By Tyler Robinson, Burns & McDonnell
Few things are more vital to public health and economic stability than clean water from a reliable source. In today’s rapidly evolving physical and cyber threat environment, water has become a vulnerable target simply because it is so critical.
Wastewater treatment and resource recovery has been driven by the activated sludge process for more than 100 years. From the research in 1882 that began to investigate blowing air into sewage, to the research by Arden and Lockett that developed the concept of activated sludge, through our most innovative wastewater treatment technologies, the majority of advancements in the field have focused on supplying oxygen to microorganisms for wastewater treatment (Alleman and T. B. S. Prakasam, 1983).
The Hawaii Water Environment Association and the American Water Works Association – Hawaii Section have worked hard together to put on the eighth annual Pacific Water Conference. The conference was held virtually on February 2-4, 2021. The decision to go virtual was a tough one because the PWC is well known for its in-person experience of networking with peers and meeting vendors. We were not sure how having a virtual conference would affect attendance, and we were pleasantly surprised to have a great turnout with 550 registered attendees and 21 exhibitor booths.