Containment

About 175 municipal mayors from Regions XI, XII and the Autonomous Region for Moslem Mindanao attended a 17 July 2009 meeting in the Philippines to further the green agenda known as the Zero Basura Plan. Key to the plan is the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act. Open dumps are being converted to sanitary landfills. Davao City, for example, has established Mindanao's first HDPE-lined waste facility: a 3.8-hectare installation that is helping spearhead change in the region. Learn more here.;

The International Geosynthetics Society (IGS) Peru Chapter will hold a Peruvian national congress on geosynthetics. Geosperu 2010 is the second national conference on geosynthetics in Peru. The event will include lectures, discussions, short courses and a keynote lecture from Dr. J.P. Giroud. The majority of the event will be in Spanish. Learn more here.;

GSE announces today that Matt Skinner will take over the role as Regional Manager for the Southeast Region formerly held by Mike Rublaitus. Matt will also continue to manage his current role as Regional Manager - Midwest Region until a replacement is found. During this transition, Matt will be responsible for both sales regions and will continue to provide the best geosynthetic brands, partnerships and dealer support that customers have come to expect from GSE.

The Thirteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium (Sardinia 2011) will be held 3-7 October 2011 in Santa Margherita di Pula, Sardinia, Italy. Themes include wastewater, waste management strategies, climate change, decision tools, legislation and more. Event organizers have released a preliminary program. View it here. Learn more here.;

The International Erosion Control Association (IECA) has included a sample of its members-only listserv in the latest issue of the E-Learning Newsletter. The listserve allows members to pose questions and contribute answers to one another. In this sample, a member asks about specifying non-wire backed silt fence. Learn more here.;

The Association of State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO) has announced the winners of its 2008-2009 scholarships. Congratulations are in order for Garrett Graybill, Brian Carlton, Rachel Ernst and Joe Tom on their deserved recognition. Read more about their work and the 2009-2010 call for nominations.

As part of an ongoing comprehensive review of dam integrity of coal ash impoundment sites nationwide, EPA has alerted West Virginia public officials and first responders that an impoundment at American Electric Power's (AEP) Philip Sporn facility requires additional safety testing. While EPA does not believe the impoundment's dam is at immediate risk of failure given the information we currently have, out of an abundance of caution the agency has notified West Virginia and Ohio officials of the need for further testing to fully determine the impoundment's integrity. AEP has committed to submitting a plan to carry out the safety tests. That plan will be provided to EPA on Monday, November 2. EPA will oversee the testing and use all necessary authority to assure the safety of the facility.

The 4th edition of the Grass Yarn & Tufters Forum will be held at the Austria Trend Savoyen Hotel in Vienna from 9-11 February 2010. This event will follow on from the success of our previous events that have typically attracted 150 participants from around the world. A special registration rate is available through 30 December 2009. Learn more about the companies and organizations taking part in the conference and download a PDF copy of the program.

TRI/Environmental continues its steady growth, as the latest annual newsletter from the Austin, Texas-based company indicates. Sam Allen, Rick Thomas, Joel Sprague and Rich Lacey continue their high level of activity on industry committees; TRI's lab personnel expertise and 24-hour operation option has resulted in record report turnaround times;new testing equipment has greatly expanded the company's capabilities, especially in interface friction and direct shear testing; the ability to test soil specimens with our direct simple shear apparatus is new in 2010; the Denver Down Research Facility (DDRF), a first-of-its-kind large-scale erosion and sediment control performance systems, has received GAI-LAP accreditation; and much more. Read TRI's annual letter for the full story.

On Tuesday, a crowd of Renfrew County officials, industry representatives, and municipal councils from across Ontario and beyond gathered at the Eganville Sewage Treatment Plant to watch as one of the 50-foot long Geotubes, the heart of the municipality's state-of-the-art biosolids facility, was opened a year after it had been filled to capacity. The revamped dewatering facility consists of six 50-foot Geotube units, a greenhouse and a pumping station linked with the plant. Learn more here.;

Australia-based Imagine Intelligent Materials has quickly scaled up production of its innovative imgne® X3 coating. The product has enabled the manufacture of the world’s first graphene-enhanced geotextiles, which are...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is holding a two-day conference 10-11 February 2010 at Drexel University in Philadelphia to explore the most environmentally safe methods to clean up and revitalize contaminated properties. The Green Cleanup Symposium will feature presentations from the nation's top thinkers on how to properly clean up abandoned or contaminated properties so that the land can be reused as a safe and sustainable community resource.

