Containment

Monitoring wells indicate that as much as 1,200 pounds of sulfates a day are escaping through the bottom of a power company's coal ash pond. The pond lacks a geosynthetic liner and dates to the mid-1970s. A recent report, “Slow Motion Spills,” found that all eight coal ash ponds in Kentucky located near monitoring wells were polluting groundwater. An additional 36 ash ponds do not even have water quality monitors. Learn more here.;

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced $2.6 million in brownfields grants to communities Northern California. Sacramento, Placer County, Nevada City, the Northcoast Environmental Center, Oroville Redevelopment Agency, the Esparto Unified School District and the Rancho Cordova Community Redevelopment Agency are all receiving funding through the Brownfields Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup Grants program. Across the nation, nearly $80 million in brownfields grants will be used for the assessment, cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields properties, including abandoned gas stations, old textile mills, closed smelters, and other abandoned industrial and commercial properties.

The World Bank Group has announced that it has thrown open the doors to its statistical databases and is challenging the global community to use the data to create new applications and solutions to help poor people in the developing world. Recognizing that transparency and accountability are essential to development, the World Bank Group is now providing free, open, and easy access to its comprehensive set of data on living standards around the globe -- some 2,000 indicators, including hundreds that go back 50 years. The data will be available in Arabic, French and Spanish in addition to English.

Continuous positive development in emerging markets and the revival of the industry business drove Sika to achievement of 2.3% sales growth in local currencies in the first quarter of 2010, although building activity in Europe and North America was clearly hampered due to weather. Gross margin could be maintained at the high level of the second half-year of 2009.

Eighteen communities in Michigan will receive an estimated $10.7 million in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency brownfields grants to help assess, clean up and revitalize former industrial and commercial sites, turning them from problem properties to productive community use. "Brownfields grants provide an assist to communities that are striving to turn neglected properties into new sources of jobs and economic activity," said Bharat Mathur, EPA Region 5 acting regional administrator. Communities in the EPA Region 5 Great Lakes states will receive 88 grants totaling $26,605,500. Nationally, communities in 40 states, four tribes and one U.S. territory will share $78.9 million in EPA brownfields grants.

At the Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, 20 April 2010, the shareholders of Sika AG approved all proposals put forward by the Board of Directors and resolved to distribute a dividend to shareholders representing roughly 50% of consolidated net profit. Some 565 shareholders attended the Annual General Meeting of Sika AG on 20 April 2010 in Cham, which was headed by Dr. Walter Grüebler, Chairman of the Board of Directors.

The revitalization of blighted properties in several Montana communities received a big boost today as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded $1.9 million in brownfields cleanup grants for projects across the state. EPA announced that the Great Northern Development Corporation will receive $1.5 million to clean sites contaminated by hazardous substances and petroleum in a 15-county area of eastern Montana. In addition, Lewis and Clark County will receive $400,000 for projects to remove contaminated soils and protect groundwater at several candidate properties, include a former foundry, a metal ore mill site and a post-and-pole facility.

The latest issue of Txtures (Spring 2010) is available. The wide-ranging publication comes from TenCate, a manufacturer of various materials, including geosynthetics and synthetic grass systems. Geosynthetic content includes involvement in mining in the Atacama Desert in Chile, Geotubes for mining tailings, the introduction of TenCate GeoDetect in North America and intelligent monitoring of dykes, avalanche proofing in Austria, and sludge dewatering in Rio de Janeiro. Read Txtures in PDF here.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it has selected $78.9 million in brownfields grants to communities in 40 states, four tribes, and one U.S. Territory. This funding will be used for the assessment, cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields properties, including abandoned gas stations, old textile mills, closed smelters, and other abandoned industrial and commercial properties. Read more.

The Global Waste Management Symposium (GWMS) is an international forum for the peer-reviewed presentation of both applied and fundamental research and case studies on solid waste management, policy, and regulation and includes networking opportunities for technical interaction and discussion among all participants. The GWMS is a biennial event that was launched in 2008 and attended by over 500 participants from 26 countries. GWMS 2010 will be held 3-6 October 2010 in San Antonio, Texas. Read more.

At the renowned Biosphere 2 research installation at the University of Arizona, geomembrane and synthetic turf systems are being tested on slopes. The exposed membranes have rigid solar panel units mounted on them. Project researchers hope to see systems like this appear on landfill caps and side slopes and near mine tailings. Learn more here.;

In Two Rivers, Wisconsin, city officials are requiring a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) liner for a stormwater detention pond that is being constructed. The precaution is not for water conservation, necessarily. An old landfill, which operated from 1938 to 1961, is located beneath the site. With no knowledge of what is really buried at the site, the HDPE liner was thought to be the best solution. Additional sampling will be taken from the old waste cell. Learn more here.;

Tri-Tech Holding Inc., a leading Chinese project development and management company that engineers, manages and monitors China's municipal sewer systems, natural waterways and resources, today announced that the Company priced a public offering of 2,142,750 ordinary shares at an offering price of $14.00 per share. Newbridge Securities Corporation and Brean Murray, Carret & Co. acted as co-lead and joint book-running managers of the offering.

