2023 was a very busy and productive year for the North East Biosolids & Residuals Association! There were so many major headlines but the biggest news came in November when NEBRA elected its first Canadian President in 26 years. Lise LeBlanc of LP Consulting (Nova Scotia, Canada) was elected NEBRA President at the annual membership meeting on November 1st in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Under the heavily revised NEBRA bylaws, also approved by members at that meeting, Eryka Clive of Resource Management, Inc. (Holderness, NH) became the first NEBRA President-Elect filling the new position created by the bylaws changes. Philip Tucker of the York Sewer District (York, Maine) came aboard as Vice President. NEBRA welcomed another Maine utility member to the Board in 2023: Scott Firmin of Portland Water District.

Although NEBRA picked up two new wastewater utility Board members, we said goodbye to two as well. Cheri Cousens, Executive Director of the Greater Lawrence Sanitary District (GLSD), is moving on to other pursuits after over eight years of service to NEBRA. She is not leaving the biosolids community and we are sure to hear more from GLSD as they continue their net zero journey.

NEBRA also lost its longest serving Board member – in fact a Founding Father, if you will – when Mark Young retired in 2023. Mark was the long-time director of the Lowell Regional Wastewater Utility (Lowell, MA) and known by many in New England. Mark made numerous contributions to NEBRA through the years, including serving as NEBRA President. NEBRAMail has requested an interview with Mr. Young so stay tuned for that!

In other news, it was mostly another year about PFAS. NEBRAMail archives cover a range of PFAS-related stories in 2023. Some of the most read articles on the NEBRA website were about the fallout from the Maine biosolids land application ban (Biosolids Disposal Disrupted in Maine — NEBRA (nebiosolids.org)) and Quebec’s subsequent moratorium in biosolids imports from the U.S. (Quebec Restricts Biosolids Imports — NEBRA (nebiosolids.org)), a direct result of two controversial news stories by the publicly-funded Radio-Canada in late 2022 (A Story That Does Not Smell Good — NEBRA (nebiosolids.org)). So even Canada was all about PFAS last year! And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advanced the risk assessment for PFAS in biosolids and other regulatory efforts that will surely impact biosolids and residuals management in the future.

Numerous stories from 2023 illustrate that NEBRA’s states and provinces are probably further along in their PFAS efforts than their federal counterparts. Regulators have been forced to confront various local issues this past year, such as PFAS in manufactured topsoils (VTrans Temporary Moratorium — NEBRA (nebiosolids.org)) and running out of landfill space for biosolids (Gardner Mass Biosolids — NEBRA (nebiosolids.org)).

Collaboration could be another theme to the news stories from 2023. NEBRA alliances with state associations was a great boon for NEBRA’s Reg-Leg Committee which began tracking PFAS legislation jointly with the New England Water Environment Association (NEWEA) this past year. Collaboration with NEWEA produced another excellent annual conference, November 1st and 2nd in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The partnership with NEIWPCC and MeWEA in particular was fruitful in advancing the concept of a BioHub (Wastewater Residuals BioHub • NEIWPCC) that will hopefully fast-track vetting, permitting and adoption of new technologies to address PFAS in biosolids.  And these are just a few examples!

2024 promises more significant developments on the PFAS front. But also exciting new directions for NEBRA under its new 5-year strategic plan (great summary here: NEBRA_StrategicPlan_OnePager_v2.pdf (squarespace.com)). Things to watch for in 2024 include a new NEBRA webpage dedicated to residuals recycling and a report from the Carbon Trading Committee to the members on carbon and nutrient trading programs for biosolids and residuals.

NEBRA by the Numbers — 2023

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