ASTM Committee D35 will meet 8-11 June 2010 in St. Louis, Missouri. The current schedule includes the second meeting on geocells, reinforced geomembrane seams, asperity height, GCL design guidance, and much much more. Participants are reminded that the cut-off date for hotel registration is April 29. The cut-off date for pre-registration is June 2. Visit the D35 page for registration information. Learn more here.;

ASTM International Committee D35 on Geosynthetics has honored Samuel R. Allen, vice president of TRI/Environmental Inc. in Austin, Texas, with the ASTM Award of Merit and honorary title of fellow. The Award of Merit is the highest ASTM honor for distinguished service and outstanding participation in committee activities. Read more about this well-deserved award.

TenCate™ Geosynthetics has made innovative improvements to the Mirafi® S-Series nonwoven geotextiles by providing improved UV resistance and introducing a variety of new color offerings. Mirafi® S-Series nonwoven geotextiles are used in a wide variety of applications in the environmental market. These include use in critical subsurface drainage systems, soil separation, permanent erosion control, protection of HDPE and other geomembranes in landfill construction. (Continued.)

Erosion Control magazine editor Janice Kasperson writes about the eighth annual StormCon event, which will take place in Anaheim, California, 16-20 August 2009. Six conference tracks are being offered: BMP Case Studies; Low-Impact Development (LID); Stormwater Program Management; Water-Quality Monitoring; Advanced Research Topics; and Source Control. Read more about the event in Kasperson's write-up. Learn more here.;

On 3 January 2012, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a Federal Register notice requesting additional data on the performance of technologies in controlling turbidity in stormwater discharges from construction sites. The notice also requests information on other topics relevant to establishing numeric effluent limitations for stormwater discharges from these sites, including sample collection, applicability to electric transmission line construction, cold weather considerations, and the ability of small sites to meet a numeric standard. The comment period closes March 5. Simultaneously, the agency has submitted a final general permit on construction site stormwater discharges to the White House for review. This permit excludes turbidity limits. The final permit is expected by February 15. Learn more here.;

This year, the Canadian Waste Sector Symposium (CWSS), Canada’s national conference, will be held in conjunction with the Canadian Waste and Recycling Expo (CWRE), Canada’s only trade event serving the waste, recycling and public works markets. The CWSS (November 6-9) is hosted by the Ontario Waste Management Association. The CWRE takes place immediately following with only a slight overlap (November 9-10). Both events will be held in Montreal, though at separate locations. Learn more here.;

In August, Dr. Ian D. Peggs, P.E. wrote about the strong potential for graphene in geosynthetics. Layers of graphene could give materials strength exceeding steel, enable self-repairing qualities,...

The international geosynthetics manufacturer NAUE has launched a new central website for its operations and technologies: www.naue.com. The new format takes full advantage of online video with a dedicated section called NAUE TV, which features project and application presentations in clear, large viewing windows. The revamped website also offers an extensive reference library detailing project challenges and geosynthetic solutions, an archive of the company's newsletter (NAUE News), global NAUE Group office information, key geosynthetic application descriptions, and much more.

Applied Market Information (AMI) has announced a date change for its Plastics Industry Strategy Seminar 2010. The event will be held in Brussels, Beglium on May 20 (instead of the originally scheduled May 13). The discussion will focus on understanding the future shape of the plastics industry, and the way in which plastics processors will have to adjust to the rapidly changing world. AMI has revised all its forecasts and trend analysis on a worldwide basis. This data will be presented exclusively to attendees at Plastics Industry Strategy Seminar 2010. Learn more here.;

Erosion along the Brahmaputra River in India has reaped considerable disaster in the past 15 years. An article in the Assam Tribune indicates that erosion has claimed 28 villages, one police station, eight schools, four tea estates, one PWD road and wide stretches of agricultural land. A new project aims to stem some of that erosion by installing geotextile bags along multiple kms of the riverbank. Learn more here.;

By Lee Buchsbaum - The sweeping new federal rules on handling and storage of coal ash may lead to the single largest increase in the geosynthetics market in 20 years....

An interview with Dr. Fady Abdelaal, GeoEngineering Centre at Queen’s-RMC, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada, by Chris Kelsey The first conference dedicated exclusively to geosynthetics in mining was held in Vancouver,...

The 10th International Conference on Geosynthetics will be held 21 – 25 September 2014 in Berlin, Germany. This quadrennial global event from the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS) will be...