Chattanooga Engineers Club

NEXT MEETING____________________________

Monday, November 23 - Noon – DOUBLETREE HOTEL, Inspiration Room (407 Chestnut Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402)

“Creative Discovery Museum – The Power of Play” - Henry Schulson and Sue Kral

Since its opening in 1995, the Creative Discovery Museum has become one of Chattanooga’s most dynamic and innovative educational resources. Its mission is to stimulate the creativity and curiosity of each child and to create an excitement for learning through hands-on exploration of the arts and sciences.

Henry Schulson, Executive Director of the Museum, will discuss the Museum’s mission and the important role of play in a child’s education.

Sue Kral, the Museum’s School Outreach Coordinator, will explain how the Museum takes its mission into the schools. She will describe the Museum’s partnership with the Bioenergy Science Center at Oak Ridge National Lab which has enhanced the development of school outreach on bio-fuels and alternative energy source lessons.

FUTURE MEETINGS________________________

Monday, November 30 – 11:45 am – 1:00 pm – PLANT TOUR: ROADTEC

Tour Guides: Nolan Smith, Inventory Analyst, and Steve Hauke, Manager Purchasing and Materials

Roadtec is a manufacturer of asphalt pavers, cold planers and material transfer vehicles.

Lunch will not be provided.

Monday, December 7 – Noon – “Lithium Batteries-Unlikely Answer for Electric Vehicles”

Speaker: Mark Hairr, UTC CETE Research Program Director

Monday, December 14 – Noon – To be determined.

Monday, December 21 – NO MEETING

Monday, December 28 – NO MEETING

PREVIOUS MEETING_______________________

Mike Scott, Project Coordinator, TVA’s Kingston Steam Plant, discussed the current status of cleanup operations of the coal ash spill that occurred on December 22, 2008 when the dike of an ash containment pond failed releasing 5.4 million cubic yards of fly ash. TVA has made the decision to convert all TVA coal plants that use wet ash storage to dry ash disposal methods by 2015. He discussed the findings of the independent root cause and management analysis that found that TVA had missed signs and opportunities that may have prevented the ash spill from occurring.

In May 2009, the TVA and EPA signed an administrative order to manage the coal ash clean up at Kingston. Jacobs Environmental has been retained and is managing the site cleanup work. To date, TVA and its contractors have dredged and excavated more than 60% of the 3.0 million cubic yards of ash that spilled into the Emory River. The State of Tennessee removed TVA’s solid waste permit to dispose of ash onsite, and the recovered ash is being disposed of at an EPA approved landfill in Perry County Alabama. To date 97 train loads and 870,000 tons of ash have been shipped to the permanent storage site in Perry County where it is stored in landfill cells. Phillips and Jordans manages the disposal storage site.

TVA built a dike across an embayment to land-lock 2.4 million cubic yards of ash released in the spill. There are 435 workers onsite and they are removing 17,000 cubic yards of ash per day. Two 1800-foot ditches are used to dewater the dredged ash before it goes into railcars. The moisture content of the ash is 20-25% before it is loaded into rail cars for transportation. River dredging by Sevenson will remove the 2.4 million cubic yards of ash from the river. 15-mil plastic liners line the railcars before the ash goes into the cars. Samples of air, water, as well as biota (fish, turtles, etc) are taken and analyzed regularly.

As part of the EPA Order, a Community Advisory Group has been formed, which advises the community concerning the next phase of the recovery project. As of September 2009, TVA already spent $231 million of the estimated $933 million to $1.2 billion amount projected to complete the ash recovery operation. TVA is working closely with the community to review health and property issues. Spring 2010 is the scheduled ash removal from the river and long term recovery will be out for another 2-3 years.

ITEMS OF INTEREST_______________________

The Chattanooga Engineer's Club meets at the DOUBLETREE HOTEL, CHATTANOOGA, Inspiration Room (407 Chestnut St., Chattanooga, TN 37402). Free parking is available in the gated parking lot on the south side of the Hotel. The gate will be open from 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Plan to arrive at about 11:30 a.m. if you intend to park in the limited space available. No additional parking is available in the pit east of the Hotel on Chestnut Street.

Looking for details on a local society meeting? Links to local engineering societies are available to you at: http://www.chattanoogaengineersclub.org/engineer

QUESTIONS and SUGGESTIONS______________

If you have any questions, items that would be of interest to the Chattanooga Engineers Club, or suggestions for future programs, please contact Joe Robbins by e-mail at jrobbins@robbinsbohr.com or by phone at 423-756-4430. You can find membership application forms, references to future programs, historical data, and other info at: http://www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org. To receive future meeting announcements by email, join the Chattanooga Technology Organization mailing list at: http://www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org/email.