City of Tampa PURE Project
The City of Tampa is evaluating indirect potable reuse to optimize and integrate community water supply and environmental sustainability investments. The City asked NWRI to convene an expert Panel to provide third-party review of the PURE project. To help the City’s project partners meet public health protection requirements, the Panel will review and give feedback on the proposed treatment system.
The Panel includes nationally recognized experts in water reuse, including:
Glen Daigger, PhD, PE, BCEE, NAE, is the Panel Chair and is a Professor of Engineering Practice at University of Michigan. Daigger is an internationally recognized expert in wastewater treatment and water quality management for municipal and industrial systems, with expertise in biological processes. He is widely published and is author or co-author of more than 200 technical papers, four books, and several technical manuals. He is a former Professor and Chair of Environmental Systems Engineering at Clemson University. Daigger has served in senior roles for the Water Environment Federation, the American Academy of Environmental Engineers, and the Water Environment Research Foundation. He was a Senior Vice President and Chief Technology officer for CH2M HILL, where he worked over 35 years and produced 11 patents on wastewater treatment processes. Daigger is the President and Founder of One Water Solutions, an engineering and innovation firm. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, has a PhD in Environmental Engineering from Purdue University, and an MS and BS, also from Purdue University.
Wendy D. Graham, PhD, is the Carl S. Swisher Eminent Scholar in Water Resources in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering and is Director of the Water Institute at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Graham’s current research focuses on integrated hydrologic modeling, evaluating impacts of agricultural production on surface and groundwater quality, evaluating impacts of climate variability and climate change on hydrologic systems, and stochastic modeling and data assimilation. She is a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Water Science and Technology Board. She served as a member of the NASEM Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress from 2009 to 2012 and in 2017 and 2018; she was a member of the NASEM Committee on Review of EPA's Economic Analysis of Final Water Quality Standards for Nutrients for Lakes and Flowing Waters in Florida in 2011 and 2012. Graham served as the Hydrologic Sciences Program Director for the National Science Foundation in 2015 and 2016 and was appointed by the Florida Governor to the State of Florida Blue Green Algae Task Force in 2019. Dr. Graham has a BS in environmental engineering from the University of Florida, and a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Joan Rose, PhD, NAE, is the Homer Nowlin Endowed Chair for Water Research at Michigan State University. Rose has made groundbreaking advances in understanding water quality and protecting public health for more than 20 years. She is regarded as the world’s authority on Cryptosporidium and was the first person to present a method for detecting this pathogen in water supplies. She examines full-scale water treatment systems for the removal of pathogens. Rose was Chair of the Science Advisory Board for the EPA’s Drinking Water Committee for four years and serves on the Science Advisory Board for the Great Lakes. She is on the NWRI Expert Panel for the state of California on developing water recycling criteria for indirect potable reuse through surface water augmentation and determining the feasibility of developing criteria for direct potable reuse. Rose is Director of the Global Water Pathogens Project and is involved with the Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment Institute. In 2001, she received the Clarke Prize from NWRI for her advances in microbial water quality issues and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Rose has a BS in Microbiology from the University of Arizona, an MS in Microbiology from the University of Wyoming, and a PhD in Microbiology from the University of Arizona.
Matt Simcik, PhD, is Professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Minnesota. Simcik is the major chair for the Environmental Health Sciences MPH program and teaches both MS and PhD students. He is an affiliate faculty with the Water Resources Science Graduate Program at University of Minnesota. His expertise is in environment and exposures; chemistry; water and air pollution; perfluoroalkyl substances; source apportionment, and fate and transport processes. As an expert in the fate and transport of trace organic contaminants Simcik studies where pollutants come from, where they end up, and how they get there. For more than 15 years, he has focused much research on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Simcik is a Michigan native; he has a BS in Chemistry from Michigan State University, an MS in Civil Engineering from University of Minnesota, and a PhD in Environmental Science from Rutgers University.
Sam B. Upchurch, PhD, PG, is a karst geoscientist with expertise in hydrogeology, geochemistry, statistics, and carbonate sedimentology. Upchurch worked for the Tennessee Division of Geology and the US Army Corps of Engineers Great Lakes Research Center. He taught at Michigan State University and the University of South Florida, where he was Professor and Department Chairman. His technical experience includes modeling geochemical processes in injectate, using geophysical methods to track injectate plumes and subsurface aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) bubbles, studying the relationship of ASR storage and recovery to sinkhole formation, providing expert testimony, and the effects of subsurface strata permeability and porosity. Upchurch served on the Technical Review Committee for the Evaluation of Pathogen Transport in Karst Flow Zones of the Biscayne Aquifer in Miami-Dade County, as geochemist for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan-Aquifer Storage and Recovery Program Technical Review Committee for the Army Corps of Engineers, and on the Peer Review Panel for Northern Lake Okeechobee ASR project. Upchurch is a Senior Fellow of the Geological Society of America and is senior author of Karst Systems of Florida. Upchurch is licensed to practice in Florida and Tennessee; he has a BA in Geology from Vanderbilt University and MS and PhD degrees from Northwestern University.
Michael Wehner, MS, was Assistant General Manager for Orange County Water District (OCWD) and has 40 years of experience in water quality control and water resources management. Mike Wehner spent 20 years with the Orange County Health Care Agency and began work at OCWD in 1991. He directly managed the Water Quality and Technology Group, including Laboratory, Water Quality, Research and Development, and Health and Regulatory Affairs Departments. He worked on the OCWD Groundwater Replenishment System (the nation’s largest IPR project), including providing technical guidance on treatment and quality, as well as managing monitoring programs for the purification facility and receiving groundwater. He was manager of OCWD’s eight-year Santa Ana River Water Quality and Health Study, which evaluated the effects of using effluent-dominated river water for groundwater recharge. Wehner serves on the Advisory Group on Feasibility of Developing Criteria for Direct Potable Reuse for the California State Water Resources Control Board, as well as expert panels on groundwater replenishment projects for both the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Monterey Regional Water Pollution Control Agency. He has a BS in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Irvine, and an MPA from California State University Long Beach.