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ENGINEERING FORUM TELECONFERENCE
December 3, 2008
Topics in this month's minutes:
- Winter 2009 TSP Meeting
- 2009 NARPM Conference
- Evergreen List Review
- Participation Agreements and EF Bylaws
- Co-Chair Election
- Participants
WINTER 2009 TSP MEETING
The winter 2009 TSP meeting will be held the week of January 26, 2009, at the Holiday Inn on the Bay in San Diego, CA. Participating forum members should register for the conference through the Trainex website (www.trainex.org/tsp). Hotel reservations can be made by clicking on a passkey link found on Trainex. The deadline for reserving a hotel room is January 16, 2009, if rooms are still available.
EPA participants are invited to attend the USGS sessions scheduled for Monday and Tuesday (January 26 and 27). These sessions will discuss the accomplishments, technology transfer, and future priorities for research in the areas of fractured rock aquifers, petroleum contamination, wastewater effluent, landfills, and mixed wastes. A joint TSP plenary session is planned for Wednesday afternoon. During the joint session, Hilary Thornton (Region 3) will present an overview of recent EF activities. Kira Lynch (Region 10) will discuss TSP coordination with NARPM during the joint session. In addition, the three TSP forums will discuss potential joint projects. An agenda can be found at www.trainex.org/tsp.
The EF will host its business session on Wednesday, January 28, and a joint field trip with the Federal Facilities Forum on Thursday, January 29. The Wednesday business session will consist of issue paper working reviews, brainstorming sessions, and a green remediation session with Carlos Pachon (TIFSD). Sandra Bourgeois (Region 8) will lead a session on engineering challenges at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. If any other EF members would like to present on a particular topic or site, they should contact Hilary. Steven Chang (OSRTI) asked the co-chairs to set aside some time during the business session to discuss his proposal to increase voluntary, short-term collaboration with all the ORD Labs to supplement the assistance provided by the ORD Technical Support Centers. Due to diminishing resources, he thinks there may be ways to explore additional ORD technical support for the Regions.
Potential field trip locations include the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) at Naval Base Point Loma, the Superfund Basic Research Program (SBRP) at University of California, San Diego, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. When registering for the meeting on Trainex, EF members should indicate whether they plan to participate on the field trip so that adequate transportation can be arranged.
State participants should contact John Quander (quander.john@epa.gov) for information on travel reimbursement for attending the January TSP meeting.
2009 NARPM CONFERENCE
The 2009 NARPM conference likely will be held in Atlanta the first week of June. The EF will take the lead on a green remediation session with Carlos Pachon, but the scope and duration of the session needs to be defined. Stephanie Vaughn (Region 2) suggested that the EF consider hosting a session on the containment failure project being coordinated by Eva Davis (ORD/NRMRL-Ada). Mike will contact Kira to see if the project will be far enough along by early June. EF members should forward additional topics of interest to Kira.
EVERGREEN LIST REVIEW
Mike Gill reviewed the status of items on the evergreen list. Among the updates:
- Ray Cody’s (Region 1) Indoor Air Vapor Intrusion Mitigation Approaches paper has been completed and is available on Clu-In (http://www.clu-in.org/download/char/600r08115.pdf).
- Dave Reisman (NRMRL, Cinc.) said that contractor scope of work for the Technology Alternatives for the Remediation of Soil and Sediment Contaminated with PCBs issue paper is being finalized. This paper will take a year to update and rewrite.
- Terry Burton (Region 6 STL) reported that the ISCOlessons-learned paper is almost complete and should be available in early 2009.
- Eva Davis’s (ORD/NRMRL-Ada) containment failure project is moving forward. The survey of RPMs was distributed along with the NARPM training needs survey, which is due by December 5.
- Jon Bornholm (Region 4) will wait for the EF participation agreement/bylaws to be completed before beginning the process of recruiting new state participants. Hilary will discuss the status of the bylaws with Jon.
- Raji Josiam (Region 6) reported that the first green remediation Internet seminar was held on November 24 (Introduction to Green Remediation). This seminar was well attended, with more than 160 active phone lines and Internet streams. The next two seminars are scheduled for December 16 (Tools and Case Studies I) and January 13 (Tools and Case Studies II). Raji noted that Regions 1 and 10, neither of which have representatives on the green remediation subcommittee, have not yet reserved their phone lines for the January seminar. Raji also reported that the Superfund Green Remediation Committee is looking for new members for their five workgroups. The technical team is lead by Carlos and Deb Goldblum (Region 3). EF members interested in participating on one of the workgroups should contact Deb.
- Mike noted that the green remediation subcommittee is in the process of selecting three ground-water models for the online energy calculator. Factors that are influencing which remedies are selected include amount of energy used and frequency of selection. In addition to selecting ground-water remedies, the subcommittee will do quality control checks on existing soil remedy data.
PARTICIPATION AGREEMENTS AND EF BYLAWS
Hilary Thornton and Gary Miller (Region 6) continue to work on developing EF bylaws that link to the EF strategic plan and a streamlined participation agreement. Gary has provided Hilary with comments on the existing version of the document. They will update the EF on this topic during the January teleconference.
CO-CHAIR ELECTION
Mike Gill’s term as co-chair ends at the January TSP meeting. Nominations for his replacement should be sent to Keith Arnold (keith.arnold@emsus.com) by December 31. Voting will take place in early January. Mike Gill nominated Stephanie Vaughn to be the next co-chair, and she accepted the nomination.
PARTICIPANTS
Stephanie Vaughn, Region 2
Kevin Bilash, Region 3
Donna McCartney, Region 3
Andy Palestini, Region 3
Jon Bornholm, Region 4
Julie Santiago, Region 4
Nate Nemani, Region 5
Bernie Schorle, Region 5
Terry Burton, Region 6 STL
Raji Josiam, Region 6
Mike Davis, Region 7
Bill Rothenmeyer, Region 8
Mike Gill, Region 9 STL
Steven Chang, OSRTI
Marti Otto, TIFSD
Dave Reisman, NRMRL, Cinc.
Lindsey Lien, USACE
Jim Harrington, NYSDEC
John Muegge, CA DTSC
Keith Arnold, EMS, Inc.
In an effort to foster scientific and technical advances in characterization, monitoring and remediation of contaminated sites, the EPA Technical Support Project encourages full and frank discussion of all technical matters and related issues that come before it.Information presented in these minutes represents the views of the participants and has not received formal EPA peer review. Therefore, this information does not necessarily reflect the views of EPA or other participating organizations, and no official endorsement should be inferred. The information is not intended, nor can it be relied upon, to create any rights enforceable by any party in litigation with the United States or any other party. Use or mention of trade names does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation for use. Errors and omissions in the information will be corrected as they are found and time permits.