Summer 2019 Currents

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EWRI CURRENTS VOLUME 21, NUMBER 3 Summer 2019

Featured Articles ASCE Government Relations Update Physico-chemical Destructive Technologies for Treatment of PFAS Engineering Applications of the Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) Satellite Mission As Extreme Precipitation Increases, Changes in Intensity-Duration-Frequency Curves Can Protect Infrastructure and Lives Climate Data Visualization for Non-Experts using NOAA’s Weather and Climate Toolkit Emerging Nanomaterials: Pollution and Urban Water Treatment Challenges


I enjoyed the opportunity to visit with many of you at our recent World Environmental and Water Resources Congress in Pittsburgh this past May. Like always, there were many interesting technical and professional development sessions during the congress. In addition to these sessions, I enjoyed several history sessions Kevin Nielsen, as we were celebrating the 20EWRI President year anniversary of EWRI. It made me grateful for the many engineers who have worked hard over the past 20 years to make EWRI a successful organization. I am very proud to have been part of this history and to have worked together with many of you. It added to the celebration of our 20-year history to hold our congress at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers which form the Ohio River. This area is rich with our country’s history. This was a strategic location during our country's early development to control the Ohio River watershed and its vast resources. This location continues to play a critical role in the economy in addition to providing a beautiful park and meeting place. For those interested in the rail to trail system, this location is also the western end to the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP), a 150-mile trail from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Maryland which was developed from an abandoned railway. The trail continues from Cumberland to Washington DC on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal trail. Last year I had the opportunity to cycle the entire 350-mile reach from Pittsburgh to Washington DC. Not only is this a very enjoyable cycling trail but the area is full of fascinating

The Point in Pittsburgh

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE history. We enjoyed last year’s cycling ride so much that this year after the congress, my wife and I decided to cycle several of our favorite sections of the GAP. I would highly recommend the GAP to anyone who enjoys cycling. It’s well maintained with lots of incredible views and includes several historical locations such as the Mason and Dixon line. In addition, it’s a great history lesson on the impact of early engineers who designed and built the bridges, viaducts, and tunnels to provide for the railroad. This trail includes the Pinkerton, Big Savage, and Borden tunnels. It includes the Salisbury Viaduct which was built in 1912 as a railroad bridge to cross the Casselman River valley. Along the trail you also cross the Bollman Truss bridge which was the first successful all-metal bridge to be used on a railroad. It was very exciting to see how these structures served the railroad for many years and now continue to provide a benefit to society after their original purpose was no longer needed. It highlighted the value of resiliency in engineering and how our profession is making history every day. Though I can study in books the history of many of these structures along the GAP, I was fascinated by the fact that this history was also written across the landscape. Each of us through our engineering work are writing a similar history every day. It’s often easy to talk about the great accomplishments of past engineers without realizing that today we are each writing the history for future generations. There continue to be many challenges both in developed and developing countries as we consider the future needs of society regarding our water resources and the environment. We each have an important role to play in the history of how these problems will be solved. I have always been fascinated by the great accomplishments of Leonardo da Vinci and how his work lead to many valuable contributions in art, medicine, science and engineering. Many of his designs and research discoveries have provided the foundation for current developments. Despite the vast amount of

www.asce.org/ewri • EWRI Currents • Volume 21, Number 3 • Summer 2019


EDITOR’S CORNER

Pinkerton Tunnel

research that has been completed since his time, I referenced some of his early work in plunging jets and air entrainment in my doctoral dissertation on plunging jets. To help make my point in this President’s Column, I want to again reference a quote from Leonardo da Vinci which set the standard for how he lived his life. He said “It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” This is the challenge I hope we will each take personally with regards to our engineering profession. That is to not sit back and let things happen to us but to go out and make things happen to protect the health, welfare, and safety of society and the environment. Your participation in EWRI is a direct way in which you are going out to make these things happen. Kevin Nielsen EWRI President

In this edition of Currents, we continue discussing the hot topic of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The Spring issue contained an introduction to PFAS, including its physical and chemical properties, potential sources to the environment, and remediation methods. In this Summer 2019 edition, we include an informative article on emerging destructive technologies for PFAS in water, including chemical oxidation processes, chemical reduction processes, ultrasonication, and plasma technologies. PFAS is an environmentally recalcitrant chemical and it is our hope that one or more of these technologies will transfer well from the laboratory to the field. In this edition of Currents, we have several other articles focused on protecting human health and lives, including discussions of the necessity of changes in intensity-duration-frequency curves as extreme precipitation increases, pollution and treatment challenges of emerging nanomaterials, the Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission, and the USGS PointSource Load Estimation Tool. If you have an article you would like to contribute for a future edition of Currents, please reach out to me (csoistman@geosyntec.com) or Jennifer Jacyna, Manager of Members Services for EWRI (jjacyna@asce.org). Please enjoy this edition of Currents! Catherine Soistman, Editor csoistman@geosyntec.com

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ASCE Government Relations Update Natalie Mamerow, Senior Manager, Federal Government Relations, ASCE ASCE Releases New Infrastructure State Report Cards In April and May, ASCE released three new Infrastructure State Report Cards in Iowa, California, Oregon. If your Section or Branch is interested in starting a Report Card, ASCE has designed kickoff training and developed an online toolkit that offers direction on building an ASCE Report Card. We will also give you a staff contact to assist throughout the process. To get started on a new Report Card or update an existing Report Card, email reportcard@asce.org. ASCE Board Member and EWRI Member Appointed to EPA Taskforce ASCE is thrilled to announce that Carol Haddock, P.E., MPA, M.ASCE, has been chosen to serve on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) newly established Stormwater Infrastructure Task Force. As Houston, Texas’ Director of Houston Public Works, she also serves as a Technical Region Member on ASCE’s Board of Direction and sits on ASCE’s Public Policy Committee. The task force, authorized as part of the America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018, is charged with studying and developing recommendations to improve the availability of public and private sources of funding stormwater infrastructure. Take the 2020 Priority Issues Survey It’s time for ASCE Members (that’s you!) to tell us about the issues that should be central to our legislative activities in 2020. The Public Policy Committee and ASCE Government Relations Staff will use the results of the survey in developing the annual Priority Issues lists, which guide ASCE’s lobbying efforts at the state and federal levels. NOTE: You will need your six-digit ASCE ID number to complete the survey. Critical Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Programs See Funding Boost As the congressional Fiscal Year 2020 appropriations, or funding, process kicked into gear this spring, ASCE sent a series of letters to key appropriators asking for full funding for a number of federal infrastructure programs, including a request to triple the amount of funds for the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (CWSRF and DWSRF). Thanks to the efforts of ASCE’s Key Contacts and 2019 Fly-In participants, the House passed a “minibus,” or spending package, in late June that contains $3.08 billion for the CWSRF and DWSRF – a $319 million increase above the Fiscal Year 2019 enacted level, although not as high as the combined $7.5 billion ASCE requested in our appropriations request letters. The next step is for the Senate to release and vote on its Fiscal Year 2020 appropriations bills before the end of the fiscal year on September 30, 2019. ASCE Submits Comments on Proposed Rules With technical assistance from EWRI members and a breadth of feedback from ASCE members, ASCE submitted public comments in response to the proposed rule by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which alters definitions under the existing Obama-era Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule. This proposed rule redefines the scope of the federal government’s jurisdiction over waters covered by the Clean Water Act. In our letter, ASCE concluded that while we support WOTUS rulemaking to better define federal water jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act, the Society cannot support the proposed rule in its current form. ASCE specifically urged review of the proposed rule’s definition of ditches, wetlands, and ephemeral streams. ASCE also submitted public comments (here and here) – with technical assistance from www.asce.org/ewri • EWRI Currents • Volume 21, Number 3 • Summer 2019


