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Water protection a hot topic at first Dayton Water Conference

Edward Volkwein, president, SteriPEN demonstrated the company's water purification pen at the Dayton Region Water Roundtable on Monday, May 10. The battery powered unit purifies water with ultraviolet light and are popular with hikers a backpackers.

Ty Greenlees/Staff Photographer Edward Volkwein, president, SteriPEN demonstrated the company's water purification pen at the Dayton Region Water Roundtable on Monday, May 10. The battery powered unit purifies water with ultraviolet light and are popular with hikers a backpackers.

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By Thomas Gnau, Staff Writer Updated 12:14 AM Wednesday, May 12, 2010

DAYTON — It turns out that a rain-soaked morning is the perfect time to draw attention to what Dayton has plenty of and no one can live without: water.

The second day of the Dayton Water Conference opened Tuesday, May 11, at the University of Dayton’s Kennedy Union. The event is meant to encourage businesses to develop technologies to protect water — and to take advantage of Dayton’s ample water supply.

Vincent Caprio, chief operating officer of the Shelton, Conn.-based Water Innovations Alliance, expected the 250 people registered for the event, a turnout that leads him to believe the conference can become annual. Americans view easy access to water as a “birthright,” Caprio said. But he cautioned that could change in the West and South in a short time.

“Dayton has an abundance of water,” Caprio said. “Atlanta doesn’t.”

Caprio pointed to Boston, where earlier this month 2 million people were told to boil tap water before drinking after a main pipe had ruptured. Only 3 percent of the Earth’s water is fresh, and less than 1 percent of that is accessible to people, according to Caprio’s organization.

Water problems can quickly become hunger problems as aquifers evaporate and affect crop growth, as is happening in Asia, according to the alliance.

In a keynote address Tuesday, Mark Shannon, director of the Center of Advanced Materials for the Purification of Water with Systems, warned that drinkable water could become increasingly difficult to obtain in much of the world, including the U.S. Growing demand and shrinking supplies will require new technologies, he said. “I don’t think we’re going to be able to ignore it very much longer.”

Most of the conference’s first day, Monday, was devoted to an annual technology expo by Vandalia’s Crown Solutions, which makes equipment for water processing.

Steve Staub, of Dayton’s Staub Laser Cutting, was among the exhibitors. His booth showed off an array of laser-cut and welded mechanical pieces. Staub wants to support Crown, which is often a Staub client, he said.

Aquionics of Erlanger, Ky., was showcasing its ultraviolet water-purifying technology.

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