Category: Sustainability Seminars

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Eight: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Presentation Videos

30thBlogThing9Videos of presentations at ISTC’s anniversary event provide a fascinating look at problems of pollution contamination in Illinois and how the Center contributed to the clean up. Links to the videos will be made available over the next two weeks as they become available.

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

VIDEO 8: Jerri-Anne Garl represented the federal Environmental Protection Agency during the ISTC Anniversary Celebration. Since EPA’s pollution prevention program started in the early 1990s, ISTC “has been one of our most effective and innovative partners,” Garl said. “ISTC itself has served as a model for other state programs.” She outlined successes of ISTC programs in assisting local communities and small companies, as well as major manufacturers, save money, water, energy, and make their operations more environmentally friendly.

 

Garl reviewed federal priorities for the EPA: 1) making a visible difference in communities; addressing climate change and improving air quality; launching a new era of state, tribal and local partnerships; and embracing EPA as a high performing organization. She added that the agency has set three emphasis areas for its work: climate change, food manufacturing, and hazardous materials mitigation.

 

“We believe that the ISTC is really well-positioned with the tools, experience, connections and the innovative spirit, to be a central partner in this effort.

 

NEXT UP: Scott Bennett, Illinois Senate (52 Dist. D), “Protecting Our Environment.”

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Seven: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Presentation Videos

30thBlogThing8Videos of presentations at ISTC’s anniversary event provide a fascinating look at problems of pollution contamination in Illinois and how the Center contributed to the clean up. Links to the videos will be made available over the next two weeks as they become available.

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

VIDEO 7: Kevin Greene’s career in the environmental arena spans almost 30 years, including nearly 20 years at the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. During the early days of the pollution prevention movement, he viewed the reaction against environmental contamination from several perspectives — as an environmental issues consultant, lobbyist, and regulator.

 

He noted that during the 1970s there was a wave of federal environmental laws which represented a change in the environmental community from public activists for change working from outside institutions to working inside them. Early regulations were also aimed at dealing with managing pollution after it was created.

 

A second wave of community activism developed in the 1980s over concern about how effectively industrial by-products were being handled, and their potential health impacts, he said. “Specialists or technocrats” continued to be “at the table” in seeking waste management solutions, but public activists were growing less trusting, he recalled.

 

Activists’ focus shifted away from calls for regulations that manage pollutants to local level activism to halt proposed storage/disposal facilities.  Increasingly the questions became “why is waste being generated in the first place” and the response shifted to getting critical information about pending waste projects to affected communities.

 

NEXT UP: Jerri-Anne Garl, U.S. EPA, “Working with ISTC on Pollution Prevention: Past Accomplishments and Future Opportunities from a Federal Perspective.”

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Six: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Presentation Videos

30thBlogThing6Videos of presentations at ISTC’s anniversary event provide a fascinating look at problems of pollution contamination in Illinois and how the Center contributed to the clean up. Links to the videos will be made available over the next two weeks as they become available.

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

 

VIDEO 6: Timothy Lindsey As long-time head of technical assistance at the Center, Timothy Lindsey, helped pioneer more effective technical assistance efforts by applying the principals of innovation diffusion. He recalled he and his colleagues at the Center were frustrated when they made recommendations that would clearly save money and trim waste, yet often they were not adopted.

 

As part of his doctoral studies, Lindsey began to apply the ideas of Everett M. Rogers in his book “Diffusion of Innovation.” Innovations are initially perceived as uncertain and even risky, Lindsey said. They must be demonstrated in the context of the scale and type of the existing process. Innovations are most likely to be shared among trusted peers and the process can be slow.

 

Lindsey explained that sustainability in an innovative way of doing business, similar to innovations like the assembly line or electronic commerce. Following innovations in sustainable business, he said,  financial performance, environmental performance and social performance must be considered over the long term.

 

Now Global Director of Sustainable Development at Caterpillar Inc., Lindsey has applied principles of innovation diffusion to the multi-national manufacturer. Sustainability has long been important at Caterpillar, he said. But 2104 was a formative year at the company when sustainability became more than just an important thing they do. “Sustainability became an important part of who we are,” as one of the corporation’s core value, he said.

 

NEXT UP: Kevin Greene, “Pollution Prevention: Looking Back Towards the Future.”

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Five: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Presentation Videos

30thBlogThing7Videos of presentations at ISTC’s anniversary event provide a fascinating look at problems of pollution contamination in Illinois and how the Center contributed to the clean up. Links to the videos will be made available over the next two weeks as they become available.

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

VIDEO 5: Jeff Levengood, spoke about the strong collaboration between ISTC and the other four state surveys during its history. The diverse expertise of the scientists at the Prairie Research Institute’s four other surveys — spanning water, geology, natural history, and archaeology — enabled them to examining complex, place-based, legacy environmental contamination and degradation issues.

