Massachusetts Water Works Association

UGSI Solutions provides chemical feed and water disinfection technologies to municipal and industrial clients. UGSI Solutions combines iconic brands such as Encore® metering pumps, Varea-Meter flow meters and Polyblend® polymer activation systems with today’s cutting-edge technologies such as Microclor on-site hypochlorite generation, Monoclor RCS disinfectant residual management and PAX tank and reservoir mixing systems. Underground Solutions was founded in 2015 and is based in Milpitas, California.

Florida Aquastore provides water storage/wastewater treatment tanks and designs and constructs wastewater treatment systems for private developers, municipalities, and industrial customers across Florida, the Caribbean, and Latin America. It was formerly known as Environmental Marketing Group (EMG) and changed its name to Florida Aquastore & Utility Construction, Inc. in 1981. The company was founded in 1975 and is based in Boca Raton, Florida.

Phoenix Biosystems is a company that received a SBIR Phase I grant for a project entitled: Label Free Nucleic Acid Assays for POC Diagnostics. Their project proposes to develop a Label Free Nucleic Acid Assay for Point-Of-Care (POC) Diagnostics especially for Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI). The broader impacts of this research are to enable effective diagnosis and treatment of chlamydia and gonorrhoeae in a single visit at the clinic and thus avoid patients who currently go untreated because they are lost-to-follow-ups. The ability to obtain easily available POC tests in primary care clinics, school clinics, Emergency Department settings, or even at-home testing (OTC), may have a far reaching impact on the rates of STIs in this country.

Pronghorn Technologies is a company that received a Department of Defense SBIR/STTR grant for a project entitled: Sensor for Continuous Detection and Reporting of Total Residual Oxidant in Hypochlorite-Enhanced Water Systems. The abstract given for this project is as follows: The U.S. Navy has significantly improved its operational capabilities in littoral and near- shore seawaters, which has resulted in the need to achieve much better pre-treatment of the seawater withdrawn from the often turbid and debris-filled shallow waters for the onboard desalination systems. Low-maintenance microfiltration is now used for pre- treatment, and it relies upon periodic electrolytic hypochlorite-enhanced seawater flushes. Increased littoral deployment of naval vessels has also seen an increase in biological fouling and clogging of vessel cooling systems, leading to the installation of electrolytic chlorination systems on ships and submarines to control biological fouling. Efficient electrolytic chlorination requires an active control feedback system in the form of a compact, near real-time in-stream detector capable of continuously detecting and reporting the total residual oxidant (TRO) content in the hypochlorite-enhanced seawater streams that the Navy uses for periodic biofouling control flushes. Efficient control/monitoring of electrolytic chlorine-generation systems requires a TRO sensor that will operate accurately, reliably and for long durations without maintenance in the marine environment. Pronghorn Technologies proposes to develop a proprietary halogen oxidant sensor technology with proven robust, long-term measurement stability to operate from 0 to 500 ppm TRO to provide near real-time control feedback in a seawater chlorination system.

Microbial Insights is a company that received a SBIR Phase I grant for a project entitled: Microbial Source Tracking for Evaluation of Water Quality and Identification of Contaminant Sources. Their research develops a set of microbial source tracking (MST) assays providing a cost-effective method to quantify fecal contamination, identify sources of fecal contamination, and detect pathogenic (disease-causing) microorganisms in drinking water sources and recreational waters. Collectively, MST is an ever widening group of methods designed to detect and quantify microorganisms indicative of human or animal fecal contamination of water or foods. Although safe drinking water is nearly taken for granted in developed nations, periodic outbreaks of waterborne diseases clearly highlight the need for improved detection of fecal contamination indicators. Since contamination can result from a variety of human (wastewater treatment plants & septic fields), agricultural (confined animal feeding operations), and natural wildlife activities, source identification is the key to MST and ultimately improvement of water quality. The end result of project will be a set of quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assays offering rapid and sensitive enumeration of fecal contamination indicators, human pathogens, and the ability to identify the contaminant source. Due to the important societal impact of improved water quality, the market opportunities for MST are extremely broad and encompass nearly any public or private entity with a stake in the quality of water resources.

TPL is a Albuquerque, NM company that was awarded a grant as part of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) SBIR/STTR program. They received a grant for their project entitled: Silica Materials for Mercury Recovery From Wastewater. TPL is a Albuquerque, NM company that was awarded a grant as part of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) SBIR/STTR program. They received a grant for their project entitled: Rapid, Specific, Sensor System for Pathogens in Water.