Contact Conference Staff
The nine short courses listed below will be offered on Monday, February 2, before the Conference begins. Courses are open to both Conference registrants and nonregistrants. Certificates of completion will be distributed at the conclusion of each class. Go to Registration for information about fees and the cancellation/refund policy, and to register online or print the registration form. Note: The maximum discount applies to fees paid by October 31. Prospective short course attendees should preregister no later than December 15—classroom space allocations and production of materials will be determined by the number registered for each course by that date. If insufficient registrations are received for a given course by December 15, the course will be canceled, with registrants’ fees being transferred to other courses selected by the registrants or refunded. Course registrations will be accepted after December 15 if space is available. Course registration cancellations received by November 30 will be refunded less a $10 service fee. No course refunds will be made after November 30, but paid no-shows will receive all course material. Substitutions will be accepted at any time, preferably with advance notice.
Inquiries about course registration should be addressed to The Conference Group-e-mail: info@confgroupinc.com; telephone: 800-783-6338 (USA and Canada) or 614-488-2030; fax: 614-488-5747.
Monday, 8:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.
Technical Guidelines for Environmental Dredging
Monday, 8:00 A.M. - Noon
Evaluating Sediment Transport: Tools, Techniques, and Application to Site Management
Using Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to Identify Sustainable Sediment Management Solutions in a Multistakeholder Environment
The Role of Stable Isotopes in Monitoring the Remediation of Contaminated Sediments and Other Sites
Building a Better Background Data Set
Monday, 1:00 – 5:00 P.M.
Active Capping Approaches and Modeling
Incorporating Habitat Enhancement and Compensatory Mitigation into Sediment Remediation Design
Evaluation of Monitored Natural Recovery (MNR) Potential at Contaminated Sediment Sites
Geochemical Evaluations of Metals in Environmental Media: How to Distinguish Naturally Elevated Concentrations from Site-Related Contamination
Technical Guidelines for Environmental Dredging (Monday, 8:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.)
Instructors: Michael R. Palermo, Ph.D. (Mike Palermo Consulting), Norman R. Francingues (OA Systems Corporation), and Paul R. Schroeder, Ph.D. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)
Objective: Provide engineering guidelines for technical evaluation of environmental dredging for remediation of contaminated sediment sites.
Overview: Historically, the sediment cleanup strategy most commonly used by the Superfund program has been environmental dredging, using several equipment types and approaches and followed by dewatering and disposal of the contaminated material. This short course provides engineering guidelines for technical evaluation of environmental dredging for remediation of contaminated sediment sites. The intended audience includes stakeholders (agency personnel, potentially responsible parties, design consultants, and contractors) involved in the evaluation and design of sediment remedies of which environmental dredging is a component. Topics covered include: evaluating site conditions and sediment characteristics for dredging; performance standards for environmental dredging; evaluation and selection of dredging equipment types; estimating production and project duration; predicting sediment resuspension, contaminant releases, and dredging residuals; control measures such as silt curtains; operating approaches and strategies; and monitoring for environmental dredging. Lessons learned from case studies will be included for each topic. The content of the course reflects the USACE/USEPA document Technical Guidelines for Environmental Dredging of Contaminated Sediments, authored by the course instructors. Knowledge gained from the course can be applied at any of several phases of a sediment remediation project including the Remedial Investigation (RI), Feasibility Study (FS), and Remedial Design (RD) phases under the CERCLA framework, or similar phases under other remedial frameworks.
Tentative course outline:
1. Overview of Environmental Dredging Evaluations
2. Site and Sediment Characterization
3. Performance Standards
4. Operations and Processes
5. Equipment Capabilities and Selection Factors
6. Production Estimates and Prediction of Resuspension, Release, and Residuals
7. Dredging Management and Control Measures to Ensure Containment
8. Operating Methods and Strategies
9. Monitoring
Evaluating Sediment Transport: Tools, Techniques, and Application to Site Management (Monday, 8:00 A.M.–Noon)
Instructors: Craig Jones, Ph.D. (Sea Engineering, Inc.) and Jesse Roberts (Sandia National Laboratories)
Objective: Provide a solid understanding of sediment stability and the most common methods for sediment characterization and transport quantification.
