Quarter 1 2023:

Florida Wastewater Grant Program: Florida has committed to providing certain municipalities with a grant to reduce excess nutrient pollution due to wastewater. The counties included are Brevard, Broward, Charlotte, Collier, Duval, Flagler, Indian River, Lee, Manatee, Martin, Nassau, Palm Beach, St. Johns, St. Lucie, Sarasota, and Volusia. All of which can apply by March 31 for a grant.

Big Sky Montana's Zero-Direct Discharge Facility: Big Sky Montana is building and will have a zero-direct discharge wastewater plant fully online by 2024. This plant is the biggest of its kind in the country and is being custom built to meet Big Sky's needs. With a price tag north of $80m all said and done. The wastewater will be reused for snowmaking, irrigation, and more. This is the way of the future in wastewater, and why the team here at bioprocessH2O is committed to building systems focused on wastewater reuse.

23,000 Gallon Wastewater Spill in Honolulu: Ewa Beach Wastewater Station experienced a 23,000 gallon spill of raw wastewater. 16,000 gallons was able to be recovered, while 7,000 gallons dissipated into the ground. This is another example of where having proper systems and controls in place can help catch an issue before it happens. bioprocessH2O has committed ourselves to installing remote monitoring controls built in-house to all of our systems for this reason.

Idaho to Double Down on Water Systems: Idaho Department of Environmental Quality to award $51m in grants to revitalize and install water systems. The grant will save tax payers $75.1 instead of going the traditional debt route of financing wastewater systems.

Countries and States Continue to track Covid-19 from via Wastewater: Covid-19 had some devastating impacts on the global health and economy. One thing that came out of it though is the ability to track the spread of the sickness in community's wastewater. Wastewater surveillance is a fascinating new trend because instead of needing to wait for someone to go to the doctor (or go at all) we can see how sick the population is by just tracking the discharge in the sewer system. According to the CDC in the link above, nearly 80% of the USA population is served by municipal wastewater systems. This allows for much easier and accurate tracking capabilities. Here is a link from the Boston Herald showing that Covid particles have dropped 33% over the past two weeks.

Japan to start flushing 1.25m tonnes of Nuclear Wastewater: This is something we have been following for a few years now. After the earthquake/tsunami devastated the Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011 Japanese officials have struggled to deal with the contaminated water. It looks like officials will start to dump this water into the Pacific ocean over the next 30 years. We will keep an eye on this project and the impacts it may have on marine life and the marine ecosystem in the area.

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