Containment

While those levees don't necessarily protect all the people living in the 881 counties that have them, a study for Levees.org by geographer Ezra Boyd concludes that the levees more than pay for themselves when their cost is compared to the investment they protect. Counties with levees account for only 28 percent of the nation's counties and only 37 percent of the nation's land area. But they contain 55 percent of the nation's population, more than 156 million people, according to the study. Learn more here.;

The lagoon cover at the Miedema Dairy in Ohio blankets a 350-by-160-foot section of a 350-by-305-foot lagoon. Liquid manure enters the lagoon at the covered end and gradually flows toward the uncovered section. The cover is made of 60-mil, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) geomembrane. A new program coordinated by the Environmental Credit Corp. offers farmers a way to finance manure lagoon covers by selling carbon credits. Read about it here (PDF). Learn more here.;

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has taken a significant step in an effort to help reduce the need for federal taxpayers to fund the cleanup of environmental releases. The agency has identified three additional industry sectors for which it will begin the regulatory development process for any necessary financial assurance requirements: the chemical manufacturing industry; the petroleum and coal products manufacturing industry, which primarily includes refineries and not coal mines; and the electric power generation, transmission, and distribution industry.

Following heavy rains in May, water from a storage pond at the North Mara gold mine seeped through the walls of a storage pond. Barrick Gold, owners of the facility, have had to deal with multiple acts of theft and vandalism at the site, including sections of liner (in use!) being stolen. Some locals maintain the mine has caused the death of fish, crops and animals. Up to 1000 cattle have been said to have died--but no evidence has been offered in support of the allegations. It's a difficult situation, to say the least. Learn more here.;

The International Symposium on Geotechnical Engineering, Ground Improvement, and Geosynthetics for Sustainable Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change including Global Warming was successfully held 3-4 December 2009 Bangkok, Thailand. The event included 150 speakers, more than 400 pages of proceedings, and attendees and exhibitors from around the world. Dennes Bergado, the conference chair and president of IGS Thailand, has authored a short write up.

In February, the erosion control field and affiliated construction and engineering professionals will gather in Dallas for the International Erosion Control Association's (IECA) annual event. And it's not too late to register for what is the world's largest soil and water event: EC10. With over 60 technical sessions and half-day courses included with a basic conference registration, EC10 provides significant value for those interested in training, networking industry tracking of products, trends, specifications, and more. Visit the EC10 website today and register for this 16-20 February 2010 event. Learn more here.;

Two aluminum-processing industries in Tennessee have submitted preliminary plans to construct a landfill behind the county airport, a proposal similar to one two years ago that was voted down by commissioners. The 95.2-acre landfill proposed by Tennessee Aluminum Processors Inc. and Smelter Service Corp. will be discussed at a city planning commission meeting on 5 January 2010. Any aluminum by-product would be separated from the groundwater by a 12-inch thick leachate collection system, a 7-foot clay buffer, two high density polyethylene liners and a clay liner, according to the plans. Learn more here.;

Transcript from a CNBC interview with Chetan Shah, managing director of India-based Ashapura Minechem, has been published on MoneyControl.com. The interview only skims the edge of geosynthetic business, but does indicate increasing revenues through 2011 with segments such as bentonite and geosynthetic clay liners contributing. Learn more here.;

Just in time for the holidays, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has delayed its decision on coal ash storage and facility design. It was anticipated that a rule would have been proposed in 2009, but the agency has asked for a bit more time. One of the solutions that many are hoping for is a requirement for geosynthetic lining systems. With landfills, required lining systems have made waste management the United States' best-rated infrastructure zone. Coal ash disposal would benefit from that care.

Geotextile tubes--in varying layered designs--were used in a dune stabilization project in Leirosa, Portugal. When some areas of the pyramidal design split after uncharacteristically high tides, geotextile rehabilitation was conducted with design and technical support provided by NAUE. Read about the redesign strategy in a special issue of the Journal of Coastal Research (2009), from the ICS 2009 event. Learn more here.;

Current Past President D. Wayne Klotz, P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE, the 2009 ASCE President, shares his thoughts about his year in office and what the future holds in a new Q&A with the American Academy of Water Resource Engineers. Klotz talks about the current state of civil engineering, advice for other engineers, some of the memorable moments he experienced, and what he enjoys doing for fun. Read the Wayne Klotz interview at the AAWRE site. Learn more here.;

Forty-nine parties have agreed to a settlement with Attorney General Martha Coakley and several government agencies to clean up the Tewksbury, Mass., Sutton Brook Disposal Area Superfund Site. The remediation project is expected to cost approximately $30 million, which includes the cost of excavation and consolidation of contaminated soil and sediment, installation of a cap at two landfills and a vertical barrier for groundwater diversion. Learn more here.;

