"On to Cromwell!"

Someday, wastewater historians may look back on 2016 as a harbinger of a revolution in solids management in the Northeast. And Connecticut – the “still revolutionary” state – is the epicenter. That’s why this annual conference is here, in Cromwell, this year.

NEWEA’s Residuals Management Committee and the North East Biosolids and Residuals Association (NEBRA), with support from Connecticut’s Minutemen (state associations CAWPCA and CWPAA), bring you revolutionary presentations from near and far, highlighting the latest advances in thermal processing, composting, and anaerobic digestion:

• What ideas, manifestos, and projects are fomenting in today’s unsettled landscape? From Hartford to Virginia to San Francisco, demand for energy production drives projects with cries of “Don’t tread on waste heat and biogas!” 
• Practical challenges require constant vigilance: stabilization upgrades, composting, AD pilot projects, linear motion mixers, incinerator stability, NOx, and odor control. 
• And still the hue and cry is heard: “What to do with the solids?”  That is the tension that drives the revolution!  “No standards without representative data!”

Suddenly, solids end use and disposal options are crunched between diversion of organic wastes from landfills, stricter incinerator air standards, limits on nutrient inputs to soils, urban agriculture, greenhouse gas initiatives, and aging infrastructure.

But from these conflicts arise opportunities - the growth of a new nation of solids management, aiming for that never-achievable but-always-alluring perfection of sustainability, founded on the premise that all solids management options are created equal, now and forever, under Part 503.

So, this October, rally, you Minutemen (operators, managers, engineers, agriculturists, regulators, vendors) from local, state, federal, and private interests, and address the competing environmental needs, the increasing hardships – and opportunities.  (The conference includes informative exhibits and much networking!)  “On to Cromwell!”