 

The work resulted in research reports published by the center, but also in refereed journal articles. He said this work helped communities around Illinois in managing their contamination problems but the collaborations also made significant contributions to the knowledge base in the field.

 

At Lake Calumet, Waukegan Harbor, Lake DePue and other post-industrial natural habitats, the surveys studied exposure and uptake of pollution by wildlife. They tracked changes in habits including nesting, foraging, reproduction in the birds, fish and the greater ecosystem. The information helped lead to innovative restoration projects at compromised sites in the state.

 

“I think we have to be proud,” Levengood said, “anybody that was involved in those early studies, because we really kind of kicked this off and helped to show what could be, what was possible.”

 

He quoted Nicole Kamins Barker, who worked on the Lake Calumet restoration as part of the Chicago Department of Environment, who said “The Surveys’ involvement took our work in the Calumet region to a new level of effectiveness by merging the latest scientific research with natural resource planning and management.”

 

NEXT UP: Timothy Lindsey, “Incorporating Innovation into Pollution Prevention and Sustainability.”

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Four: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Presentation Video

30thBlogThing4Videos of presentations at ISTC’s anniversary event provide a fascinating look at problems of pollution contamination in Illinois and how the Center contributed to the clean up. Links to the videos will be made available over the next two weeks as they become available.

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

VIDEO 4: Craig Colten While working at the Center, Craig Colten, conducted pioneering longitudinal analyses of manufacturing techniques in urban manufacturing sites throughout the state.  The work accounted for changing hazardous materials produced and changing waste handling practices over more than 100 years.

 

The research was valuable for understanding not just current threats but residues from long forgotten industrial sites. Building on this data, Colten was able to construct a general historical geographic model in urban areas, as well as a series of tools and applications including a Historical Hazardous Substance Data Base and a Historical Hazards Geographic Information System. These tools helped establish the ground work for Superfund litigation and the ability to support real estate transactions.

 

Colten and others at the Center became national leaders in sustainability by addressing emerging concerns about brownfields, as well as abandoned, derelict sites, especially sites where the industrial land use changed several times. He established the long-term relationship of industry and environment — adding a time component to our the state of knowledge about what was toxic, how wastes were managed, what was the technology for managing wastes, and what was the regulatory framework then.

 

Later Colten co-authored “The Road to Love Canal: Managing Industrial Waste before EPA.” Today he is Carl O. Sauer Professor of Geography, Louisiana State University.

 

NEXT UP: Jeff Levingood, “ISTC and the Other Surveys: Working Together to Solve Illinois’ Legacy Pollution Issues.”

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Three: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Presentation Videos

30thBlogThing5Videos of presentations at ISTC’s anniversary event provide a fascinating look at problems of pollution contamination in Illinois and how the Center contributed to the clean up. Links to the videos will be made available over the next two weeks as they become available.

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

VIDEO 3: Gary Miller, the center’s first assistant director, spoke about the center’s research program. Up to this day, the mandate of ISTC is to provide 1) research, 2) technical assistance, and 3) public information about hazardous materials and other contamination threats. Miller said over 30 years the center has funded well over 200 studies, all available online.

 

Large contaminated sites in Illinois, such as Waukegan Harbor, Lake Calumet and industrial sites near Rockford got a lot of attention in those first years.  At that time a lot of work was necessary to establish the toxicity of contaminants present at those sites,  including some of the earliest studies of PCBs in the environment.

 

Other important research focused on waste issues such as improved landfill design and modeling of groundwater contamination from landfills. The early years also produced a comprehensive inventory of Illinois landfills that is still in use today. He added that the center also helped pioneer remediation, stabilization, and clean-up techniques through demonstrations and analysis.

 

NEXT UP: Craig Colton, “Historical Hazards: Innovation and Application at the Center.”

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Two: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Presentation Videos

30thBlogThing3

Videos of presentations at ISTC’s anniversary event provide a fascinating look at problems of pollution contamination in Illinois and how the Center contributed to the clean up. Links to the videos will be made available over the next two weeks as they become available.

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

VIDEO 2: David Thomas, the founding ISTC director, joined in May, 1985. During his presentation he looked back to the early days of Illinois’ hazardous waste center. When President Jimmy Carter declaired a federal health emergency at Love Canal, the problem of hazardous waste management had become a front burner concern nationwide. Previously working at an engineering firm, Thomas could see the concern grow as he saw more and more of the firm’s work had to do with hazardous waste.

 

As an U of I alumnus, Thomas was delighted Illinois had proposed the new hazardous waste center for Champaign. He also relished the job as a way to delve full-time into the interesting and important challenges of the hazardous waste. During his talk, Thomas discusses the legislative mandate of the center and its early efforts to organize a scientific response to the problems.

 

Thomas and original Assistant Director Gary Miller studied design of modern research labs around the nation to guide the development of the center’s research laboratory capabilities. Thomas noted with satisfaction that ISTC’s focus has effectively evolved to remain relevant in the rapidly changing field.

