Last week, nearly 300 attendees gathered at the ITRC Annual Meeting in Long Beach, California. The meeting featured a thought-provoking plenary session on Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for a Sustainable Environment, which was delivered by our two plenary speakers: Bridger Ruyle and Carol Eddy-Dilek.

Carol Eddy- Dilek

Savannah River National Laboratory

Bridger Ruyle

Postdoctoral Fellow at the Carnegie Institute for Science at Stanford University

Throughout the week, seven ITRC  Project Teams gathered  to collaborate and  make progress on their guidance documents, training and outreach materials, and other deliverables.

Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CEC) Biologicals

The CEC Biologicals team discussed progress and future plans, exploring the CEC framework and white paper topics, as well as conducting subgroup assignments and reports over the course of two days.

PFAS

The PFAS team delivered technical presentations of PFAS-related topics, before splitting into writing subgroups to work on various tasks, including case studies and updating sections. They reconvened periodically for progress updates and action item discussions.

Vapor Intrusion Pathway Evaluation and Mitigation

The Vapor Intrusion team spent time focusing on team direction, subgroup identification, case studies, survey development, and subgroup report-outs. The team also collaborated on upcoming VI-related training and assembling work products. 

Climate Workgroup

The Climate Workgroup team reviewed survey responses and discussed the development of proposal subgroups.

Passive Sampling Technology Update

The Passive Sampling team reviewed the feedback that they received from their document’s external review period and addressed necessary comments accordingly. 

Reuse of Solid Mining Waste

The Mining Waste Reuse team held several dedicated work sessions during the Annual Meeting, as well as a dedicated discussion on upcoming training. 

Tire Anti-degradants (6PPD)

The 6PPD team proceeded with work sessions focused on revising work products, discussing outreach materials, and subgroup work sessions. They concluded with a review of progress and discussed next steps.

State Engagement Program (SEP) 

ITRC’s State Points of Contact discussed how to continue advancing the State Engagement Program while sharing thoughts and ideas on how to further spread ITRC materials.

Board of Advisors (BOA)

Members of ITRC’s BOA enjoy a break from their meeting where they began planning for 2025 Project Teams, governance updates, and future meetings, and made progress on ITRC’s next Strategic Plan.

Annual Meeting attendees also had the opportunity to soak in some California sunshine at our pool-side reception, where we were able to honor several ITRC project team members for their outstanding contributions over the past year. The reception, along with numerous networking breaks, provided an ideal setting for members to exchange thoughts on future projects, generate ideas for ongoing endeavors, and forge valuable new connections.

ITRC extends our sincere thanks to our 2024 Annual Meeting sponsors for helping make our meeting a success and for being an integral part of our team.

To view archived meeting materials, click here.

ITRC is a program of the Environmental Research Institute of the States (ERIS). ERIS is a 501(c)(3) organization incorporated in the District of Columbia and managed by the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS).