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Activities November, 1999
[ ETC > News > Activities > 1999-Nov ]

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November 4, 1999 - Richard Turle, AAQD:

Quality Assurance Seminar in Chile
  • Staff from Environment Canada and the Minist�re de l'environnement du Qu�bec were invited to participate in a seminar on quality assurance for environmental laboratories. The seminar was held at the Centro Nacional del Medio Ambiente (CENMA) (National Environment Centre) in Santiago. The goal of the seminar was to present information about the Chilean accreditation system, the need of the quality data for environmental decision making as well as information about the Canadian experience. The opportunity was also taken to review the progress in the accreditation of CENMA by the Chilean accreditation organization. Results of a recently completed inter-laboratory comparison study between ETC and CENMA were also reviewed.
    [Richard Turle @ 990-8559]

November 4, 1999 - Dr. Merv Fingas, ESD:

ETC Participates in ASTM Meeting

  • Dr. Merv Fingas participated in the latest American Society for Testing & Materials (ASTM) meeting on developing standards related to spill response. He is vice-chairman of the F-20 committee on Spill Standards and chairman of the In-situ Oil Spill Burning committee. Two draft standards, prepared by the Emergencies Science Division (ESD), were discussed - one on the ESD-developed swirling-flask dispersant effectiveness procedure, and the other on the use of dispersants in specific situations. The swirling-flask procedure will be going to ballot before next meeting. Overall, the committee worked on over 16 standards developed in 10 active sub-committees.
    [Dr. Merv Fingas @ 998-9622]

November 15, 1999 - Brian Mansfield, EETO:

U.S. EPA "Innovative Clean-up Approaches" Conference

  • On behalf of EC's Emergencies Engineering Technologies Office (EETO), Monique Punt, Senior Engineer with SAIC Canada (ETC/EETO's Alternative Services Delivery contractor) attended US EPA's "Innovative Clean-up Approaches" conference from Nov. 2-4. The conference, held in Bloomingdale, Illinois, included a number of presentations related to the research, development and demonstration of innovative technologies for the remediation of contaminated sites. Presentation topics varied from general discussions on the future of innovative site remediation technologies to presentations on specific innovative technologies and their applications. A significant general message from the conference was that the technologies that are currently most popular for site clean up are primarily in-situ technologies such as bioremediation and soil vapour extraction, but that there still is a need for ex-situ technologies, especially for more difficult, 'problem' sites. Current growth areas in site clean up appear to be phytoremediation, enhanced soil extraction and permeable reactive barriers. More emphasis is also being placed on contaminated site assessment, particularly in the development and application of field assessment tools.
    [Brian Mansfield @ 991-1843]

November 15, 1999 - Dr. Merv Fingas, ESD:

ETC Plans for Remote Sensing Conference

  • Dr. Merv Fingas participated in the final planning meeting for the 6th Thematic Conference on Remote Sensing in Marine Environments to be held in Charleston, South Carolina in May 2000. Dr. Fingas is on the overall planning committee and he along with Dr. Carl Brown will chair the sessions on oil spill remote sensing. This year's meeting will focus on the use of remote sensing for the detection of harmful algae blooms, coral reef management and hurricane damage assessment.
    [Dr. Merv Fingas @ 998-9622]

November 15, 1999 - Dr. Merv Fingas, ESD:

ETC Participates in Dispersant Experiment

  • Dr. Merv Fingas was in Galveston, Texas November 7-8 to participate in a planning meeting for a oil-spill dispersant experiment to take place in Galveston Bay in year 2000. The plans are to release a crude oil and treat it with dispersant. The prime purpose is to monitor the plume under the oil and the effects of the plume on biota. Plans are also being laid to sponsor the use of ETC's DC-3 to conduct aerial monitoring of the site. A consortium of five oil companies, the American Petroleum Institute, and the Texas government is funding the project.
    [Dr. Merv Fingas @ 998-9622]

November 15, 1999 - Dr. Carl Brown, ESD:

ETC Flies Remote Sensing Mission

  • The Convair 580 Synthetic-Aperture Radar (SAR) facility flew remote sensing data collection flights for the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing and the Centre of Geographic Sciences (Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia). The two groups funded the mission entirely. The polarimetric and interferometric SAR flights took place on November 9th and 10th over targets near Ottawa (Mer Bleu, Shirley's Bay), near Kingston and several passes over the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia. This information will be processed to provide an accurate digital elevation map of the Annapolis Valley. While in Nova Scotia, the aircrew operated out of CFB Greenwood.
    [Dr. Carl Brown @ 991-1118]

November 22, 1999 - Richard Turle, AAQD:

Canada-Wide Standards (CWS) Petroleum Hydrocarbon (PHC) Inter-laboratory Study Completed

  • The Analytical Methods Technical Advisory Group (AMTAG) has completed a study on the proposed method for assessing petroleum hydrocarbons in soil. Environment Canada headed up the study team. The Canadian Association of Environmental Analytical Laboratories and the Centre d'expertise en analyse environmentale du Qu�bec assisted in publicizing and soliciting participation in the study. Samples were prepared by and shipped from the Wastewater Technology Centre (WTC). The study involved 31 participating labs, including the Emergencies Sciences Division of the ETC. Each laboratory was required to analyse standards, petroleum product and soils according to the proposed method. Results indicated a much more precise data set than a similar study conducted two years ago in which each lab used its own method. The outcome is that the draft method can be used, with some minor modifications, for the CWS. A final draft method will be submitted to the CWS PHC Development Committee by the end of 1999.
    [Richard Turle @ 990-8559]

November 22, 1999 - Dr. Jocelyn Par�,  MAP:

International Activities in Microwave Research

  • Dr. Jocelyn Par�, Acting Director (WTC, Burlington) and Chief, Microwave-Assisted Processes Division at the ETC, has just returned from a visit to China and Japan. The Chinese portion of the travel was part of ETC's CIDA-funded project jointly with McGill University and Nankai University in Tianjin. Dr. Par� met with his Chinese counterpart in preparation of the upcoming microwave conference to be held in May 2000 and entitled: "Microwave 2000: Sustainable Technology for the New Millennium and The Third Chinese Microwave Chemistry Symposium". For further details and the latest information regarding the conference, interested parties are invited to consult the following web sites: http://ieoc.nankai.edu.cn/symposium.htm or http://www.etcentre.org/conferences/index.html. This event promises to be one of the top activities in microwave research in the next year and will bring together internationally known experts in the field. Before returning to Canada, Dr. Par� attended meetings in Kyoto, Japan with Shimadzu Corp., where he delivered a lecture on his research activities for the benefits of Shimadzu's clients and staff. Shimadzu is a worldwide licensee of the MAPTM gas-phase technology, and Dr. Par� took the opportunity to review the latest developments in terms of equipment design to be manufactured and marketed by Shimadzu.
    [Dr. Jocelyn Par� @ 990-9122]

November 22, 1999 - Karen Aubin, ERMD:

OC Transpo Clean Diesel Demonstration Project

  • The OC Transpo Clean Diesel Project (CDP) is an on-going joint effort between the ETC, NRCan and OC Transpo to evaluate current and 'leading-edge' technologies to reduce emissions from urban-transit diesel buses. One such technology is the Detroit Diesel 'engine upgrade kit', which was certified in the USA for the US EPA Retrofit/Rebuild Requirements. The program is an effort to reduce emissions of particulate matter from older urban buses by 25% or more relative to the original engine certification levels. Environment Canada is considering adopting a similar program under the new CEPA. Two OC Transpo test vehicles were fitted with the upgrade kits. After some minor adjustments, a considerable reduction in opacity of emissions was evident. As a result of this CDP evaluation, OC Transpo has approved the use of the upgrade kits on its 6V92 engines, which represent roughly 30% of its bus fleet. This OC Transpo decision generates economic benefits via improved engine performance, and environmental benefits via a reduction in polluting emissions.
    [Karen Aubin @ 998-9590 ext. 229]

November 29, 1999 - Dr. Zhendi Wang, ESD:

Ph.D. Student from Korea in One-month Training at the ETC

  • Un-Hyuk Yim, under the guidance of Dr. Zhendi Wang of the Emergencies Science Division, is being trained in advanced chemical fingerprinting and data interpretation techniques for spill studies.
    [Dr. Zhendi Wang @ 990-1597]

November, 1999

99 Nov

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