Accomplishments

At Soller environmental, there is always something in the works. 

some of our most significant accomplishments:

 

water Reuse

In collaboration with EPA colleagues from the Office of Water and the Office of Research and Development, we developed and published state of the science treatment targets for potable and non-potable reuse.  These new and updated treatment targets cover a wide array of uses and source waters. They definitively establish the state of the science treatment for water reuse.  These treatment targets can now be used by States or national scale governmental agencies to ensure health protection for water reuse applications.
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Covid-19

Working with US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff, we conducted analyses to test the validity of using wastewater to inform Covid-19 levels in communities.  We built a simulation model, tested it using data from across the United States, and then identified strengths and limitations of this novel approach.  Based in part on the promising results from this work, CDC established and funded the National Wastewater Surveillance Program, a landmark achievement in furthering the protection of public Health in the US. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Recreational water QMRA research

 

To support the development of the 2012 Recreational Water Quality Criteria (see below), we conducted a series of risk-based analysis to ensure public health protection during recreational activities.  Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) was a key component of this work and several foundational advancements in the QMRA field were achieved.  One particularly noteworthy finding was the differential infectivity of contamination from various sources of fecal contamination – with human contamination demonstrating high potential for infection to humans relative to other sources.  A second notable finding was that the most important sources of fecal indicator bacteria were not necessarily the most important contributors to risk.  Cumulatively, this work has been cited over 1,000 times in the peer reviewed scientific literature.

 

 

 

2012 Recreational Water Quality Criteria

In 2012, US EPA published an update to the 1986 Ambient Water Quality Criteria. This update, the 2012 RWQC fundamentally changed how recreational water criteria are established in the USA – moving from a water quality (i.e. FIB)-based criteria to a risk-based criteria. This subtle but critical point, establishes a level of health protection as the basis for the criteria which allows alternative (based on site specific conditions or alternative indicators) criteria to be established provided that they are scientifically defensible and protective of the use.  We contributed integrally to the development of these criteria and to the documentation published by US EPA.  

 

 

 

usepa Groundwater RUle

 

In 2006, the US EPA published the Groundwater
Rule (GWR) which applies to all community
and non-community public water systems that use groundwater as a water source. An estimated 147,330 PWS in the United States, serving over 114 million people, use groundwater as their primary water source. Unlike surface waters, prior regulations in the US did not require filtration or disinfection of groundwater sources.

To support US EPA in the GWR development, we developed a dynamic infectious disease model to explore the potential implications of immunity and secondary transmission of infection and subsequent illness in the GWR relative to the static method employed by the base analysis. The results of this analysis were used to support the finding that the GWR could result in sufficient benefits for the Office of Management and Budget to support the GWR.