The ESAA photo contest has returned. Do you work for an ESAA Member company? If so, they you are eligible to enter the 2022 ESAA Photo Contest.
The theme for 2022 is ‘Canadian Wildlife.’ No matter how big or small all of Canada’s wildlife is simply amazing. Just remember to give wildlife space, don’t stress animals and don’t submit photos of any nesting wildlife. Full details below. Submission deadline – August 1st, 2022.
Prizes:
- 1st Place – $250 Posterjack Gift Certificate
- 2nd Place – $100 Posterjack Gift Certificate
- The top 12 photos will be included in the first annual ESAA calendar.
Full contest details, rules, submission upload link and more can be found at: https://esaa.org/membership/
Get out and enjoy nature!
AER: Tidewater Midstream and Infrastructure Ltd. pleads guilty to charge laid by the AER
July 6, 2022… Tidewater Midstream and Infrastructure Ltd. has pled guilty to a charge laid against them by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) in October 2021. The charge relates to the release of acidic water that occurred in October 2019 at Tidewater’s Ram River sour gas processing plant near Rocky Mountain House in contravention of their Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act approval.
As a result, Tidewater is required to pay a penalty of $100 200. Of that amount, $99 000 will be paid to the AER to fund at least one creative sentencing project; the remaining $1 200 address a fine and a victim fine surcharge to be paid to the Provincial Court of Alberta.
Any creative sentencing project will be done within the municipalities of Clearwater, Yellowhead, or Big Horn and must demonstrate benefit to aquatic ecosystems and environments. The AER will publish one or more requests for proposals using established Government of Alberta practices and will oversee the creative sentencing project on behalf of the Provincial Court of Alberta.
The AER ensures the safe, efficient, orderly, and environmentally responsible development of energy resources in Alberta through our regulatory activities.
Additional information regarding the charge can be found on the AER’s Compliance Dashboard.
BC investigating spike in bald eagle deaths in B.C.
(Source: CBC News) Highly contagious avian flu could be affecting more than just agriculture birds as wildlife experts in the province say they are starting to see concerning conditions for bald eagles and other wild birds in the southwestern part of B.C.
Caeley Thacker, a wildlife veterinarian with the B.C. Ministry of Forests, says an inter-agency effort is being made with Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Ministry of Agriculture to closely monitor the current bald eagle population and nests.
“They have 22 active nests that they’re monitoring, and at this time, only five are still active,” Thacker said on the CBC’s The Early Edition on Monday. “The report from last year was about half of the nests monitored were active, so it’s lower this year.”
She said the province has started to closely monitor bald eagles and collect data to find out what is causing the low nest success and why only a handful of nests had chicks.
Thacker said some birds have tested positive for avian flu, but that doesn’t seem to be the only factor contributing to the dramatic drop in young eagles in the southwestern part of the province, as well as the spike in the reporting of dead birds.
“Other factors could be the weather. We are having a particularly cold and wet spring, but we [also] need to look further into what is happening with the food source. We don’t know exactly yet what is happening.”
She said predator species like eagles and other raptors are especially susceptible to avian influenza as they could consume a carcass or a live infected bird.
“As of last week, we tested about 40 eagles, and we’ve had 10 positives for that highly pathogenic avian influenza strain.”
As the spring migration continues, she said jurisdictions in the north are also seeing more birds infected with avian flu.
The province said in a written statement it has collected 47 dead eagles since February, 12 of which had tested positive for avian influenza.
Eagles often prey on waterfowl, such as ducks and geese.
Jackie McQuillan, the support centre lead with the Wildlife Rescue Association of B.C., says 45 suspected cases of avian flu have been identified in waterfowl taken to their treatment facility in the Lower Mainland. Testing has not yet confirmed whether it’s the highly contagious form that’s been circulating in B.C.
She said they’re seeing strong neurological symptoms such as convulsing, as well as twisted necks and swollen heads in birds that they believe have the virus.
Although avian influenza can be hard to spot, Thacker said bird watchers should also look out for swollen eyes or heads and lethargic behaviour.
McQuillan said if an eagle saw a bird that wasn’t in great shape, unable to evade its predator, it’s likely the eagle would eat an infected bird.
