Events and Training

Last updated January 15, 2025

WEF offers free wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) workshops and customized training programs, including both virtual and in-person events. We also organize a free, one-day Wastewater Disease Surveillance Summit that can be attended virtually or in person. In addition, our large annual conference WEFTEC has some WBS-related programming. Click on one of the buttons below to learn more.

Workshops
Training
Summit

In-Person Workshops

Cross-Sector Workshops

In 2025, we will run three in-person workshops with five of the six NWSS Centers of Excellence (CoE) regions in collaboration with the U.S. CDC. The tentative dates and locations of the workshops are shown below. Please check back here for confirmed dates and locations.

NWSS CoEEPA/HHS RegionsDateLocationTopic
Wisconsin & New York1, 2, 3, & 5 July 9 & 10, 2025Fluno Center – University of Wisconsin, MadisonData use case studies
Houston & North Carolina4, 6, 9, & 10 + all ELC-funded citiesAugust 5 & 6, 2025Rice University – Houston, TexasResponse frameworks and data use case studies
Colorado7 & 8August 28, 2025Keystone Conference Center – Keystone, ColoradoCommunication frameworks and case studies

In 2024, we ran four in-person workshops in each of the four NWSS Centers of Excellence (CoE) regions in collaboration with the U.S. CDC. The outputs for each of these workshops are summarized in these one-pagers. In 2023, we ran in-person workshops in each of the ten EPA/HHS regions in collaboration with the U.S. CDC and EPA. These workshops were focused on identifying barriers to utility participation in wastewater surveillance programs and solutions for overcoming those barriers. A summary of workshop outputs is available on this dashboard.

WEF Member Association and Other Conferences

WEF’s wastewater surveillance work will be featured at WEF member association conferences and conferences convened by other organizations. These conferences allow attendees to learn more about and engage in meaningful discussions on wastewater surveillance with others in their state or region. Below are the events we will be speaking at in 2025. Check back regularly for updates on other events we may be attending.

OrganizationDate & Location Topic
Pennsylvania Water Environment Association/Western Pennsylvania Water Pollution Control Association ConferenceApril 4, 2025 | Pittsburgh, PAThe past, present, and future of wastewater surveillance
New Jersey Water Environment Association Annual ConferenceMay 4, 2025 | Atlantic City, NJHalf-day workshop on wastewater surveillance 101 with state program updates
Alaska Water Wastewater Management Association Annual ConferenceMay 12-15, 2025 | Anchorage, AKWastewater surveillance 101 with state program updates
NIAMRRE Annual ConferenceMay 14, 2025 | Raleigh, NCFlushing out AMR: The Role of Wastewater Surveillance

Custom Training

We can develop and deliver a customized one-hour, half-day, or full-day WBS training session to suit your organization’s needs. These can be training sessions for your program partners or lunchtime webinars for your members and can cover a range of topics including: an overview of WBS, wastewater treatment plant and health department basics, factors that influence wastewater results, sampling specifics, thinking beyond COVID, or any other relevant topics of interest.

Please email nwbe@wef.org to have a custom training program developed for your organization.

Wastewater Disease Surveillance Summit

Since 2022, WEF has collaborated with the CDC to deliver a free, hybrid event focused entirely on wastewater surveillance each year. These Wastewater Disease Surveillance Summits are open to water and public health professionals, researchers, and others interested in learning about wastewater surveillance best practices, novel applications of this public health tool, and the status of the National Wastewater Surveillance System and the various programs led by state and local health departments.

2025 Summit

The 2025 Wastewater Disease Surveillance Summit will be held on June 3 and 4 in person at the California Endowment Center in Los Angeles, California, and online on Zoom. WEF is delighted to be organizing the 2025 Summit in collaboration with the NWSS California Center of Excellence! Registration for this free event will open at the beginning of February. Although registration will open in early February, abstracts for posters are already being accepted. Please click on the link for more information and to submit an abstract. 

Are you interested in receiving an email update when registration opens for the 2025 Wastewater Disease Surveillance Summit in Los Angeles, CA on June 3 & 4? Then sign up here!

2024 Summit

The 2024 Wastewater Disease Surveillance Summit was held in Atlanta and online on August 12 and 13. Please find links to some of the posters presented during the event, as well as the Summit recordings, below.

Posters

Baral et al. Norovirus trends and seasonality in Baltimore wastewater: year-long insight
Beavers et al. Antibiotic resistance genes in Marquette County wastewater
Firmage et al. The combined utility of the BIOFIRE FILMARRAY research configurations for influent wastewater surveillance
Franklin et al. Wastewater based psychoactive substance monitoring
Holm et al. Wastewater and environmental surveillance in Malawi: past precedent and future opportunities
Johnson et al. Evaluating the added value of integrating wastewater data to forecast hospital admissions
McCrory et al. Sewage sleuths – using wastewater surveillance for illness prevention communications
McCunn et al. Development and validation of a digital PCR assay for monitoring measles, mumps, and rubella in wastewater
Paulos et al. Methods comparison for respiratory virus detection in wastewater liquid and solid phases
Ram et al. Wastewater case study: putative identification of an individual human patient infected with a rare SARS-CoV-2 variant
Shackelford et al. Clinical and fecal sludge surveillance for Vibrio cholerae in Dzaleka Refugee Camp
Sovic et al. MixviR: a user-Friendly computational tool For exploring genomic data from environmental samples containing mixed pathogen lineages
Whitehill et al. Surveys of on-site facility-level wastewater sampling points were piloted at 13 post-acute facilities across 3 U.S. regions

Recordings

2023 Summit Recordings

The 2023 Wastewater Disease Surveillance Summit was a one-day, one-track event held in Chicago and online on October 1. Please find the Summit recordings linked below, and the outputs from the breakout sessions — focused on a “deeper dive” into wastewater surveillance program hurdles — here.