4/29/22
NEWMOA Science of PFAS Conference

After almost two years of delay due COVID, the North East Waste Management Officials Association (NEWMOA) hosted a two day conference on all aspects of PFAS science research management and technology, April 5th and 6th in Marlborough Massachusetts.  There were over 500 attendees from 26 states including California North Carolina and Michigan as well as British Columbia Canada. The conference attracted a very diverse crowd of attendees including researchers, regulators, practitioners, and environmental advocates focused on various aspects of the problem including solids waste disposal, drinking water, wastewater, residuals, and air deposition.

Following a welcome by NEWMOA’s Executive Director, Terri Goldberg, the current chair of NEWMOA, Michael Wimsatt with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, spoke about PFAS as “an outsized problem.” Martin Suuberg, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, and a lawyer by trade, discussed Massachusetts’ response to PFAS.  He commented on the speed with which the science is changing and the amount of work still needed to be done. The next speaker was Dr. Rainer Lohmann, Professor of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island and head of the Sources, Transport, Exposure & Effects of PFAS (STEEP) program. He spoke on the concept of essential uses and the pros and cons of regulating PFAS as a class. He reported on STEEP research indicating that two parts per trillion would be a good limit for the sum of all PFAS in drinking water.  He highlighted an upcoming movie: No Defense Trailer - Bing video.  He also mentioned studies on the cost of cleanup which has the potential to be in the tens of billions of dollars per year in the United States.

The Day 2 opening session featured Paul Locke from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection who spoke about the collaborative nature of the conference and the information and data sharing that is going on. He spoke of the important work of translating technical and scientific information into good public policy and the importance of communicating with decision makers. “No one is as smart as all of us” he reminded the attendees and found it more interesting to talk about what we don't know.

The main speaker on Day 2 was Deb Szaro, perennial acting regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region I, who announced she will be retiring in December.  Ms. Szaro is the co-Chair, along with Radhika Fox, Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Office of Water, of EPA’s Council on PFAS.  She announced the multi-lab validated wastewater analysis method is expected at the end of this year.  She spoke to EPA's PFAS Roadmap and the multimedia approach to dealing with this pollutant, including source reduction and polluter pays concepts as well as environmental justice considerations. She assured the audience that EPA is working quickly on the science needed for the decision making.

Each day of the conference there were four one and a half hour technical sessions — a total of 12 hours of technical content for attendees. The conference presentations were organized into five different tracks including environmental behavior, toxicology and environmental health, environmental sampling and analysis, treatment and remediation, uses and alternatives.  There were also numerous posters and exhibits; there was so much information sparking lots discussions in the hallways on breaks and during lunch.

There were two sessions specific to biosolids that were very well attended. Those sessions fell under the environmental behavior track. The first session included Chris Evans from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Josh Burns with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, and Anthony Drouin from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. They presented on data collection and research projects investigating PFAS in various media.  Vermont’s initial look at land application sites indicates higher PFAS concentrations than background, about four times higher at one site. In New Hampshire, the State is coordinating with the U.S. Geological Service on a soil study; the full report should be done in October of this year.  Mr. Drouin mentioned that PFAS soil standards are likely coming at the end of 2023.  Extensive PFAS investigations continue in all three states.

The second biosolids session, in the morning on the second day, was kicked off by Marco Propato with Stone Environmental.  He spoke on the PFAS fate and transport modeling work they have been refining over the past few years.  Andrew Carpenter of Northern Tilth spoke with a heavy heart about the situation in Maine and the farmers he's working with who have been severely impacted by PFAS contamination. Shelagh Connolly, from Resource Management, Inc., was also very emotional in speaking about the farm contamination issue and the impacts on her residuals recycling business.  Finally, Scott Firmin spoke to the struggles of water utilities in trying to manage biosolids in light of PFAS. He expressed concern about the land application bill pending in Maine and what would happen if there was an outright ban.  He encouraged an adaptive management approach to allow a transition to other management methods.