Benjamin Trueman

Research scientist
Centre for Water Resources Studies
Department of Civil & Resource Engineering
Dalhousie University
Halifax, NS, CAN

About me

I am a water quality scientist with significant experience in statistical programming, data analysis, data management, machine learning, and geochemical modeling.

Github: https://github.com/bentrueman
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=V1hY9TkAAAAJ&hl=en

Work experience

2024–Present
Senior Research Scientist
Centre for Water Resources Studies, Dalhousie University

• Developed a bespoke workflow for marker gene and metagenomic sequencing and subsequent data analysis

• Managed a Research Nova Scotia grant valued at more than $1M, focused on water surveillance using environmental DNA

• Mentored PhD, MASc, and co-op students in research, writing, data analysis, and programming

2017–Present
Independent consultant

• Built a statistical model for predicting toxic aluminum concentrations in high priority salmon rivers

• Designed a geochemical model to better understand alkalinity enhancement of acidified surface waters

• Provided data analysis and modeling expertise for a major US lawsuit involving lead contamination of drinking water

2018–2024
Postdoctoral Employee
Centre for Water Resources Studies, Dalhousie University

• Created open-source software packages for modeling (1) environmental time series and (2) the fate of inorganic contaminants in water

• Contributed research insights to Halifax Water’s corrosion control program, resulting in lower levels of toxic lead in drinking water and prolonged infrastructure life

• Detected a lead polyphosphate complex in drinking water using a purpose-built method; the USEPA and others had warned about these complexes for years, but this was among the first detections in real drinking water

• Showed that sodium silicate was not a viable corrosion control treatment for lead, despite its mention in many corrosion control manuals for that purpose—a finding which will avoid wasted resources, and, potentially, elevated lead in drinking water

2021–2023
Postdoctoral employee (Mitacs Accelerate Grant holder)
Halifax Water/Dalhousie University

• Developed and published a novel monitoring strategy for the corrosiveness of drinking water that has been cited in Health Canada’s new draft guidance document on controlling lead corrosion

Skills

• Statistical programming/machine learning
  • Proficient in R, Stan, and bash
  • High-performance computing
  • Some Python and SQL
• Technical communication
  • Wrote or co-wrote 35+ academic journal articles
  • Wrote numerous technical reports for federal, provincial, and municipal clients
  • Presented original research at international conferences (including best presentation award, 7^th IWA Specialist Conference on Natural Organic Matter in Tokyo, Japan)
• Analytical Chemistry
  • Field-flow fractionation
  • Mulitangle light scattering
  • Inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry
  • X-ray diffraction
  • X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
  • High-performance liquid chromatography
• Microbiology
  • 16S rRNA and shotgun metagenomic sequencing on the Illumina NextSeq 1000 sequencing platform
• Bioinformatics
  • Metagenomic and marker gene sequencing data analysis

Software and online resources

A collection of online code repositories authored by me

R packages

• bgamcar1
  • A set of functions for fitting robust Bayesian generalized additive models with continuous-time autoregressive errors to partially censored environmental time series.
• pbcusol
  • This package facilitates modeling equilibrium lead and copper solubility and is also available as a web application available here.
• fffprocessr
  • Designed for analyzing flow field-flow fractionation data, with a focus on environmental applications.

Online resources

• censored-env-data-analysis
  • A comprehensive set of tools for analyzing left-censored environmental data in a Bayesian framework. Applicable to both univariate and multivariate problems.
• cwrs-r-group
  • Selected code and datasets from a weekly R programming meeting at Dalhousie University’s Centre for Water Resources Studies. The focus of the meetings is statistical modeling, and sessions usually introduce a concept or method, step-by-step.

Reports

Prepared data-focused technical reports—including original research—on topics in drinking water quality and treatment for Halifax Water, EPCOR, the cities of Regina, Saint John, and Thunder Bay, as well as for Health Canada and Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change.

