Past Events

The SETAC North America 36th Annual Meeting is a 5-day event featuring a variety of training, networking and learning opportunities. More than 2,300 scientists, assessors, regulators and managers will gather to share and discuss emerging research, regulatory developments and the latest methodologies in environmental toxicology and chemistry. The meeting draws a diverse group of scientists from academia, business and government representing more than 40 countries.

Bringing together all elements of the agricultural chemical supply chain, with a focus on pollinators such as honeybees and butterflies, this premier conference will strike a balance with pesticides and pollinators, while discussing topics around:

• State of industry and academic research
• Insight into the future of the agchem industry as it relates to pollinators and pesticides
• Current regulatory expectations from a state and federal level
• Innovations in beekeeping
• The latest in non-honeybee pollinators

Waterborne will be attending the upcoming Environmental Modeling Public Meeting (EMPM) and will present work on:

• “Refined Aquatic Exposure Methods for Species Focused Threatened and Endangered Species Risk Assessments”
• “Comparison of Multiple Downstream Transport Methods to Route Chemical Loadings Derived From Watershed Fate and Transport Simulation Models”
• “A Tiered-Strategy For Applying Population Modeling in National-Scale Endangered Species Risk Assessments”
• “Does the Incorporation of Filter Strip Mass Balance and Degradation Processes Affect the Long-Term Pesticide Environmental Exposure Assessments?”

Please send any questions about this upcoming meeting to Casey Wisch at wischc@waterborne-env.com.

Waterborne will be participating in the 20th North American ISSX Meeting. Headed to the ISSX Meeting? Let’s connect.

Waterborne employee, Megan Sebasky, Geospatial Scientist and Biologist, will be presenting at the 26th Annual Virginia GIS Conference in Charlottesville on October 20, 2015. Megan will be presenting on the Application of Geospatial Technologies to Ecological Risk Assessments of Pesticides and will talk about the role that pesticides play in agriculture and the ability to feed our growing population.

About the presentation:

Application of Geospatial Technologies to Ecological Risk Assessments of Pesticides
Pesticides play a critical role in agriculture and the ability to feed our growing population. These chemicals are heavily regulated in the US to ensure no adverse impacts on the environment may occur as a result of proper usage. In order to register and market these chemicals, companies need to complete ecological risk assessments that characterize risk to the environment in terms of both exposure and effects. Exposure characterization has a strong spatial component – the concentration of a pesticide that may occur in a particular environment is heavily influenced by geospatial parameters such as proximity to cropland, hydrology, soil type, and weather. This presentation includes an overview of the pesticide risk assessment process and focuses on the importance of geospatial technologies in the exposure assessment portion. Examples are provided that relate to site selection, study site characterization, and national-scale modeling.

Contact Megan with questions at sebaskym@waterborne-env.com.

Waterborne will be attending the 2015 SWAT Conference at Purdue the week of October 12 at Purdue University. The 2015 SWAT Conference will provide an opportunity for the community to meet and exchange ideas, summarize the results of studies and mutual problems, as well as share innovations and developments with SWAT.

Conference topics include:

• Large Scale Applications
• Climate Change Applications
• Sensitivity Calibration and Uncertainty
• Biofuel & Plant Growth
• Environmental Applications
• BMPs
• Hydrology
• Sediment, Nutrients, and Carbon
• Pesticides, Bacteria, Metals, and Pharmaceuticals
• Model Development
• Database and GIS Application and Development
• Urban Processes and Management
• Landscape Processes and Landscape / River Continuum
• InStream Sediment and Pollutant Transport
• EPIC/APEX Modeling System

Waterborne will be participating in a 4-day meeting of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act Scientific Advisory Panel (FIFRA SAP) to consider and review Development of a Spatial Aquatic Model (SAM) for Pesticide Risk Assessment.

Key staff from the Waterborne Nutrients Team are participating in a two-day, multi-state Discovery Farms research and development event in Central Illinois on September 15 and 16, 2015. Waterborne’s contribution to this special event is to collaborate with state researchers and commodity groups from Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Illinois to develop appropriate and novel techniques that describe quality and efficacy of nutrient loss Best Management Practices (BMP). Waterborne is currently working with the Illinois Council on Best Management Practices (CBMP) and Illinois Corn Growers Association on state-wide initiatives regarding nutrient loss reduction strategies.

The first edition of the Symposium in Pesticide Chemistry was organized by Attilio del Re in the 1979 with Paolo Fontana. Over the years the Symposium has grown from national to international features and it has reached the current scientific top level.

The Symposium is organized by the Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry of the Catholic University together with a committee of top level scientists.

The Symposium will held general and specialist subjects relating to the environmental fate and risk with particular reference to pesticide behaviour in air, plant, soil and water system. Specific focus is on the use of modelling to support regulatory and policy decision-making, measure for risk mitigation and new technologies/know out for a sustainable use.

The Symposium will cover specific topics updating the participant with present knowledge and consolidating responsibility in the scientific community for the future needs.

Platform presentations and poster sessions provide an evaluation of current progress in: basic processes (i.e. sorption, transformation, volatilization, plant interaction), models of pesticides environmental fate, indicators of environment quality, landscape risk assessment, mitigation techniques, environmental monitoring programs, risk assessment, risk management and sustanaible use.

The Symposium is organized in sessions. The Steering Committee is responsible for the organization of the sessions, keynote lecture, selection of the paper and, to promote development of constructive interactions between research, regulatory and industrial communities.

The paper as abstract after peer review will be collected in proceedings. Electronic supporting material will be available in the website.

Waterborne Lead Toxicologist, Duane Huggett, Ph.D., will be attending an exclusive invite-only Pellston workshop in August about improving the usability of ecotoxicology in regulatory decision-making. The workshop will focus on U.S. regulatory risk assessments of chemicals that typically rely on the use of ecotoxicity tests conducted according to standardized methods and under Good Laboratory Practices (GLP). There are many reasons for also using non-GLP studies published in peer-reviewed journals, however, the design and reporting of peer-reviewed studies is sometimes insufficient, and their use for regulatory purposes is sometimes hampered. The goal of the workshop is to provide a process to improve the documented quality of non-GLP ecotoxicity research and, through enhanced communication with regulatory agencies, to promote the appropriate use of these data in regulatory decisions. A further goal is to promote understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of standardized testing and the role and limitations of GLP.