What We Do

The OWWA Treatment Committee is a volunteer group consisting of representatives from Ontario utilities, consultants, academia and our regulatory authority MECP with a technical focus on drinking water treatment. The Treatment Committee meet virtually once per month to discuss and further our two main objectives in support of our OWWA membership and the general public which are: the support of knowledge transfer between industry partners; and the provision of technical feedback in treatment-related regulatory and guidance documents. 

The committee supports knowledge transfer through several activities including: organizing an annual Treatment Spring Seminar; supporting abstract review and session organziation for treatment sessions at the OWWA Annual Conference; organizing plant tours, often in collaboration with our Young Professional liaison; and through authoring and submitting articles to industry journals. Technical feedback consists of participating in public review of draft documents for Ontario regulatory updates and Health Canada guidance documents, in which committee members provide both direct technical feedback and encourage and collate feedback from within our broader technical networks. 

Sound interesting? If so, why not join! The process for submitting an application to join the treatment committee can be found here.

Further Information on some of our specific activities can be found below. 

Our Activities

The Treatment Committee achieves these goals through four main annual activities: Seminars, Tours, Technical Reviews, and Publication of Articles.

Annual Seminars

Every year the Treatment Committee organizes a Spring Seminar, normally in late March, on subjects relating to drinking water treatment.

• 2024 Innovation at the Edge: Leveraging Cutting-Edge Technology for Next Generation Drinking Water Systems 
• 2023 Be the Hammer, Not the Nail - Building Water Treatment Resiliency in the Face of Climate Change 
• 2022 Climate Conundrums: Water Treatment Adaptations from Source to Tap
• 2021 Virtually Everything You Need to Know About Emerging Issues 
• 2021 Virtually Everything You Need to Know About New Drinking Water Guidelines
• 2019 Optimization through Construction and Beyond
• 2018 Good to Great – Treatment Optimization to Meet Future Challenges
• 2017 What’s Coming Down the Pipes? Risk, Regulations and Emerging Issues
• 2016 Treatment Doesn’t End at the Plant
• 2015 The ABC’s of DBPs
• 2014 Don’t Panic With Organics
• 2013 What You Bought and What You Got
• 2012 Emerging Contaminants
• 2011 The Ins and Outs of Water Treatment
• 2010 The Waste of Water
• 2009 Risk, Regulations & the Future
• 2008 Water Treatment Processes and Emerging Issues
• 2007 Practical Aspects of Water Treatment Processes
   

Technical Reviews

The Treatment Committee routinely reviews:

• Provincial and federal proposed drinking water regulations and guidelines
• Abstracts for the treatment sessions at the annual conference
• Abstracts for the Treatment Spring Seminar
   

The Treatment Committee also offers comments through the Environmental Bill of Rights public consultation process.

Tours

The Treatment Committee typically co-hosts a WTP plant tour each year with the Young Professionals Committee. 

Publication of Articles

The Treatment Committee prepares articles on treatment-related issues for publication in the OWWA Pipeline. Click on the recent articles below.

• PFAS in Drinking Water: Regulations and Treatment Options
• Meet the 2021 OWWA Treatment Committee
• Implementing the Partnership for Safe Water Program at a Large Municipality

Our Committee Members