October 2021 - Page 2 of 3 - GEOTILL provides geotechnical, construction testing and Environmental services Indianapolis Indiana

Shapiro files 48 charges against pipeline company for drilling spills

Source: Shapiro files 48 charges against pipeline company for drilling spills | City & State PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro on Tuesday in Pennsylvania announced a slew of criminal charges against Energy Transfer Partners, the Texas-based company behind the construction of a controversial 350-mile natural gas pipeline that runs through 17 counties. Shapiro announced that his office filed 48 criminal charges against Energy Transfer for violating state environmental statutes, with 45 of the charges being for illegally releasing industrial waste throughout the state. The charges follow an 18-month investigation by a statewide grand jury which found that Sunoco Pipeline L.P. – which later merged with Energy Transfer – “criminally failed to properly report and address the environmental hazards created by its operations during the entirety of the pipeline project.” Shapiro said the charges stem from the illegal release of industrial waste at 22 different sites in 11 counties across the state. The grand jury’s findings detailed the release of hundreds of thousands of gallons of drilling fluid into lakes, waterways and residential areas since the pipeline’s construction began in 2017. Shapiro said upwards of 150 families suffered contaminated drinking water from construction of the pipeline. “Corporations should not be treated leniently just because there's not a mugshot of Energy Transfer being arrested today,” Shapiro said at a press conference. “They should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. That is what we are here to do – to apply the law without fear or without favor.” Shapiro announced the charges from Marsh Creek State Park in Chester County, which was polluted with between 21,000 and 28,000 gallons of drilling fluid just last year, according to the grand jury’s findings. A spokesperson for Energy Transfer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The charges prompted some to [...]

By kk42|October 6th, 2021|Drilling, Geotechnical Pennsylvania, Geotechnical Texas|0 Comments

Town officials reject Bliss Corner cleanup responsibility Dartmouth, Massachusetts

Source: Town officials reject Bliss Corner cleanup responsibility | Dartmouth 20 Kraseman St., where the PCBs were originally found. Photo by: Douglas McCulloch Dartmouth, Massachusetts officials told federal and state environmental agencies last week that the town should not be responsible for the cost of cleaning up PCBs and other toxic chemicals found in a Bliss Corner neighborhood. Meanwhile Bliss Corner residents are expressing frustration with their fortunes being left in limbo as the federal Environmental Protection Agency studies how to deal with an unknown amount of unknown hazards dumped in the area decades ago by as-of-now unidentified people or companies. Officials “categorically reject” claims by the Environmental Protection Agency that the town is responsible for transporting and locating the contaminants in the area, according to a letter written to the agency Sept. 28 by attorney Roy P. Giarrusso on behalf of the town. The EPA recently identified dangerously high levels of contaminants in five properties in the Bliss Corner neighborhood, which sparked the call for clean-up. The exact location of parcels being referenced and the source of information citing the town’s responsibility for transporting and locating the material to the area have not been identified, the letter reads. The letter was sent by the law firm of Giarrusso Norton Cooley and McGlone, a Quincy-based firm serving as counsel to the town on this issue. “The town categorically rejects EPA’s suggestion that the town is somehow an arranger or (even more perplexing) a transporter of hazardous substances to unspecified properties in the Bliss Corner Neighborhood,” according to the letter. “The Town is still left guessing where, exactly, EPA plans to conduct the work,” it read. “For that reason alone, the notice fails as a matter of law.” This past April, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection issued “Notice of Responsibility” letters to Dartmouth [...]

By kk42|October 6th, 2021|Fall River, Lynn, Quincy, Geotechnical Massachusetts, Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Lowell, Cambridge, Brockton, New Bedford|0 Comments

Hideaway Hills residents still have no answers about mine situation

Source: Hideaway Hills residents remain in the dark, still no answers about mine situation - KNBN NewsCenter1 BLACK HAWK, S.D. — Residents of Hideaway Hills remain in limbo regarding the homes in the vicinity of the abandoned gypsum mine. The mine first came into the public eye around April of 2020, when sinkholes opened in the area to reveal it. More information became available in September, when the Montana Tech study made it known the mine was larger than originally believed. The affected area now extends along the eastern side on Interstate 90. Residents have heard their community was built on an old gypsum mine. The sinkholes opening up last year gave confirmation to their suspicions. “All the older generations talk about playing down in the mine,” resident Courtney Ahrendt said. “And they’re like ‘Oh yeah, we all knew about it.'” Ahrendt has lived in the Hideaway Hills community since 2012, and has seen the ground and structures nearby shifting first-hand. In her backyard alone, her back porch has a significant lean. Parts of the pavement have also shifted inches upward, posing as a potential tripping hazard. “It’s been advised not to let your children play in the dirt,” she added, “Mostly because they’re [lungs] not fully developed and inhaling that dirt is always most concerning.” Since the mine’s discovery, residents have seen significant changes in the area. Most notably shifting pavement and structures on top of the sinkholes already in place. Some, like Ahrendt, are even avoiding parts of their own homes. “Well now that we know there’s a mine under there, do we know that it’s settling or do we know that it might be falling in? I will not sleep downstairs. I haven’t slept downstairs since a couple of weeks after it opened. I sleep upstairs with [...]

