Ocean Wastewater Pollution Learning Exchange

The Reef Resilience Network hosted an Ocean Wastewater Pollution Learning Exchange to provide marine managers an opportunity to network and learn from peers and experts about this important and challenging topic. This interactive virtual session featured:

• • Opportunities to ask questions and share your successes and challenges with wastewater pollution management.
  • Experts sharing about water quality monitoring, strategic communications, and nature-based solutions for wastewater management.
  • Wastewater Pollution Mentored Online Course participants sharing what they learned from the course and the wastewater management issues they are working on now.
  • An overview of the Reef Resilience Network’s wastewater pollution resources, including: Wastewater Pollution Online Course available in English, Spanish, and French, Ocean Sewage Series webinars, Wastewater Pollution Toolkit, case studies, and article summaries 

We invite you to continue the conversations about wastewater management topics via the digital whiteboards below:

• • Monitoring – Google Jamboard
  • Communications – Google Jamboard
  • Nature-based Solutions – Google Jamboard

If you do not have access to YouTube, email us at resilience@tnc.org for a copy of the recording.

Resources:

Communication resources shared during the exchange included the Reef Resilience Network’s Communication Planning Process and Strategic Communication for Conservation guidebook. Rare’s Center for Behavior & the Environment also has online portal with information about the behavioral levers that motivate change and the behavior-centered design for the environment process.

 

In the monitoring breakout session, there were a few questions related to identifying specific sources of wastewater. This manual, produced by the California State Water Resources Control Board, may be a good resource for identifying fecal pollution sources to beaches. It provides an overview of DNA-based and chemical tracer methods and how to implement and design these studies.

 

Caribbean-specific resources include:

• • This regional environment monitoring platform facilitates the compilation of information from national monitoring and assessment programs to make environmental information generated in the Wider Caribbean Region more accessible to stakeholders for national and regional decision-making.
  • Technical Paper on Proposed Criteria for Nutrients Discharges for Domestic Wastewater Effluent.
  • Case studies on wastewater investments: Valuing the costs and benefits of improved wastewater management: An economic valuation resource guide for the Wider Caribbean Region and Part II: Economic Valuation Methodology Guidance.
  • An integrated investment study for habitat restoration and pollution in the wider Caribbean.
  • 2019 Assessment of Marine Pollution from Land-Based Sources and Activities in the Wider Caribbean Region.
  • Caribbean Regional Fund for Wastewater Management website and resources.

Special thanks to our experts and speakers who shared more about their work: Amy Zimmer-Faust, Chris Corbin, Christina Comfort, Erica Perez, Katie Heffner, Kristen Maize, Mo Wise, and Phal Mantha.