EWRI members – to the EPA’s Discussion Framework for Development of a Draft Water Reuse Action Plan and the agency’s draft interim recommendations for addressing groundwater contaminated with PFAS (perfluorooctanoic acid and/or perfluorooctane sulfonate) at sites evaluated and addressed under federal cleanup programs. Infrastructure Week: #BuildForTomorrow The 7th annual official Infrastructure Week theme was #BuildForTomorrow, a hopeful message about building for the future of infrastructure. ASCE members, sections, and leadership took part in events from DC to Los Angeles, and beyond. In DC, ASCE and City Parks Alliance co-hosted a briefing on the role of parks infrastructure in urban areas, featuring ASCE Executive Director Tom Smith, ENV SP, CAE, F.ASCE, ASCE EWRI Member Dr. Robert Traver, P.E.,D.WRE,F.EWRI,F.ASCE and Congressman Mike Turner (R-OH). Read more here. ASCE Endorses Water Infrastructure Trust Fund Act Representatives Blumenauer (D-OR) and Katko (R-NY) introduced the Water Infrastructure Trust Fund Act of 2019. The bill creates a water infrastructure trust fund with revenues generated by a labeling fee of $0.03 on businesses and products that voluntarily label water-based beverages, products disposed of in wastewater, and pharmaceuticals. ASCE supports this bill as a way to help raise our nation’s drinking water and wastewater infrastructure grades, a “D” and “D+,” respectively, in the 2017 Infrastructure Report Card. ASCE Supports Resilient Communities Revolving Loans ASCE joined the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative in sending a letter to House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure leaders, asking that any forthcoming infrastructure package include a Resilient Communities Revolving Loan Fund. Projects funded could include elevations and flood proofing of public buildings, businesses, residences; and converting frequently flooded areas into open space amenities among others. This program aligns with the 2017 Infrastructure Report Card’s recommendation to utilize new approaches, materials, and technologies to ensure our infrastructure is more resilient. Stormwater Needs Survey Estimates $7.5 billion Shortfall The Water Environment Federation Stormwater Institute released the first-ever needs assessment survey on the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) sector. The 2019 report findings came from responses from 48 states and DC, including Phase I and II (municipal and non-traditional) permittees. In addition to estimating the funding shortfall, responders reported experiencing challenges related to changing regulations and the need for technical information.

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Physico-chemical Destructive Technologies for Treatment of PFAS Brian J. Yates, P.E., Civil and Environmental Engineer, Burgess & Niple, Inc. Blossom Nwedo Nzeribe, Ph.D., Environmental Engineer, GSI Environmental, Inc. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of thousands of exclusively anthropogenic chemicals that have been in use since the 1940s. Their chemical and thermal stability as well as their oil- and water-repellency characteristics, make them useful in many consumer products and across many different industries. These same properties, however, also make them environmentally recalcitrant, and PFAS contamination has been reported worldwide. Health studies over the past 20+ years have indicated that PFAS are linked to adverse health outcomes including high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, testicular cancer, kidney cancer and pregnancy-induced hypertension (eclampsia). Other negative health outcomes have also been proposed as being caused by elevated levels of PFAS in blood serum. In response, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has set a drinking water lifetime health advisory level of 70 ng/L for a combination of two PFAS (PFOS and PFOA) and individual states have set even lower values for drinking water, groundwater, soil, and other environmental matrices. The best available technologies for removal of PFAS in water are granular activated carbon, ion exchange resins, and reverse osmosis. These treatment technologies, however, do not destroy, but rather concentrate PFAS in another matrix, which remains a challenge for remediation efforts. There are no full-scale best available technologies for the destruction of PFAS owing to the strength of the C-F bond (the strongest in organic chemistry); however, some emerging technologies are showing promise. This article aims to introduce the reader to the current state of the science with respect to emerging destructive technologies for PFAS in water. These include chemical oxidation processes, chemical reduction processes, ultrasonication, and plasma technologies. This article is a summary of a more extensive review published in Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology earlier this year (Crit. Rev. in Environ. Sci. Technol. 2019, doi.org/10.1080/10643389.2018.1542916). Chemical Oxidation Processes Traditional chemical oxidation processes using chlorine, permanganate, and ozone are not effective in destroying PFAS in water due to the strength of the C-F bond; however, PFAS have been shown to be susceptible to oxidation by high-energy free radicals or by direct electrochemical oxidation. Three technologies which have shown promise for the destruction of PFAS in water by chemical oxidation include activated persulfate, electrochemical oxidation, and photochemical oxidation. Persulfate is a strong oxidizing agent that can be activated by several methods, including heat, pH, transition metals, and microwaves. Upon activation, persulfate forms the sulfate and hydroxyl radicals. The sulfate radical is effective in the sequential removal of the perfluoroalkyl moiety from PFAS. This mode of removal is known as the “unzipping” mechanism and has been shown for PFOA. Complete mineralization of PFOA is possible however, only one study has demonstrated that PFOS can be destroyed by heat-activated persulfate. Temperature and pH affect the efficiency with which PFOA is removed as higher temperature and lower pH promote radical-radical reactions, which lowers the efficiency of their reaction with target PFAS. Also, degradation of PFAS by activated persulfate is suppressed by other solutes (e.g., chloride, bicarbonate, and organic matter). www.asce.org/ewri • EWRI Currents • Volume 21, Number 3 • Summer 2019