Academic background

2018 PhD, Civil Engineering
Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS
Thesis title: “Controlling Lead Release To Drinking Water: Impacts Of Iron Oxides, Complexing Species, Orthophosphate, And Lead Pipe Replacement”

• NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship, Doctoral level
• Nova Scotia Graduate Scholarship
• President’s Award

2012 BSc, Environmental Science
Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS

Journal articles

1. Trueman, B. F., Locsin, J. A., Krkošek, W. H., & Gagnon, G. A. (2023). Evaluating Sentinel Pipe Racks for Monitoring Lead Release and Optimizing Corrosion Control. ACS ES&T Water. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestwater.3c00273

2. Gao, Y., Trueman, B. F., Li, B., Earle, M. R., Gagnon, G. A. (2022). Release and migration of Pb from Pb(II) and Pb(IV) compounds in the presence of microbiological activity. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology. https://doi.org/10.1039/D2EW00152G

3. Trueman, B. F., Locsin, J. M., Doré, E., Hood, K., & Gagnon, G. A. (2022). Sodium silicate and hexametaphosphate promote the release of (oxyhydr)oxide nanoparticles from corroding iron. Environmental Science: Advances. https://doi.org/10.1039/D2VA00199C

4. Trueman, B. F., James, W., Shu, T., Doré, E., & Gagnon, G. A. (2022). Comparing corrosion control treatments using a robust Bayesian generalized additive model. ES&T Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestengg.2c00194

5. Locsin, J. A., Trueman, B. F., Doré, E., Bleasdale-Pollowy, A., & Gagnon, G. A. (2022). Impacts of orthophosphate-polyphosphate blends on the dissolution and transformation of lead (II) carbonate. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-22683-2

6. Gao, Y., Trueman, B. F., & Gagnon, G. A. (2022). Early phase effects of silicate and orthophosphate on lead (Pb) corrosion scale development and Pb release. Journal of Environmental Management, 321, 115947. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115947

7. King, P. W., Peldszus, S., Mishrra, A., Trueman, B. F., Aghasadeghi, K., Gagnon G. A., Giammar, D. E., & Huck, P. M. Role of natural organic matter and hardness on lead release from galvanic corrosion. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology. 8, 1687-1699. https://doi.org/10.1039/D1EW00903F

8. Munoz, S., Trueman, B. F., Li, B., & Gagnon, G. A. (2022). Effect of sodium silicate on drinking water biofilm development. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology. 8, 1300-1311. https://doi.org/10.1039/D1EW00682G

9. Trueman, B. F., Bleasdale-Pollowy, A., Locsin, J. A., Bennett, J. L., Krkošek, W. H., & Gagnon, G. A. (2021). Seasonal lead release into drinking water and the effect of aluminum. ACS ES&T Water. 2(5), 710–720. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestwater.1c00320

10. Locsin, J. A., Hood, K. M., Doré, E., Trueman, B. F., & Gagnon, G. A. (2022). Colloidal lead in drinking water: Formation, occurrence, and characterization. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology. https://doi.org/10.1080/10643389.2022.2039549

11. Guardado, A. L. P., Sweeney, C. L., Hayes, E., Trueman, B. F., Huang, Y., Jamieson, R. C., Rand, J. L., Gagnon, G. A., & Stoddart, A. K. (2022). Development and optimization of a new method for direct extraction of SARS-CoV-2 RNA from municipal wastewater using magnetic beads. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology. 8, 47-61. https://doi.org/10.1039/D1EW00539A

12. Li, B., Trueman, B. F., Doré, E., & Gagnon, G. A. (2021). Effectiveness of sodium silicates for lead corrosion control: a critical review of current data. Environmental Science & Technology Letters. 8(11), 932–939. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.1c00671

13. ^aJoint first author: Anderson, L.E.,^a Trueman, B. F.,^a Dunnington, D.W.^a & Gagnon, G. A. (2021). Relative importance of organic- and iron-based colloids in six Nova Scotian lakes. npj Clean Water 4, 26 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-021-00115-4

14. Aghasadeghi, K., Peldszus, S., Trueman, B. F., Mishrra, A., Cooke, M. G., Slawson, R. M., Giammar, D. E., Gagnon, G. A., & Huck, P. M. (2021). Pilot-scale comparison of sodium silicates, orthophosphate and pH adjustment to reduce lead release from lead service lines. Water Research. 195, 116955. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2021.116955

15. ^aJoint first author: Redden, D.,^a Trueman, B. F.,^a Dunnington, D. W., Anderson, L. A., & Gagnon, G. A. (2021). Chemical recovery and browning of Nova Scotia surface waters in response to declining acid deposition. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts. 23, 446-456. https://doi.org/10.1039/D0EM00425A

16. Li, B., Trueman, B. F., Locsin, J. A., Rahman, M. S., Gao, Y., Park, Y., & Gagnon, G. A. (2021). Impact of sodium silicate on lead release from lead carbonate. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology. 7, 599-609. https://doi.org/10.1039/D0EW00886A

