Ground Improvement

Barrick Gold has had installed what it believes to be the first geomembrane cap over a leach pad in mine closure operations. The cap has been installed to prevent cyanide washout from the zone due to snow melt. Roughly 430,000 square feet of geomembrane from Agru America have been installed. Work will be completed on the site in the next few weeks. Sierra Geosynthetics is conducting the installation. Learn more here.;

A blogger has taken on analysis of the track record for the artificial surf reefs constructed over the last 12 years. Grades are poor, with C- being the best. One of those recipients is Narrowneck Reef in Australia. The system in Narrowneck is large and uses geotextile bags. While the reef serves its main purpose--controlling beach erosion--it hasn't turned out to be a surfer's dream (nor was it built to be). Pratt's Reef in the America's also uses geotextile bags, but received a grade of F. The tiny installation has not had an effect and is being dismantled. Learn more here.;

Tiger Woods is ready to take on remediation--via the undulating greens of Liberty National near the Statue of Liberty in New York. The course grounds, built over an old oil refining site, occupy 160 acres and offer an astonishing 4,000 feet of waterfront space and magnificent views of the Statue of Liberty, Manhattan skyline and Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Bob Cupp and Tom Kite designed the course. Geosynthetic liners were used extensively to cap the old polluted soil and separate it from the clean, rolling hills of the very challenging links-style course that now characterizes the area. Learn more here.;

Golf Week weighs in on the former toxic site that has been remediated and capped with geosynthetics and clean soil to create the links-style Liberty National course. The 7,400 yard course is on the water in New Jersey and looks out at New York and the Statue of Liberty. Learn more here.;

While the American dam infrastructure is normally in the news only with the help of ASCE or ASDSO, this week it has caught the attention of WIRED magazine. After the failure of a hydroelectric dam in Russia, more people are turning their attention (seriously, this time) to the hundreds of dams in the United States in need of maintenance or replacement. Read Alexis Madrigal's article "Old American Dams Quietly Become a Multibillion-Dollar Threat." Learn more here.;

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been distributing a draft Environmental Impact Statement regarding the proposed Blackfoot Bridge phosphate mine. Parent-company Monsanto and subsidiary P4 Production LLC intend to make the site one of the most environmentally advanced, with laminated geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) designed for covering selenium waste rock piles. But despite these measures, the recent discovery of 18 cattle found dead--and believed to have been poisoned by exposed selenium--threatens to slow the mine's acceptance. The Capital Press, an agriculture publication covering the American west, reports. Learn more here.;

Over at the Fabricated Geomembrane Institute's (FGI) website, the latest blog entry notes that the FGI's Tim Stark visited CLI/Clearwater Construction during a visit to the Denver area recently. The FGI is hosting a short course there on October 23. Dr. Stark is beginning to tour about and visit the Institute's members. FGI formed officially earlier this year after the PVC Geomembrane Institute (PGI) completed its core goals. Learn more here.;

The North American Geosynthetics Society (NAGS), the Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Geo-Institute (GI) have signed an agreement to co-organize Geo-Frontiers 2011. The last Geo-Frontiers was held in 2005 in Austin, Texas. The 2011 edition will be held at the Sheraton-Dallas Hotel 13-16 March 2011. A call for topics and sessions will be issued from IFAI in the near future. Learn more here.;

The Netherlands-based Royal Ten Cate has released its latest profit information. Sales are down from 2008, due to the global economic situation; and the Geosynthetics and Grass Division has been hit hard. But the US-based geosynthetics operation has adjusted costs and market position since 2007 (when the market began to erode quickly in the US) and is poised for the next upward swing. The synthetic turf operations, which are dealing in a market that has yet to mature, have been more exposed to riskier credit partners so are now adjusting to work in more secure projects. All in all, for a difficult time, Ten Cate's global business is doing well and shows strong potential for when economic conditions improve. Learn more here.;

The Province of British Columbia, Canada, is providing $1.06 million in funding for 12 brownfield sites to support environmental investigations, Agriculture and Lands Minister Steve Thomson has announced. "The Brownfield Renewal Strategy program is focused on encouraging the redevelopment of under-used lands that have potential for community benefit," said Thomson. "The goal is for this funding to support the initial environmental work necessary to return these sites back into productive use…." Read more, including a list of projects, in the release.

