The next time there is a levee breach in San Joaquin County, Calif., Ronald Baldwin, the county’s director of emergency operations, would like to have some huge rubber tubes pre-positioned at Interstate underpasses, rail embankments and other strategic locations to contain flooding. Photo: Angelle Bergeron In the arch and PLUG combination, flow is first stopped by floating in the incompressible tube, and the arch then is settled around it to create a cofferdam. PLUG can then be removed and repairs made. Graphic: Oceaneering Inc Photo: Angelle Bergeron The arch-tube configuration can be used to block off larger waterways, as long
Zerofootprint, a Toronto, Canada-based organization dedicated to fighting climate change, has announced a contest in which the winner will get $10 million for redoing an older concrete high-rise structure and, using re-skinning along with other retrofitting technologies, reduce its carbon, water and energy footprint to net zero. To secure the ZEROprize, a candidate building will be required to have a net-zero footprint for one year. Details for the contest can be found at http://www.zerofootprint.net/images/uploads/ZEROprize.pdf.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Nov. 23 issued a court-ordered final rule that, for the first time, sets national monitoring requirements and numeric limits on construction-site stormwater runoff. Under the rule, builders on sites that disturb 10 or more acres at one time must comply with specific limits on discharge of soil and sediment into nearby water bodies. Owners and operators of sites that disturb one or more acres must use erosion- and sediment-control best-management practices to reduce stormwater discharge pollutants. EPA issued the rule in response to a 2004 lawsuit. It will phase in the rule over four
Hundreds of bridges across Cumbria County in England were under review following the Nov. 20 flooding resulting from the highest rainfall in a 24-hour period on record in the U.K. The flooding caused the collapse of six bridges and the death of one police officer. One of the larger bridges to fail was the 50-meter-long, two-span, brick-built road bridge over the Derwent River in Workington. Official says the bridge was inspected and declared sound in July 2008. The town’s second bridge, the Calva, was closed because of serious damage. Photo: AP/Wideworld/Peter Byrne
Nearly nine years after passage of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a $53-million construction contract for the Picayune Strand Restoration Project. The award, drawing on nearly $40 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, represents the first federal construction funds for what was supposed to be an equal partnership between the U.S. government and the state of Florida. To date, the state has invested about $2.5 billion, mostly for land acquisition, while the federal government has spent some $600 million on documentation, project implementation plans, regulation-writing and similar preparatory work. Harry
The $2-million Sustainable Sites Initiative, having included its four-star rating system within its guidelines for developing and maintaining healthy landscapes, is seeking applications for 75 to 150 pilot projects to test the credit-based program. Applications to SSI, which is taking the first comprehensive look at sustainable landscape design, construction and maintenance, are due by Feb. 15. Photo: Sustainable Sites Initiative Sustainable Sites Initiative is the first to take a comprehensive look at greener landscapes. On Nov. 5, SSI released the 233-page “SSI: Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks 2009” and “The Case for Sustainable Landscapes,” a set of economic, environmental and social
ASHRAE, the U.S. Green Building Council and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America are preparing a new standard to build “green.” Standard 189.1P, Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, will define the minimum requirements for high-performance green buildings. But ASHRAE first is seeking research proposals to develop a user’s manual for the new standard. Proposals are due on Nov. 9. For more information, visit www.ashrae.org/technology/page/548. ASHRAE also is accepting proposals for a User’s Manual for Standard 90.1-2010, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings. The 2010 standard, which will be published next
After Taiwan’s parliament, the Legislative Yuan, convened to renegotiate a hastily approved, $3.65-billion reconstruction bill late in September, a new budget now has been released, requesting the same value. The “Special Statute for Reconstruction for Post-Typhoon Morakot Disaster,” announced on Oct. 12, calls for the Yuan to set up a reconstruction implementation committee with Premier Wu Dun-yih and Vice Premier Eric Li-luan Chu as primary overseers of the three-year reconstruction program. Photo: AP/Worldwide Taiwan typhoon damage is still being assessed, mostly in rural areas. For now, immediate attention is slowly shifting away from relief efforts and moving toward cleanup and
New Orleans, we won’t forget you, President Barack Obama said during a visit to the city October 15. The President and his cabinet will continue to assist the recovery and future protection of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region, both of which he says are critical to the nation’s environmental and economic vitality. He made his pledge while acknowledging the administration has other formidable challenges in reviving the economy and overhauling health care Photo: Angelle Bergeron President Obama reassured the Gulf Coast and New Orleans of his support, and most of the audience cheered him. Photo: Angelle Bergeron “I
Wastewater utilities and contractors and designers that work in the wastewater sector must be prepared to adapt to a changing regulatory environment and a volatile economy in order to stay afloat, according to speakers and attendees at the Water Environment Federation’s annual conference, held Oct. 11-14 in Orlando. Greater regulatory enforcement, the current economy, technology advances and the need for sustainability-based measures are clearly pressing WEF members to make short- and long-term changes. Peter Silva, assistant administrator with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water, said his agency will step up its enforcement efforts. The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
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