Now is the time to get your welders certified in IAGI's HDPE Welders Certification program. Developed to test the competency of welding technicians out in the field, the certification program includes both a written and a hands-on welding examination. Tests are administered for both wedge and extrusion welding and are available in three languages. The member price for testing is$225 (USD) per candidate (this includes fees for one welding certification) and nonmember price is $325 (USD) per candidate; additional proctor fees may be incurred. For the past year, IAGI has offered an introductory HDPE Welders Certification testing discount. 10% off the testing price if 5 or more candidates are tested and 15% off the testing price if 10 or more candidates are tested. However, this discount will be discontinued December 31, 2003. Apply now and take advantage of the reduced testing price; tests must be concluded by December 31, 2003. Contact Laurie Honnigford at 651-554-1895 or iagi@iagi.org for more information.

I have returned to the US to take over responsibility for The Cooley Group's International Sales world wide. My time in The Netherlands was a tremendous learning experience and gave me a great appreciation and appetite for international sales and relation building. The opportunity to live and work in another society can be extremely frustrating and difficult but worth the time. Anyone who has the opportunity should take advantage of it. The Netherlands was an easy place to live as an ex-pat. Everyone speaks English and there is a large ex-pat community so you immediately have a common trait with many people in the area. We made some great life long friends as did our children. They may have benefited the most of all. In my capacity as Vice President International, I will be representing all of the Cooley business unit. These include specialty products of which geomembranes are a part, building products, sign and digital imaging materials and our Industrial products group with their inflatable materials among other items. I am looking forward to seeing me friends in the geo community again in some far off location in the very near future.

Bayer Polymers LLC for "Polyurethane-forming composition with adjustable mix viscosity, geotextile composites prepared therefrom and a process for producing such composites, No. 6,632,875." Inventors were Peter H. Markusch, McMurray, Ralf Guether, Pittsburgh. The present invention relates to a polyurethane composition with adjustable mix viscosity, to a polyurethane geotextile composite prepared with such polyurethane composition and a process for producing such polyurethane geotextile composites. Patent Application Abstract: Two-ply polyurethane geotextile composites suitable for lining ditches and canals in which a rigid, dimensionally stable geotextile is bonded to a soft, pliable geotextile with a solidifiable, liquid polyurethane composition which is a reaction product of a mixture of a liquid polyisocyanate having an NCO content of at least 10% by weight, an isocyanate-reactive component which includes at least one high molecular weight polyether polyol and a urethane catalyst are made, preferably at the site where the composite will be used.

1) Trying to save $15,000 in going with the low bid liner installer eventually cost an owner $1.3M when over 100 holes were found in 1.25 acres of liner, about one sixth of the total liner area. A large development project was considerably delayed until the liner could be replaced. 2) A chemical resistance test ($10,000 max) was suggested by the liner installer and manufacturer for several lined basins in a mine processing plant. The engineer declined to do the test. Many liners failed, resulting in extensive construction delays and litigation costing several millions of dollars. Lessons learned? A few dollars of prevention are better than a cure costing millions. But, of course, this always happens to someone else. Then again, you are someone else to someone else.

Several years ago, IAGI wrote a HDPE Installation Specification that now needs to be updated to reflect changes in installation practices. IAGI members who would like to provide feedback for the rewrite should contact Anne Steacy or call 202-895-1355.

It is time to elect the IAGI Board of Directors again. Click the link below to read the biographies of each of the candidates.

DEAR DR. WELD: I'm the QA inspector on a landfill job and I'm a little concerned about what I've been seeing. I've been monitoring the air pressure testing of all field seams, but for the last five days, every test has been held perfect at thirty-five pounds. All seams are the same length, but the funny thing is, sometimes it takes twenty pumps to get there, sometimes only three. The crew says this is normal atmospheric variation, but yesterday I thought I saw the gauge stay at thirty-five pounds after it was pulled from the seam. Am I seeing things? - Blurry-eyed in Indiana. DEAR BLURRY-EYED: No, you're not seeing things. You probably should have a check-up though, just to see if you're too stupid to be employed as a QA inspector. The manometer gauge you're using is frozen at thirty-five pounds. YOU could pressure test your sneaker laces and get a passing test with that gauge. Here's what you can do: Once the seam has been sealed and inflated to the proper pressure for your spec, have the liner guy go to the far end of the seam while you stay with the gauge. When the proper amount of time has elapsed (again, check your spec), you then give the signal to the liner guy at the far end of the seam to release the air. He can then use his hook blade to slice the air channel (hopefully in some harmless space , like the anchor trench) while you watch for a corresponding drop in pressure. That way you not only ensure a functioning gauge, you also demonstrate that the air channel test was contiguous over the length of the seam, and everybody goes home happy. By the way, your shoelaces are untied.

The name that many in Galveston county will no longer be using is geotube. To access this article, go to the "continued" link below and search Galveston's The Daily News for Carter Thompson's article titled: Shoreline Protectors Run Afoul of Trademark. Learn more here.;

The online content service of publisher John Wiley & Sons has launched the Wiley Database of Polymer Properties. Learn more here.;

2,000,000 lb (100 acres) of double-sided geotextile/geonet drainage composite. The material has been used on a prepared surface for 14 months but not buried. It is being replaced and is available to be reused - materials F.O.B. Detroit. Please contact Jeff Hanak at APS-LTD 330-505-0419 or Jeffh@pse-ltd.com for more information.