Overview: Because many contaminants of concern at aquatic sites are bound in the bottom sediments, sediment stability and subsequent sediment transport have been of great interest to site managers for decades. To help standardize the management of contaminated sediment sites, the EPA has developed guidance documents including the Principles for Managing Contaminated Sediment Risk at Hazardous Waste Sites and the Contaminated Sediment Remediation Guidance for Hazardous Waste Sites manual. To address the need to evaluate sediment transport, many tools and techniques have been developed to characterize and quantify the fundamental processes involved. One of the biggest challenges remaining for site managers is determining how best to utilize these tools to address common site management questions. This course will present common site management questions that rely on sediment stability information. The questions will be presented in the context of a “generic” conceptual site model for sediment transport to illustrate how transport relates to overall site management. The most commonly employed devices and techniques for determining sediment stability will be outlined, and specific features of each method will be highlighted. The focus then will move on to a more detailed description of sediment erosion measurements. The description will include data from real-world sites to showcase qualitatively what the data mean and how the data set can be used with other commonly acquired site measurements. This will be followed by a discussion of how the common sediment stability tools and techniques can be integrated to provide information of direct use in answering site management questions.
Tentative course outline:
1. Common Sediment Management Questions Related to Sediment Transport
2. Development of a Conceptual Site Model
3. Hydrodynamic Processes
4. Sediment Properties
5. Sediment Processes—erosion, deposition, transport
6. Review the Conceptual Site Model
7. Field Measurements—bathymetry, hydrodynamics, sediment transport and stability
8. Applications to Site Management—refine conceptual site model, discuss other modeling options, develop answers to sediment transport questions
Using Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to Identify Sustainable Sediment Management Solutions in a Multistakeholder Environment (Monday, 8:00 A.M.–Noon)
Instructors: Jody A. Kubitz, Ph.D.; Timothy J. Havranek; and Laura Musikanski, JD, CEM (ENTRIX, Inc.)
Objective: Illustrate the use of MCDA to evaluate sediment management remedial options.
Overview: Management of contaminated sediments presents technical, legal, environmental, economic, and social challenges that must be overcome to develop successful and sustained solutions for our public waterways. Sustainable solutions must protect human health and the environment, while supporting economic activity and social welfare and preventing waste of financial resources. Conflicts in setting priorities for these multiple initiatives and among the stakeholders who represent them are not uncommon. While many assessments of sustainability emphasize energy use, climate change, and carbon footprints, broader evaluations that include social, environmental and economic performances and impacts are better suited to assess the sustainability of sediment management solutions. In this short course, participants will assume the roles of various stakeholder groups and use facilitated multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) to evaluate the sustainability of a variety of sediment management remedies for a fictitious site. There will be a brief introduction of the MCDA method, sustainability frameworks and Global Reporting Initiative indicators, followed by the description of the site and the stakeholder groups. The remainder of the short course will involve facilitated, interactive role-playing using MCDA to comparatively evaluate sediment management options for combined environmental, social, and economic performance. The intended audience includes agency and industry decision makers, but all stakeholders can benefit from the course.
Tentative course outline:
1. Sustainability Frameworks and Global Reporting Initiative Indicators
2. Discussion of the Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MDCA) Method
3. Hands-on Interactive Session—site description and challenges; stakeholder groups (roles); interactive MCDA session
The Role of Stable Isotopes in Monitoring the Remediation of Contaminated Sediments and Other Sites (Monday, 8:00 A.M.–Noon)
Instructor: Paul Philp, Ph.D. (University of Oklahoma)
Objective: Introduce stable isotope geochemistry and describe how it may be applied to various environmental problems related to remediation, including the potential for monitoring attenuation of volatile compounds such as PCE, MTBE, and BTEX in contaminated sediments and groundwater.
