Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for October
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Drinking Water Issues in Ethnic Groups Living in the Mountains of Southern China
Fri, Oct 01, 2004 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
This seminar talk will be presented by Dr. Derek E.Chitwood, Technical Director
Partners in Hope, Inc.
Partnering to provide hope for the minority people of Asia.Abstract:The mountainous regions of south-west China are chiefly populated by minority peoples. Greater than 90% of these are farmers with very low income levels and poor education. Most villages are comprised of 200 to 500 people and use springs for their water source. The local governments have worked hard to install water piping system for villages, but are overwhelmed by the great need. Because of the increase in population and resulting deforestation, springs in or near the village are now often dried up. As a result village have turned to springs further way from their village. Some are as far away as 6 km from the village served. Beyond the economic difficulties, there is also great difficulties resulting from lack of education and technical expertise. Springs are often improperly developed and left open, exposed to the elements. Individual farmers, seeing that the land is unused above the spring, have seized it and planted crops. Because the custom in China is to use night soil as fertilizer and because the springs are not properly contained, biological contaminates regularly enter. Few villages have a "water master" and few have any type of maintenance program. As a result of these situations, most villages water systems are in very poor conditions, physically and quality wise. In the district where we work the average concentration of E. coli at the spring was 24.8/100 ml and at the in village cisterns the average was 83.3/100ml (based on 164 samples over a 3 month period). This is obviously far greater than the WHO standard for E. coli of less than 1/100ml. Local people and local officials alike have the desire to address these problems, but often lack the finances and technical ability to solve these long term problems.Location: Seeley G. Mudd Bldg., Room 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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The Use of Visual Engineering Techniques at Major Environmental Remediation Projects
Fri, Oct 08, 2004 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Presented by Dr. Ian A. Webster
President and Founder
Project Navigator, Ltd.
Brea, CAAbstractProject Navigator, Ltd. (PNL) is an environmental engineering project management firm which is presently working on some of the west coast's most complex remediation projects. The sites tend to be old, abandoned oil field waste disposal sites from the 1930's to the 1970's which coincided with the peak in oil production in Southern California. With rising land values, these sites are also now attractive land redevelopment prospects. The technical and political challenge is to devise remedial solutions which are cost-effective and protective of the environment, while at the same time do not compromise any longer term development opportunities, whether they be for housing or recreation. Site remedies also need to be endorsed by local communities, city stakeholders, and environmental activists. This is a difficult challenge, for the data on which a remedy is selected is highly technical, complex and voluminous. Many stakeholders typically exercise their rights to understand this information and interpret the data in a manner which is consistent with their own interests. This is where environmental engineering, public policy and politics collide. One solution technique is to believe that informed project stakeholders will be more agreeable to work with. To overcome information interpretation and communication challenges, PNL has been making extensive use of data and digital site visualization techniques. We use the following tools to explain our work: animation, storyboarding, model building, and interactive 3D data displays. This talk will focus on some case studies and demonstrate the value added by employing visual engineering to assist in project advocacy.Location: Seeley G.Mudd Bldg., Room 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Vehicle-to-Grid Power: A New Source of Clean Transportation and Clean Electric Power
Fri, Oct 15, 2004 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Sepaker:
Dr. Jasna Tomic´
University of Delaware
College of Marine Studies
Newark, DEAbstract:
Pollution problems motivate the use of alternative zero-pollution vehicles which today are mostly electric-drive vehicles (EDVs). These vehicles can provide clean transportation but can also be used as a source of power for the grid. Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) power refers to electric-drive vehicle providing power to the electric grid when they are parked. Battery electric-drive vehicles can store energy in the batteries and later discharge to sell it into certain electricity markets at opportune times. Especially suitable market for V2G is an ancillary service market for regulation services because it has a very high value while minimally stressing the vehicle power storage system. We evaluated the economic potential of utility-owned fleets of battery electric-drive vehicles to provide power for regulation services. As case studies we analyze two actual battery-electric fleets, consisting of: (a) 100 Th!nk City in New York, operated by commuters, and (b) 252 Toyota RAV4 EDVs in California, operated by utility staff. The economic results vary across fleets, which demonstrates the importance of fleet-specific and region-specific analysis. Factors that emerge as important variables are: (a) the market value of ancillary services, (b) the power capacity (kW) of the vehicle and electrical connection, and (c) the energy capacity (kWh) of the vehicle's battery. Contrary to expectations, the amount of time the vehicles were on the road or discharged did not turn out to be a major variable. The results show that battery electric-drive fleets have significant potential revenue streams from vehicle-to-grid power. We predict that in the short term, electric-drive vehicles will be tapped for high value electricity markets such as regulation services. As those markets are saturated, V2G can begin to serve markets for peak power and storage for renewable electric generation.Seeley G Mudd Bldg., Room 101Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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From the movie Erin Brockovich to the hexavalent chromium pollution in groundwater and clean-up at
Fri, Oct 22, 2004 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker:
Kai Dunn, Ph.D., P.E.
