On Sept. 5 and 6, more than 230 wetlands scientists, remediation professionals, and regulators from the United States and 13 other nations attended Battelle’s Wetlands and Remediation: The Second International Conference. The conference in Burlington, Vt., was organized and sponsored by Battelle, with co-sponsors that included Parsons Engineering Science, Geomatrix Consultants, Earth Tech, U.S. DoD’s Environmental Security Technology Certification Program/Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (ESTCP/SERDP), and the U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center (NFESC).

At the meeting’s opening plenary session, Battelle’s Karl Nehring, conference co-chairman, welcomed the attendees and spoke briefly about the technical areas to be covered at the conference. He also announced that in 2003 the Wetlands and Remediation Conference will not be held as a separate meeting but will instead be integrated into the Seventh International Bioremediation Symposium, to be held in Orlando, Fla., in June.

Co-chairman Susan Brauning of Battelle then introduced the plenary speakers. Dr. Barry Warner of the University of Waterloo made a presentation titled “Subsurface-Flow Wetlands: Inside the Black Box.” Dr. Jean-Paul Schwitzguebel of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, presented “Wastewater Treatment: Green Plants: A European Approach.” Finally, Dr. John Pardue of Louisiana State University spoke on “Remediating Chlorinated Solvents in Wetlands: Natural Processes or an Active Approach?”

Following the plenary session, the conference convened into two technical tracks comprising nearly 50 platform presentations. On Tuesday evening, a poster session was held in conjunction with a reception, giving attendees the opportunity to peruse the posters and ask questions of their authors. Co-located in the hall with the posters were exhibit booths featuring displays and information from 13 exhibitors.

Platform and poster presenters were invited to submit technical papers expanding upon their presentations. Mr. Nehring and Ms. Brauning subsequently reviewed the submitted papers and organized them into a proceedings volume, which will be published in December by Battelle Press.

For more information on the proceedings, contact Battelle Press at press@Battelle.org, or Karl Nehring at (614) 424-6510, nehringk@battelle.org.