NAWI at the Water Environment Federation’s Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC) 2023

Image credit: Chicago, IL: NAWI Executive Director Peter Fiske at WEFTEC 2023. Jennifer Berrie/National Renewable Energy Laboratory

The NAWI Leadership Team attended the Water Environment Federation’s Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC) 2023 from Saturday, September 30 — Wednesday, October 4, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois to meet leading experts, learn about technology and trends, and explore solutions. NAWI unveiled its inaugural booth at WEFTEC and took the opportunity to host two noteworthy sessions: one focusing on the NAWI research program and another as an informational session within the “Innovation Theater.” We were thrilled to receive numerous visits from members of the NAWI Alliance community at our booth. The NAWI team was particularly grateful to be invited to Rockwell’s reception.

During the four-day event, the NAWI team actively participated in knowledge sharing, engaged in peer-to-peer dialogues, and fostered in-depth discussions. From these interactions, several intriguing themes surfaced:

• The concept of OneWater is challenging the water industry’s historical “stovepipe” separations between drinking water treatment and wastewater treatment. OneWater is also igniting some of the biggest thinking related to water treatment design and practice over the last century. Industrial water users and systems designers repeatedly emphasized their desire for breakthrough technologies that can facilitate improved use and reuse of the wastewater they generate. The drive for water efficiency is coming not only from practical concerns about securing more resilient water supplies at the level of individual manufacturing facilities, but also from strong corporate-level Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) goals. The head of Veolia’s North American Industrial Water Practice Area Patrick Schultz summed it up: “Most companies we are speaking with have [water reuse] goals, but no plans.”
• Direct Potable Reuse (DPR) is gaining significant momentum and recognition in the field. An all-star panel of experts and regulators gave a summary of the current state-of-play of DPR regulations emerging in across the United States. While specific standards and requirements vary considerably among the handful of states that have released proposed or adopted standards, this diversity may actually accelerate the speed at which new states establish DPR. Why? A new state can look at different approaches chosen by different states and adopt an approach that is “right for them” as opposed to struggling to fit itself within a single national standard.
• Corporate ESG goals are driving more than just an interest in water reuse but also an interest in zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) treatment plans. ZLD eliminates industrial discharges entirely—mitigating potential environmental risks while achieving significant milestones in corporate ESG objectives. “I never heard from industrial customers about ZLD five years ago,” noted one water industry leader, “but now it’s actively discussed and considered.”