Community Service, Workshops to Highlight WEFTEC
The Water Environment Federation’s (WEF) Students and Young Professionals Committee (SYPC) has organized a community service project during WEFTEC.09 this October in Orlando, Fla.
Scheduled for Oct 10, SYPC will replant and revitalize a portion of the wetlands at the Orange County Utilities Northwest Water Reclamation Facility (NWRF).
The committee will work with conference attendees and volunteers to harvest plants from the facility’s established wetlands and replant them in uncultivated areas. In addition to expanding NWRF’s green space, participants will learn how wetlands are used to further remove nutrients from reclaimed water prior to recharging the local aquifer system.
Traditionally viewed as a water-rich state, Florida has struggled with a three-year drought and increased demand on the area’s aquifer and groundwater supplies. Many local utilities adopted mandatory conservation measures and sustainable programs, including water reclamation and wetlands restoration, to ensure responsible natural resources management and environmental protection.
This year’s wetlands project not only supports environmental stewardship on a local level but also promotes WEF’s overall mission to preserve and enhance the global water environment.
On the technical side, WEFTEC will host 122 technical sessions, 31 workshops and nine facility tours, which are categorized into 14 technical education focus areas ranging from collection systems and leading-edge research to sustainable water resources management and water reclamation and reuse.
The conference offers several hot topic workshops on Saturday and Sunday, including:
- W106: Energy Conservation at Wastewater Facilities
- W205: WEF/WERF Understanding Odor and Corrosion in Collection Systems: State of the Science
- W206: Integrated Methods for Upgrading and Optimizing Treatment Plants
- W207: Using Reclaimed Water to Augument Potable Water Resources
- W208: Activated Sludge and BNR Process Control: Hands On in the Real World
- W210: The New Deal: Capital Project Financing Under Constrained Credit Conditions
- W211: Sustainable Solutions for Utilities to Address Carbon Footprint and Resource Recovery
- W212: Managing Wastewater as a Renewable Resource: A Socio-Technological Framework and Assessment Technique
For details, visit www.weftec.org.