The Kennewick Irrigation District (KID) in Washington State has had a number of seepage issues in its earthen canals this year. The Badger East Canal is currently experiencing significant seepage problems. While the earthen canals are designed for it, the Badger East Canal had a geosynthetic liner for water conservation between 1989 and the middle of this year. Rather than replace the liner, which KID felt had reached the end of its service life, the canal was deepened and packed with a bit of clay. The result has been flooded basements and a need to reapproach the canal's management. Learn more here.;

The Barclay's transcript archive, over at the PGA Tour website, includes an interview with veteran golfer Tom Kite and Bob Cupp on designing a golf course over a former industrial site. Kite addresses how the course is different from today's minimalist designs, in that converting a formerly polluted site to a beneficial reuse site requires intensive alteration of the land, including genuine containment measures (ie, geosynthetic caps). Learn more here.;

South Africa-based Cape Business News has published an article about the success of PSV Holdings acquisition of Engineered Linings. PSV, which specialises in pumps, valves and spares, paid R40 million to buy out various shareholders in Engineered Linings. Led by Du Toit Viljoen, Engineered Linings supplies and installs geosynthetic liners. The early 2009 numbers from the business have been very satisfying. Learn more here.;

The seven-mile-long Central Canel in Indianapolis will receive a geosynthetic liner for an eroding portion of it. Veolia Water Indianapolis owns the reservoir, which provides drinking water to 600,000. Additional crushed stone will be installed on the banks to stop erosion. Construction will take place this fall. Learn more here.;

The Fabricated Geomembrane Institute (FGI) will offer "Constructing with Fabricated Geomembranes," its popular short course, on 23 October 2009 in Lakewood, Colorado at the Sheraton Denver West Hotel. This course will be presented by many expert speakers from the industry. Course participants are eligible for 6 PDHs. Learn more and view an updated agenda here.

The Irish Times published a story of an eight-year-old, Clodagh McIntyre, who won an award for a drawing she submitted to a fisheries-sponsored coloring contest. McIntyre's drawing depicts fish struggling with lagarosiphon major, an invasive weed that has plagued Irish waters for the past five years. Geotextile matting is being studied as a possible solution to smothering the weed. Learn more here.;

The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) has taken possession of the Lord and Buck Fields four months earlier than originally planned. Part of the work that must happen at the site involves the installation of reinforcement geogrids. VANOC took over the site earlier than expected in part to carry out the extensive geotechnical work before the end of September. Following the Winter Games, the fields will be remediated and returned in better shape with enhanced drainage, irrigation and performance. Learn more here.;

Dewatering part of the lagoon system in the Chesley, Ontario, Canada area with TenCate's Geotube technology is not only cleaning up the lagoon, it's saving the municipality of Arran-Elderslie both time and expense. Six Geotubes have been used, each 100 feet long and 30 feet in circumference. They are capable of holding 38,000 litres of material. GeoTubes have been well-established in Quebec but less utilized in Ontario until now. Many municipalities are looking into them. Learn more here.;

The boundary between the growing cities of Brampton and Caledon in Ontario, Canada is Mayfield Road. It connects major highways, and to keep pace with road capacity needs the area has been undergoing a multi-year Mayfield Road widening project. Two geomembrane-lined stormwater retention ponds are being built to protect nearby wetlands and kettle lakes. Learn more here.;

Starting next season the European and Dutch national champion Hockey Club Bloemendaal will play its home matches on a Triple-T System hockey pitch. After MHC Ede, HC Bloemendaal is the second field hockey club in the Netherlands to have a pitch based on the Triple-T System. This system is entirely focused on optimum player comfort, high ball speed and low friction in both wet and dry conditions. These characteristics, which support the high-grade technical game, were the main reasons for HC Bloemendaal to opt for this system. TenCate supplied the artificial grass fibers. Learn more in the release.

The on-going Toledo Harbor dredging project in Lake Erie may soon get significant federal support. The Great Lakes overall have received increased restoration attention, and the addition of federal money will allow popular and important areas such as around the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse to contain dredged material in geotextile tubes, rather than dump the material in open water. Also, "eco islands" and bird habitats may be created. Read more about this endeavor. Learn more here.;

The organizers of GeoHalifax 2009 (20 - 24 September 2009) have released the conference's latest e-newsletter. (Interested readers can subscribe to the feed via the conference website.) Some of the highlights: registration will continue through the conference; the exhibit hall is sold out; and more than 400 abstracts were submitted. Presenters can use the online submission system for PowerPoint files. GeoHalifax 2009 is hosted by the Canadian Geotechnical Society (CGS) and the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH). Learn more here.;

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) today announced former Vice President Al Gore as the opening keynote speaker for USGBC's annual Greenbuild International Conference & Expo being held 11-13 November 2009, in Phoenix, Arizona. In 2007, Gore was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for his environmental activism. Read more in the release.

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.;

The British Columbia Ministry of Transportation reports that several rolls of geotextile (manufactured by Nylex) were stolen from a storage yard in Fort St. John. The thief or thieves apparently cut through the chainlink fence, then used a forklift in the yard to remove the 15-foot-long rolls. Barbed wire was also stolen. Learn more here.;