Water Resource Control Engineer
California Regional Water Quality Control Board
Lahontan Region Victorville OfficeAbstract
The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) Hinkley Compressor Station (near Barstow) compresses natural gas before transporting it through. Between 1952 and 1966, PG&E used hexavalent chromium Cr(VI) as an anti-corrosion agent in the cooling tower water. Since 1952 wastewater containing Cr(VI) discharged to unlined evaporation ponds and percolated to the groundwater aquifer resulted in pollution. Hinkley Cr(VI) pollution came to light in a 1987 water quality survey. Beginning in 1992, PG&E installed a groundwater remediation system which extracted groundwater containing Cr(VI) and used it to irrigate alfalfa fields on land. In 2001, the California Regional Water Quality Control Board Lahontan Region issued a Cleanup and Abatement Order to shut down the remediation system to eliminate the threatening nuisance condition due to the spray irrigation which could be releasing Cr(VI) into the air. The most current project approved by the Lahontan Board to clean Cr(VI) from polluted groundwater includes stopping further migration of the Cr(VI) plume and reducing Cr(VI) to non-toxic trivalent chromium Cr(III) using natural process in the soil through subsurface irrigation. The other project, in-situ remediation, aims to clean the plume's most contaminated part using injection of biological reagents such as emulsified vegetable oil (EVO) and food-grade lactate into groundwater to enhance reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III).Location: Seeley G. Mudd Bldg., Room 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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The City of Riversides Experiences with Perchlorate Removal Treatment
Fri, Oct 29, 2004 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Owen Lu, P.E.
Water Systems Operations Manager
Riverside Public Utilities
Riverside, CAAbstract:
Water is a resource basic to life itself the quality of life would decline if this precious resource were limited in supply and quality. Although an occurrence is rare, the impact of contaminated water to the community is astronomical. Thus, the integrity of the infrastructure, competency of the staff, adequacy of the water supply, and wholesome of the potable water has always been the first priority of Federal and State regulators. Due to a recent movie "Erin Brockovich," the water quality gained increasing attentions from public. Consequently, countless lawsuits are filed and pending nationwide, and the industry has become regulation-driven, lawsuit-driven, and customer services-driven.Perchlorate is one of the emerging contaminants in the drinking water. As such, economically viable removal treatment technologies are limited. After a series of pilot-scale studies, environmental restriction reviews, and cost-benefit analyses, the City decided to operate a fixed-bed, toss-away, perchlorate-selective ion exchange technology. This presentation will briefly review the existing regulatory requirements, perchlorate removal treatment technologies and their restrictions, and issues with designing, constructing, and operating an ion exchange plant. A demonstration study was conducted to verify whether the resin would cause any impact to the downstream water quality.Like many other industries, the water industry is facing the challenges of demographic changes. This presentation also briefly discusses the trends of the industry, and provides a few recommendations to the young professional who may be interested in pursuing a career in this industry.Location: Seeley G. Mudd Bldg., Room 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes