SWWS Workshop Agenda

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DHS/NIST Workshop: Standards to Support an Enduring Capability in 

Wastewater Surveillance for Public Health

AGENDA

Updated 6/15/2021

Day 1: Monday, June 14, 2021 (all times EDT)

10:00 – 10:50 AM WELCOME & INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

Welcome – Mr. Philip Mattson, DHS Standards Executive and Director, Office of 

Standards at US Department of Homeland Security

Welcome Remarks – U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI), Chair of the Homeland Security & 

Governmental Affairs Committee

Welcome Remarks – Robert B. Newman, Jr., Office of Strategy and Policy at the 

Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology Directorate

Welcome Remarks – Dr. Eric K. Lin, Acting Associate Director for Laboratory Programs, 

NIST

Workshop Logistics; Overview and Goals of the 2021 SWWS Workshop – Dr. Nancy 

Lin, Leader of the Biomaterials Group, Material Measurement Laboratory at the 

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Welcome Remarks – Mr. Joseph Hamel, Director, ASPR Program Office for Innovation 

and Industrial Base Expansion (IBx) for the Department of Health and Human Services 

(HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR)

10:50 AM – 12:35 PM STANDARDS FOR WASTEWATER SURVEILLANCE (SWWS) 101: INTRODUCTION TO

WASTEWATER SURVEILLANCE (WWS)

Chair: Dr. Michael Focazio, Environmental Health Research Program Coordinator at the 

U.S. Geological Survey

10:50 – 10:55 AM Opening Remarks – Dr. Michael Focazio, USGS

10:55 – 11:35 AM KEYNOTE PRESENTATION – National Wastewater Surveillance System: 

Implementation for COVID and Beyond, Dr. Amy E. Kirby, National Wastewater 

Surveillance System Program Lead at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

11:30 – 11:55 AM Australia's ColoSSoS Project: Inter-laboratory Study for SARS-CoV-2 in Wastewater, 

Dr. Kate R. Griffiths, Senior Molecular Biologist at the National Measurement Institute 

of Australia

11:55 AM – 12:15 PM Singapore's National Wastewater Based Surveillance Programme for COVID-19: 

Analytical Standards, Controls and Reference Materials, Dr. Judith Wong, Director of 

the Microbiology and Molecular Epidemiology Division, Environment Health Institute, 

National Environment Agency, Singapore

Wastewater Based Epidemiology: Monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 and Related Markers in 

Singapore, Dr. Shane Snyder, Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and 
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Executive Director of the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI) at 

Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore

12:15 – 12:35 PM Wastewater Infrastructure & Operations for an Enduring Public Health Partnership,

Dr. Beverley Stinson, Executive Vice President at AECOM

12:35 – 1:05 PM BREAK

1:05 – 2:55 PM SWWS 201: SAMPLING

Chair: Ms. Renee Stevens, Program Manager, Department of Homeland Security

1:05 – 1:10 PM Opening Remarks, Ms. Renee Stevens, DHS

1:10 – 1:25 PM Utilities Perspectives and Needs, Mr. Claudio Ternieden, Senior Director of 

Government Affairs at Water Environment Federation

1:25 – 1:40 PM USGS Experience in Wastewater Sampling: 3 Issues to Guide Wastewater 

Surveillance for Public Health, Mr. Patrick Phillips, Quality Assurance Specialist at US 

Geological Survey

1:40 – 1:55 PM Case Study – Wastewater monitoring for COVID-19 in Louisville, Dr. Aruni Bhatnagar, 

Professor of Medicine at the University of Louisville

1:55 – 2:00 PM Rapid Fire – Wastewater sampling for WBE surveillance, Mr. Kaushal Trivedi, Business 

Development Manager at Teledyne ISCO

2:00 – 2:05 PM Rapid Fire – Building-level Wastewater Monitoring for COVID-19 Using Tampon 

swabs and RT-LAMP for Rapid SARS-CoV-2 RNA Detection – Dr. Aaron Bivins, Post 

Doctoral Research Fellow at University of Notre Dame

2:05 – 2:55 PM Panel Discussion: Need for Standards to Support Wastewater Sampling

Moderator: Ms. Sarah Wright, Environmental Laboratories Manager at the Association 

of Public Health Laboratories

Panelists: 

● Mr. John Birkner, Manager of Technical Services, Bergen County Utilities 

Authority

● Dr. Raul A. Gonzalez, Environmental Scientist at Hampton Roads Sanitation 

District

● Dr. Rochelle Holm, Associate Professor, Mzuzu University, Malawi

● Mr. Greg Kester, Director of Renewable Resource Programs at the California 

Association of Sanitation Agencies (CASA)

● Mr. Bruce Smith, Environmental Engineer at USEPA

● Mr. David Swain, Associate Vice President at AECOM

2:55 – 3:00 PM WRAP-UP: Closing Remarks for Day 1, Mr. Philip Mattson, DHS; Dr. Nancy Lin, NIST
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Day 2: Tuesday, June 15, 2021 (all times EDT)

10:00 – 10:05 AM WELCOME & LOGISTICS – Mr. Philip Mattson, DHS; Dr. Nancy Lin, NIST

10:05 AM – 12:05 PM SWWS 202: TESTING METHODS

Chair: Ms. Sally C. Gutierrez, Senior Advisor for Water, United States Environmental 

Protection Agency

10:05 – 10:10 AM Opening Remarks, Ms. Sally Gutierrez, USEPA

10:10 – 10:25 AM Global Update on Wastewater Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2, Dr. Christobel M. 

Ferguson, Chief Innovation Officer at The Water Research Foundation

10:25 – 10:45 AM Case Study – Overview of the Ohio Wastewater Monitoring Network, Dr. Nichole E. 

Brinkman, Biologist at USE Environmental Protection Agency and Ms. Rebecca Fugitt, 

Assistant Chief, Bureau of Environmental Health and Radiation Protection at Ohio 

Department of Health

10:45 – 10:55 AM Scalable, sensitive, representative, and comparable approach for high throughput 

SARS-CoV-2 RNA analysis in settled solids, Dr. Alexandria Boehm, Professor of Civil 

and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University

10:55 – 11:00 AM Rapid Fire – Reducing Erosion: Using a rapid deployable testing solution to reduce 

time between sampling and action, Dr. Jordan J. Schmidt, Director, Product 

Applications at LuminUltra Technologies

11:00 – 11:05 AM Rapid Fire – The Importance of Validation for Wastewater Surveillance, Dr. Brian 

Swalla, Staff Scientist, IDEXX Laboratories, Inc.

11:05 – 11:10 AM Rapid Fire – SARS-CoV-2 Quantification in Wastewater by Droplet Digital PCR, Ms. 

Carolyn Reifsnyder, Director, Global Product Marketing, Digital Biology Group at BioRad Laboratories

11:10 – 11:15 AM Rapid Fire – Nanoplate Digital PCR for Wastewater Surveillance, Dr. Michael 

Bussmann, Associate Director Global Product Management - dPCR, QIAGEN

11:15 – 11:20 AM Rapid Fire – SARS-CoV-2 Variant Profiling in Wastewater by Sequencing, Dr. Ellen M. 

Beasley, CSO at Pangolin Health

11:20 – 11:25 AM Rapid Fire – BioFire Defense Overview, Mr. Ryan Gregerson, Product Marketing 

Manager at BioFire Defense

11:25 – 11:30 AM Rapid Fire – Viral Concentration with Nanotrap Magnetic Virus Particles, Dr. Roberto 

J. Barbero, Chief Business Officer at Ceres Nanosciences

11:30 – 12:05 PM Panel Discussion: Need for Standards to Support Testing Methods

Moderator: Dr. Jay Garland, Associate Director for Research at the US EPA Office of 

Research and Development

Panelists: 

● Dr. Kartik Chandran, Professor of Environmental Engineering, Columbia 

University

● Mr. Kahlil Lawless, Microbiology Segment Manager - Americas at Illumina
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● Dr. Mia Mattioli, Environmental Engineer at the Centers for Disease Control 

and Prevention

● Dr. Gertjan Medema, Principal Microbiologist at KWR

● Dr. Martin Shafer, Senior Scientist, University of Wisconsin-Madison, State 

Laboratory of Hygiene

12:05 – 12:30 PM BREAK

12:30 – 2:15 PM SWWS 203: DATA REPORTING AND ANALYTICS

Chair: Mr. Paul Storella, Senior Vice President Water Business Line at AECOM

12:30 – 12:35 PM Opening Remarks, Mr. Paul Storella, AECOM

12:35 – 12:50 PM Available Data Tools: National Wastewater Surveillance System, Dr. Wiley Jennings, 

Health Scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

12:50 – 1:10 PM Case Study – SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater Surveillance and Public Health Applications in 

Houston, TX, Dr. Lauren Stadler, Assistant Professor, Environmental Engineering at 

Rice University AND Dr. Loren Hopkins, City of Houston Chief Environmental Science 

Officer, Chief of the Bureau of Community and Children’s Environmental Health at the 

Houston Health Department, and a Professor in the Practice in the Department of 

Statistics at Rice University

1:10 – 1:25 PM Translating Wastewater Data for Policymaking, Ms. Aparna Keshaviah, Senior 

Statistician at Mathematica

1:25 – 1:35 PM Biobot: Building early warning health analytics from data available in our sewers, Dr. 

Mariana Matus, CEO and Cofounder at Biobot Analytics, Inc.

1:35 – 1:40 PM Rapid Fire – Global COVID-19 Wastewater Monitoring Efforts: Development of the 

COVIDPoops19 Dashboard, Ms. Ana Grace Alvarado, Graduate Student, Department 

of Environmental Engineering, University of California Merced

1:40 – 2:15 PM Panel Discussion: Need for Standards to Support Data Reporting and Analytics

Moderator: Mr. Paul Storella, AECOM

Panelists:

● Dr. Ellie Graeden, CEO at Talus Analytics

● Mr. Robert Greenberg, CEO, G&H International Services, Inc.

● Mrs. Stacie Reckling, GIS Analyst, North Carolina Department of Health and 

Human Services, Division of Public Health

● Dr. Rachel R. Spurbeck, Senior Genomics Research Scientist at Battelle 

Memorial Institute

2:15 – 2:55 PM SWWS 204: ROLE OF STANDARDS IN SUPPORTING THE USE OF WWS DATA, Chair: Dr. 

Ted Smith, Associate Professor, University of Louisville School of Medicine

2:15 – 2:25 PM Communicating Sewage Surveillance Data for a Public Health Response, Dr. Sandra 

McLellan, Professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Freshwater Sciences

2:25 – 2:55 PM Panel Discussion: Standards to Support Implementation of WWS Data for Public 

Health
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Moderator: Dr. Ted Smith, University of Louisville School of Medicine

Panelists:

● Major Michael Dietrich, PhD, Bioenvironmental Engineering Flight 

Commander, USAF

● Ms. Rosa Inchausti, Deputy City Manager, City of Tempe

● Dr. Nathan LaCross, Wastewater Surveillance Program Manager at Utah 

Department of Health

● Dr. Sandra McLellan, Professor at the University of Wisconsin School of 

Freshwater Sciences

● Halley Reeves, Vice President of Community Health Impact for Oklahoma 

University Medicine

2:55 – 3:00 PM WRAP-UP: Closing Remarks for Day 2, Mr. Philip Mattson, DHS; Dr. Nancy Lin, NIST

3:00 – 4:00 PM VIRTUAL POSTER SESSION
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Day 3: Friday, June 18, 2021 (all times EDT)

10:00 – 10:10 AM WELCOME & LOGISTICS, Mr. Philip Mattson, DHS; Dr. Nancy Lin, NIST

10:10 AM – 12:10 PM SWWS 301: BUILDING AN ENDURING CAPABILITY

Chair: Mr. Philip Mattson, DHS Standards Executive and Director, Office of Standards 

at US Department of Homeland Security

10:10 – 10:15 AM Opening Remarks, Mr. Philip Mattson, DHS

10:15 – 10:35 AM Example Surveillance Program: Making It Count - Keeping It Available: Wildlife 

Disease Situational Awareness, Dr. Kimberli Miller, Wildlife Disease Specialist, US 

Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center

10:35 – 10:45 AM Example Tool: Documentary Standards for Biological Response, Dr. Jayne B. Morrow, 

Assistant Vice President for Research and Economic Development at Montana State 

University

10:45 – 10:55 AM Example Tool: Development and Performance of NIST SRM 2917 for Molecular 

Recreational Water Quality Testing, Dr. Orin C. Shanks, Senior Scientist at the U.S. 

