WERF Seeks Proposals for Pathogen Risk Assessments of Biosolids
On Sept. 27, the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF)
announced that proposals are being accepted for research addressing
pathogen risk assessments of biosolids and the effective communication
of results.
WERF anticipates funding of approximately $250,000 to $500,000 for
the first year of research. Due to the scope of this challenge,
estimates for the total cost, over a multi-year period, are estimated
at up to $1 million. WERF wants this research to facilitate use of
biosolids pathogens risk assessment methodologies for the purpose of
making them generally applicable and available to potential users at
the local, state and national level. A complementary activity will be
to ensure that the best risk communications science and practices are
available to communicate the results.
WERF has worked with its subscribers to identify and prioritize
their top challenges and plans to establish a flexible and adaptive
relationship with individual researchers and research teams. This
request for proposals (RFP) is different from some WERF RFPs in the
past as it is not soliciting a single project for a set period of time
for a set cost. Instead, this RFP identifies an overall goal and
suggests some key milestones to focus the research efforts.
"Meeting regulatory requirements for land application practices may
no longer be enough to ensure the continued beneficial use of
biosolids. Because of the heightened public scrutiny that
land-application projects often face, WERF feels it is important to
refine the tools that will allow utilities, land appliers, regulators,
and local public administrators to more readily assess the relative
risks associated with pathogens in biosolids and effectively
communicate the results," said Dan Woltering, director of Research at
WERF.
The goal of this research program is to incorporate advancements in
pathogen risk assessment and communications made over the past 10 years
into available methodologies. Demonstrations of method applicability,
including the development and testing of a user-friendly interface that
allows data to be readily input, are needed in order to put such a
pathogen risk assessment approach into common practice. A complementary
and equally important aspect is to bring forward and further develop
the best risk communications science and practices that are relevant to
this topic.