By kk42|October 6th, 2021|Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Aberdeen, Watertown, Brookings, Mitchell, Pierre, Yankton, Huron, Sinkholes, Vermillion, Geotechnical South Dakota|0 Comments

Why the Himalayas are crumbling

Source: On a precipice: Why the Himalayas are crumbling The landslides were inevitable, Sunni Ram keeps saying. His village, Thatch, is located right above a highway near Nigulsari village of Kinnaur district, where a massive landslide on August 11 killed 28 people; another 13 were injured. A month ago, another landslide in this district in Himachal Pradesh had killed nine tourists and damaged a bridge. While the incidents have made the headlines due to the high casualties, Ram says, this is not the first time landslides have occurred at these places. “Another landslide near Thatch in 2019 killed three dozen sheep and goats,” he adds. Rockfalls have also become frequent in the last few years. It’s as if the Himalaya is crumbling from these spots, says Ram. A team from the Geological Survey of India, following their visit to Nigulsari, has said in its report that a steeply inclined slope and incessant rainfall are behind the incident. Ram and several other residents of Thatch and Nigulsari, however, blame it on the 1,500 MW Nathpa Jhakri Power Project on the Sutlej. The project has a 27.4 km long headrace tunnel for conveying water to the underground power station. This tunnel, dubbed one of the longest in the world, passes under Nigulsari and Thatch and is not far away from the spot where the landslide occurred. “The effects of the heavy explosions made during the construction of the tunnel in the late 1990s are becoming visible now,” says Govind Moyan, deputy head of Nigulsari gram panchayat. All the five villages under this panchayat, including Nigulsari and Thatch, are affected in some or the other way by the Nathpa Jhakri project. Almost every house has cracks on its walls along with fissures in the fields and gardens. Springs too have dried up, says [...]

By kk42|October 6th, 2021|Geotechnical California, Geotechnical Oregon, Geotechnical Washington|0 Comments

Mine reclamation project underway in Buchanan County

Source: Mine reclamation project underway in Buchanan County | Local News | bdtonline.com GRUNDY, Va. — A mine reclamation project is underway in Buchanan County that state officials say will protect 22 homes. According to the Virginia Department of Energy, a state agency formerly known as the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, a $699,108 reclamation project is underway on multiple sites along the Lynn Camp Creek area of Buchanan County. The agency said abandoned mine land features at those sites are considered a danger to 22 nearby homes as well as an environmental concern to the community. An Abandoned Mine Land (AML) grant has been awarded to repair the area, including landslides, drainage issues and closing old mine openings. “Ridding the Lynn Camp Creek community of several of these hazards is the number one goal of our AML program,” Virginia Energy AML Projects Coordinator Lesa Baker said in a prepared statement. “We have thousands of these features across the Commonwealth and we evaluate those that can have the greatest impact every day. With the safety and environmental improvements made during this work, we can celebrate another successful AML reclamation project on the books.” The state has contracted with C&S Construction and Excavating, LLC for the project. Baker said crews will remove and repair damages caused by four landslides. In all, 27 mine openings created for underground coal mining will be closed to the public but in a way that ensures long term drainage of the historic mine works, the agency said. Proper drainage also will be established in the community to prevent erosion and protect nearby streams. On Oct. 1 of this month, the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME) became Virginia Energy. The Abandoned Mine Land program now falls under the Mined Land Repurposing program within Virginia Energy.

By kk42|October 6th, 2021|Geotechnical Virginia, Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Richmond, Newport News, Hampton, Alexandria, Portsmouth, Roanoke, Lynchburg|0 Comments

Cleveland Heights hires engineering firm for review of recommendation to remove Horseshoe Lake dam

