Petroleum-contaminated soil in Minnesota

Petroleum-contaminated soil remediation in Minnesota will continue to include land treatment, composting, and thermal treatment alternatives. Contaminate levels, soil volume, disposal costs, and public opinion are ultimately the deciding factors in selecting any soils treatment technology appropriate for mitigating and remediating petroleum releases that, pursuant to the Minnesota Rules… “will protect the waters of the State”.     

ALTERNATIVE FUTURES USING THE WOLLMAN-BONEM MODELS1

Alternative futures are defined to be mutually consistent alternative combinations of assumed sets of future conditions. Alternative futures are employed in conjunction with the Wollman-Bonem model to project future water use. The model solutions under different alternative futures provide an indication of the direction and relative magnitude of changes in water use, both in quantity and quality, that may result from changes in policy-influenced variables, technology, and other data. The Wollman-Bonem model is employed in this paper as a tool to illustrate the alternative futures concept. The model can best be cast as an economic model. The model solutions are not given as a set of formal projections, but as various possible water-use-over-time curves. This should aid in disspelling the erroneous idea that it is possible to make distant projections of water use as a single curve. Multiple curves suggest that water use is really a function of many variables.     

Fenton's in-situ reagent chemical oxidation of hydrocarbon contamination in soil and groundwater

Industry and regulatory demands for rapid and cost-effective clean up of hydrocarbon and other contamination in soil and groundwater has prompted development and improvement of in-situ remediation technologies. In-situ technologies offer many advantages over ex-situ treatment alternatives, including lower initial capital and long-term operation and maintenance costs, less site disruption, no Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) liability, and shorter treatment time necessary to achieve cleanup objectives. Fenton's reagent, a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and ferrous iron that generates a hydroxyl free radical as an oxidizing agent, is widely accepted for chemical oxidation of organic contaminants in the wastewater industry. In-situ implementation of Fenton's reagent for chemical oxidation of organic contaminants in soil and groundwater continues to grow in acceptance and application to a wide variety of environmental contaminants and hydrogeologic conditions (EPA, 1998).     

Stress and the union steward's role

This paper develops and tests hypotheses concerning some psychological correlates of role ambiguity and role conflict in a population that has not been extensively studied in relation to stress, union stewards. Survey data on role ambiguity and role conflict, the indicators of stress, were collected from 285 stewards at the local union steward meeting, with the stewards perceiving a moderate amount of role ambiguity and perceiving a lesser amount of role conflict. The stewards were also asked about their role expectations, their motivations for remaining a steward, their grievance handling strategies, and their affective commitment toward the union and employer. Each of those four sets of variables was hypothesized to be related to role ambiguity and role conflict and each was influential in explaining variance. As predicted, those stewards who were more motivated to remain stewards for personal reasons had both higher role ambiguity and higher role conflict. Further, the conditions of being more motivated to remain a steward to help the union and employees and having higher union commitment were associated with lower role conflict, but, opposite to the hypotheses, higher role ambiguity.     

Corporate performance standards at Kodak

Creating an effective and consistent corporate health, safety, and environment program for a decentralized, international company poses unique challenges. This article describes how, with global company input, Kodak has established a set of twenty-eight corporate HSE performance standards. Worldwide facility compliance with these standards is monitored through Kodak's Corporate HSE Assessment Program and through the Corporate Self-Appraisal Program.     

THE INFLUENCE OF (x,y) UNCERTAINTY ON PREDICTION ERROR AND CONTOUR LINES FROM A THREE-DIMENSIONAL SURFACE1

ABSTRACT: In geohydrology, three-dimensional surfaces are typically represented as a series of contours. Water levels, saturated thickness, precipitation, and geological formation boundaries are a few examples of this practice. These surfaces start as point measurements that are then analyzed to interpolate between the known point measurements. This first step typically creates a raster or a set of grid points. In modeling, subsequent processing uses these to represent the shape of a surface. For display, they are usually converted to contour lines. Unfortunately, in many field applications, the (x, y) location on the earth's surface is much less confidently known than the data in the z dimension. To test the influence of (x, y) locational accuracy on z dimension point predictions and their resulting contours, a Monte Carlo study was performed on water level data from northwestern Kansas. Four levels of (x, y) uncertainty were tested ranging in accuracy from one arc degree-minute (± 2384 feet in the x dimension and ± 3036 feet in the y dimension) to Global Positioning Systems (GPS) accuracy (± 20 feet for relatively low cost systems). These span the range of common levels of locational uncertainty in data available to hydrologists in the United States. This work examines the influence that locational uncertainty can have on both point predictions and contour lines. Results indicate that overall mean error exhibits a small sensitivity to locational uncertainty. However, measures of spread and maximum errors in the z domain are greatly affected. In practical application, this implies that estimates over large regions should be asymptotically consistent. However, local errors in z can be quite large and increase with (x, y) uncertainty.     

Natural disaster mitigation: Environmental approaches in Tonga and Algeria

Summary The mitigation of natural disasters essentially depends upon the identification and adjustment of human ecological processes contributing to conditions of vulnerability. The analysis of vulnerability requires the local study of political, social, and economic processes which have contributed, and are contributing, to a vulnerable condition in a hazardous environment. One of the few similarities between Tonga and Algeria is a continuing experience of natural disaster after independence from previous colonial administrations. In two very different but complementary projects, ways are identified for the adjustment of assumed or inherited priorities for development, to take practical account of continuing hazards. The high vulnerability of rural areas is a factor common to both countries, as well as to many others. The analysis of conditions and systems in two dissimilar countries may have begun a process of implementation, one which must necessarily follow theoretical analysis for the realisation of practical value. The degree and nature of disaster impact is conditioned as much by normally prevailing conditions and systems as by the manifestation of natural hazard. Direct experience of hazardous environments, and of problems caused by disaster, must be made to result in the creation of multi-disciplinary environmental policies for disaster mitigation, inclusive of small scale development and education and training programmes for continued implementation. Comprehensive and simultaneous strategies for disaster avoidance, disaster resistance, and disaster accomodation must be made integral components of local development planning.     

COMPARING TWO MEASURES OF WATER BASED RECREATION PARTICIPATION1

ABSTRACT: Site specific studies of water based recreation participation are intended to describe use at a particular recreation area. Two common strategies employed in site specific studies are the on-site “entry” or “exit” survey and the off-site mailed questionnaire to known users of an area. Previous research has reported differences in psychological perceptions of a recreation engagement depending on whether a survey was administered during or after a trip. If such bias exists for behavioral reports, then managers and planners must be cautious in interpreting results of survey based use assessments for a particular site. Findings may be affected by the particular survey strategy employed. In this study, entry point and post-trip mailed questionnaire measures of water based recreation participation were compared for a sample of reservoir users. For most activities, a high degree of consistency in measures was found. Inconsistent reports were most likely to occur among participants in activities sharing significant common behaviors, such as power boating and water skiing. Inconsistency was also observed for those reporting very generalized behaviors, such as relaxing. In general, the use of either pre- or post-trip measures of water based recreation participation was supported.     

Secchi Disc Relationships1

ABSTRACT: The problem of estimating bulk light extinction coefficients in surface water impoundments is examined. It is shown that the bulk extinction coefficient can be accurately estimated from the Secchi disc depth. In addition, the equation derived is significantly different from that derived by Poole and Atkins in 1929. This empirical expression for the extinction coefficient is then used to develop a semiempirical expression for the euphotic depth as a function of the Secchi disc depth.