Containment

Duke Energy Carolinas will no longer pursue a plan to place up to three demonstration wind turbines in the Pamlico Sound. Instead, the company and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will refocus their collaboration to study and help enable large-scale offshore wind development on the ocean side of the North Carolina coast. Learn more here.;

By Patricia Dolez, Eric Blond, and Pascal Saunier – Management of tailings, such as in oil sands operations, is one of the major operational and environmental challenges faced by...

The city of Fernley, Nevada has received permission from the state Division of Environmental Protection to move forth with a water treatment plant's construction. A major concern was the presence of arsenic in the site's drying ponds, but the submitted design has met the environmental bar by including thick concrete basins and a 60-mil HDPE secondary containment liner. Learn more here.;

The Garrison Dam National Fish Hatchery in North Dakota is currently lining more of its ponds. The expansive site has had a mix of lined and unlined ponds, and over time hatchery personnel have reported significantly higher, healthier yields with lined ponds. When federal funds became available for improving the facility, which is an important link to fish supplies in the Midwest, the hatchery capitalized on the opportunity. Installation work is going on right now. Learn more here.;

GZA GeoEnvironmental has appointment Dan Stapleton, P.E., a principal to the company's Nuclear Practice. Stapleton will work as a technical lead for the New England-centered company. Part of his background involves the study of geosynthetics at Drexel University. We congratulate Dan on his new position. Learn more here.;

With a rapidly growing global sales and manufacturing presence, Strata Systems, Inc. has developed more regionally targeted portals in support of its clients and Strata’s soil reinforcement products. In...

At a Geosynthetic Institute (GSI) Workshop held on 1 April 2010, representatives from about 20 member organizations suggested the need for a program to help reduce the number of mechnically stabilized earth (MSE) wall, berm and slope failures. Our current database in this regard is well over 100 such failures. While inadequate design and construction were the root causes of these failures (both excessive deformation and/or actual collapse), both could have been avoided, or at least mitigated, by proper construction inspection. This two-way orientation by field inspectors (notification of design anomalies and correction of contractors errors) should help stem the failures of these structures going forward. Read more.

Maryland Environmental Service (MES) owns and maintains the Midshore Regional Solid Waste System in a region that serves 140,000 residents on the eastern shore of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay. The...

IFAI Expo Asia 2011 will be held 22-25 March 2011 at the new Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Exhibition Centre in Singapore, and is being organized to serve the rapidly growing specialty fabrics marketplace in the Asia-Pacific region. There is a tremendous output and consumption of specialty fabrics in the Asia-Pacific region. The current trade shows in India and China focus almost exclusively on the disposable nonwoven industry. IFAI Expo Asia 2011 will now become the first major event in the region that specifically targets as visitors the end-product fabricators who use all types of materials--woven, nonwoven, knit and composite textiles.

The Belgium-based nonwovens association EDANA and India-based Business Coordination House (BCH) will present a high-level conference and unique business opportunities in support of the expected market growth for filtration across the Indian subcontinent and Asia. FiltrexAsia 2010 will be held 18-19 February 2010 in New Delhi, India. Themes include new filter media technologies, market trends, water treatment, gas filtration and more. Learn more here.;

Responding to last year’s massive coal ash spill at a Tennessee Valley Authority facility in Kingston, Tennessee, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today laid out new efforts to prevent future threats to human health and the environment. The agency’s plan includes measures to gather critical coal ash impoundment information from electrical utilities nationwide, conduct on-site assessments to determine structural integrity and vulnerabilities, order cleanup and repairs where needed, and develop new regulations for future safety. Read more in the release….

After three successful education sessions in September, HUESKER has added two more dates in October for its canal lining webinar. Take part in this free education event October 21...

The City of Kansas City, Mo., has agreed to make extensive improvements to its sewer systems, at a cost estimated to exceed $2.5 billion over 25 years, to eliminate unauthorized overflows of untreated raw sewage and to reduce pollution levels in urban stormwater, the Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have announced. Thought to be one of the largest green infrastructure plans in the country's history, it also sims to encourage the city to use natural or engineered "green infrastructure," such as green roofs, rain gardens and permeable pavement, to minimize stormwater burdens on the improved system.

In the 1990s*, geosynthetic material development, polymeric research, and wide-scale manufacturing advances helped the field mature quickly. Regulatory support, such as the RCRA Subtitle D rule from the US...

