PA Rural Water Assn. Will Hold Annual Conference March 26-29 In State College, Including Seminar On Zebra Mussels, Algal Blooms

The PA Rural Water Association will hold its 2019 Annual Conference March 26-29 at the Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center in State College.

Join PRWA and your water and wastewater utility colleagues throughout Pennsylvania at the largest utility conference in Pennsylvania.

One of the programs will be a seminar by environmental chemist Dr. David Hammond, Senior Scientist with Earth Science Laboratories Inc., will address two problems that plague water treatment plants: zebra mussels and harmful algal blooms (HABs).

As a Great Lakes State, Pennsylvania lies at the epicenter of these issues. Zebra mussels were first introduced into Lake Erie in 1988. Large and potentially dangerous cyanobacteria blooms began appearing annually in Lake Erie in the mid-2000s.

Smaller lakes that provide drinking water to rural communities are vulnerable to the same problems, says Hammond. “Rural water treatment plants sometimes lack the resources to tackle zebra mussels and cyanobacteria blooms at once. Fortunately, there is a single, cost-effective and environmentally-friendly solution. An advanced liquid copper formulation can control zebra mussels and cyanobacteria with minimal impact on fish. This is important for communities that use their lakes for drinking water and recreation.”

Hammond supervised a recent project to eradicate quagga mussels from the historic Billmeyer Quarry in Lancaster County. Quagga mussels are cousins of zebra mussels and equally invasive. Billmeyer Quarry is the largest and deepest lake from which invasive mussels have ever been eradicated.

Hammond will present recent data from this project at the Conference on March 26.

Click Here for more information on the Conference program.

Learn more about the invasive mussel species by visiting the PA Sea Grant PA Zebra and Quagga Mussel Monitoring Network webpage.