Electrochemical oxidation includes both direct and indirect oxidation. In direct oxidation, PFAS is sorbed to the anode itself, and the current within the electrochemical cell oxidizes the contaminant. In indirect oxidation, PFAS are attacked by free radicals that are formed at the anodic surface. Electrodes that have been used for destruction of PFAS include boron-doped diamond (BDD), PbO2, TiO2, and SnO2. Advantages of electrochemical oxidation include the ability to operate at ambient temperatures, no chemical requirement, and no waste generation. Disadvantages include the formation of toxic byproducts and the relatively high cost of electrodes and energy required to perform the direct or indirect oxidation. Like electrochemical oxidation, photochemical oxidation may be accomplished through direct or indirect means. During direct photolysis (photooxidation), PFAS are destroyed through direct absorption of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, while in indirect photolysis (photo-chemical oxidation), the destruction of PFAS is by its reaction with species formed through UV radiation of co-contaminants or other solutes. Because of their chemical structure, PFAS do not absorb UV radiation of wavelengths greater than 220 nm; therefore, photooxidation of PFAS is only feasible with high energy (low wavelength) light and is not considered a viable PFAS destruction technology. Therefore, photochemical oxidation is considered the most feasible. Some examples of photochemical oxidation systems include UV-Fenton, UV-In2O3 and UV-TiO2, UV-Pb-TiO2, and UV-IO4 in which the metal or solute forms reactive radical species which can destroy PFAS. While photo-chemical oxidation has been shown to be somewhat effective for destruction of PFOA, there has been minimum effectiveness towards PFOS published. Chemical Reduction Processes Chemical reduction processes are the analogue to chemical oxidation processes. While in chemical oxidation processes, an oxidative species (usually a free radical) oxidizes PFAS, in chemical reduction processes the free radical acts as the reductant and reduces (adds electrons to) PFAS, thereby breaking the C-F (and other) bond and mineralizing it. Chemical reduction can occur by direct reduction with zero-valent iron (ZVI), ferrous iron, or sodium thionate or by indirect reduction by reductive radicals such as the solvated electron. Direct reduction using ZVI is effective in the destruction of PFAS. The process involves the transfer of PFAS to the ZVI surface, adsorption of PFAS to ZVI, the direct reduction of PFAS on the ZVI surface and then desorption and diffusion of products from the ZVI surface. As this is a surface-mediated process, the surface properties of the ZVI significantly impact the reactivity of PFAS at the surface. Increasing the surface area of ZVI by use of nano-scale ZVI can greatly increase the efficiency of PFAS destruction. Indirect reduction of PFAS is achieved by exposing PFAS to reductants, which are then activated by several methods including ultrasound, UV, microwave, or electron beam. Some examples of reductants used for destruction of PFAS include ferrous iron, sulfide, sulfate, iodide, and dithionite. Once activated, the reductants form highly reactive hydrogen radicals or solvated electrons which can then indirectly reduce PFAS leading to its ultimate mineralization. The process depends on the concentration of the reductant, temperature, and the pH of the solution. For example, in a system treating PFOA using KI activated by UV, increasing the pH increased the destruction efficiency, while increasing KI increased destruction efficiency to a point and then had a negative effect on destruction efficiency. Other PFAS-specific factors affecting efficiency include the initial PFAS concentration, head group type (carboxylate or sulfonate) and PFAS chain length. Reductive processes often require extreme operating conditions and studies to date have not employed natural 7


water matrices, and as such, the effect of interferants is not fully elucidated. Ultrasonication Ultrasonication involves the propagation of acoustic waves at frequencies ranging between 20 kHz and 1,000 kHz resulting in cavitation of microbubbles with the accompanying high temperatures (up to 5,000 K) and pressures (up to 2,000 atm). Destruction of PFAS during ultrasonication occurs by two mechanisms: 1) formation and subsequent reaction of PFAS with hydroxyl radicals formed by the dissociation of water under extreme conditions of temperature and pressure and 2) direct pyrolysis due to extreme heat produced during bubble cavitation. These reactions can occur in the bulk liquid, at the bubble interface or within the gas phase of the bubble. Studies have been conducted to investigate the effect of adding other solutes during ultrasonication including persulfate, periodate, and sulfate. These have been shown to enhance the degradation of PFAS through the formation of free radicals. The addition of cationic surfactants can decrease the surface energy at the interface and increase the adsorption of PFAS, leading to a more efficient process. Conversely, the presence of some other solutes such as bicarbonate can decrease the destruction efficiency of PFAS due to interactions at the gas-liquid interface. Scaling of ultrasonication reactors, as well as the effects of background organics (e.g., humic substances) and inorganics (e.g., bicarbonate), are the main barriers to full-scale implementation of ultrasonication for destruction of PFAS. Plasma Plasma is a form of matter that consists of ions, atoms, atomic fragments, and free electrons and therefore is very energy dense. Plasmas classified as thermal or non-thermal (i.e., those that have background temperatures ranging from ambient to 1,000 K characterized by non-equilibrium between the electrons within the plasma) are used for water treatment, and specifically for PFAS mineralization. Non-thermal plasmas can be formed by direct current, alternating current, pulsed discharges, radio frequency, or microwave power supply sources. These non-thermal plasmas can both oxidize and reduce organic molecules (including PFAS) in solution. The best example of plasma technology for the removal of PFAS is the laminar jet bubbling reactor (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2019, doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b04215). This reactor was able to remove PFOA in the µg/L range in a 1.4 L reactor to below non-detect levels even in the presence of other co-contaminants (i.e., chlorinated solvents). Plasma treatment was able to achieve a defluorination efficiency 30 times greater than activated persulfate, 10 times greater than sonolysis, and 15 percent greater than electrochemical treatment. Most studies have been performed on PFAS solutions in the µg/L and mg/L range making them appropriate for treatment of residuals (e.g., reverse osmosis rejectate) or as a treatment train option with, for example, ozofractionation systems. Plasma appears to be less sensitive than other treatment processes to the presence of co-contaminants, making it a promising technology for remediation of PFAS-contaminated water. As earlier mentioned, these destructive technologies have shown promising for PFAS destruction in the laboratory scale, however, the most significant and current limitation associated with them is their field implementation. Scaling up these technologies from bench scale studies to large scale remediation will help to assess their implementability, cost, remediation effectiveness, and long-term reliability.