Source: Cleveland Heights hires engineering firm for review of recommendation to remove Horseshoe Lake dam - cleveland.com CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- The city has hired its engineering firm to conduct a peer review of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District’s recommendation to remove Horseshoe Lake dam and restore Doan Brook to its earlier natural state. Gannett Fleming Engineers and Architects, based in Camp Hill, Pa., with an office in Fairlawn, agreed last month to do the assessment for $9,000. Plans are to complete the initial review within two weeks of the city’s notice to proceed. From there, Gannett Fleming will take part in a virtual meeting with city officials to present its findings and answer questions, with written commentary to be provided within two weeks of that, according to a “scope of services” agreement. Meanwhile, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District CEO Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells sent an update to Cleveland Heights council last week also asking that the city “consider its concurrence with our recommended approach by Nov. 8.” On Sept. 27, Shaker Heights City Council approved its “resolution of concurrence” with the NEORSD recommendations, also being sought from Cleveland Heights council as well, since both cities lease the designated parkland from the City of Cleveland. Cleveland Heights council decided last month to seek a “second opinion” on the $28.3 million proposal to remove the lake and dam, as well as keeping Lower Shaker Lake intact with a refortified dam and dredging -- at no cost to either city. “We are confident in our recommendation to the cities of Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights to restore Doan Brook through removal of Horseshoe Lake dam,” Dreyfuss-Wells stated. The Gannett Fleming peer review will likely include “hydrologic and hydraulic analyses and an evaluation of engineering alternatives to address identified deficiencies, and that the evaluations [...]

By kk42|October 6th, 2021|Toledo, Akron, Dayton, Parma, Canton, Youngstown, Lorain, Geotechnical Ohio, Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati|0 Comments

Hazardous Waste Enforcement Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment

Source: Hazardous Waste Enforcement: Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment - Division of Environmental Quality and Pulaski County Wastewater Treatment Chemicals Blender/Distributor Enter into Consent Administrative Order | Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates The Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment - Division of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”) and Ecotech Enterprises, Inc. (“EEI”) entered into a September 15th Consent Administrative Order (“CAO”) addressing alleged violations of Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission (“APC&EC”) Regulation No. 23 (Hazardous Waste Regulations). See LIS No. 21-091. EEI is stated to blend, package, manufacture and distribute wastewater treatment chemicals and products for use in industrial and municipal potable water and wastewater treatment facilities at a facility in Pulaski County, Arkansas. DEQ conducted a Complaint Investigation at the EEI facility on July 18, 2018. The CAO provides that DEQ noted several containers of waste that could not be identified by facility personnel. Further, wastewaters generated at the facility were stated to be collected in a 2,870-gallon Equalization Tank (“EQ Tank”), then pumped into 275-gallon containers and transported to a POTW for disposal. The wastewater was stated to not be analyzed prior to shipment off-site. DEQ is stated to have conducted an unannounced sampling event in conjunction with a Compliance Evaluation Inspection (“CEI”) on August 29, 2018, to document potential unidentified hazardous waste streams. The CAO provides that based on the findings of the August 29, 2018, CEI, the following APC&EC alleged violations were identified: Failure to make waste determinations on waste streams located through the facility Failure to make a hazardous waste determination on a referenced waste stream Failure to use manifests in certain instances Failure to obtain an EPA identification number prior to transporting hazardous waste Failure to properly label or mark containers and tanks Failure to mark containers with an accumulation start date Failure to keep [...]

By kk42|October 6th, 2021|Fayetteville, Jonesboro, Pine Bluff, Springdale, Conway, Rogers, Hot Springs, Geotechnical Arkansas, Little Rock, Fort Smith, North Little Rock|0 Comments

Drone Rules Make Tracking Down Faults a Difficult Feat

Chelsea Scott looks on as Michael Bunds lands a fixed-wing drone in Southern California. Credit: Jui-Chi (Vickie) Lee Source: Drone Rules Make Tracking Down Faults a Difficult Feat - Eos Chelsea Scott and Ramón Arrowsmith, like many earthquake scientists, track down faults. As tectonics researchers at Arizona State University, they need to know where a fault is, how much it’s moved, and how it behaves below the surface. Small uncrewed aerial systems, also known as drones, provide them with high-resolution photographs that capture the necessary information at the scale of centimeters—a higher resolution than some commonly used, easily accessible satellite or airborne data sets. However, collecting drone data along the length of a fault is no simple task. Bigger Is Better A magnitude 7.0 earthquake can produce a 62-mile-long (100-kilometer-long) rupture with surface displacements of up to about 3 feet (1 meter), said Arrowsmith. “You need to have a good enough ruler to measure [that],” he said, which imagery collected from drones can easily provide. The problem, he said, is rapidly covering a 62-mile stretch. Nearly every country that regulates drone operations recommends or requires that pilots maintain visual contact with their drone. One way around the problem is to use a bigger drone. Cheap, heavy quadcopters—helicopters that can easily take off and land—are small compared with lightweight, expensive fixed-wing drones that look like tiny airplanes. In February 2020, Scott and three colleagues spent almost 4 days mapping 25 miles (40 kilometers) of the San Andreas Fault in Southern California. Although they had quadcopters, Scott said “the workhorse was the fixed-wing drone.” “Because fixed-wing drones are so expensive, flight planning is done very, very carefully, and unfortunately the project is over if the drone crashes.” The average quadcopter can be spotted approximately half a mile (0.8 kilometer) away; mapping long linear features like [...]

