Containment

AMI's magazine Compounding World has released its April 2009 issue online. The current issue contains articles on new developments in titanium dioxide, an analysis of PVC Compounding market trends, a listing of Europe's Top 20 PVC compounders, faster formulation with combinatorial compounding, advances in extruder technology for recycling plastics, and a look ahead to this year's big Masterbatch event. View it online today. Learn more here.;

It's not too often that major media take up aquaculture issues. But MSNBC is finally getting in on the act with a piece about growing population and how aquaculture's importance will only get stronger. Learn more here.;

In March 2010 SWANA received a request from the Service Metropolitain de Collecte des Residus Solides (SMCRS) in Haiti for assistance in dealing with the solid waste problems occurring following the earthquake. SWANA responded by establishing a SWANA Haiti Response Team comprised of volunteer SWANA members from SWANA's Collection Technical Division who met with representatives of the SMCRS and developed a position paper that documents Haiti's equipment and service needs. Learn more about this both in a paper from SWANA and at WASTECON 2010.

A Quebec company has been awarded a $200,000-plus contract by the provincial government to remove some 100 tonnes of PCB contaminated material from the controversial dumpsite in New Harbour. The contract is one of a series of steps being taken this year and in 2011, and also includes the completion of groundwater, surface water and sediment sampling. An inspection is also being carried out on the geomembrane storage and leachate collection system. Learn more here.;

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa P. Jackson is scheduled to lead the U.S. delegation to the Group of Eight Environment Ministers Meeting held this year in Siracusa, Italy. This marks her first international trip as EPA Administrator. Administrator Jackson will represent the United States among Environment Ministers from the Group of Eight (Italy, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, Canada, and Russia) as well as 12 additional Environment Ministers and leaders of international organizations from around the world. Read more.

The focus of the U.S. Government-funded Millennium Challenge Account Armenia Program (MCA-Armenia) is rehabilitation of Armenia’s vital irrigation infrastructure complemented with extensive technical and financial assistance to rural farmers and to the government irrigation entities that support them. Public Radio of Armenia reports that a December 3 workshop on agricultural applications included discussion geomembrane utilization in irrigation canal rehabilitation.

The Stormwater Equipment Manufacturers Association drafted a new Maintenance Agreement for use by state and local government agencies in setting an ordinance requiring the maintenance of all stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs). A sample Operation and Maintenance Agreement is contained in this document that includes templates for inspection checklists for each type of BMP, including water quality buffers. The inspection checklists can also serve as an inspection report for each facility.

The 13th International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium (Sardinia 2011) will be held 3-7 October 2011 in Santa Margherita di Pula, Sardinia Italy. In the latest update from the conference organizers, it has been announced that seven tracks will run concurrently. While the event language is English, a special eighth session will also be offered entirely in Italian for local official and professionals. The organizers report that roughly 800 abstracts from 75 nations were received. Read more and download the preliminary program.

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.

By Daniele Cazzuffi – RemTech 2013 will be held 18-20 September 2013 in Ferrara, Italy. This marks the 7th edition of a growing international event focused on remediation technologies. The...

The preliminary schedule for Sardinia 2017 has been released. The Sardinia Symposium is a long-running international series of waste management and affiliated landfill-related. The biennial event is, in fact,...

"Geosynthetics Evolved" is the credo of the newest manufacturer to enter the geosynthetics industry. SYNTEC, based in Baltimore, MD, is a newly formed company with many familiar faces. In a recent transaction, SYNTEC acquired the environmental division of TENAX Corporation. Read more about this new venture.

Early in July, a team of University of California, Davis, scientists rolled out a series of 100-foot by 10-foot rubber mats and spread them over a half acre of the bottom of Lake Tahoe in the vicinity of Round Hill Pines Beach and Marina, where Asian clam populations have grown in recent years. The barriers are a 45-millimeter thick pond liner that deprive organisms of oxygen. Allen was on the principal dive team responsible for rolling out the barriers. "It definitely wasn't easy," Tahoe biologist Brant Allen said. "I was pretty tired at the end of the day, but the UC Davis engineering team did a great job of making our job as easy as possible." Learn more here.;

Over the past few years, the American Public Works Association (APWA) has spearheaded a new sustainability vision for the public works management field. Two key investments have been made and show great promise for the future: APWA launched a smaller, sustainability-focused conference three years ago; and, this year, it has officially launched the APWA Center for Sustainability. These issues are pretty all-encompassing, and since the initial discussions within APWA creating the APWA Center for Sustainability have become hot button points across the country. For example, low-impact development (LID), sustainability's return on investment, best management practices, and much more. The public works field needed some pro-active guidance and resources. APWA has taken that lead.