www.asce.org/ewri • EWRI Currents • Volume 21, Number 3 • Summer 2019


USGS releases user-friendly Point-Source Load Estimation Tool (PSLoadEsT) Do you need consistent and reliable data for nutrient concentrations released by point-source dischargers? The USGS has developed a new approach for developing typical pollutant concentrations (TPCs) in the absence of measured total nitrogen (TN) or total phosphorus (TP) concentration data and a new tool, the Point-Source Load Estimation Tool (PSLoadEsT), for estimating TN and TP loads. PSLoadEsT is a user-friendly interface for point-source dischargers that generates reproducible calculations of nutrient loads to streams. PSLoadEsT, using TPCs developed by the new approach, was used to estimate point-source nutrient loads to streams of the conterminous United States for 2012. Annual total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) loads were estimated for all major point-source facilities (which comprise major wastewater treatment facilities (WWTFs) and some industrial facilities) and for minor WWTFs that discharged to streams in the conterminous United States during 2012. Although there are almost 3 times as many minor WWTFs as major WWTFs, the TN load contributed by major WWTFs to streams is about 15 times larger than that contributed by minor WWTFs. Similarly, major WWTFs contribute about 13 times more TP to streams than minor WWTFs. A reliable method to estimate TPCs is critical. Of 16,967 point-source facilities analyzed for the estimate of 2012 point-source loads to streams, only 20 percent of TN values and 37 percent of TP values were measured concentrations. The TPC, which is estimated based on the type of treatment process, effluent, and industrial category, can be used to calculate nutrient loads from facilities that lack effluent nutrient concentration data. For more information, contact Ken Skinner. Citations: Skinner, K.D., and Maupin, M.A., 2019, Point-source nutrient loads to streams of the conterminous United States, 2012: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 1101, 13 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ds1101. Gorman Sanisaca, L.E., Skinner, K.D., and Maupin, M.A., 2019, Annual wastewater nutrient data preparation and load estimation using the Point Source Load Estimation Tool (PSLoadEsT): U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2019-1025, 48 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20191025.

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Engineering Applications of the Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) Satellite Mission 2019 SWOT Early Adopter Workshop, May 20-21, 2019, Paris, France

Faisal Hossain, University of Washington SWOT is a research satellite mission (Fig 1), planned for launch in 2021, and developed jointly by NASA and Centre for National D’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), with participation from the Canadian and UK space agencies. SWOT mission will serve both the hydrology and oceanography communities. Designed to make the first-ever global survey of Earth’s surface water, SWOT satellite mission will collect detailed measurements of how water bodies on Earth change over time. The satellite will survey at least 90 percent of the globe, studying Earth’s lakes, rivers, reservoirs and oceans at least twice every 21 days to improve ocean circulation models, and weather and climate predictions, and aid in freshwater management around the world. Figure 1. The SWOT satellite mission During May 20-21, 2019, a workshop was organized at CNES headquarters (HQ) in Paris (France) for SWOT Early Adopters (EA). These EAs had earlier proposed a tangible plan to proactively assess the utility of future SWOT data to address the needs of their respective agencies on surface water or ocean related applications. With two years to launch, it was considered an opportune time to re-engage with the EAs to provide further hands-on training, understand the progress they have made, document the hurdles and needs they face and identify clear pathways to accelerate successful use of SWOT data after launch. The workshop was organized by the SWOT Application Working Group (SAWG) leads with support provided by the NASA Applied Sciences Program, the SWOT Project, and CNES. This is the second such EA workshop designed to explore ways to maximize the user-readiness of SWOT data after launch. The Civil Engineering Profession and in particular the water practitioner community stands to benefit from SWOT mission data.

Figure 2. Participants of the 2019 SWOT Early Adopter Workshop

The participants who attended the workshop (Fig. 2) represented various stakeholder agencies from the public and private sector that deal with water issues including;

www.asce.org/ewri • EWRI Currents • Volume 21, Number 3 • Summer 2019


Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), Collecte Localisation Satellites (CLS), BRL Ingénierie (BRLi), Consortium of Universities to Advance Hydrologic Science Institute (CUAHSI), NASA SPoRT, Compagnie Nationale du Rhône (CNR), Mercator, University of Bonn, Mercator-Océan and FM Global. A hands-on training session on the use of cloud computing for SWOT-like data was organized in recognition that SWOT mission data would be hosted on a cloud-computing platform after launch. EAs were shown a demonstration of an open-source tool developed by CNES for generation of SWOT-like data for inland water bodies (Figure 3). EAs shared a futuristic vision of where they would like their project to evolve after SWOT launch with anticipated future press release titles. These press release titles summarized the desired newspaper headline each EA aspired to achieve after demonstrating a successful societal application or benefit from SWOT data after launch. A poll was carried out among participants to identify the top 3 such newspaper headlines that appeared most feasible and important for the Mission. These are as follows (note the date and newspaper title are imaginary): 1. EOS-AGU, July 2022 - Assimilation of SWOT data improves forecasting skill of NOAA National Water Model (by NASA SPoRT) 2. DAWN Newspaper, September 2023 - SWOT data enables populate and blameless management of waterlogging in Sindh province of Pakistan (by PCRWR) 3. EOS-AGU, July 2022 - SWOT Follow-on Mission in development after successful use of SWOT data in operational forecasting (by NASA SPoRT) The key take home messages extracted from this workshop are: • Most EAs have identified clear pathways to assessing the use of SWOT data for exploring value to their decision-making or societal application needs within their existing infrastructure and operations. • EAs identified the lack of SWOT simulated data with realistic geophysical representation over their study region as a key hurdle to successful completion of their project, and look forward to SWOT simulated data sets from the SWOT project in the near future. • EAs urged for continued support and guidance from the SWOT Application Working Group to address training needs for SWOT data handling in the cloud and use of ancillary tools and satellite data. • Immersive learning and training experiences at research or academic centers relevant to SWOT followed by hackathons for rapid prototyping of targeted solutions were identified as timely for EAs.

