The National Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association’s 21st Annual Technical and Education Conference will focus on issues affecting wastewater management in New England, the Northeast, and the Mid-Atlantic (EPA regions 1, 2 and 3).
Co-hosted by the Yankee Onsite Wastewater Association and held at the Biltmore Hotel in Providence, R.I., April 2-5, the conference will highlight innovative technologies and stormwater best management practices that are part of the onsite wastewater recycling world.
Educational sessions include the 4th Northeast Onsite Short Course featuring NOWRA’s A to Z course taught by Sara Heger and Tom Fritts, a technology track, and a track focusing on New England issues.
“Attendees will find the challenges similar to those faced by many policymakers and professionals in wastewater management across the country,” says NOWRA executive director Eric Casey. “For example, the issue surrounding Cape Cod is how small communities will deal with failing onsite systems and the cost of replacing them.
“In Connecticut, the issue is regulators disputing with contractors over how to install onsite systems. The Rhode Island legislature banned cesspools, but the issue there is the unwillingness of authorities to enforce it.”
Game show and field trips
More than 30 vendors will showcase their offerings in the Trade Hall. An additional attraction will be Onsite Jeopardy, a game show complete with buzzers. Attendees will be given clues to questions asked during the game, but they must find the answers by visiting vendors. The winner receives $500 in cash.
Thursday’s field trips include a tour led by the New England Onsite Wastewater Training Center to observe low-impact development stormwater measures in Rhode Island and to learn how residential and commercial advanced onsite technologies preserved the village character of a densely developed Colonial seaport.
After lunch, the group will visit the Laboratory of Soil Ecology and Microbiology at the University of Rhode Island for a discussion on microbial communities in wastewater, then return to the center to see aboveground full-scale systems for hands-on learning.
Stormwater measures
A tour of commercial systems in Connecticut includes a SoilAir system from Geomatrix LLC rejuvenating sand filters serving a hotel, condominium complex, and marina with flows of 15,000 gpd, and a SoilAir unit rejuvenating a health care facility system. After lunch, attendees will inspect the Shoreline Sanitation Septage processing plant and explore alternative media as field inspectors use cameras to troubleshoot absorption systems and look at the geometry of advanced high sidewall surface area/low storage volume and geotextile products.
George Heufelder, health director in Barnstable County, Mass., will lead a tour of the Massachusetts Alternative Septic System Test Center, launched in 1999 to test innovative onsite technologies. He will discuss each technology being tested, then show nutrient removal and drainfield rejuvenation technologies and discuss his findings on pharmaceutical degradation in various treatment systems.
That afternoon, attendees will visit the Buzzards Bay Coalition headquarters in New Bedford, Mass., to see the stormwater reduction principles incorporated in the building. A roundtable discussion will follow on water quality issues and how the coalition works with regulators to provide solutions using onsite systems.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Northeast States and Caribbean Islands Regional Water Center will provide $500 in scholarships to help defray registration fees for graduate and undergraduate students. For more information, visit www.nowra.org.
