March 9, 1999 - Greg Rideout, MSED:

American Society for Testing and Materials Meetings

• Dr. Merv Fingas of Emergencies Science Division (ESD) participated in the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) meetings held in Tucson, Arizona, February 16-18, 1999. He chaired the committee on in-situ burning and is also vice-chair of the overall committee on spills, the committee on remote sensing and the committee on oil spill treating agents. The ASTM committee has decided to adopt the oil spill dispersant laboratory test developed by Environment Canada as the new North American Standard. Dr. Fingas prepared a first draft of the standard, which was reviewed at the meeting.
  [Dr. Merv Fingas @ 998-9622]

March 9, 1999 - Greg Rideout, ERMD:

• The Emissions Research and Measurement Division (ERMD), the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM), and the US Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA), Office of Mobile Sources/Heavy Duty Engine Research, are collaborating on a research paper describing the results of a recent test program that investigated emissions from off-road construction equipment. In the project, the ERMD undertook exhaust measurements from the equipment while they were operated in the field. Subsequent to this, one of the engines was removed from a bulldozer and shipped to the US-EPA facility for laboratory testing using the duty cycle developed in the field as well as other more conventional engine-test cycles. The study will compare the emission factors from the field study to those used for inventory and emission modelling applications.
  [Greg Rideout @ 990-1364]

March 9, 1999 - Mike Bumbaco, SPD:

• In cooperation with the Ontario Region Federal Programs Division (FPD), the ETC was chosen as a Departmental demonstration facility to showcase pollution prevention, stewardship, greening, and sustainable development activities in laboratories. The aim is to increase the awareness, within government and private-sector laboratories, that labs can be operated in an environmentally friendly manner, and to provide pragmatic and cost-effective examples of how they can do it. Recently, a presentation and tour of laboratories was provided to 8 staff members from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) laboratory in Mississauga. Also, a package of information was forwarded to the CFIA lab in Montreal, which had called seeking guidance on lab greening actions. Since 1994, ETC staff have made lab greening presentations at a number of workshops involving other government departments (OGDs) and in other fora. To support the current increasing interest from OGDs on this issue, a 20-minute video entitled "P2 at LABORATORIES" will soon be available. This video highlights the many activities underway and planned at the ETC. It was produced with support from FPD, which will include it in a series of videos on Pollution Prevention Demonstration Sites.
  [Mike Bumbaco @ 991-2387]

March 9, 1999 - Mike Bumbaco, SPD:

• As a result of the Health Canada/Environment Canada (HC/EC) Board of Directors meeting last fall, the ETC accepted an invitation to participate on the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) GLP Working Group. Through this Group, the SCC is attempting to develop a GLP Compliance Monitoring program for lab data submitted to HC's Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) as part of their pesticide registration/approvals process. Because of EC's more advanced GLP Compliance Monitoring activities for the CEPA New Substances Notification Regulations, SCC were hoping to learn from our experiences to date. The group meets monthly and ETC staff have participated in the last two meetings. SCC has expressed an interest in developing a more formal working relationship with EC, as we move toward the possibility of joint site visits and inspections. The ETC feels that this represents one step towards a nationally consistent GLP Program for Canada. Ideally, the National GLP Coordinating Committee, which the Board of Directors endorsed, would be the best vehicle for ensuring such consistency and to avoid duplication. Unfortunately, the Health Protection Branch of HC, which was charged with setting up the Committee, has yet to establish it.
  [Mike Bumbaco @ 991-2387]

March 9, 1999 - Jacek Rostkowski, ERMD:

ERMD Team Measured Emissions and Fuel Consumption of an Icebreaker

• The Emissions Research and Measurements Division (ERMD) conducted a trial of a new computerized system it developed for the real-time measurement of the fuel consumption of the Canadian Coast Guard Ice Breaker, the Pierre Radisson. The icebreaker is equipped with nine engines operating in a variety of configurations. The system for monitoring fuel consumption will facilitate the operation of the ship, reduce the amount of fuel consumed and, thereby, minimize the emissions of CO₂ and other pollutants. The members of the ETC team (Jim Fearn, Roman Gorny, Will McGonegal and Jacek Rostkowski) spent four days on-board installing the equipment. At the end, the system was tested during normal operation on the St. Lawrence Seaway. The testing is a part of a larger program conducted as a joint technology development/evaluation/demonstration project with the Canadian Coast Guard.
  [Jacek Rostkowski @ 991-4871]

March 9, 1999 -Alka Steenkamer, SPD:

Invited Speaker at Carlton University's Guest Lecturer Series

• Carleton University (Dr. Edward Lai) approached the ETC to provide a lecture on laboratory quality management systems and practices to their fourth-year Chemistry graduating class. As lab Quality Assurance (QA) policies and procedures become more and more an integral part of operations of laboratories in the private and public sectors, Carleton University felt that information in this area would assist graduates in their career planning and development activities. Ms. Alka Steenkamer, Coordinator of lab QA at the ETC, provided a 1 1/2 hour lecture describing the latest developments in this field in Canada and internationally. She described past and current initiatives in organizations like the Canadian Association of Environmental Testing Laboratories (CAEAL), the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
  [Alka Steenkamer @ 990-9647]