Figure 3. Workshop participants during a tutorial session on cloud computing and demonstration of open source simulator developed by CNES

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As Extreme Precipitation Increases, Changes in Intensity-DurationFrequency Curves Can Protect Infrastructure and Lives Lee Mullon, PE, CFM, D.WRE | Principal Engineer, Drummond Carpenter Recent extreme precipitation events have caused significant damage to infrastructure over widespread regions across the United States. Hurricanes are now commonly being remembered not for their wind speed category, but the depth of rainfall that has caused severe flooding. Harvey (2017) accounted for up to 60 inches of rainfall in portions of Texas, making it the most significant tropical cyclone rainfall event in United States history1. Subsequent years have seen similar hurricanes, including Florence (2018) that produced up to 36 inches of rainfall, and Barry (2019), which recently threatened to produce over 20 inches in portions of Louisiana. In the spring of 2019, extreme precipitation from snow and rainfall events caused widespread flooding in much of the Missouri River and Mississippi River basins. Together, this flooding resulted in more than $100 billion in damage, including to primary civil infrastructure such as dams, levees, roads, and bridges. Such storm events are consistent with prior forecasts that have predicted extreme rainfall to occur at a greater frequency. The U.S. Global Change Research Program found that heavy precipitation events have increased across the U.S. since 1901 and are projected to further increase throughout the nation during the 21st century, with greater risk of heavy precipitation based largely on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Recent research is now linking anthropogenic climate change impact to specific events, with storms like Hurricane Harvey having likely increased precipitation depths by up to 38% because of climate change2. The risk to vulnerable communities and residents to extreme precipitation increases as populations continue to rise in flood-prone regions. Additionally, existing infrastructure that protects cities, towns, and rural areas is aging, and these systems often were not designed to the level-of-service (LOS) needed to withstand Figure 1: Figure from Climate Science Special Report: increasing precipitation trends. Meanwhile, new Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume I infrastructure and development, designed with a minimum of 20 years of service life, are being constructed based on outdated flood prevention standards. In 2017, an estimated 41 million Americans lived within the 1% annual exceedance probability (100-year) floodplain, representing a $2.9 trillion exposure to the GDP3. These numbers increase if one considers that the reported 1% annual exceedance probability is based on historic National Hurricane Center Tropical Cyclone Report, Hurricane Harvey, AL092017 Risser, D., Wehner, M. “Attributable Human-Induced Changes in the Likelihood and Magnitude of the Observed Extreme Precipitation during Hurricane Harvey”. Geophysical Research Letters, 2017. 1

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precipitation records that underestimate the current and future condition of extreme precipitation. Global Climate Models (GCMs) offer model results that forecast future climate conditions, including precipitation, under various scenarios based on greenhouse gas emission rates. Downscaled versions of these GCMs provide future condition model results at a higher spatial and temporal resolution that can be used for long-term regional and local precipitation forecasting. These future condition precipitation model results can be used to derive future condition intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) curves, which are the basis of determining return periods and exceedance probabilities used for designing civil infrastructure. Communities like Broward County, Florida, are exploring the use of this data to produce future condition IDF curves, along with future condition groundwater levels and future condition sea level rise elevations, to develop an updated county-wide regulatory flood map. This effort is intended to reduce the Figure 2: Intensity duration frequency graph of Orlando, Florida uncertainty of flooding within the county, which showing the current 100-year return period based on NOAA Atlas will reduce the risk to the built environment as new construction would be required to meet new floodplain elevations and standards. This reduced flooding uncertainty has the added benefit of potentially lowering county residents’ flood insurance premium through FEMA’s community rating service. Development of future condition IDF curves must be performed with care. There currently is no standardized method of performing this analysis, and the number of available downscaled GCM results from different sources and downscaling methodologies, can lead to confounding results. Engineers and scientists developing future condition IDF curves should explore numerous model results to determine the most appropriate sources for each particular area or region. IDF curves developed from downscaled GCMs should also, at a minimum, determine the bias of the downscaled GCM models by calculating how well they fit the historic record, which provides context to understanding uncertainty of the results. For example, Irrizarry and Obeysekera4 found that in Florida, a downscaled GCM ensemble experienced greater bias in the historic record than the predicted change of future extreme precipitation and recommended additional GCMs be explored. Updating regulatory IDF curves to account for future extreme precipitation would provide more protective LOS standards for the infrastructure built today, as these improvements will be relied upon to protect civilization for the flood events of the future.

Wing, O. “Estimates of Present and Future Flood Risk in the Conterminous United States.” Environmental Research Letters, 2018. 4 Irizarry, M., Obeysekera, J. “Determination of Future Intensity-Duration-Frequency Curves for Level of Service Planning 13 Projects. South Florida Water Management District. 2016. 3


Climate Data Visualization for Non-Experts using NOAA’s Weather and Climate Toolkit Karlie Wells and Laura Briley, the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments (GLISA) Overview The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Weather and Climate Toolkit, referred to as the Toolkit, is available online at https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/wct/ and helps minimize time, costs, and effort spent collecting, formatting, and visualizing weather and climate data for real-world user applications. The Toolkit is a free and platform-independent software program anyone can access by downloading the software from the Toolkit website. The Toolkit homepage has access to data, image galleries, user guides, as well as tutorials. The Weather and Climate Toolkit was built to serve a wide variety of audiences such as staff at government agencies, educators, researchers, and private sector analysts. However, an ideal user of this tool should have previous knowledge of the types of data and data sources that are relevant for their work, or they should already have acquired the data they wish to visualize. The Toolkit offers a basic data listing of the types of data that are supported. Overall, the Toolkit is the most effective for 1) creating map-based visuals that could go in a report or presentation; 2) creating map-based movie animations of time series data; and 3) exporting weather and climate data in user-desired file formats for software such as geographical information systems (GIS) or scientific analysis (e.g., MatLAB, R, etc.).

Toolkit Functions: Visualization and Data Formatting The visualization capabilities of the Toolkit are convenient and designed to be user-friendly. Simple 2D visualization is available for all supported datasets. States, counties, and city boundaries are available to turn “on” or “off” over the map. Different background maps, like ESRI Street Maps, NASA Blue Marble, ESRI Global Map, and USGS maps, can be added based on the location and zoom level of the viewer. Basic filtering and smoothing functionality is also provided by the Toolkit. There are several formats available for exporting the data, such as point and polygon shapefile, point and polygon well-known text, raw NetCDF, gridded NetCDF, Arc/Info ASCII Grid, and GeoTIFF. The Toolkit’s ability to repackage data in different file formats allows users to analyze data in their own software programs, like GIS, engineering, mathematical, or statistical software, and meteorological analysis tools. A study on quantifying bird movements noted the usefulness of this feature by stating that “NOAA’s Weather and Climate Toolkit was slow at rendering and screening large volumes of data, but was the only platform that allowed reflectivity data to be exported to a shapefile format for geospatial analysis.” (O’Neal et al. 2009). Most datasets in the toolkit can also be animated. Individual images can be exported as JPEG, GIF, PICT, TIFF, BMP, TARGA, and PNG, and movies can be exported as an AVI Movie or an Animated GIF with the option of setting the frame rate. Another useful feature is that data can be exported as a KMZ file to be used in programs like Google Earth.

