Posts in "Groundwater" tag

Presentation at the Manly Environment Centre: Nanotechnology and Ground Water-‘Small’ Solutions to Big Problems

Although not organised by the Panel the presentation came to our attention and may be of interest to our members.

Nanotechnology and Ground Water-‘Small’ Solutions to Big Problems

Presenter: Dr. Denis O’Carroll,

Associate Professor University of Western Ontario, Canada.

Tuesday  5  June  at  7pm to celebrate  World Environment Day. 

Populations in significant parts of Canada and Australia consume groundwater as their domestic water so protection of this resource is essential to their health and well-being. Historically, the subsurface was thought to act as a natural filter of wastes injected into the ground. The potential for these wastes to persist in the subsurface for decades, potentially contaminating drinking water sources was ignored. Non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs), such as perchlorethlyene and dichloroethane, are one class of waste liquids that were subject to improper disposal practices. These liquids are extremely difficult to remove from subsurface aquifers and are the focus of this work. Nanometals are one promising innovative groundwater remediation technology that convert these contaminants into less toxic or nontoxic materials. They are particularly useful because of their size – a single human hair is 500 to 5,000 times as wide. At that scale, they can move through microscopic flow channels in soil and rock, reaching and destroying groundwater pollutants that larger particles cannot. In this study reactive nanometals were developed to degrade subsurface contaminants.  Nanometals that were developed in our laboratory were injected at two contaminated site in Ontario, Canada.  One of these field trials was part of a The Nature of Things with David Suzuki television special focusing on environmental nanotechnology. Significant contaminant degradation has been observed at both of these test sites.

Dr. O’Carroll is an Associate Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Western Ontario and a Senior Visiting Fellow at the University of New South Wales.  He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan.  Upon completion of his Ph.D. Dr. O’Carroll completed one postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan and was awarded a NSERC postdoctoral award to complete a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto.  He was awarded the Province of Ontario 2007 Early Researcher Award and more recently the University of Western Ontario Green Award and the R. Mohan Mathur Award for Excellence in Teaching.  He is an Associate Editor for the Vadose Zone Journal and Special Guest Editor for the Journal of Contaminant Hydrology’s special issue: Manufactured Nanomaterials in Subsurface Systems.  He has ongoing research projects developing nanometals for contaminated site remediation, investigating the fate of carbon based nanoparticles in the environment, improving our understanding of the fate of waste liquids in the subsurface as well as green roof performance.

Free event at Manly.

Bookings essential.

Contact: Manly Environment Centre  9976 2842.   

2012 Darcey Lecture: Confirmed for February 23

The Panel is pleased to announce that, once again, it is co-hosting the travelling Darcy Lecture Series with the NSW Branch of the IAH. The date of the presention is set for Thursday 23rd February 2012 in Sydney City with the final venue details to be confirmed closer to the event.

This year’s lecture will be given by S. Majid Hassanizadeh, Ph.D professor of hydrogeology, Faculty of Geosciences at Utrecht University and will talk on either “Capillarity in Porous Media, on Micro- and Macroscale, Revisited” or “Transport of Viruses in Partially Saturated Soil and Groundwater”.

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IAH Groundwater Symposium: Uncertainty in Hydrogeology

This is cross-posting is an announcement for the IAH Groundwater Symposium – Uncertainty in Hydrogeology – to be held at Dockside, (Sydney CBD) on 5-6 September 2011.

There is a reciprocal arrangement with a discount for EA members.

The announcement flyer is available and the conference website contains more information.

2011 Darcy Lecture

The next panel seminar, we are pleased to announce, will be the Darcy Lecture and will be a joint presentation with the NSW Branch of the IAH. The presentation is titled: Characterisation of a complex sole source aquifer system in Benin, West Africa and will be given by Dr Stephen E. Silliman, Professor of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences at University of Notre Dame.

The presentation will be held at:
UTS Aerial Function Centre
5:30 for 6pm on the 16 August 2011

The Godomey wellfield is the only source of fresh water for Cotonou, Benin which has between 1.5 to 2 million population. This West African centre is located directly on the Atlantic coast and bordered to the south and west by the large shallow lake. Most production wells are pumping from the partially confined portion of the complex aquifer system and due to the proximity to the lake and coast this water source is under the threat from anthropogenic contamination and seawater intrusion. Collaboration between scientists and students from the United States and Benin has enabled the development of insight into this complex coastal aquifer system by using several different techniques such as numerical modelling, hydraulic testing, water quality characterisation and geophysical surveys.
A series of discussions on scientific and social issues undertaken during this research shows the value of close cooperation between the scientists and in- country collaborators both from technical and social background.

A printable PDF flyer is available.

PDF of Hugh’s Presentation: The Complexities of Surface and Groundwater Interactions

Hugh has kindly made a pdf copy of his presentation available.

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The Complexities of Surface and Groundwater Interactions

The next Panel presentation will be held on Tuesday 22nd March, 5:30 for 6pm at the EA Auditorium Chatswood and is title: The Complexities of Surface and Groundwater Interactions. The presentation will be given by Dr Hugh Middlemis, Senior Principal of Aquaterra, Adelaide.

The complexity of surface and groundwater interaction has traditionally resulted in an approach based on simplifying assumptions. Engineers have usually taken a “top down” approach of concentrating on the surface processes, which involve fast hydrologic response times, and not analysing the slower sub-surface processes in much detail. Hydrogeologists have usually taken a “bottom up” approach, which simplifies the surface water process and concentrates on dealing with the longer term sub-surface processes. Neither approach is ideal.

Full details and a more extensive biography are available: Water Panel Flyer March 2011.

2010 Darcy Lecturer and Topic

Further to my previous post, the Lecturer and the Topic for the 2010 Darcy Lecture has been confirmed. The oration will be given by Dr Tim Scheibe on the topic: Quantifying Flow and Reactive Transport in the Heterogeneous Subsurface Environment: From Pores to Porous Media and Facies to Aquifers. Full details including an extended abstract and biography of the Lecturer are given below.

Once again the lecture is free but RSVP (peter.brady@eng.uts.edu.au) is requested for catering. Alcoholic, non-alcoholic and light refreshments will be available after the Lecture.

Continue Reading…

Darcy Lecture Confirmed for 21st September

In conjunction with the IAH NSW Branch the Panel is pleased to announce that the prestigious Darcy Lecture will again be held in Sydney. The Lecture will be given by Dr Tim Scheibe at the new UTS Aerial Function Centre on the 21st September 2010, 5:30pm for 6:00pm. The Lecture will be followed by light refreshments and beverages to allow for a chance to interact with Tim.

More details on the topic of the Lecture will be posted shortly.

The event is free but RSVP (peter.brady@eng.uts.edu.au) is requested for catering.

Venue Details:
UTS Aerial Function Centre
Level 7, Building 10
Access via Jones Street off Broadway
Five minutes walk from Central.


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National Centre for Groundwater Training Courses

The National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training has just released their training schedule for 2010 which is available via their website.

For more information contact the Centre directly.

Groundwater Short Courses Change of Name

The Groundwater Short Courses, formerly managed with outstanding success for twenty years by the Centre for Groundwater Studies (CGS), will continue to be managed by the same staff on the same business model, but now under the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT). We will now be known as: “NCGRT Groundwater Industry Training”.

To view the NCGRT Groundwater Industry Training Program for 2010, please visit our website: industrytraining.groundwater.com.au.

All staff emails and phone numbers remain the same, and general course enquiries can now be sent to:
Email: industrytraining@groundwater.com.au
Phone: +61 8 8201 5632

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