Overview: Stable carbon and hydrogen isotopes have been used for many decades in the petroleum industry, but there has been a virtual explosion in applications in the petroleum exploration, environmental, and forensic geochemical fields with the development of combined gas chromatography-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GCIRMS). This workshop will present an introduction to stable isotope geochemistry and discuss applications of stable isotopes to various environmental problems, including their potential for monitoring attenuation of volatile compounds such as PCE, MTBE, and BTEX in contaminated sediments and groundwater. The concept of stable isotopes will be introduced, with particular attention to carbon, hydrogen, and chlorine isotopes. Techniques for determination of isotope values will be described along with the advantages and disadvantages of the GCIRMS approach. Stable isotopes have an obvious major role in monitoring natural attenuation of contaminants. There already are an extensive number of published applications where stable isotopes have been used for this purpose, particularly with the chlorinated solvents, MTBE and BTEX. At present, stable isotopes are not used routinely for monitoring attenuation of larger molecules, such as PAHs, various pesticide residues, and explosive residues such as TNT, RDX, and HDX. However, methods currently being developed may make this possible in the future. The course will provide information on incorporating isotope data into quantitation models to determine the extent and timing of attenuation. Most applications to date have involved the use of carbon and hydrogen isotopes. However, there is a growing interest in the utilization of chlorine and nitrogen isotopes for similar purposes, and, with time, it is inevitable that these isotopes will be used more commonly in environmental investigations. In addition to the above-mentioned topics, novel applications of stable isotopes to problems involving the emerging area of biofuels and renewable fuels will also be discussed in detail.
Tentative course outline:
1. Introduction to Stable Isotopes
2. Methodology—fractionation, Rayleigh Model, bulk isotopes, isotopes of individual compounds
3. Why Isotopic Compositions Change with Various Attenuation Processes
4. Differentiation between Biogenic and Abiogenic Processes Utilizing Stable Isotopes
5. Limitations of the Isotopic Approach to Attenuation/ Remediation Studies
6. Applications to Various Compound Classes—PAHs, PCBs, chlorinated solvents, benzene, MTBE, pesticides, explosive residues (TNT, RDX, HDX)
7. Integration of GC, GCMS, GCIRMS Data
8. Biofuels
Building a Better Background Data Set (Monday, 8:00 A.M.–Noon)
Instructors: Jonathan Myers, Ph.D. and Karen Thorbjornsen, P.G. (Shaw Environmental, Inc.)
Objective: Provide practical approaches for establishing background distributions of constituents in sediment, soil, surface water, and groundwater.
Overview: The course will cover methods of establishing background distributions of constituents in sediment, soil, surface water, and groundwater. The methods are applicable to naturally occurring elements and radionuclides, as well as to anthropogenic compounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The course expands on existing regulatory background guidance by including tools for dealing with real-world (nonideal) analytical data — handling nondetects; evaluating outliers; determining how and when to combine subgroups of data; and extracting background data from existing data sets when the collection of new samples is not an option. The importance of considering geochemistry is emphasized. Incorporating geochemical evaluations of the data, in addition to the purely statistical methods provided in guidance documents, results in more representative background data sets, provides insight into the processes controlling the concentrations, and enhances their utility in site-to-background comparisons. The concepts are illustrated with case studies from the instructors’ work on more than 40 background studies across the United States and Puerto Rico. Prior knowledge of statistics is not required. The course is recommended for regulatory personnel, consultants, site managers, and others with an interest in improving their background studies.
Course outline:
1. Definitions of “Background”
2. Uses of Background Investigations
3. Use of Local (Site-Specific) vs. Regional Background Data
4. Background Sampling—locating samples, sample size, sampling methods
5. Statistical Data Evaluation—handling nondetects, reporting limits, outlier tests, statistical characterization of distributions, calculating background screening values
6. Comparing Subgroups to Determine the Appropriateness of Combining Their Data
7. Geochemical Data Evaluation
8. Evaluating the Effects of Organic Contamination on Natural Metals Concentrations
9. Extracting Background Data from Existing Site Data
Active Capping Approaches and Modeling (Monday, 1:00 – 5:00 P.M.)
