"Forever Chemicals": Sources, Health Effects, Remediation

After completing a paper in high school about an entire village near her hometown that was destroyed by cholera and seeing rivers and lakes in Illinois destroyed by fecal matter, runoff, and industrial waste prior to the Clean Water Act, she felt a calling to be part of the change. She has been a laboratory technician, supervisor and pretreatment plant operator for Kraft and Dean Foods in Illinois, the laboratory supervisor and senior operator for the City of Richland Center, and the statewide wastewater consultant and trainer for the Wisconsin Rural Water Association (WRWA). Curtin also worked as an engineering technician/trainer for SEH, inc. in WI and MN, and held the position of roving Manager over the eight wastewater plants that treat the waste from 108 communities in the Twin Cities metro area. Missing her family and farm in Wisconsin, she returned to the WRWA in 2017 and moved back to Barron County. WRWA is a non-profit whose employees assist municipalities with hands-on operation, training classes, etc. WRWA also trains clerks, Village officials, and industrial wastewater and water operators. Curtin now works with villages, townships, and cities that have per-and polyfluoroalkyl (PFA) contamination of wells. She has received numerous awards from professional organizations and has served on the Barron County Board of Supervisors and the Tainter Lake Board of Directors. Her presentation on Thursday, April 14th will cover the history of the development and pollution PFA substances, their effects on human health and the environment, the areas of contamination in Wisconsin, and what we need to do to remediate the situation. This and other sessions of the Thursdays at the U Lecture Series are held in the Blue Hills Lecture Hall (Ritzinger 234) of the UWEC- Barron County campus from 12:30-1:30. The campus is located at 1800 College Drive in Rice Lake. Attendance is free and open to the public, thanks to financial support from the campus foundation.