Elizabeth Melnick, the founder of Elizabeth’s Wildlife Centre in Abbotsford, says the number of calls and reports of Canada geese and goslings showing symptoms of avian flu in Mill Lake started to skyrocket at the end of May and into June.
She said things have slowed down in the last two weeks, but she’s never seen the virus affect so many wild birds.
“People were saying there’s dead geese littered all over the grounds, and it was really, really bad,” Melnick told CBC News. “It was predominately Mill Lake.”
The lake near the Trans-Canada Highway in Abbotsford is a popular community area, Melnick said, with a nature trail around the water, a picnic and play area for families, and an outdoor swimming pool.
She said the centre was receiving reports of dead geese up to four times a day in June.
“Mill Lake was a complete disaster. We had so many calls of dead and dying Canada geese. We’ve got babies and frequent feeders in that area, and the phones never stopped,” Melnick said.
She said the centre also received two ducks from Aldergrove that tested positive for avian flu and one great blue heron from Chilliwack.
“It’s always the same symptoms. The head shaking, the stargazing, it’s all neurological. The goslings had snowy white eyes as well, and they were also lethargic.”
While outbreaks are easier to maintain in an agricultural setting, not much can be done for wild birds, says Thacker, so the best thing we can do is prevent the environment from becoming infected.
“The best thing we can do is remove carcasses from the landscape and prevent birds from congregating as much as possible,” she said.
She said there has been a decline in eagles on the West Coast since last year.
“We need to figure out what is causing that and what we can do about it, if anything.”
Biologist finds behemoth tree in North Vancouver nearly as wide as a Boeing 747 airplane cabin
(Source: CBC News) A biologist has found what is possibly one of the widest-ever recorded trees in B.C.
Ian Thomas measured a western red cedar in North Vancouver, B.C., to be somewhere between 4.8 to 5.8 metres in diameter.
If Thomas’s preliminary measurements are correct, the behemoth he found in Lynn Headwaters Regional Park would barely fit inside the cabin of a Boeing 747.
The tree’s diameter at breast height (DBH) still needs to be officially verified and could end up being up to a metre less than his 5.8-metre calculation, he said, depending on how it’s measured on a rugged, steep slope.
Regardless of its exact size, there is no doubt the massive tree is very, very old.
“It came at the end of about a 10-hour bushwhack,” Thomas told Gloria Macarenko, host of CBC’s On The Coast, on Monday. “I spend a lot of my time studying satellite maps and government data sets — and just slogging through these incredible, threatened ancient forests that we’re so lucky to have, some of them, here in B.C.”
He and his self-described “tree hunter” colleague Colin Spratt nicknamed the “awe-inspiring” tree they found in a grove of “primordial” red cedars the North Shore Giant.
The tree is on Tsleil-Waututh Nation territories. Its director of treaty, lands and resources said western red cedars have been used by his people for everything from dugout canoes, clothing and buildings to ceremonial and medicinal uses.
“Everything from the roots to the branches to the trunks,” Gabriel George said in a phone interview. “For our people, they’re medicine…. The cedar tree is sacred to us.”
Hearing about the find made his “heart happy,” and he hoped it reminds others of the importance of B.C.’s few remaining ancient old-growth forests.
“When I saw that picture and I heard that story, it just was so uplifting,” he said.
Even though this particular cedar is within an already protected area, Thomas said it’s a reminder of how blessed the province is to still have such natural wonders.
“You are encountering one of the largest and oldest living things on this planet,” he said. “It’s almost like seeing a blue whale or a northern white rhino — this piece of this rich, wild world.”
According to University of B.C. forestry professor Robert Guy, large western red cedars host “ecosystems in most of their branches.”
“A tree of this size has to be very old,” he said. “They can get to 1,000 or 2,000 years old. We have trees on the North Shore that approach 2,000 years of age.”
Because red cedars hollow as they age, it’s often impossible to count their inner rings like other trees.
A giant western red cedar was discovered in a remote part of North Vancouver, and it turns out that it might be one of the largest left of its kind. We chat with one of the tree hunters who made the discovery of this North Shore Giant.
According to the University of B.C.’s Big Tree Registry, a tree 5.8 metres in diameter would be the fourth widest on record.
