Emerging Contaminants Episodes

The U.S. drinking water MCLs for PFAS remain in effect, but court challenges, proposed deadline extensions, and regulatory uncertainty have left public water systems in a difficult position. Taryn McKnight, VP and PFAS Practice Leader for Eurofins Environment Testing, breaks down the current state of PFAS regulation in the United States, including the legal battles over EPA's drinking water standards, the CERCLA hazardous substance designation, and why the proposed rollback of certain PFAS compo...

Battelle's Chlorinated Conference draws 1,500 environmental professionals from 23 countries, and its division manager explains why PFAS treatment is pushing the industry to its limits. Joe Tarsavage, Division Manager of Environmental Solutions at Battelle, discusses the 30-year history of the Chlorinated Conference, how PFAS contamination has reset treatment standards from two nines to five or six nines of removal, and why that gap is driving rapid innovation across the remediation sector. He al...

ToxiMapp aggregates over 60 geospatial environmental datasets to show users exactly which toxicants are present in the air, water, and soil near any U.S. address, and the platform's founders say most people have no idea what surrounds them. Deb Hordon, Ph.D., founder and CEO of ToxiMapp, built the platform after moving her infant daughter into two separate communities with cancer clusters. Neither location looked dangerous. One was a picturesque seacoast area between Maine and New Hampshire with...

Microplastics appear on a federal contaminant watchlist for the first time, and the regulatory path forward remains far from certain. Megan Quinn, senior reporter at Waste Dive, breaks down what the EPA's proposed new Contaminant Candidate List 6 actually means for water utilities, landfill operators, and chemical manufacturers, and why the lack of standardized test methods could slow any future regulation significantly. Quinn explains how the CCL process works, who sits on the newly reshu...

Veteran environmental attorney Phil Comella joins host Sean Grady on the Environmental Transformation Podcast to break down the EPA’s proposed rollback of PFAS drinking water regulations. With over 40 years of experience, Comella offers expert legal insight on how the delayed compliance deadlines, potential MCL reductions, and CERCLA implications could affect municipalities, water utilities, waste management companies, and communities already exposed to PFAS. The conversation covers legal risks,...

In this episode, host Sean Grady sits down with Jim Galligan, Senior Vice President at TerraTherm, to discuss advanced thermal remediation technologies. Jim, an industry veteran with over 34 years of expertise, dives deep into thermal conduction heating (TCH), electrical resistance heating (ERH), and steam-enhanced extraction (SEE)—powerful techniques used to remediate recalcitrant contaminants like PFAS, chlorinated solvents (PCE, TCE), PCBs, dioxins, and petroleum hydrocarbons.Learn how therma...

Join host Sean Grady as he interviews JP Verheul, Senior Chemist, and Mike Allen, VP of Trace Lab Services, from Enthalpy Analytical. Discover the critical work Enthalpy Analytical is doing in analyzing environmental samples for PFAS and other contaminants. Learn about the challenges and complexities in the testing and regulatory landscape, especially concerning drinking water, wastewater treatment, and industrial impacts. The episode also features detailed discussions on analytical methods, sta...

In this insightful episode of the Environmental Transformation Podcast, host Sean Grady engages in a compelling dialogue with Emily Donovan, co-founder of Clean Cape Fear, about their ongoing battle against PFAS pollution in the Cape Fear River watershed. Exploring the intricate journey from petitioning the United Nations to address human rights violations to the complex responses from major corporations like DuPont, Chemours, and Corteva, this episode sheds light on the critical environmental a...

SimpleLab, from Startup to Laboratory Logistics Service Leader. Join us for an engaging conversation with Johnny Pujol, the visionary founder of SimpleLab. In this insightful interview, Johnny shares his journey from a passionate science fiction writer to the innovative mind behind a game-changing digital platform. Discover how SimpleLab is revolutionizing the environmental testing industry, making water quality assessment accessible to consumers, small businesses, and large corporations alike. ...

In this episode we discuss Water Filtration and Equipment Selection. Properly sizing a water filtration system can be challenging. Who do you call when you need help figuring out the size of pumps you need to drain a retention pond, or what type of filtration unit should you use to process or treat contaminated surface water or groundwater? Selecting effective treatment media is another difficult task many struggle with. I discuss these questions and more with ⁠⁠Andrew Morris⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Jesse Green...

A discussion with the U.S. EPA’s Office of Water Deputy Assistant Administrator Bruno Pigott. So much is happening in the water space at the EPA these days, from lead and copper water supply pipe replacement programs to newly proposed PFAS Drinking Water regulations, the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR), and much more. I had the opportunity to catch up with Bruno to discuss these topics and how the agency is responding to threats on human health and the environment in this episode....

PFAS Contamination Update with Clean Cape Fear Co-Founder Emily Donavan. Learn about the recent TSCA court ruling where four community groups petitioned the US EPA to require Chemours to conduct epidemiology studies that included 54 PFAS chemicals for thousands of North Carolina residents. Her reaction to the EPA's Proposed PFAS Drinking Rule for 6 PFAS chemicals and if the EPA should establish a Class of PFAS Chemicals to account for Short Chain and Long Chain chemical variants. We also talk ab...

Today we have a panel discussion with today’s guests, Eliot Cooper of Cascade, Dr. Bradley Droy of TEA Environmental Solutions, and Craig Bruno of Landmark Environmental, around the evaluation process of selecting the proper In-Situ Chemistry products. We also discuss what goes into bringing new chemical amendments to market. Depending on the site characterization and hydrogeology characteristics, different chemistries may be selected based on the chemical of concern, such as CleanER iZVI, Sourc...

Forever Chemicals known as PFAS, are a class of man-made per-and polyfluroalkyl substances that persist in the environment and don’t break down. PFAS chemicals have been around for over 70 years and have been unregulated by the EPA for decades. Authors LeeAnn Racz and David Kempisty document in this book, "Forever Chemicals" Environmental, Economic, and Social Equity Concerns with PFAS in the Environment, the challenges with analytical testing, risk assessments, regulatory implications, consumer...

PFAS is one of the hottest topics in the industry. Can you say Parts Per Quadrillion! In this episode we talk with Taryn McKnight, the PFAS Practice Leader for Eurofins. We cover PFAS regulatory concerns related to how States and the EPA are addressing this emerging contaminant of concern. We dig into laboratory testing and sampling challenges as well as the need for more defined analytical testing methods. Other topics covered include the need for more product and toxicological testing, and a m...