I-CORP INTERNATIONAL's Ian Peggs served as an instructor earlier this week at the latest TRI-CORP Liner Integrity Survey and Assessment (LISA) course at the TRI/Environmental campus in Austin, Texas. He reports that 16 attendees took part. Also, TRI's A.J. Shah joined him in instruction during the April 12-13 days of TRI's Spring CQA week. The participants represented four installers (two from Canada), eight engineers (one from Canada, two from the Navy), two manufacturer/installers, and two practitioners. Read more in Dr. Peggs' review.

U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei and U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer have asked federal and state environmental officials to assess the health risk posed by dumping contaminated sediment from Onondaga Lake. The sediments contain contains mercury, PCBs and other contaminants. The lake cleanup plan calls for some sediment from the lake bottom to be dredged, piped directly to Wastebed 13 and packed in geotextile tubes. Learn more here.;

Wall Herald Corporation has agreed to pay approximately $20 million for past and future cleanup costs incurred by the federal government at the Monitor Devices Superfund site in Wall Township, N.J., according to a settlement filed today in federal court in Trenton, N.J., the Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today.

Solmax International has announced updates to the technical datasheets for its textured geomembranes (high-density and linear low-density polyethylene). All products from 40 mils and up will now grant a minimum of 15 mils asperity height. Solmax is also pleased to announce the creation of its new rough textured (RT) series, offering a minimum of 20 mils asperity height. Learn more about these products at the company's website. Learn more here.;

Newly established EPA regulations require a monitoring program to sample and analyze turbidity of storm water from construction sites. Only a few states currently have a program that is based on EPA guidelines for industrial site sampling. Construction sites may require innovative collection techniques not similar to industrial discharges. Based on specific construction site conditions, this "How To" webinar presents information to enable a permittee to select and set up several from among several acceptable techniques. Learn more.

The News and Advance newspaper in Lynchburg, Virginia is conducting twice-weekly interviews with city council candidates. The April 14 published interaction deals with erosion control rules. Learn more here.;

A dairy waste lagoon dike has failed, sending possibly millions of gallons of untreated manure into the Snohomish River and creating a big environmental and health hazard. The lagoon, which holds up to 21 million gallons, is at the 750-head Bartelheimer Brothers dairy in Snohomish, Washington. A 30-ft-wide breach has opened on one side of the dike, which has 15-ft-high walls. Only 5 feet of the lagoon is below ground. Learn more here.;

Palm Beach County, Fla., commissioners plan to ask the Army Corps of Engineers to speed up repairs on the dike around Lake Okeechobee. The Corps estimates rehabilitating the 143-mile-long dike will be completed by 2025. "I don't want to wait until the floods come and the hurricanes and the lands out there are destroyed," said Commissioner Burt Aaronson. Learn more here.;

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., will join state officials in a trip to the Netherlands next month to learn from the Dutch experience of incorporating environmental protection in flood-mitigation efforts. The officials will visit the country's flood-protection projects, considered the largest and most advanced in the world. Learn more here.;

Golder Associates Corporation ("Golder") has become one of the founding sponsors of the World Ocean Council, an international, cross-sectoral industry alliance for private sector leadership and collaboration in ocean stewardship. The company, which is celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2010, has joined the World Ocean Council to share its experiene in serving clients in the offshore oil and gas industry as well as the circum-Arctic region.

The newly formed World Ocean Council will lead the "Sustainable Ocean Summit" 15-17 June 2010 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The event is the only international, cross-sectoral industry conference on business leadership and sustainable development of the marine environment. The conference theme is "Reducing Risk, Increasing Sustainability: Solutions Through Collaboration." Learn more here.;

Since 1970, J.P. Giroud, Ph.D., has worked at the forefront of the geosynthetics field (including coining the terms "geotextile" and "geomembrane", which paved the way for the 'geo-terminology') and earned many accolades for his pioneering work. His many awards and key industry positions include serving as president of the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS), being honored with the establishment of an IGS "Giroud Lecture", being granted 'hero' status by the Geo-Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), being selected to deliver prestigious lectures (e.g. ASCE Terzaghi Lecture, Vienna Terzaghi Lecture, and Mercer Lecture), and being elected Member of the US National Academy of Engineering. This year, on April 2, Dr. Giroud was named a member of the Order of the Legion d'Honneur by a decree signed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Established in 1802, the Order is the highest decoration in France. Dr. Giroud has US/French dual citizenship. Read more.