Containment

According to Sam Lamont, Alaska Board Member for the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the International Erosion Control Association (IECA), the demand for training in Alaska is almost outpacing the ability of private and public sector efforts to meet the need. That's where the Chaper has stepped in to do what they do best - educate. Thanks to their joint efforts, the Alaska General Contractors, the Alaska Department of Transportation and the PNW Chapter can now boast that there are now more than 2,000 certified stormwater practitioners in the state. The Chapter continues to field fielding an increasing number of calls requesting additional training for the state. CPESC and CISEC certification classes are planned for the fall. Learn more here.;

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded nearly $2.5 million to 11 companies to support their work in eight key environmental areas: monitoring and control of air emissions, biofuels, green buildings, drinking water monitoring, hazardous waste monitoring, water infrastructure, homeland security, nanotechnology and innovation in manufacturing. Last year, the companies received "proof of concept" awards from EPA, and will use the additional funds announced today to move their technologies towards commercialization.

The South Africa Chapter of the International Erosion Control Association (IECA) seeks speakers on erosion and sediment control topics for an upcoming conference. Speakers need to be confirmed by July 2010. More details about the conference will be posted on IECA's website as soon as they are available. For more details, please contact Louise Mare at email: louise@naturalbridge.co.za. Learn more here.;

Brock Peters and J.B. Dixon will teach you that compliance doesn't have to break the bank. With a change in mindset, many of the everyday problems on construction sites could be eliminated. Attendees will learn that stormwater management is part of all construction projects and they do not have to view compliance with disgust, anger, dread or resignation. Learn more here.;

This session was presented by the US EPA's Jesse Pritts at IECA's Environmental Connection Conference in February, 2010. EPA has finalized effluent guidelines for stormwater discharges from construction activities. This session presents details of the new requirements and information on compliance strategies. Learn how to determine what sites are covered by the new regulations and how to minimize compliance burden. Please note: PDHs are not available with this free webinar. Learn more here.;

The US Energy Information Administration's (EIA) annual projections of U.S. energy supply, demand, and prices through 2035 has been released. The projections are based on results from the National Energy Modeling System and includes the Reference case with additional cases examining alternative energy markets. Learn more here.;

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) today released the complete version of the Annual Energy Outlook 2010 (AEO2010), which includes 38 sensitivity cases that show how different assumptions regarding market and policy drivers affect the Reference case projections that EIA previously released in December, 2009. In addition to considering alternative scenarios for oil prices, economic growth, and the uptake of more energy-efficient technologies, the AEO2010 includes cases that examine the impact of changes in selected policies, such as the extension of existing policies that are currently scheduled to sunset as well as the sensitivity of natural gas shale production to variations in drilling activity and the size of the resource base.

ASTM Committee D35 on Geosynthetics has reapproved standard D5884, "Standard Test Method for Determining Tearing Strength of Internally Reinforced Geomembranes." Learn more here.;

WK28660, "Standard Test Method for Swell Index of Clay Mineral Component of Geosynthetic Clay Liners," is a work item revision to existing standard D5890-06. It will be discussed more fully during the D35 Committee Week meeting in St. Louis, Missouri 8-11 June 2010. Learn more here.;

The National Guard is joining forces with a contractor hired by BP to put up a protective wall along the shoreline on the north side of Dauphin Island, Alabama. A geotextile-lined unit is being used for establishing a flood protection application. Learn more here.;

Novozymes, a global bioinnovation company based in Denmark, and Dacheng Group, a major starch processing company based in China, announces an agreement to make plastics from agricultural waste. The two companies have agreed to expand their cooperation in developing biochemicals derived from biomass and to promote the industrialization of plant-based glycol. Glycols are biochemicals used in household cleaning products, cosmetics, and used as building blocks for making polyesters and plastics.

ASTM International's Committee D35 on Geosynthetics will next meet 8-11 June 2010 at the Renaissance St. Louis Grand and Suites Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri during the June 2010 Committee Week. Committee D35.04 on Geosynthetic Clay Liners, invites feedback from all professionals in the field in regards to two key geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) standards. Learn more and share your experience.

