Containment

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources' Soil and Water Conservation Program has announced that in 2010 it will dedicate to erosion control measures 62 cents of every dollar earmarked for soil and water conservation. This move underscores how important erosion control has become in agriculture, public works and other vital sectors. The department opened additional monies through an improvement to its fund management and transference. The move made room for $27 million to soil and water conservation and erosion erosion control practices. Learn more here.;

GeoAfrica 2009 marks the first African regional conference on geosynthetics. Held under the auspices of the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS) and hosted by the Geosynthetics Interest Group of South Africa (GIGSA)--a chapter of IGS--the September 2009 Cape Town conference seeks abstracts and proposals. Deadline for receipt of 350-word abstracts is 30 Septmber 2008. Geosynthetica encourages its readers to get involved with this historic event. Visit the abstract submission page. Learn more here.;

Companies interested in exhibiting at GeoAfrica 2009, 2-5 September 2009, Cape Town, South Africa should be aware that the exhibit hall is limited to 30 spots. The conference organizers report that more than half of them have already been booked. Visit the conference's exhibitor page for more information. Learn more here.;

British Columbia's Bruce Swift entered one of the fastest growing markets well-before it became more acceptable to diners: inland aquaculture. While ocean-based aquaculture operations have been popular, they have also produced significant disease issues with fish. Inland aquaculture, which commonly uses tanks and lined ponds, has generally been more resistant to these problems. Swift's coho operation is a valuable success story. Learn more here.;

In the Shasta Mountain, California area, cleanup of the abandoned Altoona Mine progresses. The area's newspaper has published an update and photograph of the work, which involves the installation of a triple bottom and cap system: clay, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) geomembrane, and geotextile. Altoona Mine was once a gold mining site, and its cinnabar vein (inorganic, mercury sulfide) led to mercury production through 1968. Now that we have geosynthetic environmental controls, its hoped that future mining sites are protected during operations rather than only in retroactive legacy corrections. Learn more here.;

According the US government's General Accountability Office (GAO), the number of "factory farms," or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO), tripled between 1982-2002. The GAO's audit of the sector is to be released today. According to the Wall Street Journal, the report notes that "[the Environmental Protection Agency] lacks information and a clearly defined strategy for effectively regulating mega-farms." A single CAFO operation is capable of producing 1.6 million tons of manure--1.5 times the amount of waste produced by cities like Houston and Philadelphia. The Associated Press reports that in the absence of clear federal regulation, states have begun enacting their own standards. California, Idaho, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and North Dakota have all put in place some emissions controls. An aspect that neither the Jounral nor the AP addresses in their articles is waste containment. More of the focus has been on emissions arguments and manure application as fertilizer. But lagoon construction quality is bound to rise on the radar, especially as the rapid construction of larger manure lagoons begins to exhibits the failings one would expect in the absence of regulation and proper CQA. Take, for example, the whales that developed at an installation in Indiana earlier this year. Learn more here.;

A link to the Wall Street Journal article referenced in the geosynthetica news item "Animal Waste Debate" from 24 September 2008. Learn more here.;

The Waste Tech Landfill Technology Conference seeks your papers. The event, which has been developed by the National Solid Waste Management Association's (NSWMA) Landfill Institute, and which is being managed by Penton Media (which managed the recent Global Waste Management Symposium), invites 250-word abstract submission through 23 January 2009. Key topics will include bioreactor landfills, landfill design, closure, climate change, emissions and gas attenuation, cover systems, and much more. A conference website will be available shortly. In the meantime, please contact Alice P. Jacobsohn, NSWMA Education Director, for more information. Learn more here.;

View the US Government General Accountability Office's (GAO) September 2008 report in PDF: "Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations: EPA Needs More Information and a Clearly Defined Strategy to Protect Air and Water Quality from Pollutants of Concern." This report is referenced in the 24 September 2008 article on geosynthetica "Animal Waste Debate." Learn more here.;

We have reported here a number of times about the promise of agriculture and aquaculture in Vietnam. The other side of that development, however, is the runoff and pollution that results. In the Mekong Delta, agricultural fertilizer is used at a much higher rate than needed; and aquaculture hectares have increased from 20,000 to 70,000 in a very short time without an accommodating expansion in filtration and pollution controls. Learn more here.;

geosynthetica's new site organization still includes our most popular items of use, such as the Buyer's Guide, Industry Directory, Publications/Tech Docs and Abstracts Database, and much more. Use the links along the top row of the banner at the top of the page for easy access to these zones. And don't forget to try out our new channel pages for geosynthetics functions (row two of the link buttons along the page's top banner) and applications (row three). For information on how to get listed in any of these databases, directories and guides, please contact Chris Kelsey.