March 16, 1999 - Dr. Jocelyn Par�, MAPD

• Dr. J. R. Jocelyn Par�, Chief, Microwave Assisted Process Division (MAPD), ETC, and Barry Lesnik, of the US Environmental Protection Agency, were presented with the Green Technology Award at the 50th Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry held in Orlando March 07-12, 1999. The Award is given to individuals that "develop methods... that protect the environment". The award recognised their contribution to the fast-track development, validation and approval of a Standard Reference Method for the determination of over 100 environmental pollutants in a variety of sample types. The method is based upon the use of a Microwave-Assisted Process (MAP^TM) technology developed and patented by EC. EC has licensed the technology and commercial equipment is already available for off-the-shelf purchase and implementation of the Method. In fact, over 500 units have already been sold world-wide.
  [Dr. Jocelyn Par� @ 990-9122]

March 16, 1999 - Dr. Merv Fingas, ESD

• The Convair 580 remote sensing aircraft was flown over the crash site of the small aircraft near Almonte, Ontario, on March 18. The flight was requested and funded by the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing. The purpose of the mission was to measure signatures of the crashed aircraft to assess the utility of the Convair’s radar systems for finding such crashes in the future.
  [Dr. Merv Fingas @ 998-9622]

March 16, 1999 - Dr. Jocelyn Par�, MAPD

• A technology transfer agreement was announced by Environment Canada and Shimadzu Corporation of Japan, supporting Canada's commitment to be a pioneer in sustainable development and green technologies. The license agreement provides Shimadzu Corp., a world leader in innovative laboratory analytical instruments, the rights to internationally manufacture and market equipment using revolutionary gas-phase extraction technology, a patented technology within the portfolio of the Microwave-Assisted Processes (MAP™) family of technologies. The MAP^TM process is a new method of gas-phase extraction that reduces the extraction time to as little as a few seconds, and is characterised by the fact that no toxic solvents are used at all. This agreement will make solvent-less determination of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds in solid and water samples readily available to any analytical laboratory around the world. Methods using the technology will protect the environment by eliminating the use of toxic solvents and reducing the amount of energy required to analyse samples. The Shimadzu Corp. agreement is the seventh license agreement for the MAP^TM technology that has been signed by Environment Canada since 1993.
  [Dr. Jocelyn Par� @ 990-9122]

March 16, 1999 - Brian Mansfield, EETO

• Brian Mansfield, Manager of the Emergencies Engineering Technologies Office (EETO) at the ETC, participated in the Ninth Annual West Coast conference on Contaminated Soils and Water, held at Oxnard, CA between March 8 and 11. The program included Workshops on: a) TPH Criteria; b) Probabilistic Risk Assessment Methods; and c) MTBE Regulatory Initiatives, plus five other topics. Two to three concurrent technical paper sessions ran Tuesday through Thursday, including those covering themes such as: a) U.S. Navy Site Remediation; b) Environmental Forensics; c) Innovative Remediation Technologies; d) MTBE Contamination Problems; and e) Other Emerging Issues facing the Water Industry. Two Luncheon speakers and a Banquet Speaker (Walter Kovalick, Director of EPA’s Technology Innovation Office) gave very informative presentations on current and future trends in various related technical fields. Also featured, were numerous technical poster sessions, a Commercial Exhibit hall, and an afternoon field visit to a nearby U.S. Navy base at Port Hueneme, CA where several field evaluation projects for contaminated site remediation are being conducted on an extensive MTBE plume. The emerging problem of MTBE contamination is becoming very prominent in California, since the additive is very soluble in water and has a low partition coefficient with soil solids. Its toxicity is still a raging debate. Some parts of Western Canada will also experience MTBE spills or losses, so this could also become a significant future Canadian pollution problem as well.
  [Brian Mansfield @ 991-1843]

• Dr. Merv Fingas and Pat Lambert played an active role in the International Oil Spill Conference held March 1 to 4 in Seattle. Four papers were presented by Dr. Fingas, one on oil evaporation, one on the new laser fluorosensor (prepared by Dr. Carl Brown), one on oil identification (prepared by Dr. Zhendi Wang), and one on emissions from burning oil. Pat Lambert presented 3 posters, one prepared by himself on portable measurement methods for Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) and two prepared by Dr. Zhendi Wang on oil fingerprinting and on oil-burn residue measurements. In addition, a public forum was held on in situ burning in which Pat Lambert participated, and Dr. Merv Fingas was Session Chairman for the remote sensing session. The conference attendance was about 1200, which was slightly down from the past year and reflects the cyclical interest in oil spills.
  [Dr. Merv Fingas @ 998-9622]

March 16, 1999 - Dominic Cianciarelli, ERMD:

• The Emissions Research & Measurement Division (ERMD) has published a report estimating the releases of non-methane compounds from Canadian landfills. Using ERMD measurements and emission factors, releases were determined for dioxins and furans, PAHs, VOCs, mercury, nitrogen oxides, sulphur compounds and NMOCs. VOCs included many CEPA toxic and carcinogenic pollutants listed in the NPRI. The releases of four VOCs from landfills were greater than the 1996 NPRI release rates to air. Releases of vinyl chloride were 50% higher than the NPRI releases to air. Dioxin, furan, PAH and mercury emissions did not appear to be significant.
  [Dominic Cianciarelli (991-9457) or Brian Williams (991-9458)]

March, 1999