AMTA 2007 conference and exposition recap
LAS VEGAS, NV, August 3, 2007 -- AMTA's 2007 Annual Conference "Why Gamble With Your Future" held July 23 to 26 at the magnificent Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas was a huge success. It was a great venue for attendees to earn continuing education units and tour 74 exhibit booths. AMTA President David Brown of the Town of Jupiter, Florida, stated "This was the most well attended conference ever with over 650 people networking and participating in fun events."
Two pre-conference workshops were well attended. One addressed a common challenge to many membrane treatment plants: Inland Concentrate Management. The other focusing on operator training was presented by the newest AMTA Affiliate, the Southwest Membrane Operator Association. "The hands-on training was great. It made me feel comfortable loading and trouble shooting reverse osmosis membranes," stated an enthusiastic first time attendee.
This year's conference opened with presentations by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Southern Nevada Water Authority, and the U.S. Army. Tuesday's legislative breakfast featured State and Federal officials sharing their vision of how membranes will help meet water challenges in the West. Wednesday's International Affiliates luncheon featured the International Desalination Association (IDA)'s speakers who provided a global perspective on membrane use. During Tuesday's luncheon joint AMTA/NWRI student scholarships were presented to Eva Steinle-Darling, Stanford University and to Kenda Colyar, University of Colorado, Boulder for their membrane related research.
Two parallel technical session venues and a poster session hosted papers on the latest membrane projects and lessons learned from around the country. The event had technical papers covering a wide range of membrane applications from seawater, brackish water, contaminant removal, membrane filtration (microfiltration, ultrafiltration) to electrodialysis reversal and membrane bio-reactors for water treatment, wastewater treatment and water recycling / reuse as well. In all, a total of 84 speakers provided information on membrane technology to those attending with 58 paper presentations, 14 invited speakers and 12 poster presentations, clearly making AMTA the leading source for membrane technology.
The best paper award was earned by Roger Noack for his paper titled "It Works -- Coagulant Addition on Low Pressure Membrane for a New Surface Water Treatment Plant in Pflugerville, TX" and the best poster was awarded to Co-Author's: Jacimaria Batista/Walter Johnson for their poster titled "Trading Water for Salt: An Alternative Water Resource for the Las Vegas Valley Facilitated by Reverse Osmosis Technology."
As the leading association in membrane water treatment, AMTA brought sales and technical representatives as well as top executives from companies in all aspects of membrane treatment to display their latest products and services. In one location attendees could talk and compare products such as pretreatment chemicals, water and wastewater treatment membranes, pressure vessels, self-cleaning filters, energy recovery systems, and pumps. Representatives of small system components to entire turn-key water system providers were on-hand as well as consulting engineers and other related water associations.
Finally, for some fun the AMTA Board of Directors and members presented a comedy play poking fun at the uniqueness of our industry. Fortunately, an Elvis impersonator arrived to entertain and elevate the acting ability of those in the room.
Next year's Joint Annual Conference with AMTA's Affiliate the Southeast Desalting Association will be held July 13 to 17, 2008, in Naples, Florida. For more information, the Call for Papers (submissions due by Oct. 5th) and Exhibitor/Sponsorship Brochure are currently available on the AMTA website at www.amtaorg.com.
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