Vietnam's president, Nguyen Minh Triet, visited the country's Phu Tho province, which has experienced impressive growth in GDP, industrial production and foreign trade in recent quarters. The province is particularly poised for aquacultural growth, as it possesses the nation's largest area of aquaculture waters (9,000+ ha). Learn more here.;

Andrew Aho, managing director of the Geosynthetic Materials Association (GMA), has met with staff members of the US House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment. This meeting was related to the Transportation Reauthorization Act. Those Andrew and his colleague met with have requested geosynthetic case studies in stormwater runoff and clean water management. This is a tremendous, unprecedented opportunity to deliver geosynthetics into federal infrastructure legislation. If you have the appropriate case study information, please contact Andrew to find out how to become part of this effort. Learn more here.;

Elizabeth Peggs and Chris Kelsey would like to extend warm thank yous to the organizers and participants of EuroGeo 4 (Edinburgh, Scotland) and the Global Waste Management Symposium (Copper Mountain, Colorado), events they attended for geosynthetica last week. Reports from the events will appear shortly: about Copper Mountain this week (Wednesday, September 17) and about Edinburgh next week. Pictures, presentation notes, and much more are on the way! They were fantastic events.

The Business Co-ordination House (BCH) of India and India-Tech Foundation will hold a one-day symposium, "Geotextiles in India: What, Where and Why," on 17 October 2008. The event will be held in conjunction with CONSTRU India 2008. Read more from BCH on the symposium.

The latest Week in Review column is available. We look back at the news that shaped the week in geosynthetics, from North American Green's new site to Ian Peggs' piece on electrical leak location versus water balance testing; from Russia infrastructure news to Milliken's acquisition; and so much more. Read it today.

Milliken has acquired the fire-retardant barriers and geotextile businesses of Western Nonwovens. The geotextile portions of the business include Western's Sandmat product line, which is used mostly in golf course construction and remediation work. Learn more here.;

The Canadian Waste & Recycling Expo (CWRE 2008) is nearly here! The event takes place 5-6 November 2008 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. geosynthetica encourages you to visit the show and learn more about the latest technologies and materials being used in the ever-merging sectors of waste and recylcing management. View an information PDF for the event and visit the VIP registration page.

Though the threat of a hurricane at our Florida office this week caused us to prepare for shutting down our servers, we (and our industry's companies) managed to accomplish quite a bit. Newsletters were launched, conferences were furthered, second quarter statements were issued, and so much more. Catch up on the week's action in our review column. 8/22/08

Officials in India are looking at geotextile bag flood control devices that were used in the United States following Hurricane Katrina as possible solutions for flood response in India. The Bihar region of India suffered more than 1200 deaths during flooding in 2007. A government committee is now looking into acquiring airdrop equipment to enable the use of fast response using geotextiles. Learn more here.;

Firestone has added another date to its successful series of PondGard EPDM Geomembrane Installation Training sessions. A Tucker, Georgia session will be offered on October 21. Some seats are still available for the September 10 session in Uniontown, Ohio. Register online today. Learn more here.;

We missed this in the news two weeks ago, but it's worth sharing. Propex Inc. has gifted the village of Lake Delton in Wisconsin $100,000 worth of erosion control products to help with some key projects. Propex's ArmorMax system will be used by the village, especially with steep slopes. The product has proven itself in New Orleans' infrastructure repair. This is a fantastic gesture on Propex's part. Learn more here.;

Russia based SIBUR Holding has announced that two of its subsidiaries, Orton OJSC (based in Kemerovo) and Plastik OJSC (Uzlovaya), have signed procurement contracts for equipment to be used in the manufacture of geosynthetic materials. Nonwoven geotextiles and geonets will be produced. The company aims to be at full production by 2010.

In business news, Raven Industries, which has a very strong geosynthetics and engineered films division, reported 17% growth in the second quarter. Learn more here.;

Dubai is host to one of the world's most impressive infrastructures (and one of the most impressive economies). But the rapid construction has increased erosion of Dubai's treasured beaches. Nearly 50 meters of shoreline erode every two years. A new renourishment scheme involves the installation of barriers created out of sand-filled geotextile bags. Learn more here.;