Instructors: Danny Reible, Ph.D. and David Lampert (University of Texas at Austin)
Objective: Provide information on U.S. EPA guidance on evaluating capping as a remedial alternative for contaminated sediment.
Overview: Beginning with an overview of Contaminated Sediment Remediation Guidance for Hazardous Waste Sites (USEPA 540-R-05-12, December 2005), the course will continue with a general description of typical active materials available for cap design and a discussion on when to select active capping over conventional capping. Current references and data on the sorption characteristics of various active materials will be cited. Modeling active cap designs and their effectiveness with respect to managing contaminated sediments will be presented. Examples of active cap designs will be reviewed and compared, using a spreadsheet model. Participants will need laptops for use during exercises. If you prefer not to bring your own to the Conference, please call 800-783-6338 or 614-488-2030 by December 15 to inquire about renting a laptop. The intended audience is engineers, scientists, owners, and regulators involved in contaminated sediment remediation projects.
Tentative course outline:
1. Overview of U.S. EPA Guidance Documents
2. Typical Active Capping Materials
3. Active Capping versus Conventional Capping
4. Sorption Data on Active Capping Materials
5. Modeling Active Cap Designs
6. Examples of Active Cap Designs
Incorporating Habitat Enhancement and Compensatory Mitigation into Sediment Remediation Design (Monday, 1:00 – 5:00 P.M.)
Instructors: Jeff Daniel, P.E.,P.Eng.; James Moir, P.Eng.; and Steven Jones, Ph.D. (Conestoga-Rovers & Associates)
Objective: Work with participants to identify opportunities and constraints for enhancing and maximizing ecological services in development and selection of remedial alternatives for sediment remediation projects.
Overview: Remediation of contaminated sediment frequently is driven by the potential for risk to ecological resources and exposure of human users to ecological resources, such as fisheries. The exposure of both ecological and human receptors to contaminated sediment is also frequently the basis for natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) and identification of compensatory restoration projects as payment for lost services. For many sites, contaminated sediment is present in water bodies that have been degraded due to nonchemical stressors. At other sites, contaminated sediment is present in water bodies that have a high potential to support a diverse community of ecological resources. Both types of sites offer a variety of opportunities to enhance or create ecological services, such as habitat for benthic invertebrates, fish, and aquatic and semiaquatic wildlife. This course will provide examples of habitat enhancements and compensatory restoration that have been incorporated in the design and implementation of sediment remediation projects. The material will be presented by a multidisciplinary team of instructors having experience in engineering, hydrology, and ecology. Topics will include identification and selection of remedial technologies to minimize unnecessary loss of nonimpacted resources; hydraulic and hydrological models to define pre- and postremediation flow regimes; selection of target species for water bodies and adjacent habitats; selection of appropriate substrates; enhancement and creation of in-stream habitat features, such as riffle-pool sequences and meanders; restoration of riparian habitats; and methods for revegetating disturbed areas. The course will conclude with a hands-on working session where attendees can present remediation restoration issues associated with specific sites, and potential solutions for those sites will be discussed and evaluated.
Tentative course outline:
1. Identifying Ecological Services and Opportunities for Enhancing Services
2. Assessing Potential NRDA Liability
3. Developing and Evaluating Remedial Designs to Reduce Interim Injury and Maximize Post-Remedial Services
4. Tools and Models for Restoration Planning
5. Developing Restoration Plans
6. Successes and Failures in Restoration–Lessons Learned
7. Participant Examples and Solutions
Evaluation of Monitored Natural Recovery (MNR) Potential at Contaminated Sediment Sites (Monday, 1:00 – 5:00 P.M.)
Instructors: Victor Magar, Ph.D. (ENVIRON) and Bart Chadwick (U.S. Navy)
Objective: Present a framework for assessing MNR at contaminated sediment sites.