The Obama Administration this week proposed a budget of $10 billion for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The President's budget includes a $41.4 million increase in tribal funding across the nation, of which $30 million is targeted for the new multi-media grants to tribes to move beyond capacity building to implementation of Federal environmental programs. In the Pacific Southwest, EPA is committed to protecting the health and environment of 147 federally recognized tribes, as well as a tribal land base of over 27 million acres.

The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) has announced the recipients of the 2012 Excellence Awards. This year's awards honor 41 programs and facilities in 14 different categories spanning the width and breadth of the municipal solid waste industry. The winners will be acknowledged and awarded at the annual WASTECON conference in Washington, D.C. on 14 August 2012. See a breakdown of the winners of the 2012 Excellence Awards by category here.

The People's Republic of China (PRC) needs 413.5 billion yuan (CNY) (or roughly $60.5 billion) in investments over the next 10 years to harness its biomass energy potential in rural areas, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report issued today said. According to Rural Biomass Energy 2020 in the People's Republic of China, the country needs CNY413.5 billion through 2020 to fully implement its rural biomass energy development plan. Of the total, CNY314.3 billion will be used to help rural household beneficiaries, CNY16.5 billion for centralized gas plant projects, and CNY82.7 billion for power generation and liquid fuel production. An additional CNY1.5 billion is needed for research, development, demonstration, and piloting.

Raven Industries Engineered Films Division announces Dura-Skrim® Textured K-Series; a new geomembrane product line specifically engineered for the geosynthetic industry. Dura-Skrim Textured K-Series is a unique textured reinforced geomembrane available in polyethylene or flexible polypropylene and is the first of this type in the industry. Dura-Skrim Textured K-Series is manufactured utilizing a cast extrusion process to achieve a consistent core thickness with uniform asperity heights. Raven's exclusive GeoGrip™ surface technology consists of a durable random spike pattern with bidirectional bars to provide uniform stabilization and an increased friction between various soil and geosynthetic layers allowing for steeper slope designs. Dura-Skrim Textured K-Series is designed for applications requiring exceptional slope stability such as landfill caps, mining leach pads and containment ponds to name a few.

The 28-page PDF (14 MB) from New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation's Erosion and Sediment Control Training Course is available for download freely. The 4-hour, NYSDEC-endored course is offered at multiple times throughout the in various locations. Currently, there are many opportuntities for contractors and inspectors through March 31. The course booklet of PowerPoint slides offers essential bullet points to help prep course participants and is quite useful for non-New York-based professionals too.

Research has found livestock produce about 18 percent of the world's greenhouse gases--more than all sources of transportation combined. In the Marin, California area, they are looking into "cow power"--converting cow waste into sustainable electricity. The technologies have been on the rise, thanks largely to grants. And since waste does not take a break--whereas wind and solar are regularly interrupted--more grants are now available for cow power projects. Learn more here.;

The Northwest Evening Mail, which serves the Lakes District in the northwest United Kingdom, has published a piece about the waterproofing of Seathwaite Tarn, a Victorian-era dam. The 100+-year-old structure is being given a modern facelift--or rather, a modern face. A Czech Republic-based office Carpi is installing a geomembrane skin to the tall, 138-meter-wide dam. Learn more here.;

Middleboro, Massachusetts-based Middleboro Recycling exemplifies the way auto and scrap recycling yards have evolved in the last 60 years to be environmentally secured operations. At Middleboro, for example, operators use a "rack" system to keep polluting fluids out of the soil; stormwater is gathering; and a geomembrane-lined retention pond serves as a mediative point between processing of polluted liquids and stormwater collection. Learn more here.;

In the opening column to the International Geosynthetics Society's IGS News (Volume 29, Issue 2), IGS President Jorge Zornberg notes, "The conferences of the IGS have played a remarkable...

SCS Engineers (SCS) is pleased to announce that John J. Kendall, P.E., has joined the firm's new Denver, Colorado, office, where he will lead environmental projects for government and private clients. Mr. Kendall is a Mining/Environmental Engineer with technical, business management and international experience in solid waste design and permitting, surface water design, mine tailings remediation, and a wide variety of environmental and compliance related projects.

The London Topic (Ontario, Canada) reports that PCB contaminated soil has been discovered outside the "vault" zones where reclamation work is on-going. The contaminated soils have been moved onto a polyethylene pad and covered with a PE membrane and geotextile fabric while officials meet and a public meeting is scheduled. Longer term storage and containment will be part of the site's soil cleanup. Learn more here.;