm International Water Institute (Sweden) honored McCarty with the 2007 Stockholm Water Prize for his pioneering work in developing the scientific approach for the design and operation of water and wastewater systems and establishing the role of fundamental microbiology and chemistry in the design of bioreactors.

In his keynote speech, McCarty discussed some of the innovations in wastewater treatment that have emerged in the last 50 years, and suggested how past advances might help solve current and future problems.

McCarty highlighted four major problem areas in wastewater treatment: pathogens, dissolved oxygen deficiency, industrial waste, and eutrification.

“We have addressed the first quite well with drinking water, but we are just beginning to get serious about addressing the latter three,” he said.

McCarty cited problems that water and wastewater professionals have faced in the past, such as the burning Cuyahoga River in Ohio, U.S. dependence on oil, treatment plants turning into bubble baths, and rivers running dry.

“We were in need of solutions,” he said. “Fortunately, research to address this need was crisply instigated and solutions came about rapidly.”

McCarty emphasized the energy aspect of wastewater treatment and how it affects climate change. Waste handling and treatment represents 4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to McCarty. Because chemicals produced during the handling and treatment of waste — such as methane and nitrous oxide — contribute to climate change, water professionals are directly associated with the cause of climate change and the need for sustainable solutions, he said.
 
McCarty also believes the wastewater sector is one of the easiest and most cost-effective to control in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. While methane is a greenhouse gas, it also is a biofuel that can be used for energy.
 
“Its collection and use as a fuel can offset the use of fossil fuels,” McCarty said, referring to methane. 

Later in the Opening General Session, WEF President Mohamed Dahab stressed the importance of sustainability in the face of climate change and the world’s growing population. He said water scarcity is the next world water crisis, and while finding solutions will be difficult, human imagination, persistence, and ingenuity can solve these problems.

“We must be serious about sustaining our environmental resources, and we must learn to live as responsible members of the human family,” Dahab said.
 
To read more about the Opening General Session and about WEFTEC.07, see www.wef.org/magazine or the December issue of WE&T.

— Michael Bonsiewich, WEF Highlights

From the President: A New Year Begins at WEF

One of the great pleasures of serving as president of the Water Environment Federation (WEF; Alexandria, Va.) is the opportunity to talk to WEF members. WEF Highlights is the vehicle in which WEF leadership can put decision-making into context, outline our aspirations for ourselves and WEF, and ask you for assistance. During the course of the year, I hope to talk about the role of Member Associations (MAs), committees, and where WEF fits in the world of water and the world as a whole. I will share facts about WEF that you may not know in an effort to broaden knowledge about WEF. For example, did you know WEF’s membership is 33,000 and growing?

In return, I ask for your feedback. One of the greatest challenges facing us within the Board of Trustees is the simple process of decision-making. It is relatively easy to develop data — our staff and committees are outstanding in this regard — but aligning new decisions with WEF’s vision and mission is what drives everything we do. Our vision is simply to be a leader in protecting and enhancing the global water environment. Input from our members is invaluable in setting the framework. Please contact me directly at azabinski@wef.org, or send comments to the Highlights editor. I will get them and respond, either individually or in a future Highlights column.

As I meet with MAs, I try to give context about the importance of the things we do. It is possible to drive a bus and care nothing about the transportation industry, but it is impossible to be a water professional and care nothing about water. For us our profession is more than a job — it is a vocation. That is reflected in the interest we share in all aspects and impacts of water around the world. We wonder how we will maintain our aging infrastructure, what the true impacts of microconstituents released to the environment are, and how global climate change will affect future generations.

As water professionals, we have been at the forefront of one of the longest running wars in the history of humanity: the fight against waterborne disease and the quest to improve quality of life. Last year, the British Journal of Medicine cited the advances in sanitation as the single greatest factor in extending human life in the last 150 years. We have a lot to of which to be proud, especially here in North America. In fact, we have done such a good job that the work we do is rarely acknowledged. With the exception of drought or pipe breakage, the public rarely thinks about us at all. The public expects to turn on a spigot and get safe water, to flush a toilet, and to be able to enjoy a safe environment, and they don’t usually have any idea how this is accomplished.

The Future of WEF
Most of us came into our profession and joined WEF to make a difference. For previous generations there were ample opportunities to do things that offer dramatic improvement here at home. Not so for our younger members.

Our young WEF members have a great passion to make a difference throughout the world. Domestically, water resource availability and climate change are strong and important interests. The plight of the rest of the world, however, is a larger story. Young people’s humanitarian compassion is drawn to the fact that 20% of the world’s population (1.2 billion people) doesn’t have access to adequate water, and twice that number doesn’t have adequate sanitation. The challenge for WEF is to integrate this desire to do good in the world while continuing to do good at home, and coupling that with limited resources.  After all, the wealth of nations has not eliminated these problems — yet.

How will we handle all the challenges that face us? Frankly, I neither know the answers nor see the paths clearly. What I do have is faith that we will come up with the best way possible to use WEF’s resources to protect the water resources of our planet. That faith is grounded in what I see as the unique strength of WEF. We are an organization of individuals coming together from many backgrounds and working together in many ways to find and implement solutions for the water environment.

While we have a community of interest, we are not a trade organization nor speak for any special interest. Our stock in trade is knowledge, its development and dissemination, and we are recognized as a center of excellence. Why? Because we believe decisions should be grounded in real science. This gives us credibility. How do we accomplish this? We find ways to work together with others to achieve a beneficial goal. We can be members of WEF committees and communities of practice, or MAs and their associated activities. There is something for all of us, ranging from science and its application, to training and operation assistance, to advocacy for the environment.

An individual can make a difference, and WEF affords many avenues for us to do so. My path is only one of many. It is up to you to find your opportunities, and I will be glad to assist. In future columns I will highlight some ways, but please don’t wait that long. Every day lost is just that, lost.

— Adam Zabinski, 2007–2008 WEF President