2010 Green Remediation Conference; A peek at the future
Amherst Presenters
I would like to open this weeks post with a note of gratitude to the APUS administration for allowing me to represent our institution at last weekends Green Remediation Conference at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The Conference was a great success. Dr. Carol Pollio and I were proud to present a well done poster presentation on our project in CharlesTown, along with an impressive collection of projects from students gathered from around the country. Present at the event were scholars, professionals and agency representatives from across the country. There was even a delegation from Milan, Italy, giving the event an international flair.
While not exactly riveting, I did get to attend a number of interesting lectures. Representatives from the EPA’s Beneficial Use of Mine Waste (BMW) workgroup presented their preliminary findings on methods and considerations for the utilization of historic mine waste as brick making and fill material for commercial and, in some cases, residential projects. In an international parallel to our development of the new Academic Center, public and private representatives from the municipality of Milan, Italy presented a case study on the reclamation of contaminated and under-utilized sites to address large European cities “hunger of land”. Their project examined the effective cooperative efforts of public and private enterprise to turn an abandoned rock quarry in urban Milan into a mixed use commercial property complete with high-rise offices and residential properties as well as public park amenities. Other presenters from included public officials, private consultants, and remediation firms who highlighted topics such as innovative technologies for green remediation, methods and tools for selecting effective green remediation processes, and how to reduce the environmental impact of the processes utilized to remediate contaminated sites.
Dr. Pollio presents
The poster session allowed students and professionals to show the emerging scientific methods and pilot programs that may be utilized to lessen the impact of environmental remediation. Topics included the reuse of contaminated groundwater to reduce municipal burden, tree filter systems for stormwater management, and on-site soil blending as means to avoid costly offsite removal of contaminated soils. One project that caught my eye is a research project examining the use of Biopolymer Salt injections to immobilize metal contaminates found within soils. Finding a way to immobilize metal laden soils would go a long way to reducing mitigation and capping costs for metal contaminated properties, such as the site APUS is currently developing.
I explain our work in Charles Town
The myriad of ideas and projects presented at the 2010 Green Remediation Conference suggests tremendous growth for the remediation sector of environmental sciences. This is great news for the environment and APUS graduates looking to get into the field. As land scarcity couples with increased valuation of natural landscape functions it will become increasingly necessary to concentrate new development on contaminated and underutilized properties across the country. The technology and public policy approaches outlined out last weekend in Amherst promise to help advance the cause of sustainability and land reclamation.