The city of Tempe, Arizona is dealing with the failure of an inflatable dam, first installed in 1999, that failed this month. The dam was specified to last 30 years, but when the desert conditions seemed to be deteriorating the structure faster, the city and manufacturer entered into a new agreement. Following that agreement, the manufacturer exited the inflatable dams market. Now the city is unsure of where repair costs will come from. Learn more here.;

Frontier Refining Inc. has been fined nearly $7 million and ordered to shut down a wastewater management pond for the improper storage of hazardous waste. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) believes the improper storage has gone on for nine years. Ponds might not have had liners. Learn more here.;

After four years and four hurricanes, Grand Isle, Louisiana is rebuilding with a focus on tourism. It's all being enabled with the help of geosynthetic tubes. To protect the island from future storms, the state and federal governments are spending millions on new drainage pumps and 30-feet-in-circumference geosynthetic tubes within and along the 6.5-mile levee system. The tubes are filled with compacted tubes and designed to keep the levees weighted down enough to survive future storms. Learn more here.;

SKZ's 2nd International Conference on Geosynthetics Middle East will be held in Dubai, UAE, 10-11 November 2009. The speaker and topic line up is certainly an impressive list. Ian Peggs of I-CORP will present on predicting end-of-life for high-density polyethylene (HDPE) geomembranes and the incorporation of flexible solar cells on exposed landfill caps; Carl De Leon of Solmax will present on geomembrane liners in harsh, petrochemical containment operations; Detlef Schramm of Dow will present a geomembrane global review; Silke Schwöbken of SENSOR will present on drainage detection systems; and much more. Dr. Helmut Zanzinger will chair the seminar. Download the program in PDF. Learn more here.;

On March 4, HUESKER will host a free greenroofs and geocomposites webinar. The core focus will be on the use of Ultimat® TGS geocomposites and how these geosynthetic materials...

The city of Astoria, New York has opted to install a geomembrane liner and cover system on its reservoir as part of a long-range water conservation endeavor. Though the city is smaller than most that choose this route, officials are confident that the immediate and long-term conservation benefits will off-set the up-front cost. Learn more here.;

During the Construction and Demolition Recycling Forum (Baltimore, September 2011), the National Demolition Association (NDA) Environmental Excellence awards recognized some of the most notable, creative and successful projects of the past year. Standard Industries of Ventura, California, was recognized for its Port of Los Angeles demolition project, which had a 99.78% recycling rate. This included finding end markets for the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pond liners from the site. Learn more here.;

In June 2009, TenCate Geosynthetics North America reported that it was working with the US Army Corps of Engineers on rehabilitating and protecting the coastline of Grand Isle (Louisiana, USA). A row of TenCate Geotube® GT500 containers measuring 9,600 metres in length forms the core of what will ultimately be a row of dunes. The impressive new levee stretches 2.4 kilometres across the island. See photos of the construction (including a tricky threading under a bridge) here.

Over the past 20 years, a lot has changed in the geosynthetics field. The material science has advanced substantially, such as with composite technologies and the temperatures at which...

Inadequate infrastructure and chaotic urban development are being blamed for floods that have devastated Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city. Thirty years ago, Turkey's population was approximately 45 million. Today, more than 70 million people call Turkey home, and more than 70% of the population lives in urban areas. This breakneck growth and movement into cities like Istanbul has resulted in an infrastructure ill-prepared to properly support the nation's needs. Even moderate rainfall is thought to challenge Istanbul's system. Learn more here.;

Reliance Industries Ltd.'s bid for bankrupt chemicals and fuels maker LyondellBasell Industries AF will be "positive" if India’s largest company pays less than $12 billion, brokerage CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets said. Learn more here.;