It’s hardly headline news whenever ecologists and loggers find themselves locked into a war of words over the future of an area of forestry. But rather than the often heard arguments about the destruction of precious ecosystems and wildlife habitat, a contentious battle currently raging in Alberta is focused heavily on water quality.

Following the issue of a license to clear-cut an area of prime forest in the protected Castle River area in the Canadian Rockies, protestors have been campaigning to halt the logging.

According to University of Alberta professor of ecology David Schindler, the Castle watersheds “generate most of the water for the Old Man System” which provides the drinking water for such southern Albertan cities as Lethbridge. Schindler says, “You start messing around, logging them, you’re likely to invite high turbidity… due to erosion”. Read More...

Tags: Castle river, Canadian Rockies, water quality monitoring, Alberta Environment and Water, Castle watershed, University of Alberta

Further to the news that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued its 2012 construction general permit, the Associated General Contractors of America has published its response from the perspective of construction operators.

Heavily involved in directing many elements of the newly revised permit, the AGC had grave concerns that the initial proposals would have brought crippling regulations to many areas of the construction industry.
By working hand-in-glove, the EPA and ACG have been able to design a set of guidelines which aim to help protect waterways, without impacting too heavily on contractors. Read More...

Tags: EPA, stormwater, pollution, construction, Associated General Contractors of America

Stevens Water Monitoring Systems, Inc., based in Portland, OR has entered into an agreement with FTS to sell and distribute the DTS-12 turbidity sensor. Stevens was searching for a high-quality, turbidity-only sensor to add to their existing family of water quality sensors, and ultimately chose the DTS-12 for its extreme long-term accuracy and stability combined with low maintenance requirements, thanks mainly to its unique self-cleaning wiper cleaning system, which makes it ideal for permanent, in situ continuous turbidity monitoring applications. When combined with a datalogger or DCP controlling an automatic water sampler with event-triggered algorithm programming, the DTS-12 provides an effective means of determining suspended sediment concentrations. Read More...

Tags: dts-12, distributors, water quality, suspended sediment, turbidity

The construction and civil engineering industries are awaiting a very significant regulation to be refined: the EPA Construction & Development Effluent Limitation Guideline. The ELG rule has been finalized, though the final numeric limit has been vacated, and everyone is eager to learn what the number will be. But as Beth Chesson, who serves on the IECA Board of Directors suggests, the bigger issue may not be the actual number, but the implementation compliance monitoring by regulators.

Several lessons about monitoring turbidity were learned when the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) began turbidity monitoring in an effort to understand how to implement a numeric limit. The monitoring was all done manually via grab samples, using hand held or bench top equipment. Many of the hurdles encountered while determining sampling/monitoring equipment type, establishing sampling procedures, identifying sampling locations, and showing compliance. Read More...

Tags: stormwater, Erosion, sediment, SedEvent

The EPA has long been battling the issue of stormwater discharge from construction sites, and on April 25 a public comment was released on the development of the Construction General Permit (CGP). The Agency plans to publish the new CGP in early January 2012, and the new permit will see much stricter regulations on sediment and erosion control, inspection and monitoring. The EPA prohibits anyone from disposing of pollutants into public waters without a permit, heavily effecting construction companies. The EPA established regulations under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) to administer permits for stormwater discharges resulting from construction activity. Read More...

Tags: monitoring, sediment, SedEvent, turbidity, EPA, stormwater, construction, dts-12