WWEMA hosted its 46th Annual Washington Forum April 3-5, 2019 at the Mandarin Oriental in Washington, DC. The Forum was held in conjunction with the other Water Associations during Water Week 2019. The theme for this year’s Washington Forum was Creating a Roadmap for an Uncertain Future. The conference featured regulatory and legislative updates with implications for the water and wastewater equipment manufacturers provided by key government, policy, and industry staff. Rich Galen, Chairman, Barrington Worldwide, served as keynote speaker and provided keen political insights into emerging trade, infrastructure, and budget policy. The meeting also included several panel discussions, including one addressing the causes and challenges presented by nutrient pollution, including the environmental and financial impacts of harmful algal blooms. A second panel was comprised of senior EPA leadership with representation from EPA’s Office of Water and Office of Science and Technology. EPA staff provided updates on rule and policy timelines and spoke about longer term trends likely to affect the water and wastewater industry.

 

Concurrent with the Washington Forum, WWEMA members and invited guests participated, along with many other Water Associations, in a Congressional Reception on the evening of April 3, 2019 at the U.S. Library of Congress. At the Reception, U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) addressed the attendees and spoke about the importance of adequately funding our nation’s water infrastructure. Sen. Carper is a senior Democrat on the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and long-term advocate for environmental issues, including being a sponsor of the PFAS Action Act of 2019.

 

WWEMA wishes to thank its sponsors for this meeting. Platinum Sponsors include Water Remediation Technologies, LLC, and JCM Industries, Inc. KLa Systems, Inc. was a Silver Sponsor for the meeting. Sponsor support helps WWEMA provide top-notch programming and keep attendee prices down, including allowing us to significantly reduce the attendee price for young professionals and new entrants to the industry.

 

All presentations are now available on the Members-only portion of the WWEMA Website.