Supported Data Types The Data Guide within the Toolkit offers examples of the types of data that the tool supports. Here www.asce.org/ewri • EWRI Currents • Volume 21, Number 3 • Summer 2019


we summarize some of the different data sets made available through the Toolkit, but users may also import their own data sets if they meet Toolkit requirements. Global historical weather and climate observational data are supported in the Toolkit, which include daily, monthly, seasonal, and yearly measurements of variables like precipitation, temperature, and wind. Short-term weather station data such as 15-minute and hourly precipitation are also available. Weather radar data from the NextGeneration Radar (NEXRAD) archive can be viewed and analyzed within the tool, as well as satellite imagery for variables like cloud cover and lightning. Model data from climate and ocean models and numerical weather prediction models are also supported. Visit https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/wct/index. php to see what data formats (such as NetCDF, GRIB, GEMPAK, etc.) are supported if you’re using data not included in the Data Guide.

Further Guidance The Toolkit’s tutorial is available online at https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/wct/tutorials/, and provides information on nearly every aspect and capability of the tool. Additional guidance may be necessary for users who need assistance in determining appropriate data sets for their work, as the Toolkit is not intended to direct users in their initial selection of data. References: Ansari, Saeid & Hutchins, Chad & Del Greco, Stephen & Phillips, Mark. (2008). NOAA’s Weather and Climate Toolkit. AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts. O’Neal, B. J., Stafford, J. D. and Larkin, R. P. (2010), Waterfowl on weather radar: applying ground-truth to classify and quantify bird movements. Journal of Field Ornithology, 81: 71-82. doi:10.1111/j.1557-9263.2009.00263.x

Figure 1: Storm reports from July 17th, 2019. This data can be accessed within the Toolkit.

Figure 2: U.S. Drought Monitor data from June 11th, 2019. This data can be accessed within the Toolkit.

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Emerging Nanomaterials: Pollution and Urban Water Treatment Challenges Jejal Reddy Bathi, Ph.D., P.E., A.M. ASCE, Civil and Chemical Engineering, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, TN, Water Pollution Engineering Committee, Water wastewater and stormwater council, Environmental Water Resource Institute Faegheh Moazeni, Ph.D., A.M. ASCE, School of Science Engineering and Technology, Penn State Harrisburg University, PA Venkata. R Gadhamshetty, Ph.D., P.E., BCEE M. ASCE, Civil and Environmental Engineering, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, SD, Water Pollution Engineering Committee, Water, Wastewater and Stormwater Council, Environmental Water Resource Institute Introduction Several municipalities are challenged by urban non-point source pollution due to difficulties associated with their detection and control. The Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program implemented by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates pollutant load to impaired receiving waters. Reduction of the pollutant loads requires prior knowledge of pollutant and watershed characteristics in order to design relevant engineering controls. The physical and chemical characteristics of emerging pollutants such as engineered nanomaterial (ENMs) is often unknown. Thus, it is often difficult to detect and regulate the ENMs and implement passive controls. An overarching goal of this review article is to introduce concepts of ENMs, their occurrence, fate and transport in urban waters. This article on ENMs will serve as a preliminary guidance document to watershed management groups including municipalities, state and federal regulators and engineers. The readers are encouraged to review relevant EPA documents to gain detailed insight on scientific details of ENMs (EPA 2017). ENM in Surface Waters Recent global development of nanotechnology has enabled consumer products with ENMs to be present in almost every sector of human life. The increased reach of the ENMs has also led to increased concern over environmental, health and safety which may result from them. For example, the increased concern is indicated by the increased annual funding for nanomaterial research related EHS in U.S from $35 million in 2005 to $100 million in 2016 (Nano.gov). ENMs have been reported to be present in urban environments, with potential sources including point sources such as wastewater treatment plants and manufacturing industries, urban non-point sources, or indirectly via wet deposition following release from a point source into the atmosphere. Widely used in a range of current consumer products, titanium dioxide nanoparticles (n-TiO2), silver nanoparticles (n-Ag), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), zinc oxide nanoparticles (n-ZnO), and cerium dioxide nanoparticles (n-CeO2) are the compounds most likely to occur in surface waters. The ENMs are difficult to detect and treat in urban runoff as they are present only at trace levels. To the best of our knowledge, there are no published scientific studies that quantified ENMs in urban runoff and the corresponding treatment systems.

www.asce.org/ewri • EWRI Currents • Volume 21, Number 3 • Summer 2019


ENMs Fate and Transport Compared to organic chemicals, the ENMs possess unique physicochemical properties that on one hand, make them useful for myriad engineering applications, but on the other hand, increase the difficulty to assess their fate, transport and treatment in environmental media (Caballero-Guzman et al. 2016; Meesters et al. 2014). For example, ENMs are characterized by small size and some are modified surface properties with zero charge, stabilizing them in aqueous environments. Simply put, these ENMs remain suspended in water environments and they are not amenable to typical physical treatment processes including sedimentation and filtration.

Figure 1. Media and ENM properties influencing fate and transport of ENMs

The stability of ENMs in water environments depends upon hydrological parameters (ionic strength, water chemistry, water temperature, flow velocity), level of natural organic matter (NOM), and particle properties (surface charge, surface area, surface chemistry, and particle size) (see Figure 1). The fate and transport of ENMs in surface waters can be influenced by their aggregation. Homo-aggregation occurs when like particles aggregate together whereas hetero-aggregation occurs when unlike particles aggregate together in a solution (see Figure 2). Capping agents used to modify surface properties of ENMs could also impact the aggregation and hence the fate of the ENMs. Due to higher levels of NOM in surface waters, hetero-aggregation is likely the driving force that controls the behavioral and treatability aspects of ENPs in surface waters. Treatment of ENMs Due to the potential toxic nature of ENMs, the release of ENMs into surface waters raises concerns about how to control them. Conventional drinking water treatment processes are optimized for removing bacteria and viruses (10–100 nm), but not necessarily for removing emerging ENMs. Treatment and control of the ENMs in non-point sources are even more challenging than for point sources, due to their distributed sources and their trace concentrations. The majority of urban stormwater quality control units including sedimentation basins, bioretention systems, and bio-swales rely upon settling Figure 2. Aggregation processes of engineered properties of pollutants (e.g., suspended solids) in the nanoparticles in surface waters runoff. Such control units are effective for treating the water characterized by relatively higher levels of suspended solids, particularly micropollutants. However, the ENMs in runoff are categorized as very small (nano) size that behave like dissolved pollutants (i.e., pass through 0.45 ¾m filter). ENMs are often smaller than the pores of bioretention filters where most gravitational water flow occurs. As such, ENMs are expected to retain by adsorption to filter media rather than exclusion or straining processes, reducing ENM removal efficiency of bioretention treatment units. Furthermore, 17


