Containment

The Wild Rose Fish Hatchery supplies more than 50 tons of fish to Wisconsin and the general Lake Michigan region. The century-old site had been in need of modernization to keep up with demands. New facilities (coldwater and warmwater) have been constructed over the past five years, and outdoor ponds have been lined with Firestone's PondGard pond liners for optimal resource conservation. Read the case study from Hatchery International. Learn more here.;

In 2009, Geosynthetica's editor had an opportunity to visit the Garrison Dam National Fish Hatchery, at which a pond lining initiative, started in 2002, was coming to a close. (It was also one of the last Dow Geomembranes installations before Dow shuttered that side of its business.) While the 2009 work was made possible through a federal funds grant, the hatchery is now under threat from abrupt federal funds cuts. According to Rob Holm, project leader of the Garrison Dam and Valley City hatcheries, the proposed cuts would eliminate funding from the Service for stocking waters managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Learn more here.;

Alberta Oil magazine says forget potash; oil sands is the driver of investment and interest in Saskatchewan. The province is now the #2 oil sands producer. The succinct piece on the magazine's website is supported by a nice graphic of development zones and key stats on production. Learn more here.;

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.

The Texas Legislature is considering a bill that will eliminate dam safety regulation for over ninety-four percent of the dams in the state. Amendment 21 to House Bill 2694, passed by the House of Representatives on 19 April 2011, will exempt all dams that store less than 1000 acre feet. This will eliminate all public safety requirements for 7013 of the 6631 total dams presently under the regulatory authority including701 high hazard potential dams and 744 significant hazard potential dams.

After 25 years of successful collaboration, Tensar International Corporation, and CONTECH Construction Products, Inc. have mutually agreed that Tensar will take on distribution responsibility for geogrid products in the United States. Under the terms of the agreement and effective 2 May 2011, Tensar International will assume CONTECH's geogrid distribution business, which includes exclusive distribution of both biaxial and triaxial geogrid products in the United States. The joint decision to modify the long-term distribution alliance comes as a result of strategic initiatives both companies are pursuing in their respective markets.

Canada's $1.4-billion Windsor-Essex Parkway road construction project is calling on 2m-high silt fence barriers along roughly 13 km of its work zone. This unusually high geotextile barrier is being used not for erosion and sediment control but endangered species protection. The eastern foxsnake inhabits the area. A climber that is also able to dig, environmentalists overseeing the project hope the trenched fabric will protect the snake from going over or under the barrier. Learn more here.;

The third day of activities in Minneapolis for the National Association of County Engineers (NACE) 2011 Conference ("Guiding with Vision") saw close to 200 people crowd into a room to hear another talk on accelerated bridge construction, including geosynthetic reinforced soil (GRS) techniques. This time, Warren Schlatter, the county engineer for Defiance County, Ohio, discussed his county's particular success with the GRS-Integrated Bridge System approach now being promoted (including with DVD films) by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

The Geo-Institute's 2012 annual congress focuses on the "State of the Art and Practice in Geotechnical Engineering" and will be held 25-29 March 2012 in Oakland, California. The conference invites 200-300 word abstracts on topics such as Geosynthetics; Embankments, Dams and Slopes; Earth Retaining Structures; Earthquake Engineering; and much more. Learn more and submit your abstract through April 29. Learn more here.;

In this second report from the National Association of County Engineers (NACE) annual conference and trade show in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Geosynthetica's editor Chris Kelsey reports on the geosynthetic-reinforced soil (GRS) bridge abutment technology session. Evidence from the session reveals both a tremendous need to utilize this process in modernizing infrastructure and a tremendous advantage (cost and time) in doing so.

This snapshot is a comprehensive summary of the U.S./Canadian geosynthetic market. It focuses mostly on the U.S. geosynthetic marketplace, particularly as it relates to market size, market growth, predominate materials/polymers as well as applications used in the U.S. geosynthetic market, trends, opportunities, threats, and market outlook. Available in PDF. $149 ($79 for IFAI members). Learn more here.;

The newest IGS News is available. Volume 27, No 1 from the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS) is content loaded, with correspondant reports from around the world, event reviews, news regarding the 10th International Conference on Geosynthetics (10 ICG, Berlin, 2014), award winners, sustainability, and much more. Read the latest in PDF today.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will spend as much as $5 billion to reduce coal-plant emissions to settle allegations of Clean Air Act violations at 11 coal-fired power plants in three states, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday. Federally owned TVA also will retire 18 older coal-fired units at three power plants, totaling 2,700 megawatts, starting next year, TVA said in a release. TVA operates about 17,000 MW of coal-fired generation. Learn more here.;

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is releasing for public comment a draft permit that will help improve our nation's waterways by regulating the discharge of stormwater from construction sites. Stormwater discharges during construction activities can contain sediment and pollutants that harm aquatic ecosystems, increase drinking water treatment costs and pollute waters that people use for fishing, swimming and other recreational activities. Read more about the proposed Construction General Permit (CGP).