The previous top seven in the registry are all on Vancouver Island, the widest being a six-metre western red cedar in Pacific Rim National Park.
In Lynn Headwaters, the largest diameter recorded for a tree was 5.1 metres, also a red cedar. Any tree over 4.8 metres wide would be in the province’s top 13 ranking.
The registry could not be reached for comment on Thomas’s preliminary measurements. He said a member of its committee is in the process of verifying the tree’s size.
Based on photographs, said Guy, the tree appears unhealthy, a phenomenon he said is increasingly common in B.C.
“Red cedar has been showing more signs of distress in recent years than other … species in times of drought,” he said. “Which is probably climate change-related.
“So I guess another thing about these trees is they remind us they’ve been through a lot — but they might not get through the next hundred years or so.”
Nova Scotia releases risk ranking of potentially contaminated old mines
The province has released its risk ranking of potentially contaminated historical mine sites — a year and a half after it said it would.
The list includes 69 sites strewn across the province that were once home to a range of mining operations dating back to the 1800s. The CBC requested the ranking under freedom-of-information rules.
Most of the top sites are old gold mines, while many of the lower-ranking ones were once home to other types of mines, including copper, coal and limestone.
People flocked to Nova Scotia from all over the world in the latter half of the 1800s to hunt for precious flecks of gold. But gold processing was not subject to environmental regulations at that time, and materials containing chemicals such as mercury and arsenic were dumped on land and in waterways, leaving a legacy of contamination that exists to this day.
Donnie Burke, the executive director of environmental assessment and remediation for the provincial cleanup agency, Nova Scotia Lands, said the province wanted to gather as much information as it could about the sites before the list was released.
“We didn’t want people to be panicked thinking they were living next door to, you know, some toxic soup.”
The list was created by analyzing each site for human health risks, the size of the site, chemical and physical properties and ecology. Human health risks were given more weight than the other categories.
Burke said people should not panic if they see a site near their community on the list, as the contaminants are relatively stable at most sites.
“We’ve proven with science on Goldenville and Montague that the risk is very low from a human health perspective. So I don’t see these being of any imminent risk to anybody living next to them.”
The province has committed to cleaning up contaminated mine sites on Crown land, beginning with Montague Gold Mines near Dartmouth, N.S., and Goldenville, near Sherbrooke. The cost of remediating those two sites alone is estimated to be at least $60 million, but that figure is expected to rise.
Those two sites are among the top five on the risk ranking.
The province is currently working on a cleanup plan for Montague and is sorting out questions about ownership of some of the affected land in Goldenville. Five other sites are being studied, with remediation proposals and cost estimates expected in October.
The list does not include all contaminated former mines.
Nova Scotia Lands is only responsible for remediating sites on Crown land, so private properties contaminated from old mines are not on the list.
Burke said the province is trying to figure out how to deal with mine contamination that exists on private land.
“Is it the taxpayer’s responsibility or the property owner’s responsibility? So there are all the conundrums that we’re faced with and it’s something that we’ve been back and forth within government on.”
