Tim Stark traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina to give a presentation at the periodic geosynthetics conference organized by Chesapeake Containment Systems, Incorporated. This year’s conference is titled: “Geosynthetics 201”.Ryan Kamp opened the conference with a welcome and his presentation titled:“ What are Geosynthetics and What Do They Do?” (see Figure 1). Dr. Stark followed Ryan Kamp with a presentation that outlined the advantages of factory fabricated geomembranes, Columbus Upground Water Reservoir case history, and various design calculators developed by the FGI. Some of the calculators discussed are the factory fabricated Panel Weight Calculator, Pond Leakage Calculator, Geomembrane Defect Leakage Calculator, Installation Cost Comparison Calculator, and anchor trench design calculator.

Dr. Stark’s presentation was followed by an excellent presentation by Ken Daly of WSP and an Illinois alumni titled: “CCR Landfill Reclamation for Beneficial Reuse -Lessons learned and Practical Considerations”. There were a total of ten presentations and a Panel Discussion titled: “Considerations and Constructability for a Waste Containment Facility involving Geosynthetics”. The other presentations were:

·        Performance Examples of a Geomembrane with Integrated Drainage Capabilities-Containment & Closure – Chris Eichelberger of Agru-America

·        Exposed Geomembrane Cover System Applications Utilizing the Wind Defender Ballast System – Elliott Pugh of Wind Defender and Brad DeArment of ICS (see Figure 2)

·        Electrical Leak Location (ELL) – Planning and Preparation – Andrew Colby of BLE (see Figure 3)

·        Best Practices and Considerations for the Infill Components of the Closure Turf System – David Scherbaty of Air Pump East

·        Geosynethetic Performance Testing: Considerations and Analysis – JP Kline of Geotechnics Inc.

·        The Need for Mitigation in Your Containment Project – Andrew Plowman of Varicore Technologies

·        Innovative and Sustainable Engineering Solutions using Huesker Geosynthetics – Vona Ojaruega of Huesker

Dr. Stark tries to regularly meet with members and/or visit the facility of FGI members to better understand each member’s business and how the FGI can provide additional benefit to them. The FGI is an exciting advancement in the geomembrane industry and allows the Institute to focus on flexible geomembranes.

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