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New England and Mid-Atlantic Wetland Professionals Gather to Advance Regional Collaboration
This past November, more than 60 wetland professionals from across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast traveled to Northampton, Massachusetts for the biennial meeting of two wetlands workgroups – the New England Biological Assessment of Wetlands Workgroup (NEBAWWG) and the Mid-Atlantic Wetlands Workgroup (MAWWG). During this joint meeting, representatives from municipal, state, federal, and tribal governments, as…
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Clean Water Podcast Explores a Watershed-based Approach to Phosphorus Removal in Idaho’s Boise River
In the latest episode of the “Clean Water Pod” podcast, listeners head to Boise, Idaho to learn about an innovative approach to the Lower Boise River Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for nutrients. By expanding their scope, the city of Boise found an atypical way to meet pollutant reductions identified in the TMDL 40 miles…
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Symposium Unites Researchers to Tackle Harmful Algal Blooms
This past October, students, scientists, and industry professionals gathered in Portland, Maine for the 12th U.S. Symposium on Harmful Algae. The six-day conference operated under the theme “ONE BLOOM: Unifying Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) Science in Aquatic Ecosystems,” focused on identifying and highlighting commonalities across diverse study systems and disciplines within HAB research. More than 500 participants…
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Video Series Offers a Virtual Tour of Lake Champlain Landscapes and Shares Stewardship Stories
The Patrick Leahy Lake Champlain Basin Program, in partnership with Peregrine Productions and NEIWPCC, launched a new video series, “Summit to Shore,” celebrating the beauty of the basin and highlighting the efforts in several communities to protect and restore their shared waters. Using the web-based StoryMap as a guide, viewers can digitally explore the landscape…
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Funding Available to Map Oyster Population in the Hudson River
NEIWPCC, in cooperation with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (NYSDEC) Hudson River Estuary Program, is inviting proposals from qualified consultants to survey American oyster (Crassostrea virginica) distribution in an approximately 10-mile section of the Hudson River Estuary from Piermont Pier to Yonkers, New York. The oyster survey is intended to complement past…
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A Passion for Microbiology: Trainer Nora Lough
By Beth MacBlane On any given day, one can find Nora Lough peering into a microscope studying bacteria and other microorganisms that underpin the wastewater treatment process. “Working in wastewater is the best profession in the entire world,” said Nora Lough, biologist II at the Narragansett Bay Commission (NBC) and a training consultant with NEIWPCC’s…
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Climate Change Impacts on Diadromous Fish Populations in the Northeast
By Devon Case In the diverse aquatic tapestry of the Northeastern U.S., diadromous fish – species that migrate between freshwater and saltwater – play a crucial role in maintaining ecological balance. However, climate change is having a significant impact on these important species, leading to declines in their populations. Connecting Ecosystems: The Role of Sea-Run…
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New Season of Clean Water Podcast Launches on Innovative Approaches to Water Quality Improvement
The third season of the “Clean Water Pod” podcast will focus on stories from across the country that showcase innovative approaches within the Clean Water Act 303(d) Program. For the season’s first episode, host Jeff Berckes spoke with his former colleague, Jason Palmer, a natural resource biologist, about a successful project they worked on together…
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A 25-year Career Teaching Wastewater Operators: Don Kennedy
By Beth MacBlane Over the course of Don Kennedy’s multi-decade career, he enthusiastically taught thousands of operators about industrial wastewater treatment and collection systems throughout the Northeast. Kennedy began working as a wastewater training specialist at NEIWPCC in 1999, leading single and multi-day courses on all aspects of operations and maintenance of treatment facilities. “Despite…
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Reducing Long Island Sound’s Hypoxic Waters
By James Ammerman For decades, the Long Island Sound (LIS), located between New York and Connecticut, has had a chronic problem with bottom water hypoxia, or oxygen depletion, due to nutrient pollution from urban wastewater treatment plants, stormwater, septic systems and fertilizer runoff. These hypoxic waters are unable to sustain life, leading to die-offs of…