Remediation Technology News and Resource
(The following are selected items from the US EPA’s Tech Direct – http://clu-in.org/techdirect/)
Upcoming Live Internet Seminars
New Documents and Web Resources
Updated Solidification/Stabilization Focus Area. Solidification and stabilization are treatment technologies that achieve remediation goals by mixing contaminated materials with reagents that reduce leaching, and thus mobility, of the contaminants. Rain, stormwater runoff, and groundwater flow can leach contaminants from soil, sludge, and other wastes in the environment and transport them to groundwater or nearby surface water bodies, increasing potential exposure pathways for human and ecological receptors. The CLU-IN Solidification/Stabilization (S/S) Focus Area has been updated to reflect the current state of the science, including new screening questions for considering S/S as a remedy. Visit the updated Focus Area at https://clu-in.org/
Climate Adaptation Profiles: Solvents Recovery Services of New England. EPA is developing a series of site-specific profiles to illustrate a range of processes and tools for evaluating site vulnerabilities to future climate scenarios and adapting to the projected scenarios, thereby assuring site cleanup remedies remain protective of human health and the environment. The second profile release in this series describes adaptation measures taken at the 42-acre Solvents Recovery Service of New England, Inc. Superfund site in Southington, Connecticut. Remedial actions currently involve maintaining a multilayer cap above contaminated soil, wetland soil and river sediment and continuing extraction of contaminated groundwater for ex situ treatment. The site is vulnerable to flooding and associated soil erosion due to its location along the Quinnipiac River. Climate adaptation measures have included constructing an infiltration gallery to manage stormwater, reestablishing native vegetation in wetlands and upland areas, and encasing groundwater extraction controls in water-resistant housings. An onsite renewable energy system above the cap powers the site’s groundwater extraction pumps and a supporting building, which produces a climate change adaptation and mitigation synergy that provides energy resilience and diversification while minimizing emission of greenhouse gas. To view or download, please visit http://www.epa.gov/superfund/
Climate Adaptation Profiles: American Cyanamid Co. The third release in EPA’s series of climate adaptation profiles describes measures taken at the 435-acre American Cyanamid Superfund site in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Remedial actions currently involve operating a groundwater extraction and treatment system, designing multiple soil or waste capping systems, and planning excavation of other waste to be treated offsite. The site is extremely vulnerable to flooding; most of the site is located with a 100-year floodplain of the Raritan River. The site also experiences periodic flooding due to tropical storms associated with hurricanes strikes along the U.S. East Coast. Climate adaptation measures have included constructing a groundwater treatment plant at a location outside the 500-year floodplain, installing submersible pumps in bedrock wells to maintain hydraulic control during flood-related power outages, and designing the capping systems to withstand a 500-year flood event. The remedies’ resilience to flooding was reassessed in 2021 after the site experienced a tropical storm associated with Hurricane Ida, and the results indicated no major physical damage, groundwater treatment interruption, or surficial release of contaminants had occurred. To view or download, please visit http://www.epa.gov/superfund/
Technology Innovation News Survey Corner. The Technology Innovation News Survey contains market/commercialization information; reports on demonstrations, feasibility studies and research; and other news relevant to the hazardous waste community interested in technology development. Recent issues, complete archives, and subscription information is available at https://clu-in.org/products/tins/. The following resources were included in recent issues:
- Environmental Restoration, Installation Shaw Air Force Base
- Santa Susana Field Laboratory Groundwater Pilot Study
- Development of Slow Release Compounds for the Aerobic Cometabolic Treatment of Complex Mixtures of COC Released from Low Permeability Zones
- Evaluation of Electrical Resistivity Tomography to Monitor the Transport of Past Releases Beneath Tank Farms
- Laboratory Evaluation to Increase Effectiveness of Field-Scale Soil Flushing in the Hanford 100 Areas
- First Quarter 2021 Groundwater Monitoring Report Nustar Andover Quail Crossing
- Stable Carbon Isotopes for Tracing In Situ RDX Remediation
- Surface 3D Electrical Resistivity Tomography Inversion of 2005 BC Cribs and Trenches Datasets
- Demonstration and Validation of New Non-Invasive Technology to Assess Contaminant Storage in Low Permeability Media and Rock Matrix
New ESAA Members
ESAA welcomes the following new members. If you are not a member of ESAA you can join now via: https://esaa.org/join-esaa/
Full Member:
AbaData Inc.
4728 78A Street Close
Red Deer, AB T4P 2J2
Phone: (403) 346-7555
Web: www.abadata.ca
Ted Davis, Customer Development Manager
[email protected]
Profile:
AbaData Inc. creates and distributes dynamic and intuitive software used by environmental professionals across Western Canada. The flagship AbaData Internet Mapping Program is used by thousands, providing critical information for the reclamation and remediation industries via an easy-to-navigate web-based interface. AbaData includes more than 100 datasets, including energy, regulatory, environment, land and utility data to help users make better-informed decisions.
Full Member:
Evotek Consulting Inc.
Phone: (587) 582-8808
Web: https://www.evotek.ca/
Ryan Moorman, Co-Founder
[email protected]
Profile:
Evotek Consulting Inc. (Evotek) was founded in 2019 and specializes in soil and groundwater assessment, hydrology, risk assessments, remediation and reclamation in the oil and gas industry. Evotek has implemented a strong training and mentorship program to develop and grow personnel by passing along knowledge and skills based on our experience and connections.
