In addition to the sessions made up of platform and poster presentations, the program will feature two panel discussions:
Each panel will consist of several prominent persons in the field, one of whom will serve as the moderator. Panelists will make short opening statements, following which the panel will field questions from the audience and from the moderator. Questions about panels may be addressed to chlorcon@battelle.org.
Technical Considerations of Climate Change and Hydrologic Variability When Planning and Managing Remediation Programs
Monday/Track E
Moderator:
Scott D. Warner (Geomatrix Consultants, Inc.)
Panelists:
Tim Buscheck (ChevronTexaco Research Group)
Phil Jagucki (Battelle)
Tom Mohr (Santa Clara Valley Water District)
Chin Man Mok, Ph.D. ( University of Waterloo / Geomatrix)
Jan W. Hopmans, Ph.D. (University of California-Davis)
Climate change is one of the most important environmental challenges we face. Climate and the long-term trends of climate strongly influence water resources, hydraulic cycles, and surface water management issues. With respect to environmental remediation programs, including innovative in situ methods, we must be cognizant of how trends in hydrologic cycles can affect our design and long-term management of remediation systems. In situ methods, such as bioremediation and permeable reactive barriers, rely on understanding long-term hydraulic conditions to best manage the remedy to successful completion. Changes in such factors as gradient direction, water levels, and recharge conditions could strongly influence the long-term performance of the system. This discussion will consider the potential for climate change to affect remediation programs and develop ideas for promoting the design and management of sustainable innovative solutions well into the future.
Note: A poster session on a climate change-related topic will be presented in Poster Group 1, on Monday night. For a list of presentations in that session, click here for a list of all presentations and then search on “Control of Greenhouse Gases” in that document.
Sustainable Remediation—Issues and Opportunities
Wednesday/Track F
Moderators:
Paul Hadley (CA Dept of Toxic Substances Control)
Dave Ellis (Dupont)
Panelists:
Steve Koenigsberg (WSP Environmental Strategies)
Carlos Pachon (U.S. EPA Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology)
Curtis Stanley (Shell Global Solutions [US] Inc.)
David S. Woodward (EarthTech, Inc.)
The Sustainable Remediation Forum (SURF) is working to define sustainability within the context of a cleanup, create a framework to quantify sustainability, and develop a communication strategy to facilitate regulatory and public acceptance. SURF’s general view on sustainable remediation is to minimize or eliminate energy consumption and ancillary environmental impacts from cleanups (e.g., CO2 emissions to the air); preserve natural resources; maximize the reuse of land and the recycling of materials; and promote technologies that permanently eliminate contamination. SURF suggests that sustainability can be integrated with other selection criteria, recognizing that remedial actions have unintended environmental impacts and can be prioritized based on sustainability. The aim is to establish organizational metrics to evaluate remedial options for sustainability, in addition to the traditional criteria of protectiveness, regulatory compliance, community acceptance, cost, and technical aspects. Discussions on the topic of sustainable, or “green,” remediation can range from constructive dialogue to heated debate and can generate anything from glowing optimism to significant pessimism. A diverse panel of experienced remediation professionals will discuss principles, practices, and definitions of sustainable remediation and will engage the audience over the current state of the art as well as prospects for shaping the future of this new development in remediation.