40th Environmental Permitting Summer School

Dr. deSilva has over 35 years of experience in water and wastewater (Industrial and municipal) engineering, including project concept through construction and start-up. He is an international leader in operations and maintenance, energy management, solids handling processes, construction management, and commissioning wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) throughout the United States, as well as in Japan, France, Australia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Guam, India, Sri Lanka, Korea, Qatar, Jordan, Kuwait, UAE, and Iraq. Dr. deSilva is experienced in the evaluation and sizing of treatment processes to remove contaminants from groundwater, surface water, or industrial water to meet the permit requirements including PFAS. He has studied and designed over 340 treatment plants including MBR, SBR, RO, GAC, IX, BAF, VLR, and conventional treatment processes. Dr. deSilva has published in or presented at over 597 water/wastewater industry journals and conferences out of which 306 are PFAS related. He has authored EPA, WEF, ASCE and AWWA manuals of practice. He serves on several PFAS national-level technical committees and teaches PFAS courses. He currently serves as the Chair of AWWA’s Emerging Water Quality Issues Committee, Chair of WEF’s Emerging Contaminants Community, and Past Char of WEF's PFAS Task Force and a member of SAME Environmental program committees.