chemical speciation influenced by metal complexation or in association with colloidal particles of the ENMs can limit the reactivity of pollutants and consequently the adsorption of ENMs onto the adsorption media. Although there is currently very limited information on speciation of nano size metals, the existing knowledge in chemical speciation behavior of dissolved metals (Cu and Zn) and difficulty to treat them in water suggests it is also difficult to treat ENMs via bioretention media filtration. (Yao et al., 1971). Porous media has shown promising results in treating a variety of dissolved and particulate pollutants in drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater. As such, it is worth exploring its efficacy for the ENMs treatment, from both point and non-point sources of pollution. Retention and movement of ENMs in porous media are influenced by the characteristics of both water and media, as well as the affinity of the ENMs towards the media. In addition, hydraulic characteristics of the porous sorption media could affect the mass transfer between the liquid (water) and solid (media) phases, the driving force moving the particulates towards the pores at the surface of the absorbent. Among the available adsorbents, modified biochar mixed with engineered bioretention filter media appeared to be capable of treating a variety of ENMs in surface runoff to meet local and national regulatory standards. Despite the great advances made in recent years about various possible methods of removing ENMs, the effectiveness of these methods requires further investigations. Regulatory Status As stated before, the presence of ENMs in water is a newly emerging concern for the federal and state agencies. Therefore, there are not many clear and strict rules and regulations associated with these pollutants in place. Some of these regulations and discussions are summarized in the following, but it should be noted that none of these regulations are directly applicable to the ENMs in surface waters. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has established guidelines targeting the safety, effectiveness and quality of the ENMs-containing FDA approved products. However, there are no strict regulations to specifically judge the safety or hazard of ENMs in these products (FDA 2014a, 2014b, 2014c and 2015a). Most of the ENMs are labeled as “chemical substances" and categorized under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), subsequently subject to the requirements of the Act. Among these, CNTs are already required to be reported under Section 5 of TSCA. EPA also issued a one-time reporting rule, under TSCA Section 8(a), for the ENMs that are existing compounds (EPA 2008b and 2016; FDA 2015b). In 2016, to ensure the safety of the manufacturing and consumption of ENMs, EPA has initiated an inclusive regulatory approach under TSCA including an information gathering rule on new and existing nanomaterials and premanufacture notifications for new nanomaterials. ENMs could also be regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act if they are exposed to drinking water or injected into a well (EPA 2007). Though, as of now, no maximum contaminant level goals (MCLGs) or maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) have been established for ENMs. Depending on the site-specific or if their applications cause the leakage of the pollutants that are or could be hazardous to the environment, the ENMs could be regulated under various categories including but not limited to Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and Clean Water Act (CWA) (EPA 2007). In addition to the above federal regulations, there exist a few state and local standards and guidelines related to these pollutants. For instance, the first local regulation for ENMs was established by the city of Berkeley, California, in 2006. This new regulation mandated all facilities mass producing or consuming manufactured ENMs to release current toxicology information, as available (Berkeley 2006). In 2010 and 2011, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (CA DTSC) sent out formal requests to the industries associated with CNTs, nanometal oxides, nanometals and quantum dots demanding information related to the chemical and physical properties of these ENMs, including analytical test methods and other relevant information (CA DTSC 2013). www.asce.org/ewri • EWRI Currents • Volume 21, Number 3 • Summer 2019


Conclusions The escalating manufacturing and use of ENMs and hence their ever-rising presence in surface-, subsurface-, and groundwater poses a concerning threat to the health of the aquatic life and ecosystems, as well as the treatment and quality of wastewater facilities. Lack of regulatory controls associated with ENMs can be improved by providing factual knowledge derived from the growing research studies in this field. However, the nature of surface waters and their interactions with the ENMs is complex. Therefore, a deep understanding about the factors that actually affect the fate and behavior of the ENMs in the surface waters could be challenging. Especially, effective methods to detect these nanoparticles in trace amounts and treat them in urban surface runoff water are yet to be investigated. The prominent urban runoff treatment techniques that are effective for suspended solids control may not be sufficient for the treatment of the ENMs. However, modified adsorption methods such as using modified biochar as filter media has shown promising results for the ENMs treatment. At the end, considering the emerging nature of urban pollution, it is critical for the watershed managers to count in the possibility of ENMs presence in natural waters when they are implementing treatment techniques. References 1. United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2017. Technical Fact Sheet- Nano Material. EPA 505F-17-002, November 2017. 2. “Environmental, health, and Safety Issues.” National Nanotechnology Initiative, 6th June 2019, https://www.nano.gov/ you/environmental-health-safety. 3. Caballero-Guzman, A., Nowack, B., 2016. A critical review of engineered nanomaterial release data: Are current data useful for material flow modeling? Environmental Pollution. 213, 502 – 517. 4. Meesters, J. A. J., Koelmans, A., Joris T. K., Quik, A,. Jan, H.,s, Dik van de., M., 2014. Multimedia Modeling of Engineered Nanoparticles with SimpleBox4nano: Model Definition and Evaluation Environmental Science & Technology 48 (10), 5726-5736 5. Yao, K.-M., Habibian, M. T. ., O'Melia., C. R., 1971. Water and waste water filtration. Concepts and applications. Environmental Science & Technology 5 (1971), 1105-1112 6. California Department of Toxic Substances Control (CA DTSC). 2013. Nanomaterials Information Call-In. www.dtsc. ca.gov/pollution prevention/chemical_call_in.cfm 7. Council of the City of Berkeley, California (Berkeley). 2006. Section 12.12.040 Filing of Disclosure Information and Section 15.12.050 Quantities Requiring Disclosure. Ordinance No. 6,960-N.S 8. EPA. 2016. “Control of Nanoscale Materials under the Toxic Substances Control Act.” Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics. www.epa.gov/reviewing-new-chemicals-undertoxic-substances-control-act-tsca/controlnanoscale- materials-under 9. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). 2014a. “Guidance for Industry Considering Whether an FDA-Regulated Product Involves the Application of Nanotechnology.” www.fda.gov/downloads/RegulatoryInformati%2 0on/Guidances/ UCM401695.pdf 10. FDA. 2014b. Guidance for Industry Safety of Nanomaterials in Cosmetic Products. www.fda.gov/downloads/Cosmetics/GuidanceRe gulation/GuidanceDocuments/UCM300932.pdf 11. FDA. 2014c. Guidance for Industry Assessing the Effects of Significant Manufacturing Process Changes, Including Emerging Technologies, on the Safety and Regulatory Status of Food Ingredients and Food Contact Substances, Including Food Ingredients that are Color Additives.www.fda.gov/downloads/Cosmetics/GuidanceRe gulation/GuidanceDocuments/UCM300927.pdf 12. FDA. 2015a. Guidance for Industry Use of Nanomaterials in Food for Animals. www.fda.gov/downloads/AnimalVeterinary/Guidanc eComplianceEnforcement/GuidanceforIndustry/UC M401508.pdf 13. FDA. 2015b. Chemical Substances When Manufactured or Processed as Nanoscale Materials: TSCA Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements. www.regulations.gov/document?D=EPA-HQOPPT-2010-0572-0001 Acknowledgments The authors acknowledge the Tennessee Higher Education Commission Center for Excellence for Applied Computational Science and Engineering at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga for their partial financial support for our on-going research in the area of engineered nanomaterial, and Shirley Clark, Ph.D., P.E., at Penn State University, Harrisburg for feedback and collaborative research on the topic.

