Environmental Business Review: Specials Magazine

The Clean Water Act of 1972 established a set of objectives related to the protection of America’s water resources by limiting the scope and/or volume of chemicals discharged to its surface waters. The initial focus of determining the environmental acceptability of wastewaters was limited to analytical measurements of the concentrations of individual chemicals in complex waste streams. This approach was ultimately determined to be insufficient due to the recognition that organisms respond to the concentration of bioavailable contaminants and not necessarily the total concentration as measured in most analytical procedures. And given the lack of analytical procedures for the tens of thousands of registered chemicals, the objectives of the legislation were simply not feasible. Organisms will also respond to the totality of contaminants present and those contaminants in combination may create either synergistic or antagonistic effects that could under- or overestimate toxic effects. This evolution in understanding and enlightenment led to the development of Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) testing methods in the mid 1980s prompting the “birth” of the biomonitoring industry. AquaTox Research, Inc. (ARI) was founded as a spin-off from a Syracuse, NY based organization in 1992 by Dr. Frank Doherty, a lab manager with that organization since 1987. The scope of aquatic toxicity testing and consulting services offered since the Corporation’s inception has shifted over time to align with the data demands of the local regulatory community. This field would not exist without the regulatorily driven testing requirements from state and federal agencies to comply with environmental legislation. Dr. Doherty and ARI have witnessed and participated in its evolution since its first days 33 years earlier. Most recently, since 2022, NYS has required its aquatic toxicity testing contractors to be accredited by the NYS Department of Health through the Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ELAP), creating requirements for technical competence alongside independently audited quality assurance.” “The singular goal of the Corporation is to help companies not pollute,” says Dr. Francis Doherty, lab director. This mission is carried out through two primary functions. The first function is to conduct routine acute and chronic toxicity tests with the fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas, and the aquatic invertebrate cladoceran, Ceriodaphnia dubia. New York State regulators typically require quarterly toxicity tests with both species for one year out of a 5-year permit cycle. If during that process test results exceed the limits published in a facility’s discharge permit, there is a testing requirement referred to as a Toxicity Identification/Reduction Evaluation (TI/RE). The second function of ARI is to assist permittees either locate the source and/or identity of the toxic materials and suggest approaches for remediation within a TI/RE program. ARI utilizes a non-traditional approach to the application of TI/RE programs relying on the expertise and knowledge of plant operators in conjunction with targeted toxicity testing activities to achieve compliance. The NYS DEC also routinely requires permittees to perform compliance testing when Water Treatment Chemicals (WTC) are put into service. ARI provides compliance testing either through toxicity tests of the WTCs themselves or routine WET testing to demonstrate environmental acceptability of the treated wastewater. Outlining the toxicity profile of WTCs to the standard test organisms is required to ensure an adequate safety factor between toxicity test limits and proposed dosage rates in contrast to the issuance of conditional approval for the use of the WTCs contingent upon demonstrating environmental acceptability in a series of routine effluent toxicity tests.

WasteLinq is transforming hazardous waste management into a fully connected ecosystem like never before. By bringing together generators, service providers and disposal facilities, it replaces outdated silos with a living network where decisions happen in real time, data speaks across every touchpoint and visibility becomes a baseline expectation. The platform began as an internal solution for Co-founder and CRO Sean Easton, who originally built it to streamline operations at his own company, Effective Environmental. From profile approvals to coordination with treatment, storage and disposal facilities, Easton and his team managed it all, setting a new operational standard for the industry. “We never set out to build a software company,” Easton says. “We just needed a smarter way to manage the work. Over time, it became very clear that the entire industry did too.” While many generators still rely on email chains, service providers juggle spreadsheets and disposal facilities operate in isolation, WasteLinq offers a unified alternative. It bridges silos, accelerates approvals, reduces redundant data entry and restores visibility across the entire waste chain. Each implementation begins with a close look at how a team works, not just their data but the flow, the people and the daily pressure points. The WasteLinq team often visits sites, studies workflows and helps configure the system to match real needs. While the software isn’t custom-built, its flexibility allows users to tailor it without added complexity. That level of alignment has translated into real operational gains. Clients report completing 50 percent more of the same work than they could using previous manual processes. A key contributor to that efficiency is OneProfile, a solution to one of the industry’s biggest bottlenecks, profile creation and approval. Trained on hundreds of thousands of historical profiles, the system generates a preliminary waste profile from just a few user inputs, which can then be reviewed and edited. From there, disposal options appear automatically, along with associated vendor costs and timelines. Once selected, the system completes all necessary documentation, including entries into external Disposal Facility portals, making the profile ready for submission in minutes. Clients have cut profile creation time in half and reduced average approval times by over 30 percent..