Gateway to tomorrow
Environmental professionals will find a guide to the future this month in the Gateway City. The Air & Waste Management Association's (A&WMA) 92nd Annual Meeting & Exhibition - Gateway to the 21st Century, in St. Louis, will feature symposia on air quality, environmental management, waste management, and strategic and policy issues. The conference will be held June 20-24 at the America's Center.
This year's conference will also include an opportunity for students to present their research, giving a new perspective to environmental expertise. Candidates for undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees have been invited to showcase their findings on Monday, June 21, in a student poster session. Cash prizes of up to $500 will be awarded for the best presentations.
Learning opportunities for environmental professionals will also be available. Technical sessions for this year's conference have been geared into separate program tracks. Each track explores a different environmental issue, including: particulate matter/visibility; NAAQS ozone; air quality and atmospheric processes; mobile sources; emission monitoring; emission controls for organics, air toxics, mercury and area sources; industrial processes; industrial sources; effects; risk; pollution prevention; compliance; audits, ethics and justice; management systems; indoor air quality; noise; odors; hazardous and mixed waste; site remediation and management; municipal and medical waste; international issues; environmental education; costs and legal issues; optical measurements; environmental management; and international urban environmental infrastructure.
Many of the professional development courses also offered are scheduled several days before the June 20 start of the A&WMA conference. The course lengths vary from a half-day to two days. Topics include fundamentals of dispersion modeling, stack testing for hazardous air pollutants using regulatory compliance methodology, compliance with the Clean Air Act, PCB management and more.
Technical tours of some of St. Louis' most well known companies will offer a look at real-life environmental solutions. Anheuser-Busch Inc.'s wastewater treatment system will be examined on Monday, June 21, as will the Weldon Spring Site Remedial Action Project, where a uranium feeds material plant is being remediated. On Tuesday, June 22, the AmerUE-Labadie Power Plant, one of the U.S.Õs largest fossil-fueled power plants, will offer emission solutions. The Boeing Company, maker of the world-famous fighter jets, and Fred Weber Inc., a concrete plant, will also be toured. Wednesday, June 23, attendees can visit the Chrysler Corp.'s St. Louis assembly plant and its computerized communication system, and the Monsanto Life Sciences Research Center, where the company strives to combine better health care with a better environment. Finally, on Thursday, June 24, Holnam Inc., one of the world's largest cement plants, will demonstrate its waste disposal methods.
Environmental products and services will be exhibited in the America's Center from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, June 21; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 22; and 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 23. More than 300 companies are expected to showcase the latest trends and technology in the environmental field.
Activities geared to foster networking are also being planned for the conference. Events ranging from a breakfast meeting with the association of Environmental Engineering Professionals and the Partnership for Environmental Technology Education, to luncheons for the professional development of women and with the American Academy of Environmental Engineers, are scheduled.
For more social-minded networkers, an opening-night jazz-themed reception will bring them in tune with St. Louis. A Cardinals game with specially reserved A&WMA seats and a riverboat-style mock casino will also help attendees feel the city's beat. Sightseeing tours will be made available.
For information about A&WMA official hotels, conference information, or registration, call (800) 270-3444, or ++(412) 232-3444 outside the United States or Canada. Additional conference information can also be found at the A&WMA's Web site at www.awma.org.
Photo courtesty of the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission.
This article originally appeared in the 06/01/1999 issue of Environmental Protection.
About the Author
Mel Zimmerman, PhD, is chair of the Biology Department at Lycoming College Williamsport, Penn., as well as the director of the Clean Water Institute (www.lycoming.edu/biology/cwi/index.htm). His research and publications deal with wastewater parasites and wetlands and stream restoration.