A new phase of the Park County Regional Landfill in Cody, Wyoming is being constructed to prevent any contaminants from reaching groundwater. The installation of geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) material is being carried out by Colorado Lining International. A nice photograph of the site and site information was published recently in the Powell Tribune. Learn more here.;

The recent failures of major -- and relatively new -- public works in Massachusetts to hold up has raised questions about quality versus cost in the construction bidding process. Structural problems in Boston's Big Dig tunnel and the recent breaking of a massive water main have brought the issue to the forefront. "I'm just saying, can't we do anything right anymore?" said Jerome Connor, a civil engineering professor at MIT. Learn more here.;

Vermont's Agency of Natural Resources on Friday issued a solid waste permit to Omya Inc. that allows the company to dispose of its calcium carbonate waste. The full certification allows Omya to dispose of its marble tailings in a lined "tailings management area" on its Florence property. Omya will build a disposal facility that includes an engineered plastic geomembrane liner and leachate collection system placed over the existing tailings material. The system will collect any water and recycle it back into the plant through a dewatering process. Learn more here.;

International engineering firm Ausenco has just released an updated specification/guide for integrity (leak detection) surveys on earth-covered geomembranes. This is a sample specification for a leak location survey on a soil-covered geomembrane over a conductive material. It should be used as a guide and not verbatim. Learn more here.;

Ohio's Environmental Protection Agency is dealing with three fires in landfill waste. The most recent was discovered in August 2009 in the Rumpke landfill north of Cincinnati in Hamilton County. Another was found in 2006 in Stark County. A third fire is suspected at a facility in Columbiana County. $4 million in closure bonds have been issued to counter that third site. The sudden rise in these events in Ohio has troubled the agency, as there are not established, guaranteed approaches to extinguishing these fires. Prevention is the best medicine, and that requires a better understanding and monitoring of the waste stream. Learn more here.;

The International Geosynthetics Society (IGS) has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the IGS Secretariat role. The Secretariat will perform duties and provide deliverables as specified by the IGS Secretary and IGS Officers as required. Proposals should be prepared by interested parties and submitted to the undersigned by 20 June 2010. A decision is expected to be made by 30 June 2010. For information regarding the details, please see the RFP here (in PDF). Learn more here.;

Jute in the form of Jute Geotextiles (JGT) are used in road construction. JGT is not being used for modern lifestyle products. The specific areas of its application are: Road construction, especially medium and low volume roads; River bank erosion control; Stabilisation of flood and road embankments; Hill slope erosion control; Soft soil consolidation; and Watershed management.

Officials for Tri-State Dredging of Philadelphia and the state Department of Environmental Protection will begin a 60-day project to reinforce the dwindling dune line from Leeward to Nelson avenues. Several severe storms since last fall have eroded the beach off the streets and jeopardized oceanfront homes. The project will use Geotubes, massive textile sacks filled with sand, to bolster dunes to 10 feet in height. The same method has successfully protected dunes in Sea Isle City, Upper Township and Atlantic City, DEP officials said. Learn more here.;

Today's unsettled polymer markets have made the process of understanding our future opportunities ever more difficult while at the same time the challenges facing the plastics industry have never been greater. To provide companies with the best tools to achieve future success AMI has revised all its forecasts and trend analysis on a worldwide basis. This data will be presented exclusively to attendees at the "Plastics Industry Strategy Seminar 2010: the Future of the Global Plastics Industry" on 20 May 2010 in Brussels, Belgium. Learn more.

Precision Geosynthetic Laboratories International (PGLI) has added new services to their Thermal Analysis Capabilities. A new department has been added for Differential Scanning Calorimetry that will be full service DSC. In addition to the normal DSC methods Modulated and High Pressure DSC have been added. Differential Scanning Calorimetry is a thermoanalatycal technique that measure a difference of heat flow observed between a sample and a reference as a function of temperature. The main advantage of DSC is studying the transition of the material such as melting, crystallization or glass transition temperature. Learn more.

The 4th international conference on Waterproof Membranes will be held at the Maritim Hotel in Cologne, Germany 30 November - 2 December 2010. A welcome reception will be held on the first evening and will be followed by the two-day technical program. Applied Market Information (AMI), the event organizers, welcome your presentation proposals. Read more about some of the topics sought.

On 3 May 2010, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a new interagency agreement promoting renewable energy generation and slashing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock operations. The agreement expands the work of the AgSTAR program, a joint EPA-USDA effort that helps livestock producers reduce methane emissions from their operations. Read more.

After long and intense discussions, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has finally proposed the first-ever national rules to ensure the safe disposal and management of coal ash from coal-fired power plants. This movement has been put off for close to a decade, but the stunning failure of a disposal facility in Kingston, Tennessee pushed the issue to the front. The EPA's release notes that "...protective controls, such as liners and groundwater monitoring, are in place at new landfills to protect groundwater and human health. Existing surface impoundments will also require liners...." The addition of liners would bring controls to coal ash that are standard for municipal solid waste facilities. Also in the new rule are ways to beneficially reuse coal ash.