17. Li, B., Trueman, B. F., Rahman, M. S., & Gagnon, G. A. (2021). Controlling lead release due to uniform and galvanic corrosion—An evaluation of silicate-based inhibitors. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 407, 124707. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124707

18. Li, B., Trueman, B. F., Munoz, S., Locsin, J. M., & Gagnon, G. A. (2021). Impact of sodium silicate on lead release and colloid size distributions in drinking water. Water Research, 190, 116709. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2020.116709

19. Dunnington, D. W., Trueman, B. F., Raseman, W. J., Anderson, L. E., Gagnon, G. A. (2021). Comparing the Predictive Performance, Interpretability, and Accessibility of Machine Learning and Physically Based Models for Water Treatment. ACS ES&T Engineering. 1(3), 348–356. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestengg.0c00053

20. ^aJoint first author: Lane, K.,^a Trueman, B. F.,^a Locsin, J., Gagnon, G. A. (2020). Inorganic contaminants in Canadian First Nation community water systems. Journal of Water and Health. 18 (5), 728–740. https://doi.org/10.2166/wh.2020.185

21. Locsin, J. M., Trueman, B. F., Serracin-Pitti, D., Stanton, G. M. L., Gagnon, G. A. (2020). Potential regulatory implications of guideline changes in lead monitoring for Nova Scotia. AWWA Water Science, 2(4), e1182. https://doi.org/10.1002/aws2.1182

22. Gora, S. L., Anaviapik-Soucie, T., Allward, N. E., Ontiveros, C. C., L’Hérault, V., Kunuk- Gavin, M., Trueman, B. F., Campbell, J., Stoddart, A. K., Gagnon, G. A. (2020). Microbiological water quality in a decentralized Arctic drinking water system. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, 6, 1855-1868. https://doi.org/10.1039/d0ew00019a

23. Gora, S. L., Trueman, B. F., Anaviapik-Soucie, T., Gavin, M. K., Ontiveros, C. C., Campbell, J., L’Hérault, V., Stoddart, A. K., & Gagnon, G. A. (2020). Source Water Characteristics and Building-specific Factors Influence Corrosion and Point of Use Water Quality in a Decentralized Arctic Drinking Water System. Environmental Science & Technology, 54, 2192−2201. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b04691

24. ^aJoint first author: Brophy, M. J.,^a Trueman, B. F.,^a Park, Y., Betts, R. A., & Gagnon, G. A. (2019). Fluorescence Spectra Predict Microcystin-LR and Disinfection Byproduct Formation Potential in Lake Water. Environmental Science & Technology, 53(2), 586–594. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.8b04139 (ACS Article on Request: https://pubs.acs.org/articlesonrequest/AOR-yzIje94pRCzeBYYfe6sd)

25. Li, B., Trueman, B. F., Rahman, M. S., Gao, Y., Park, Y., & Gagnon, G. A. (2019). Understanding the impacts of sodium silicate on water quality and iron oxide particles. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, 5(8), 1360–1370. https://doi.org/10.1039/C9EW00257J

26. Trueman, B. F., Anaviapik-Soucie, T., L’Hérault, V., & Gagnon, G. A. (2019). Characterizing colloidal metals in drinking water by field flow fractionation. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, 5(12), 2202–2209. https://doi.org/10.1039/C9EW00560A

27. Trueman, B. F., Gregory, B. S., McCormick, N. E., Gao, Y., Gora, S., Anaviapik-Soucie, T., L’Hérault, V., & Gagnon, G. A. (2019). Manganese Increases Lead Release to Drinking Water. Environmental Science & Technology, 53(9), 4803–4812. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b00317

28. Deshommes, E., Trueman, B .F., Douglas, I., Huggins, D., Laroche, L., Swertfeger, J., Spielmacher, A., Gagnon, G. A., & Prévost, M. (2018). Lead Levels at the Tap and Consumer Exposure from Legacy and Recent Lead Service Line Replacements in Six Utilities. Environmental Science & Technology, 52(16), 9451–9459. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.8b02388

29. Gao, Y., Trueman, B. F., Stoddart, A. K., & Gagnon, G. A. (2018). Understanding the Impact of Extracellular Polymeric Substances on Lead Release in Drinking Water Systems. ACS Omega, 3(11), 14824–14832. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.8b02363

30. Trueman, B. F., Krkošek, W. H., & Gagnon, G. A. (2018). Effects of ortho- and polyphosphates on lead speciation in drinking water. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, 4(4), 505–512. https://doi.org/10.1039/C7EW00521K

