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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]
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