Containment

Firestone offers installation training all over the United States for its versatile PondGard EPDM liner. The four-hour session combines classroom demonstrations, discussion, and video training followed by time with Firestone staff. This seminar is designed for individuals interested in residential and light commercial lining projects (including backyard decorative ponds, retention ponds, waterfall features and the associated project nuances involved with these types of applications). The next sessions will be held in Westminster, Colorado; Grant, Michigan; and Uniontown, Ohio. Learn more here.;

Australia's National Aquaculture Council (NAC) expects world food pressures to cause a doubling of the country's aquaculture industry--and within seven years. This forecast comes during the Australasian Aquacultuer 2008 event, currently being held in Brisbane. The council expects this to extend to significant growth in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Learn more here.;

Our former quarterly reports on ASTM Standards and Work Items updates are now monthly to keep pace with ASTM's activity and to contain the page size for better readability. The first installment in August 2008's weekly updates include three revised standards from Committee D35 on Geosynthetics and 15 revised standards and one work item from Committee D18 on Soil and Rock.

The income fund GENIVAR has acquired Quebec-based Solmers Inc., an environmental engineering services firm. The move significantly helps the fund's interaction with key areas of construction and engineering in Canada, such as municipal solid waste and industrial waste processing and disposal. Solmers' resume includes many millions of square meters of materials designed and installed. Learn more here.;

EDANA, a Europe-base association for the nonwovens industry (which includes nonwoven geotextiles), has relaunched its website with a new look and organization. Visit the main site or visit one of the relevant subpages, such as Civil and Engineering Geotextiles. Learn more here.;

geosynthetica's newest column tracks the travels, lectures, work, current research interests, and so forth of engineers and others working with geosynthetics. Issue 1 catches up with I-CORP INTERNATIONAL's Ian Peggs, who recently visited Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Korea for litigation, site and company visits, IAGI certification proctoring, industry discussions and much more. Read "Catching Up With..." today and find out how you can contribute to it or be profiled.

New York State is highly influential in US landfill construction and monitoring practices. Germany's system holds a similar position in Europe. Both New York and Germany have been incorporating electrical leak location (liner integrity) CQA, but there is a fascinating difference: in New York, the focus is on the bottom liner; in Germany, on the final cover. Brief interviews with Robert Phaneuf and Dr. Werner Müller help explain.

We noted the Greenroofs.com piece on the St. Louis-based Marconi Building greenroof installation the other day; additional project information is available in this write-up on the GreenScapes project from CETCO.

Solmax International announced last August that it had earned Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) certification. In an audit last month, the company's rating was affirmed and renewed--and Solmax's application has been recommended for the border security program's important Tier 2.

TRI/Environmental’s Denver Downs Research Facility (DDRF) will host the Field Day half of the International Erosion Control Association (IECA) South Carolina Chapter's Training and Field Days. The site visit is worth 3 PDH credits. VIEW THE PDF BROCHURE.

The latest standards and work items from ASTM International are posted in our weekly report. This week's announcements include three new or revised standards and one work item from Committee D35 on Geosynthetics.

Over at Greenroofs.com they've published a project piece regarding a Saint Louis, Missouri installation. The site used CETCO's GreenScapes system that provides waterproofing, drainage, root barriers, growing medium and plants. Learn more here.;

CETCO announces the introduction of a new geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) product: Bentomat® 200R. This new GCL combines the benefits of CETCO’s needle-punched GCLs with the economical pricing of the Claymax® GCLs. Read more in the release.

Though the bi-weekly Call for Papers Update will be published on Monday morning, we'd like to remind readers that 1 August 2008 is the deadline for submissions to TRB 88, Urban Water Management 2009, and the 2009 Techtextil North America Symposium. See the succinct breakdown of deadlines here.

The organizers of EuroGeo 4--the 4th European Conference on Geosynthetics--would like to remind readers of the early registration deadline (31 July 2008) and of the three technical courses that will be held in conjunction with the event. The technical course subjects are geosynthetics in reinforcement, waste containment and hydraulic applications. Read more.

When Mike McDonald wanted to get into more sustainable construction, he made his own home the prototype. Among the many impressive features his team designed into this (first in the country) LEED-H certified and GreenPoint-Rated home is a green roof system that uses Huesker's TGS nonwoven fabric. Read the article here.

The deadline for abstract submission to Urban Water Management 2009 has been extended to 1 August 2008. This inaugural event from PennWell will be an annual conference focusing on stormwater BMPs, sustainable design, public works, NPDES, construction and more. The first gathering will be held in Overland Park, Kansas from 23-26 March 2009. Learn more here.;

For the third time this year, Solmax International has made a major product line extension. This time it is the development of two new series that offer prefabricated geomembrane designs for applications such as silo covers, oil pits and similar containment applications. The thinner geomembranes come reinforced or non-reinforced. Read more about them.

TenCate Geosynthetics has launched a new website. The new section focuses on Industrial Fabrics. Read about the site's redesign, its new resources, and more.

Commodity Online has published an interview with Dr. Ramkumar Seshadri of Texas Tech University. Seshadri spoke at the recent ATNT 2008 event in Coimbatore, India, and detailed the growth potential for the Indian technical textiles market. India's massive infrastructure growth needs is creating a huge demand for more highly engineered support. Learn more here.;

geosynthetica is proud to announce that it has cleared the application process to begin supplying original content to Google News. This platform will help extend the reach of geosynthetic engineering information to users, potential users, journalists, and many others. For information on how your work could be part of a story, contact Chris Kelsey.

The July - September 2008 newsletter from the India-based Business Coordination House (BCH) is available. Among the issues many stories you'll find an interview with Ian Peggs of I-CORP International on geosynthetics in landfills (pages 43 - 45) and a reminder about the 17 October 2008 one-day seminar "Geotextiles in India: What, Where and Why." View it in PDF.

Betsy Hart, Executive Director of the National Aquaculture Association (NAA), and her staff have provided a release detailing the association's new contact information and move from West Virginia to Arkansas. The move is effective 21 July 2008.

The International Association of Geosynthetic Installers (IAGI) has announced that Mexico-based Soluciones Ambientales Integrales SA DE CV has achieved the designation of Approved Installation Contractor (AIC). The company is the first in Mexico to reach this mark. Read Jilien Harvey's story.

The American-based National Aquaculture Association (NAA) is moving from Charlestown, West Virginia to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. The new home university's fisheries and aquacultures center was a major factor in the decision, KATV7 reports. Learn more here.;