The Chrin Bros. Sanitary Landfill near Allentown, Pennsylvania has been granted a 10-year renewal of its state permit to operate in Williams Township, but it has also been fined $187,500 for odors and other environmental violations. The permit allows Chrin to continue running the 73-acre landfill through 2019. It also requires 18 acres of open landfill to be capped temporarily to collect gases and control odors. Chrin this month installed a plastic geomembrane to cap 7.4 acres and has agreed to cap an additional 10.5 acres by the end of 2011. Altogether, the temporarily capped areas and the already permanently capped 27.1 acres will account for 60 percent of the landfill's area of operations. Learn more here.;

The Canyon Creek Meadows Dam in Oregon is leaking. It's reservoir, which is now only filled with seasonal precipitation, has been prone to leaks since the 1960s when it was constructed. Locals would like to save the structure, but to do so will require improving the reservoir. Failure to do so will lead to either decommissioning the hydraulic structure or structural failure. Repair strategies being debated include lining the reservoir or even creating a double liner system of geosynthetics and compacted clay. Learn more here.;

A new study linking chemicals in the Bonaparte River in British Columbia, Canada to leachate in the Cache Creek landfill is being debated, but many officials remain unconvinced. Several independent engineering studies performed on the landfill over the years have failed to find problems with leachate escapement; but some strong similarities in the landfill's leachate and Bonaparte River contaminants have been found. One consultant--who has not actually studied the landfill--has speculated that wrinkles in the liner and methods used to wrap the leachate pumps have resulted in holes in the liner. Learn more here.;

Mumbai-based, polymer processing firm, EMMBI Polyarns plans to raise Rs 45-crore through an initial share sale next month, the proceeds of which will be used to augment its production capacity, a top official said. The IPO will launch in January 2010. The company plans to use its AquaSave brand to launch a range of products such as flexible water tanks, rain water harvesting systems, canal liners, pond liners and geosynthetics. Learn more here.;

In an initiative to contribute to the water conservation movement, polymer procession company EMMBI Polyarns Limited has announced the launch of its sophisticated range of water conservation products -- 'AquaSave'. Under the brand 'AquaSave', Emmbi Polyarns would launch a range of water conserving products like flexible water tank (Flexi tank), Rain water harvesting system, canal liners, pond liners and geosynthetics.

ASTM Committee D35 on Geosynthetics contact Christi Basile (formerly Sierk) has updated her email address. Please contact her at cbasile@astm.org. Learn more here.;

China is embarking on one of the biggest hydro-engineering projects in world history, but is being forced to navigate some troubled waters along the way. Scheduled to be finished in 2050, the plan to link China's four main rivers and redirect trillions of gallons of water from China's tropical southern mountains to its arid northern plains will have taken 100 years from conception to completion. Learn more here.;

About 25 miles west of Yuma, across the Colorado River in California's sand-dunes country, construction crews work day and night on two gaping basins that will, inside of a year, add another piece to Arizona's increasingly complex water future. Learn more here.;

When excessive rainfall caused a breach in the old Skaggs Ferry levee system along the Black River in late March 2008, hundreds of acres of farmland upstream from Pocahontas flooded. Randolph County Judge David Jansen initially thought it was the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ responsibility to fix the break, but he soon determined that a levee district board was in charge of maintaining the eight-mile stretch of levee along the Lawrence and Randolph county line. Jansen also learned that the board no longer existed. Learn more here.;

Lee Allison, the state geologist for Arizona, keeps a blog to update the public on geological issues (including geotechnical engineering). His 24 December 2009 issue addresses fissure mapping and management--including a double liner system used as an ash storage facility in a fissure-affected region. Learn more here.;

ASTM Committee F17 on Plastic Piping Systems has revised standard F1735-09, "Standard Specification for Poly (Vinyl Chloride)(PVC) Profile Strip for PVC Liners for Rehabilitation of Existing Man-Entry Sewers and Conduits." Learn more here.;

ASTM Committee D35 on Geosynthetics has published a work item, WK26895 "Revision of D5261-92(2009) Standard Test Method for Measuring Mass per Unit Area of Geotextiles." Learn more here.;

ASTM Committee D35 has published a work item revision to WK26896, "Revision of D5141-09 Standard Test Method for Determining Filtering Efficiency and Flow Rate of the Filtration Component of a Sediment Retention Device Using Site-Specific Soil." Learn more here.;