Upcoming Events
July 19th, 2022
3:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Troubled Monk Brewery
5551 45 Street, Red Deer
ESAA invites you to attend an industry mixer at the Troubled Monk Brewery located in Red Deer. The mixer is an opportunity to network with other industry professionals, ESAA Staff, and Board of Directors.
Everyone is welcome to join and you do not have to be an ESAA member to attend. If you have staff or offices in the Red Deer area, please share this with your colleagues.
There is no cost to attend and ESAA will provide a selection of appetizers and the first beer (or beverage) from Troubled Monk’s selection.
Hope to see you there!
CLICK HERE TO RSVP
PLEASE RSVP BEFORE JULY 12th!
Call for Abstracts / Early Bird Registration
ESAA is pleased to announce that early bird registration is open for the 21st edition of RemTech. RemTech 2022 will feature an out door tailgate party to start the conference, 55 exhibits, technical talks, networking opportunities and three great keynotes, featuring:
- Mark Hineline, Author of Ground Truth:
A Guide to Tracking Climate Change at Home - Dr. Dave Williams, Former Canadian Shuttle Astronaut, ER Doctor and
Aquanaut - Peter Mansbridge, Former Chief Correspondent for CBC News and Anchor of The National
Full conference details can be found at: https://esaa.org/remtech/
Registration: Early bird registration is now open – visit: https://esaa.org/remtech/register/ to register early and save.
Call for Abstracts
ESAA invites you to submit technical abstracts focusing on technologies for the remediation of contaminated soil. Abstracts are encouraged in, but not limited to, the following areas:
- In-Situ and Ex-Situ Treatment
- Physical / Biological / Chemical Treatment
- Soil Washing and Scrubbing
- Thermal Desorption
- Incineration
- Stabilization / Solidification
- Immobilization
- Aeration
- Soil Venting
- Membranes
- Encapsulation
- Vitrification
- Natural Attenuation
- Oil Sands Remediation / Reclamation
- Oil Spills Management
- New Technology and Research
- Remote and Difficult Locations
- Reclamation
- Emerging Contaminants
- Superfund Projects
- Landfill Closure
- Phyto-remediation
- Site Rehabilitation Program (SRP) – Projects, Lessons Learned
- All other related topics will be considered
The preliminary selection of presentations will be based on submitted abstracts and reviewed by a panel of peers.
Abstracts should be no longer that 500 words (not including bio), should include a presenter biography and be submitted as a Word Document by no later than July 22nd, 2022.
Before submitting your abstract, ensure that client approval has been obtained.
Abstracts must be sent to ESAA using the instructions at: https://esaa.org/remtech/agenda/call-for-abstracts/
Notification of acceptance will be given by August 31st.
Full presentations must be submitted no late than one week prior to RemTech 2022.
DCC Edmonton Charity Golf Tournament – September 2nd, 2022
UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA PROFESSIONAL SPECIALIZATION CERTIFICATE IN ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION
This non-credit four-course certificate provides advanced training for professionals working in landscape architecture, landscape design and management, forestry, agrology, biology, mining, ecological restoration, and environmental practice. The ER program is offered fully online so you can meet your annual professional development requirements on your own schedule. Sign up for one course or the entire certificate!
Upcoming ER Program courses:
ER 502: Invasive Species and Novel Ecosystems
Dates: Sep. 7 to Dec. 2, 2022
Upon completing the course, you’ll be able to:
- identify common invasive species
- understand their distributions, life cycles, growth habits, reproductive characteristics and adaptation
- undertake control options including preventative, cultural, biological and chemical control methods.
To register for a course or apply for the program, see our page here: https://continuingstudies.uvic.ca/science-and-ecological-restoration/programs/ecological-restoration-professional-specialization-certificate
ESAA Job Board
Check out the new improved ESAA Job Board. Members can post ads for free.
Current Listings:
- Intermediate Environmental Scientist – Trace Associates Inc.
- Environmental Scientist/Engineer/Technologist – Advisian
- Environmental Inspector Consultant – Summit Earth
- Communications Specialist – Project Forest