By kk42|October 6th, 2021|Geotechnical California, Geotechnical Nevada, Geotechnical Utah, Earthquakes, Geotechnical USA, Geotechnical US, Geotechnical Arizona|0 Comments

Peer-Reviewed Paper Explains Unprecedented Performance of BioLargo’s AOS Water Treatment Technology

Source: Peer-Reviewed Paper Explains Unprecedented Performance of BioLargo's AOS Water Treatment Technology - Digital Journal WESTMINSTER, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 4, 2021 / BioLargo, Inc. (OTCQB:BLGO), a developer of sustainable cleantech technologies and full-service environmental engineering company, announced the publication of an important peer-reviewed article confirming that its innovative water treatment technology, the Advanced Oxidation System (AOS), generates highly energetic iodine molecules. The article establishes the foundational scientific principles about why the AOS is a powerful, efficient, and novel water treatment technology. The BioLargo AOS, which is currently deployed in a demonstration pilot project at a municipal wastewater treatment plant, is a ground-breaking water treatment platform that provides rapid and effective disinfection and concurrent organics removal while consuming less electricity than other common treatment technologies. The AOS has previously been shown in bench-scale and pilot-scale studies to exhibit greater water disinfection and decontamination performance than would be expected in similar water treatment technologies. This spurred BioLargo scientists and academic collaborators to elucidate the exact electrochemical mechanisms of the AOS in this study. The paper, published in the American Chemical Society’s journal ES&T Water, examines the mechanism by which the BioLargo AOS produces such rapid and effective disinfection performance relative to past electrochemical water treatment technologies. The study used the Canadian Light Source particle accelerator to perform advanced measurements of the chemical reactions that occur inside the AOS during operation. This technique revealed that the AOS generates highly oxidized iodine molecules that the researchers concluded are likely responsible for the technology’s elevated disinfection efficacy. These special iodine molecules were only present inside the active layers of the AOS and were neutralized before water flowed out of the AOS. Dr. Richard Smith, President of BioLargo Water commented, “Our AOS technology is a technical leap forward in advanced water treatment. This study is [...]

By kk42|October 5th, 2021|Geotechnical California, Geotechnical New Mexico, Geotechnical Oklahoma, Geotechnical Texas, Geotechnical West Virginia|0 Comments

Kirkwood Lake, other Superfund waterways finally to get cleanup

Source: Kirkwood Lake, other Superfund waterways finally to get cleanup The federal government finally has decided to clean up Kirkwood Lake and other waterways connected with the Sherwin-Williams/Lucas Paintworks Superfund Site in Camden County. The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that the next phase of the extensive Superfund site cleanup would be dredging of three contaminated lakes and one creek that span three communities — Gibbsboro, Voorhees and Lindenwold. "Hallelujah!" was the reaction of activist Alice Johnston, head of the Kirkwood Lake Environmental Committee. The committee has clamored for years for the cleanup of Kirkwood lake, as have residents and officials from Camden County, Gibbsboro and Voorhees in New Jersey. The lake borders on Voorhees and Lindenwold and is downstream from the former paint plant site in neighboring Gibbsboro. The other contaminated waterways due for cleanup are Silver Lake, Bridgewood Lake and Hilliard's Creek. "It has been a long haul. The Superfund site dates to 1980 when it was discovered and documented, but the first testing was not done until 1999," Johnston recalled. Besides contamination, Kirkwood Lake has become very shallow and is prone to vegetation growth that the county has tried to manage through herbicide spraying. “This final decision addresses the communities’ expressed desire that we clean up contamination in these waterbodies," said acting EPA Regional Administrator Walter Mugdan. He said the cleanup also will protect people "from exposure to arsenic and lead contamination in the soil and sediment while preserving valued community wetlands." An elated Camden County Director Jeffrey Nash called the EPA decision "a goal we all have been working toward for years." He credited persistence by local residents and especially by Gibbsboro Mayor Ed Campbell, who has been pushing for clean-up of multiple sites for several decades. Past cleanup phases have focused on the Route 561 Dump Site and the United States Avenue Burn [...]

By kk42|October 4th, 2021|Elizabeth, Edison, Woodbridge, Dover, Hamilton, Trenton, Camden, Geotechnical New Jersey, Newark, Jersey City, Paterson|0 Comments

Monthly Archives: October 2021