Date: Tuesday, April 29th
Where: DRBC, 25 Cosey Road, West Trenton, NJ 08628
Cost: Members - Free
Non-Members - $20
This meeting is a brown-bag style hybrid meeting, link to be provided to registrants via email upon registration and prior to the event.
Water Quality Modeling and Monitoring Projects at DRBC
by Jeremy Conkle, Joey Fogarty and Elaine Panuccio
Jeremy Conkle, Senior Chemist/Toxicologist, Delaware River Basin Commission
Title: Preliminary Assessment of DRBCs Long-term PFAS Monitoring in the Delaware River and Tributaries
Abstract: The Delaware River Basin, especially the urban corridor stretching from Trenton, NJ, to Wilmington, DE, is a significant site for both historical and ongoing PFAS research and manufacturing. Consequently, this river corridor is contaminated with PFAS from various dischargers while also serving as the drinking water source for millions of people. With recently established regulations, drinking water systems must consider implementing costly PFAS treatment technologies to ensure compliance. The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) has been monitoring PFAS levels in the river and its tributaries for approximately 20 years, creating a long-term dataset on its occurrence. The DRBC is using this long-term dataset to formulate a PFAS roadmap that includes identifying sources in the Delaware River and its tributaries to help reduce drinking water treatment costs for citizens in the Delaware River Basin.
Bio: Dr. Conkle is a Senior Chemist/Toxicologist at the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC). Previously, he served as an Associate Professor at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He earned dual bachelor’s degrees in biology and chemistry from Longwood University, an M.S. in Environmental Studies from the College of Charleston, and a Ph.D. in Oceanography and Coastal Sciences from Louisiana State University. He was a Post-doctoral Scholar at the University of California, Riverside. His research centers on the presence, fate, and impacts of contaminants in aquatic systems. Early in his career, he studied contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products in wastewater treatment wetlands and their uptake by crops irrigated with treated wastewater. During his time at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, his lab focused on plastic and microplastic debris in rivers and coastal waters. At DRBC, he continues to research emerging contaminants including PFAS, microplastics, tire wear particles, and 6-PPDq, while also exploring water quality policy in the Delaware River Basin. From 2017 to 2020, Dr. Conkle served as an expert witness in the Wilson vs. Formosa Plastics Corporation trial, where Formosa was found guilty of illegally discharging hundreds of tons of pre-production plastic pellets and powder into Lavaca and Matagorda Bays. This case resulted in the largest settlement ever for a Clean Water Act lawsuit initiated by a private entity. More importantly, Dr. Conkle is a proud husband and father of two boys.
Joey Fogarty, Water Resource Scientist, Delaware River Basin Commission
Title: Enhancing Spill Response through Modeling and Automation
Abstract: To prepare for accidental pollution releases in the Delaware River, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) has developed applications that fully automate data retrieval, processing, and simulation for both one-dimensional and three-dimensional hydrodynamic models. A standard operating procedure has been implemented that uses this hydrodynamic model, which is demonstrated through a case study.
Bio: Dr. Joseph Fogarty is a Water Resource Engineer in the Water Resource Modeling section of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC). He holds a Bachelor of Science in Meteorology from Rutgers University, and a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Princeton University, where his thesis analyzed the dynamics of the changing Arctic Sea ice surface. Since beginning at the DRBC last June, he has been working on projects such as chemical spill response, modeling dissolved oxygen in the Delaware River, and has temporarily taken lead in developing the DRBC's new Climate Resilience Plan.
Elaine Panuccio, Senior Water Resource Scientist, Delaware River Basin Commission
Title: Chloride Trends in the Delaware River’s Special Protection Waters
Abstract: DRBC’s Special Protection Waters antidegradation program maintains baseline water quality (Existing Water Quality) through stricter discharge limit requirements. However, monitoring trends show that chloride and conductivity levels continue to rise, likely due to non-point source pollution, such as winter salting.
Bio: Elaine Panuccio is a Water Resource Scientist in the Water Quality Assessment section of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC). She began her journey at DRBC as an intern in 2014. She was hired as a Water Resource Technician in 2016 after completing a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and an undergraduate thesis focused on geochemical processes in a small New Jersey watershed, Little Shabakunk Creek. While at Rider University, Elaine also worked as a Research Assistant, assisting with metal mobilization research in New Jersey soils and presenting arsenic mobilization research at the Geological Society of America (GSA) Northeastern Section meeting in New Hampshire in 2015. At DRBC, Elaine leads key monitoring initiatives, including the Special Protection Waters (SPW) Monitoring project, and manages the agency's laboratory operations, including maintenance of water quality instruments and the laboratory certification. She serves as liaison for DRBC's Monitoring Advisory and Coordination Committee (MACC), coordinating with partner agencies on monitoring efforts within the Basin. Additionally, she founded the SIFT (Salinity Impacts Freshwater Toxicity) Workgroup, bringing together experts to address freshwater salinization concerns. Elaine recently began pursuing her Master of Science degree in Environmental Sciences part-time at Rutgers University.
The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), a federal interstate government agency, was founded in 1961 when President Kennedy and the governors of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Delaware signed the Delaware River Basin Compact into law to manage the shared river system without regard to political boundaries in order to address severe pollution, flooding, and water supply issues.
