SPEAKER: Dannelle Belhateche
In November 2024, EPA released a new national strategy to protect human health and the environment throughout the plastics manufacturing/use/disposal lifecycle, while many states are moving forward with developing and implementing their own microplastics regulations in the absence of federal action. The EPA has also received petitions from numerous non-governmental organizations to add microplastics limits to the Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Acts. This presentation will provide useful background information about what microplastics are, their fate and transport in the environment, emerging new health concerns, and potential strategies for mitigation and abatement in order to better prepare today’s environmental professionals for potential projected future microplastics regulation and enforcement.
BIO:
Ms. Dannelle Belhateche, PE currently leads a technical practice for compliance and permitting at Braun Intertec, an environmental consulting firm, bringing over 35 years of consulting, operational, and engineering experience in the environmental field, with a major focus in industrial/municipal water and wastewater treatment. Ms. Belhateche also served as a Senior Executive Director for a Public Utility, managing the city’s Drinking Water and Wastewater Operations during a time when endocrine disruptors became an emerging contaminant. She has performed projects for diverse industrial and municipal facilities, such as petroleum refineries and petrochemical and plastics manufacturing facilities, upstream and offshore oil and gas exploration and production site, power generation plants, municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants and collection systems and Publicly owned treatment works (POTWs), potable water purification plants and distribution systems and metal forging and electroplating plants. She has led numerous wastewater toxicity studies and investigations and is a senior auditor conducting multi-media audits at industrial and municipal facilities to assess compliance with federal, state, and local environmental regulations.