Events and Training

Last updated September 3, 2024

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 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 dates and locations the workshops were held are shown below. Please check back later this year to find out what’s planned for 2025.

NWSS CoEEPA/HHS RegionsDateLocationTopic
Houston4 & 6 + all ELC-funded citiesMay 21, 2024Rice University, HoustonProgram resource optimization and data actionability
California9 & 10June 5, 2024Stanford University Redwood City campusUtility support and public health communication
Colorado2, 7 & 8June 25 & 26, 2024University of DenverProgram sustainability
Wisconsin1, 3 & 5July 24 & 25, 2024University of Wisconsin, MadisonCommunication, ethics & data use case studies

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. We appreciate the 300+ attendees from health departments, utilities, government agencies, non-governmental associations, and universities who generously shared their ideas with us. Your insights will be used to improve wastewater surveillance programs in the U.S. Find more information about the 2023 workshops, including a summary of workshop outputs, on this dashboard.

WEF Member Association and Other Conferences

WEF’s wastewater surveillance work will be featured at some of our member association (MA) conferences, too, as well as conferences convened by other organizations. These conferences are a good opportunity for members to learn more about, and engage in meaningful discussions on, wastewater surveillance with others in their state or region. Although we have no upcoming events, below is a list of our webinars and workshops so far in 2024.

OrganizationDateTopic
Nevada Water Environment Association Annual ConferenceMarch 11, 2024Wastewater surveillance 101 with state program updates
Water Environment Association of Utah (WEAU) Annual ConferenceApril 23-26, 2024Wastewater surveillance 101 and case studies
North Carolina Waterworks Operators AssociationMay 2, 2024Wastewater surveillance 101 with state program updates
Hawaii Water Environment Association webinar May 8, 2024Wastewater surveillance 101 with case studies
Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists Annual ConferenceJune 9, 2024Presentation at workshop on Building Wastewater Surveillance Epidemiology Capacity
Southern Plains Tribal Health BoardAugust 22, 2024Workshop on Everything You’d Want to Know About 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.

2024 Summit

The 2024 Wastewater Disease Surveillance Summit was a two-day event 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.