Overview: “Monitored Natural Recovery involves leaving contaminated sediments in place and allowing ongoing aquatic sedimentary and biological processes to contain, destroy, or otherwise reduce the bioavailability of the contaminants in order to protect receptors; it must be selected as the result of a thoughtful decision-making process following careful site assessment and characterization.” (National Research Council-NRC, 1997)
This short course will discuss the use of monitored natural recovery (MNR) for remediation of contaminated sediment sites. The course will discuss the various physical, chemical, and biological processes that contribute to the ecological recovery of contaminated sediment sites; field and analytical methods to measure those processes will be presented. The instructor will provide a process-oriented framework that is applicable to evaluating MNR and comparing it with other remedies including capping and dredging. The U.S. EPA’s 2005 Contaminated Sediment Remediation Guidance for Hazardous Waste Sites will be reviewed, and remedy evaluation criteria identified in the document will be discussed. Case studies will be used to describe how MNR has been applied at major contaminated sediment sites to date and to illustrate the current state of the practice with respect to MNR. Long-term monitoring in support of MNR will be discussed, focusing on monitoring approaches to reduce uncertainty and increase public and regulatory confidence in the remedy. Lastly, the course will discuss augmenting MNR, including innovative remedies such as thin-layer capping and reactive capping.
Tentative course outline:
1. The Role of Natural Recovery in the Environment
2. MNR Definitions
3. EPA 2005 Sediment Guidance Summary
4. Identify and Describe MNR Lines of Evidence
5. MNR Case Studies
6. Integrating MNR into Remedy Decision Making
Material to be presented in this course was developed in part for Department of Defense (DoD) Environmental Security Testing and Certification Program (ESTCP), under project ER-0622, for the preparation of DoD Guidance on implementing MNR at contaminated sediment sites.
Geochemical Evaluations of Metals in Environmental Media: How to Distinguish Naturally Elevated Concentrations from Site-Related Contamination (Monday, 1:00 – 5:00 P.M.)
Instructors: Karen Thorbjornsen, P.G., and Jonathan Myers, Ph.D. (Shaw Environmental, Inc.)
Objective: Provide practical geochemistry-based approaches for identifying metals contamination in sediment, soil, surface water, and groundwater.
Overview: Metals concentrations in environmental media often exceed screening criteria, but they may be naturally elevated rather than the result of contamination. It is well known that trace elements naturally associate with a limited number of minerals in sediment or soil (or with specific suspended particulates in groundwater and surface water) under a given set of environmental conditions. In most oxic sediment and soil, for example, arsenic and vanadium are almost exclusively associated with iron oxide minerals at fairly constant ratios. These processes result in positive correlations between specific trace vs. major element concentrations, which can be visualized with scatter plots. Contaminated samples are identified by their anomalously high elemental ratios relative to uncontaminated samples. For groundwater and surface water, additional factors to be considered include pH, redox effects, aqueous complexation, and salinity gradients. Unlike a purely statistical approach, geochemical evaluation (1) greatly reduces the probability of falsely identifying contamination; (2) does not require a statistically valid background data set; (3) identifies contaminated locations, thereby focusing remediation efforts; and (4) provides mechanistic explanations for elevated concentrations. This course will present geochemical evaluation techniques that can be used with existing data to distinguish natural metals concentrations from potential contamination without the need to perform geochemical modeling, which would add significantly to project cost. Insightful case studies are presented from the instructors’ work at hundreds of investigation sites across the U.S. and its territories. Prior knowledge of geochemistry is not required. The course is appropriate for regulatory personnel as well as consultants and site managers.
Course outline:
1. Standard Techniques for Inorganics Data and Limitations of Purely Statistical Approaches
2. Geochemical Mechanisms Controlling Trace Element Concentrations in Solid and Aqueous Media
3. Geochemical Correlation Plots and Elemental Ratio Plots
4. Supporting Lines of Evidence
5. Case Studies Representing a Wide Range of Site Conditions and Contaminated and Uncontaminated Data Sets
6. Worst-Case Scenarios
7. How and When to Apply Geochemical Evaluations
8. Successful Presentation of Geochemical Evaluations to Regulatory Agencies