APRIL NEWS 2009

Dr Stephen Smith is a plenary speaker at the EUREAU Sludge Directive Workshop in Brussels

Dr Stephen Smith is a plenary speaker at the EUREAU Sludge Directive Workshop in Brussels on 29 April 2009. The Sewage Sludge Directive came into force in 1986 to govern and regulate the agricultural use of sewage sludge and has worked effectively in protecting human health, soil and the environment. However, significant technical and policy progress has occurred since 1986 and the European Commission is considering the possible revision of the Directive to take these developments into account. The purpose of the EUREAU Workshop is to contribute to the revision of the Sludge Directive to maintain the sustainable recycling of sludge on land, and Dr Smith will present a paper based on a recent review he completed for Water UK on the implications for human heath and the environment of agricultural recycling sludge.

  Michael Templeton was an invited speaker at a one-day conference at Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa on 24 March entitled "New Developments in Water Research: Israel and UK Perspectives".

Michael Templeton presented papers, co-authored by Dr Zhuo Chen, at the IWA 10th National UK Young Water Professionals Conference on 22 April and the CIWEM Annual Conference on 29 April, both in London, describing the findings of their recently completed survey for NDMA and other nitrosamines in selected drinking waters in England and Scotland.

Professor Howard Wheater is running the following  Imperial College internal workshops:

• 3 June Earth Observation Workshop, Room 201,Skempton Building, 2-5pm
• 25 June Ecosystems and Hydrology Workshop, Silwood Park, 1.30-5pm
• 8 July Water and wastewater treatmnt and re-use - Faculty Grand Challenge Ideas Lab, 170 Queens Gate

Please contact h.wheater@imperial.ac.uk for further information.

Howard Wheater was a key-note speaker for a workshop on Water Resources in Developing Countries: Planning and Management for Climate Change at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, April.

  Professor Nigel Graham attended the 5th IWA Conference on Oxidation Technologies for Water and Wastewater Treatment in Berlin during the 30th March to the 2nd April. The conference was jointly hosted by the International Water Association and the International Ozone Association. He presented a paper entitled, ‘Treatment of Humic Substances by Potassium Ferrate: Oxidation/Coagulation Interactions', which was co-authored by Mr Khoi Tran (current PhD student) and Dr Jiaqian Jiang of the University of Surrey (former Research Associate in EWRE). Professor Graham also presented a poster entitled, ‘A Comparison of Ultrasound based AOPs for the Removal of X-ray Contrast Media Contaminants', co-authored by Mr Bo Ning (former PhD student) and Dr Paul Lickiss (Dept Chemistry). Also attending the conference was Professor Ma Jun (see photo  - inset), of the Department of Municipal and Environmental Engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology in China, who was previously a Visiting Academic in EWRE and an active collaborator with Professor Graham.

 A previous paper by Professor Ma and Nigel Graham was identified in 2008 as one of the top 8 most-cited articles in the Ozone Science and Engineering Journal. The paper was: ‘Preliminary Investigation of Manganese-Catalysed Ozonation for the Destruction of Atrazine', Ozone Science and Engineering, 19(3), 1997, pp 227-240.