31. Anderson, L. E., Krkošek, W. H., Stoddart, A. K., Trueman, B. F., & Gagnon, G. A. (2017). Lake Recovery Through Reduced Sulfate Deposition: A New Paradigm for Drinking Water Treatment. Environmental Science & Technology, 51(3), 1414–1422. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b04889

32. Trueman, B. F., Sweet, G. A., Harding, M. D., Estabrook, H., Bishop, D. P., & Gagnon, G. A. (2017). Galvanic Corrosion of Lead by Iron (Oxyhydr)Oxides: Potential Impacts on Drinking Water Quality. Environmental Science & Technology, 51(12), 6812–6820. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b01671

33. Trueman, B. F., Camara, E., & Gagnon, G. A. (2016). Evaluating the Effects of Full and Partial Lead Service Line Replacement on Lead Levels in Drinking Water. Environmental Science & Technology, 50(14), 7389–7396. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b01912

34. Trueman, B. F., & Gagnon, G. A. (2016a). A new analytical approach to understanding nanoscale lead-iron interactions in drinking water distribution systems. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 311, 151–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2016.03.001

35. Trueman, B. F., MacIsaac, S. A., Stoddart, A. K., & Gagnon, G. A. (2016). Prediction of disinfection by-product formation in drinking water via fluorescence spectroscopy. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, 2(2), 383–389. https://doi.org/10.1039/C5EW00285K

36. Trueman, B. F., & Gagnon, G. A. (2016b). Understanding the Role of Particulate Iron in Lead Release to Drinking Water. Environmental Science & Technology, 50(17), 9053–9060. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b01153

37. Pei, W. W., Xie, X., Ong, P., Trueman, B. F., McVicar, M. A., Walsh, M. E., & Gagnon, G. A. (2013). Water Reclamation and Reuse. Water Environment Research, 85(10), 1308–1321. https://doi.org/10.2175/106143013X13698672322183

Preprints

1. Trueman, B. F., Locsin, J. A., Krkošek, W. H., & Gagnon, G. A. (2023). Evaluating Sentinel Pipe Racks for Monitoring Lead Release and Optimizing Corrosion Control. ChemRxiv. https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv-2023-h1459-v3

2. Trueman, B. F., Locsin, J. M., Doré, E., Hood, K., & Gagnon, G. A. (2022). Sodium silicate and hexametaphosphate promote the release of (oxyhydr)oxide nanoparticles from corroding iron. ChemRxiv. https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv-2022-rtzqm-v3

3. Trueman, B. F., James, W., Shu, T., Doré, E., & Gagnon, G. A. (2022). Comparing corrosion control treatments using a robust Bayesian generalized additive model. ChemRxiv. https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv-2022-b3f72-v5

4. Locsin, J. A., Trueman, B. F., Doré, E., Bleasdale-Pollowy, A., & Gagnon, G. A. (2022). Impacts of orthophosphate-polyphosphate blends on the dissolution and transformation of lead (II) carbonate. ChemRxiv. https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv-2022-2g0j3-v2

5. Gao, Y., Trueman, B. F., & Gagnon, G. A. (2022). Early Phase Effects of Silicate and Orthophosphate on Lead (Pb) Corrosion Scale Development and Pb Release. SSRN. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4127245

6. Trueman, B. F., Bleasdale-Pollowy, A., Locsin, J. A., Bennett, J. L., Krkošek, W. H., & Gagnon, G. A. (2021). Seasonal lead release to drinking water and the effect of aluminum. ChemRxiv. https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv-2021-59nd6-v4

7. Munoz, S., Trueman, B. F. Li, B., & Gagnon, G. A. (2021). Effect of sodium silicate on drinking water biofilm development. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.15.460503

8. Guardado, A. L. P., Sweeney, C. L., Hayes, E., Trueman, B. F., Huang, Y., Jamieson, R. C., Rand, J. L., Gagnon, G. A., & Stoddart, A. K. (2020). Development and optimization of a new method for direct extraction of SARS-CoV-2 RNA from municipal wastewater using magnetic beads. medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.04.20237230

Selected first author conference presentations

1. Trueman, B. F., Locsin, J., Doré, E., Hood, K., & Gagnon, G. A. 2022. Colloids and nanoparticles in drinking water: a review of occurrence and new data on the role of sequestrants. American Chemical Society National Meeting & Expo, August 21–25 in Chicago, Il.