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9 th World Water Forum “Water deserves more than a supporting role in the world and water theft must stop” The 9th World Water Forum kick-off meeting brings participants from around the world to Dakar for two days of collaborative work Let Africa show the path of peace

Kick-off meeting of the 9th World Water Forum gathering participants from the whole world to work on major water challenges

Marseille / Dakar – 21 June 2019 “Africa is rich in natural resources, in land resources and especially rich thanks to the intelligence and energy of its children, women and men living here…For two years Africa, Senegal and Dakar will be the Capital of Water. Let’s use this opportunity…for African voices to be heard,” said the President of the World Water Council, Loic Fauchon, during the opening ceremony with the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Serigne Mbaye Thiam. Many participants from the whole world met at the kick-off meeting for the 9th edition of the largest international event on water challenges. Over the course of two days, policy makers, academia, international organizations, civil society and the private sector, contributed with the strength of their ideas and the weight of their experience in the construction of the program for the Dakar World Water Forum in March 2021.

www.asce.org/ewri • EWRI Currents • Volume 21, Number 3 • Summer 2019


This collaborative work is articulated around the four main priorities of the 9th Forum: - Water Security - Cooperation - Rural Development - Means and Tools This collaboration will provide the answers that citizens around the world expect to improve their lives and regain their dignity. President Loic Fauchon's full speech

About the World Water Forum: The World Water Forum is the largest international event dealing with water challenges around the world. Organized every three years by the World Water Council in collaboration with a host country, the Forum provides a unique platform where the water community and key decision-makers can collaborate and establish long-term action plans. The Forum brings together participants from all levels and areas, including policy makers, multilateral organizations, academic organizations, civil society and the private sector. The 8th edition of the Forum, organized in 2018 in Brazil, brought together more than 10,000 participants under the theme of "Sharing water". The next edition will be held in Dakar, Senegal, in March 2021. www.worldwaterforum.org

SAVE THE DATE

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EWRI Vice President Election EWRI is pleased to announce the election of Holly Piza, P.E., M.ASCE as Vice President-Elect of the Institute’s Governing Board. Having been voted to the position by her peers in EWRI, Piza will participate in a leadership role for the next four years, rotating through the positions of Vice President, President-Elect, President, and Past-President. During her tenure on the Governing Board, Piza will maintain a variety of roles and responsibilities that vary with each title she assumes. Holly Piza is a professional engineer with 20 years of experience in the field of water resources spanning both private and public sectors. She has been involved on a national level with ASCE EWRI for the past ten years and recently coedited a book published by ASCE titled, Cost of Maintaining Green Infrastructure. As a member of EWRI, she has been active in several councils and is currently serving as Chair of the Municipal Water Infrastructure Council (MWIC). Piza also participated in the creation and implementation of EWRI’s strategic stormwater plan which included traveling to a local EWRI event in St. Louis to speak about the book and the work of the task committee she chaired to produce the book. Please join EWRI in congratulating Holly Piza, P.E., M.ASCE on her new appointment as EWRI’s next Vice President.

ASCE Distinguished Members ASCE announced its newest class of Distinguished members, a status reserved for the most eminent civil engineers in the Society. Only 220 of ASCE’s more than 150,000 current members can call themselves Distinguished Members. This year’s recipients included several EWRI members: • • • •

Jeanette A. Brown, an authority on biological nitrogen removal in wastewater treatment Dr. David A. Dzombak, a globally prominent engineer in the area of water-quality engineering. Dr. Rao S. Govindaraju, a scholar recognized internationally for his work in statistical hydrology. Dr. M.Levent Kavvas, renowned for contributions to the development of a methodology for estimation of maximum precipitation, as well as the development of a new scaling theory of hydrologic processes. • Dr. Uri Shamir, a preeminent water resources systems analyst and engineer.

www.asce.org/ewri • EWRI Currents • Volume 21, Number 3 • Summer 2019


Las Vegas Welcomes Back ASCE Week September 22–27, 2019 • • • • •

Come to one location to earn up to 44 PDHs Save up to $1,100 off regular seminar prices Network with colleagues and instructors Private tour of the Hoover Dam awarding 4 PDHs Full Week Registration includes Monday Evening Cocktail Reception

Pass Your Exam with ASCE's PE Exam Review Course August 1, 2019 Focus on exam topics • Topics presented in digestible chunks • Practice problems with step-by-step solutions • Access to all recordings until exam date • Tips to develop best study habits

Guided Online Course: Low Impact Development: A Holistic Approach to Stormwater Management September 23– December 16, 2019 • Understand LID principles and how LID controls operate. • Determine if a site design development plan is water-centric using LID concepts. • Engage in exchanges with designers and stakeholders on high-level principles surrounding a site’s layout.

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Submit an Abstract

WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL & WATER RESOURCES CONGRESS Henderson, Nevada | May 17-21, 2020

Visit the website for developing information on the Congress technical program.

EWRICongress.org

www.asce.org/ewri • EWRI Currents • Volume 21, Number 3 • Summer 2019


Operation & Maintenance of Stormwater Control Measures Minneapolis, MN | August 4 - 7, 2019

There's still time - Register Today!

Join leading environmental and water resource professionals at this national forum for O&M of green and gray stormwater infrastructure

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Thank you to the EWRI Communications Council: EDITOR Catherine Soistman NEWS CORRESPONDENTS Irrigation and Drainage Council Robert Evans Watershed Council Jeff Rieker Hydraulics & Waterways Council Kit Ng Sustainability Task Committee Rick Johnson WR Planning & Management Tim Feather Environmental Council Wendy Cohen Standards Development Council Conrad Keyes Urban Water Resources Research Council Shirley Clark Urban Stormwater Committee Christine Pomeroy Emerging & Innovative Technology Council Sean McKenna

www.asce.org/ewri • EWRI Currents • Volume 21, Number 3 • Summer 2019


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