WESTERVILLE, OH, August 6, 2002 -- One of the most important natural resources of the Northeast United States is its ground water.
The National Ground Water Association (NGWA) is working to help protect the resource by tackling some serious challenges to quality including. MTBE, drought, fractured rock zones, and contaminants in the category of dense nonaqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs)--at its Northeast Focus Conference Oct. 3-4, 2002, in Burlington, Vermont.
"Much of the ground water in the Northeast comes from fractured rock. Cleaning up contamination in fractured rock zones is one of the toughest environmental issues facing scientists," says NGWA hydrologist Robert W. Masters. "Our conference will review the latest developments in dealing with significant regional problems with MTBE contamination, as well as DNAPLs and other threats to ground water."
The conference will bring together experts in ground water science and engineering to discuss recent findings relating to several ground water issues important to the region and beyond. Highlights will include discussions relating to the largest DNAPL cleanup ever at the Hyde Park Landfill site in Niagara Falls, and the Superfund site made famous by the film "A Civil Action"; presentations on drought issues in New York, Massachusetts, and Maine; and the vast impact of MTBE. Other topics will include projects of the Bedrock Bioremediation Center at the University of New Hampshire; the suitability of natural attenuation; and Brownfields.
Information gathered on arsenic occurrence in the region will be one focus of the keynote address from Keith Robinson, chief of the U.S. Geological Survey's New England section of the National Water Quality Assessment Program. He will discuss results of recent water quality studies of the New England Coastal Basins and other areas of New England.
A workshop on MTBE remediation, a pre-conference field trip to Altona Flat Rocks fractured rock site, and a poster session are also included.
For more information or to register, contact the NGWA Customer Service Center at (800) 551-7379, or visit http://www.ngwa.org/education/02-1003-5081.shtml.
National Ground Water Association members include more than 16,000 U.S. and international ground water professionals--contractors, equipment manufacturers and suppliers, and ground water scientists and engineers. NGWA members are committed to this basic understanding: when you are a ground water professional, it's more than just water. NGWA provides members, government, and the general public with the scientific knowledge and economic guidance necessary to responsibly develop, protect, and manage the world's ground water resources.