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency may kill a plan to install a plastic liner along 10 miles of the polluted south fork of the Coeur d'Alene River. The liner was intended to keep clean surface water from mixing with groundwater polluted from past mining activity. Last summer, the liner drew criticism during public hearings over an expanded Superfund cleanup in the upper Coeur d'Alene Basin. Local residents worried the south fork would lose its natural look. Learn more here.;

The proceedings from Geo-Frontiers 2011 contain 500 papers presented at Geo-Frontiers 2011 in Dallas, Texas, March 13-16, 2011. Geo-Frontiers 2011 included three key events: the ASCE/Geo-Institute Annual Congress, Geosynthetics 2011, and the biennial NAGS Conference. These papers will be of interest to geotechnical researchers and practicing engineers, especially those working with geosynthetic materials. Cost $99 ($79 for IFAI members). Learn more here.;

The Gulf region is growing as the world's hub for plastics development with the right ingredients of location between current and future large plastics demand centers, the hydrocarbon resource base and proximity to markets, a senior industry official said recently. Learn more here.;

ASTM Committee D35 on Geosynthetics has revised D5818, "Standard Practice for Exposure and Retrieval of Samples to Evaluate Installation Damage of Geosynthetics." It is available as D5818-11. This practice covers standardized procedures for obtaining samples of geosynthetics from a test section for use in assessment of the effects of damage immediately after installation caused only by the installation techniques. The assessment may include physical testing. This practice is applicable to any geosynthetic. Learn more here.;

In a blog posted at Daily Tech, Jason Mick writes on how Dr. Anke Nellesen and colleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology in Germany created an elastomeric material capable of responding to stresses with something of a "self-healing" property. While the process cannot be totally self-controlled--it requires external monitoring and input of ions--it does seems possible to automate it. Perhaps discoveries like this will lead to polymeric olefin and synthetic rubber membranes that can respond to stress before cracking and failure. Learn more here.;

Nearly a decade ago, the success of a geotextile bag artificial surf reef raised great interest; and since then numerous projects have been launched. In recent years, however, many projects have been started but not fully carried through, often due to funding. The result have been dissatisfied municipalities and not-as-designed surf production. ASR, the company building these reefs, is now offering to complete one reef at cost using rock instead of geotextile bags. Rock, in these projects, is actually cheaper. Learn more here.;

ASTM Committee D35 on Geosynthetics has announced work item WK32870, "Standard Practice for Quality Control of Geosynthetic Clay Liners." This is a work item revision to existing standard D5889-97(2008). The updating of this standard practice to make it representative of current industry practice and test standards. Learn more here.;

ASTM Committee D35 on Geosynthetics has announced work item WK32895, "Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Stress Crack Resistance of Polyolefin Geomembranes Using Notched Constant Tensile Load Test." This is a work item revision to existing standard D5397-07. Learn more here.;

ASTM Committee D35 on Geosynthetics has announced work item WK32896, "Standard Practice for Tests to Evaluate the Chemical Resistance of Geonets to Liquids." This is a work item revision to existing standard D6388-99(2005). Updates involve renewal, significant table changes, and explanation of the obsolescence of EPA 9090 and adoption of a family of ASTM Replacement Standards. Learn more here.;

Last year, Geosynthetica reported on a large erosion control study being directed by Germany-based SKZ. Now, SKZ is shedding more light on this research. On 5 May 2011, a special event will be held to take attendees through the site-based research: "Formulation and verification of selection criteria for geosynthetic surface erosion control systems." A main focus for this data will be to better assist in road construction erosion and sediment control. Read more.

Some are now calling for the complete removal of the artificial surf reef in Mount Mauganui, New Zealand. The project has failed to create the waves promised to surfers, has intensified dangerous rip currents, and has even caused 4.5m of sand scouring. These complaints follow criticism of the Bournemouth geotextile bag reef in England. In both cases, however, the company of design (ASR) contends that construction was never completed; that the lead councils ended installation work too soon. The company's showcase reef along the Gold Coast has performed well, for surfers and in terms of beachfront erosion control. Learn more here.;