Smart Water Leadership Summit

This week, ASDWA staff and individual states attended the “Smart Water Leadership Summit” held at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC.  State staff from Pennsylvania and Minnesota attended in person and other states took advantage of the streaming video of the conference proceedings.  The Summit targeted building owners and operators with information about building water quality and water conservation issues.  The entire first day of the meeting was devoted to building water quality, water treatment, and Legionella.  One of the panels that day included Pennsylvania, ASDWA, AWWA, and EPA discussing the regulatory considerations.  The second day of the meeting concerned building sustainability.
The speakers at the summit stressed the need for close monitoring and control of building water quality to prevent the proliferation of microbial contamination, particularly Legionella.  In some cases, measures to promote water efficiency increase water age and reduce water circulation; which works against maintaining good water quality.  Even when treatment is installed, the problem is not necessarily solved.  Without proper operation on an ongoing basis, treatment will not be effective and outbreaks can still occur.  The regulatory panel covered the authority of the Safe Drinking Water Act over buildings where treatment is installed.  State panelists stressed that all states do not regulate these installations in the same way but owners always need to check with state drinking water programs before installing treatment.
On the day before the Summit, NSF offered a one day training on HACCP at the meeting location.  This separate event covered control strategies for building water quality and what building operators need to know.  States can follow the link to NSF for more details about the course and other scheduled sessions.  ASDWA is planning an abbreviated version of the NSF training for state administrators and other state staff immediately following the end of the ASDWA Annual Conference in Albuquerque.  More information on that event will be coming this summer.