2. Trueman, B. F., Stoddart, A. K., & Gagnon, G. A. 2019. Complexation of metals in drinking water systems by NOM. Oral presentation. The 7th IWA Specialist Conference on Natural Organic Matter in Water, October 7–9 in Tokyo, Japan.

3. Trueman, B. F., Anderson, L. A., & Gagnon, G. A. 2019. NOM, cyanobacteria and algal toxins: monitoring tools and predictive modeling of contaminant occurrence in drinking water supplies. Oral presentation. The 7th IWA Specialist Conference on Natural Organic Matter in Water, October 7–9 in Tokyo, Japan.

4. Trueman, B. F., Dunnington, D. & Gagnon, G. A. 2019. Communicating water quality data using the grammar of graphics. Poster presentation. American Chemical Society National Meeting & Expo, August 25–29 in San Diego, CA.

5. Trueman, B. F., Brophy, M., Anderson, L. A., Park, Y. & Gagnon, G. A. 2019. Fluorescence spectra predict microcystin-LR occurrence in lake water. Oral presentation. 3rd Interdisciplinary Freshwater Harmful Algal Blooms Workshop, April 24–26 in Toronto, Canada.

6. Trueman, B. F., Locsin, J., Krkošek, W. H., & Gagnon, G. A. 2018. Understanding lead complexation through corrosion control with phosphate-based inhibitors. Oral presentation. American Water Works Association Water Quality Technology Conference, November 11–14 in Toronto, Canada.

7. Trueman, B. F., Krkošek, W. H., & Gagnon, G. A. 2018. Effects of ortho- and polyphosphates on lead speciation in drinking water. Oral presentation. American Chemical Society Annual Conference, March 18–22, in New Orleans, LA.

8. Trueman, B. F. & Gagnon, G. A. 2017. Galvanic corrosion of lead by iron (oxyhydr)oxides: potential impacts on drinking water quality. Oral presentation. American Chemical Society Annual Conference, August 20–24, in Washington, DC.

9. Trueman, B. F. & Gagnon, G. A. 2017. Evaluating strategies for controlling lead release to drinking water. Oral presentation. American Water Works Association International Symposium on Inorganics, March 21–22 in Detroit, MI.

10. Trueman, B. F. & Gagnon, G. A. 2016. Understanding the role of iron particles in lead release to drinking water. Poster presentation. American Water Works Association Water Quality Technology Conference, November 13–17 in Indianapolis, IN.

11. Trueman, B. F., MacIsaac, S. A., Stoddart, A. K., & Gagnon, G. A. 2016. Prediction of disinfection byproduct formation in drinking water via fluorescence spectroscopy. Oral presentation. 17th National Conference on Drinking Water, October 16–18 in Ottawa, Canada.

12. Trueman, B. F. & Gagnon, G. A. 2016. Understanding lead contamination in drinking water systems. Oral presentation. Atlantic Canadian Water Works Association Annual Conference, September 18–21, in Moncton, Canada.

13. Trueman, B. F. & Gagnon, G. A. 2016. Understanding the role of colloidal particles in lead release to drinking water. Oral presentation. American Chemical Society Annual Conference, August 21–25 in Philadelphia, PA.

14. Trueman, B. F. & Gagnon, G. A. 2015. Controlling lead in drinking water: phosphate inhibition, lead service line replacement, and the role of the water main. Oral presentation. Atlantic Canadian Water Works Association Annual Conference, October 4–7 in St. John’s, Canada.

15. Trueman, B. F., Woods, J., Gagnon, G. A., & Castleden, H. 2014. The effect of partial lead service line replacement and the barriers to full replacement. Oral presentation. American Water Works Association Annual Conference, June 8–12 in Boston, MA.

16. Trueman, B. F. & Gagnon, G. A. 2014. The effect of cast iron water mains on lead release to standing water. Oral presentation. Canadian Society for Civil Engineering Environmental Specialty Conference, May 28–31 in Halifax, Canada.

17. Trueman, B. F. & Gagnon, G. A. 2013. Optimization of phosphate dose following residential sampling for lead. Poster presentation. American Water Works Association Annual Conference and Exposition, June 9–13 in Denver, CO.

Peer-reviewer

• Water Research
• Environmental Science & Technology
• Environmental Science & Technology Letters
• ACS Earth and Space Chemistry
• Corrosion Science
• Journal of Hazardous Materials
• Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology
• Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts
• Environmental Pollution
• Springer Nature Applied Sciences