 

NEXT UP: Gary Miller, founding ISTC assistant director, “30 Years: Projects, Politics, and People.”

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One: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Presentation Videos

Anniversary videos available
Videos of presentations at ISTC’s anniversary event provide a fascinating look at problems of pollution contamination in Illinois and how the Center contributed to the clean up. Links to the videos will be made available over the next two weeks as they become available.

 

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

Duration: 12’33”

VIDEO 1: Mike Barcelona was a primary architect of the Hazardous Research and Information Center (HWRIC) that would evolve into the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC). He and the Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS) Chief Stan Changnon negotiated the political and bureaucratic waters to establish the center. Barcelona, head of the water chemistry group at ISWS was the primary author of the position paper on the organization and goals of the center.

 

Barcelona went on to serve on the faculties of the University of Michigan and the University of Western Michigan where he served a chair of the department of chemistry.

 

For his presentation at the 30th anniversary celebration, Barcelona focused on state of things as the Center was being formed. Government and industry had only just begun to define the outlines of hazardous and toxic industrial by-products. At the beginning, the Center was most interested in determining the amounts of hazardous waste in Illinois, and particularly their impacts on groundwater, he recalled. He noted that the state produced an estimated 70 million tons of hazardous wastes between 1920-80.

 

What has changed today?  Barcelona cited a recent Illinois Environmental Protection Agency analysis that showed hazardous waste generation in the state has dropped 75 percent between 1987 and 2013. He also cited an October, 2015 study which estimated that pollution prevention efforts nationwide have avoided the environmental release of five billion to 14 billion pounds of toxins.

 

While that is a good record for meeting that threat, Barcelona added there are plenty of challenges in the future.  In particular, he noted the growing avalanche of electronics in the waste stream, and the increased concern over landfilled food waste and its massive emissions of methane (a potent greenhouse gas).

 

NEXT UP: David Thomas, founding ISTC director, “ISTC: The Early Years.”

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Sustainability Seminar Series Fall 2015: Water Quality & Water Conservation

The ISTC Sustainability Seminar series continues this fall with the theme “Water Quality and Water Conservation.” The series kicks off with a talk by Walt Kelly of the Illinois State Water Survey titled “State & Regional Water Supply Planning in Illinois” on Sept. 10, 2015, from noon to 1 pm (abstract below). For more details on these seminars, please visit ISTC’s event calendar. To be added to the seminar and events email list or to receive links to the live broadcasts of the seminars, please contact Beth Meschewski at elm2@illinois.edu.

 

State & Regional Water Supply Planning in Illinois

Presented by Walt Kelly – Illinois State Water Survey on Sept. 10

In 2006, Executive Order 2006-01 called for the development of state and regional water supply planning under the direction of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Illinois has been divided into 10 regions for water supply planning. For each region, a regional water supply planning committee (RWSPC) is formed, comprised of members from major stakeholder groups (e.g., agriculture, industry, mining, environmental, municipal, etc.). The State Water and Geological Surveys are responsible for scientific studies of Illinois’ water resources, working closely with the RWSPCs to optimize planning efforts. Plans have been developed for three regions (Northeast Illinois, East-Central Illinois, and the Kaskaskia River Basin). In 2014, funding was made available to start planning in two new regions (Middle Illinois River Basin and Northwest Illinois) and a sub-region (Kankakee River Basin). In this presentation, I will discuss past, current, and future water supply planning activities in Illinois, focusing on scientific work being done at the Water Survey.

 

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PCB Expert to Update Legacy and Emerging Issues at A&WMA Union League Club

Dr. Amanda Hughes was a primary presenter at the Prairie Research Institute's scientific workshop on PCBs at the University of Illinois in Chicago in September, 2014.
Dr. Amanda Hughes was a primary presenter at the Prairie Research Institute’s scientific workshop on PCBs at the University of Illinois in Chicago in September, 2014.

Amanda Hughes, one of the star experts at the Prairie Research Institute’s Sept. 17 workshop on “PCBs and Their Impact in Illinois” will be the special guest speaker at the Air & Waste Management Association, Lake Michigan States Section June Environmental Breakfast on Tuesday, June 23.

 

Hughes, of Geosyntec Consultants, will speak on “The Longstanding and Emerging Challenges of Addressing Polychlorinated Biphenyls.” Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) seemed great in their day — a set of durable synthetic molecules prized for their toughness in a variety of industrial uses. When they were found to pose human health risks they were banned, but they are still around.

 

From the Institute’s work, a report was published which can be downloaded HERE.  Panel presentations by Dr. Hughes and others are also available for viewing at the workshop website. There is also an informative Library Guide published by the U of I Libraries HERE.

 

Registration is required for the 8-10 a.m. breakfast and payments ($40 ($20 students)) can be made at the organization’s website. The event is CLE and PDH credit-eligible.