GREAT LAKES

• The landmark piece of legislation aims to address climate change, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and promote clean energy.
• With over $370 billion available, the IRA presents a historical opportunity to address disparities and promote sustainability initiatives across the nation.
• By centering community voices and priorities, Elevate is supporting positive change and building resilience in underserved communities across the Great Lakes region.
• Elevate designs and implements programs to ensure that everyone has clean and affordable heat, power, and water in their homes and communities —with a focus on underserved Black and Brown communities.

• Wastewater surveillance hit the big time during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when officials started using this technique to monitor local virus levels.
• But my colleagues and I had been exploring wastewater’s promise as a public health tool years before anyone had heard of SARS-CoV-2.
• Imagine you want to identify a potential emerging infectious disease in an urban area before it becomes an outbreak.

Data hidden in what goes down the drain

• Wastewater is a mixture that contains anything that goes down the drain from the toilet, the shower, the laundry, the dishwasher or the sink.
• In most cities, stormwater and water used in industrial processes also end up in the wastewater.
• Municipal wastewater contains viruses and other pathogens excreted by anyone with an infection, even at the early stages before symptoms develop.

Beyond confirming a pathogen’s presence

• But it’s a trickier task to figure out how a particular wastewater level translates to how many people are sick or to compare infection levels between communities.
• How quickly will a surge of people start turning up sick once a wastewater peak is spotted?
• For example, using metabolites such as creatine, 5-HIAA and xanthine, we calculated per capita COVID-19 trends by relating their levels with viral levels.

Screening for the next outbreak

• Ultimately, public health officials want to get ahead of any looming outbreak.
• To this end, our team developed a ranking system for prioritizing which reportable diseases future wastewater surveillance should focus on.
• This tool can provide an early warning to officials if something new or unexpected shows up in wastewater.

Solidifying the science of wastewater surveillance

• View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240521935405/en/
  Viking today announced its latest scientific advancement on board the company’s expedition fleet with the addition of real-time environmental DNA (eDNA) sequencing of phytoplankton.
• Pictured here, the Viking Expedition Team leveraging the use of Zodiacs for scientific research in Antarctica.
• (Photo: Business Wire)
  Today’s announcement is another example of Viking’s commitment that every expedition voyage should provide opportunities for meaningful scientific research and discovery.
• “Oceanic phytoplankton absorbs 40 percent of the world’s carbon and provides 50 percent of the world’s atmospheric oxygen.

• Dredging backlog of $879.4 million at March 31, 2024
  HOUSTON, May 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (“Great Lakes” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: GLDD), the largest provider of dredging services in the United States, today reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024.
• Lasse Petterson, President and Chief Executive Officer commented, “Great Lakes ended the first quarter with strong financial results, including net income of $21.0 million and adjusted EBITDA of $42.9 million, which is the best adjusted EBITDA quarter since the fourth quarter of 2021, supporting a return to normalcy.
• Great Lakes cautions investors that any forward-looking statements made by Great Lakes are not guarantees or indicative of future performance.
• Great Lakes' future financial condition and results of operations, as well as any forward-looking statements, are subject to change and inherent risks and uncertainties.