Environmental Protection Agency

10:55 – 11:05 AM Example Tool: Accreditation: Draft Accreditation Checklist for Wastewater COVID 

PCR Testing, Ms. Patsy Root, Regulatory Affairs Manager, IDEXX Water

11:05 – 11:10 AM Enduring Capability: NWSS Perspective, Dr. Amy E. Kirby, National Wastewater 

Surveillance System Program Lead at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

11:10 – 11:15 AM Enduring Capability: Biosurveillance Perspective, DHS

11:15 – 11:20 AM Enduring Capability: One Health Perspective, Dr. Tonya Nichols, Senior Science 

Advisor, US Environmental Protection Agency

11:20 – 11:25 AM Enduring Capability: Public Health Decision Maker Perspective, Mr. Jeffrey A. Wenzel, 

Chief of the Bureau of Environmental Epidemiology at the Missouri Department of 

Health and Senior Services

11:25 – 11:30 AM Enduring Capability: A Local Health Department Perspective, Dr. George A. Conway, 

Director at Deschutes County Health Services Department

11:30 – 11:35 AM Enduring Capability: State Perspective, Dr. Larry Madoff, Medical Director at the 

Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences, Massachusetts Department of 

Public Health

11:35 AM – 12:10 PM Panel Discussion: Enduring Capability and Role of Standards

Moderator: Mr. Philip Mattson, DHS

Panelists:

● Dr. George A. Conway, Director at Deschutes County Health Services 

Department

● Dr. Amy E. Kirby, National Wastewater Surveillance System Program Lead at 

the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

● Dr. Larry Madoff, Medical Director at the Bureau of Infectious Disease and 

Laboratory Sciences, Massachusetts Department of Public Health
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● Dr. Tonya Nichols, Senior Science Advisor, US Environmental Protection 

Agency

● Mr. Jeff Wenzel, Chief of the Bureau of Environmental Epidemiology at the 

Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services

12:10 – 12:15 PM Instructions for Breakout Sessions, Dr. Katrice A. Lippa, Leader, Organic Chemical 

Metrology Group, Material Measurement Laboratory at NIST

12:15 – 12:30 PM BREAK

12:30 – 1:30 PM CONCURRENT BREAKOUT SESSIONS

SWWS 302: Methods and Data Comparability Breakout

Session Co-Leads:

● Dr. Scott A. Jackson, Leader of the Microbial Metrology Group, Material 

Measurement Laboratory at NIST

● Dr. Mia Mattioli, Environmental Engineer at the Centers for Disease Control 

and Prevention

● Ms. Sarah Wright, Environmental Laboratories Manager at the Association of 

Public Health Laboratories

Session Scribe:

● Dr. Paulina K. Piotrowski, Research Chemist, Material Measurement 

Laboratory at NIST

SWWS 303: Reference Materials Breakout

Session Co-Leads:

● Dr. Katrice Lippa, Leader of the Organic Chemical Metrology Group, Material 

Measurement Laboratory at NIST

● Dr. Orin C. Shanks, Senior Scientist at the U.S. Environmental Protection 

Agency

● Ms. Briana Benton, Technical Manager for Microbiology Systems at ATCC

Session Scribe:

● Dr. Stephanie L. Servetas, Microbiologist, Material Measurement Laboratory at 

NIST

SWWS 304: Documentary Standards – Guidance Documents Breakout

Session Co-Leads:

● Dr. Nancy Lin, Leader of the Biomaterials Group, Material Measurement 

Laboratory at NIST

● Ms. Patsy Root, Regulatory Affairs Manager, IDEXX Water

Session Scribe:

● Dr. Sandra Da Silva, Research Chemist, Material Measurement Laboratory, 

NIST

● Dr. Joy Dunkers, Physical Scientist, Material Measurement Laboratory, NIST

1:30 – 2:00 PM BREAK
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2:00 – 2:45 PM SWWS 401: SUMMARY OF BREAKOUT SESSIONS

Chair: Yonas Kifle-Nebiyeyoul, US Department of Homeland Security

2:00 – 2:15 PM Report Back from SWWS 302: Methods and Data Comparability – Breakout Session 

Co-Leads and Scribe

2:15 – 2:30 PM Report Back from SWWS 303: Reference Materials – Breakout Session Co-Leads and 

Scribe

2:30 – 2:45 PM Report Back from SWWS 304: Documentary Standards – Guidance Documents –

Breakout Session Co-Leads and Scribe

2:45 – 3:00 PM WRAP-UP: Final Remarks & Next Steps, Mr. Philip Mattson, DHS; Dr. Nancy Lin, NIST