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CEAE Home -->
Environmental Engineering
--> Seminar
Environmental
Engineering Program
Spring 2008 Seminar Series
Time: Fridays, 11:00 to 11:50 am (with some
exceptions, dates in italics)
Place: Engineering Center,
Room CE 1B41
Organizer: Prof.
Joe Ryan
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Jan 25
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Dr. George Aiken
U.S. Geological Survey,
Boulder,
Colorado
Climate change and dissolved organic matter in the Yukon River watershed
This talk will explore the feedback between climate change
and the behavior of dissolved organic matter in the Yukon River Watershed.
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Feb 1
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Dr.
Christine Wiedinmyer
National Center for Atmospheric Research,
Boulder, Colorado
Estimating emissions of pollutants from
fires
Fires
emit trace gases and particles to the atmosphere. Mercury can also be
emitted from fires. These emissions can impact air quality, climate, and
downwind ecosystems. Methods to estimate fire emissions will be presented,
uncertainties associated with the emission estimates will be highlighted,
and the impacts of these emissions will be discussed.
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Feb 8
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Dr.
Lisa
Dilling
Center for
Science and Technology Policy Research, University
of Colorado at Boulder
Creating a climate for change: Re-thinking communication and climate
change
Scientists are increasingly
pointing to the urgency of the responding to global warming, and yet our
societal actions are as yet, ineffective at meeting the challenge. What has
worked in communicating about climate change in such a way that it can
facilitate social action? What hurdles remain?
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Feb 15
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Prof.
Liam
Downey
Department of Sociology, University
of Colorado at Boulder
Inequality, democracy, and the environment
The talk will
examine the role that non-democratic decision making and elite- and
corporate-controlled organizations and networks play in producing severe
environmental degradation. In the first half of the talk, I will provide a
theoretical foundation for why examining non-democratic decision making and
elite-controlled organizational networks is important and in the second half
of the talk, I will briefly summarize case studies involving agricultural
commodity chains, U.S. energy policy, and the World Bank.
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Feb 22
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Dr. Alan Vajda
Department of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado at
Boulder
Reproductive disruption of fish by estrogenic wastewater
Humans inadvertently discharge
endocrine-active chemicals (EACs) to surface waters along with
treated and untreated wastewater. Dr. Vajda will present
results from a variety of studies on the fate of EACs and their
impact on aquatic ecosystems, particularly the effect of estrogenic
chemicals on fish reproduction.
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Feb 29
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Dr. Imma Ferrer and Dr.
Michael Thurman
Center for Environmental Mass Spectroscopy, University of Colorado at
Boulder
Analysis of pesticides in environmental samples (food and
water) by liquid chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry
Dr. Thurman will give an overview of
accurate mass analysis as a tool for environmental analysis. Dr.
Ferrer will discuss our applications of LC/TOF-MS in food and water
samples, which includes the analysis of target and unknown
compounds.
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Mar
7
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Prof.
Pieter
Johnson
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado at Boulder
Sick and twisted: Using malformed frogs to promote an ecological
understanding of disease
Worldwide
increases in number of human and wildlife diseases have challenged
ecologists to understand how large-scale changes affect host-parasite
interactions. Recent evidence suggests that environmental changes
associated with human activity have increased the abundance of amphibian
malformations, and we highlight the significance of increases in nutrient
pollution (eutrophication) and decreases in
aquatic community diversity.
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Mar
14
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Mary Fabisiak, Water Quality
Administrator
City of Westminster,
Colorado
Standley Lake Water Quality Protection: Past, Present, and Future
Standley Lake in Westminster, Colorado, serves as a drinking water
supply for Westminster, Northglenn, and Thornton. Water from the
Clear Creek Watershed is delivered by three ditches to Standley
Lake. The three cities have been active in watershed protection
efforts for over 20 years. Activities have ranged from
Intergovernmental agreements, physical upgrades and projects to
improve water quality, and an extensive monitoring program to detect
trends and changes. This presentation will summarize past efforts,
and describe current and future activities planned for the
preservation of this valuable resource
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Mar
21
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Fritz W. Ganz, Esq.
Fognani & Faught, PLLC
The Redfield solvent plume near Cherry Creek in Denver
A plume of
chlorinated solvents in groundwater extends north from the former Redfield
Riflescopes Facility in Southeast Denver to Cherry Creek. More than 700
homes overlying and adjacent to the groundwater plume were tested for the
presence of chlorinated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in indoor air.
Nearly 400 of these homes exceeded the level established for implementation
of mitigation measures. The presentation will provide an overview of the
site and the litigation related to liability for remediation at the site.
It will also discuss the complexities in determining indoor air impacts from
contaminated groundwater and assessing liability for remediation of those
impacts.
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Mar
28
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Spring
Break!
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Apr
4
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Prof.
James Ranville
Chemistry and Geochemistry,
Colorado School of Mines
Characterization and aquatic toxicity testing of quantum dots
With the rapid expansion of
the nanoparticle industry, metal-containing nanoparticles such as
quantum dots (QDs) may become a prominent new source of metal
contamination. This seminar will present background information and
results from (1) development of new tools for the characterization
of nanoparticles, and (2) assessment of the aquatic toxicity
associated with metal-containing nanocrystals.
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Apr
11
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Kaelin Cawley, Ph.D. candidate
Civil, Environmental, and
Architectural Engineering & INSTAAR, University of Colorado at
Boulder
The impact of dissolved organic matter on the growth of
Alexandrium fundyense in laboratory cultures
Several algal species
responsible for harmful algal blooms have recently been found to be
mixotrophic under certain environmental conditions. One such
organism, Alexandrium fundyense, is found in "red tide"
blooms which cause paralytic shellfish poisoning in the Gulf of
Maine. In this study we looked at the impact of nutrients found in
dissolved organic matter (DOM) on the growth of Alexandrium
fundyense cultures.
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Apr
18
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Prof.
Michael
Kleeman
Civil and Environmental
Engineering, University of California at Davis
Source apportionment of ultrafine atmospheric particles
Ultrafine atmospheric
particles (dp < 100 nm) are suspected to cause adverse
human health effects but very little is currently known about their
dominant sources in the atmosphere. I will discuss results from
emissions measurements and ambient source apportionment studies
focused on the ultrafine particle size range.
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Apr
25
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Thomas Rutkowski, P.E.
Golder
Associates, Lakewood, CO
Construction and Instrumentation of a Pilot Treatment System
at the Standard Mine Superfund Site, Crested Butte, CO
A pilot biochemical reactor was
designed and constructed to treat mine-influenced water emanating
from an adit at a remote site in southern Colorado which receives an
average of 10 m of snowfall each season. Since there are
limited data on biochemical and sulfate-reducing reactors operating
in elevated and harsh winter locations, the acquired data are unique
for mine-influenced water remediation.
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