April 19, 2006
Please submit electronic reservation by Friday April 14, 2006
Cancellations accepted until noon on Friday April 14, 2006


GRA San Francisco Bay Area Branch
Proudly Presents

ENVIRONMENTAL FORENSICS:
TOOLS AND APPLICATIONS for PETROLEUM and CHLORINATED SOLVENTS

Dawn A. Zemo
Zemo & Associates LLC

To RSVP - http://www.grac.org/reservation

PRESENTATION HIGHLIGHTS

“Environmental forensics” is often defined as the interpretation of analytical or other data for determining what or how old a substance is, or when a release occurred, rather than the more familiar issue of site characterization for regulatory purposes. Forensic tools are available for many types of chemicals or classes of compounds; this presentation will focus on petroleum and chlorinated solvents. Forensics are frequently applied to petroleum hydrocarbon releases because of several factors related to (1) the chemical complexity of petroleum (crude oil and its refined products), (2) its weathering in the environment, and (3) frequent commingling of plumes. There are many forensic tools available for petroleum cases, several of which have been used for decades and others that are now becoming more widely used due to improvements in laboratory analytical capabilities. The optimal tool(s) for application to a particular case depends on the question to be answered. This presentation provides an overview of the most commonly-used forensic tools for petroleum cases: gas chromatogram pattern-matching; discrete constituent analyses (e.g., PIANO, PAHs); constituent ratios; biomarkers; additives; and stable isotopes. In addition, this presentation provides an overview of forensic tools commonly applied to solvent release cases: additives; surrogate chemicals; degradation rates and half-lives; molar ratios; and stable isotopes. The discussion about each forensic tool will include a summary of how it works, whether it is used for material identification/discrimination or age-dating, an example application, and practical comments regarding its use and its acceptance from an expert’s viewpoint.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Dawn Zemo received her B.A. in geology from Stephens College in 1980 and her M.S. in geology from Vanderbilt University in 1982. She is a Professional Geologist and a Certified Engineering Geologist in California. Ms. Zemo formed Zemo & Associates in 2002, and prior to that was a principal hydrogeologist with Geomatrix Consultants, Inc. Ms. Zemo’s current practice focuses on specialty consulting in the areas of environmental hydrogeology, evaluation of subsurface characterization data, evaluation of chemical data, assessment of remedial approaches, environmental forensics, and expert witness and confidential litigation consulting. Ms. Zemo has authored peer-reviewed articles and open-literature abstracts and manuscripts on site characterization and on the application of environmental forensics at petroleum release sites. Ms. Zemo is a member of the new ASTM subcommittee E50.06 on Environmental Forensics that is developing guidelines or standards for the practice. She has served on the editorial review boards for the international technical journals Ground Water Monitoring & Remediation and Environmental Forensics.

**** DINNER ARRANGEMENTS ****

Spenger’s - Fresh Fish Grotto
1919 Fourth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710
510-845-7777

Directions:

From points south.
- Take 880 to 80 east towards Berkeley/Sacramento.
- Take University Avenue off-ramp and stay in your right lane.
- Follow the Fourth Street/Frontage Road signs.
- Turn right on Hearst Street and go 3 blocks to Fourth Street and turn right.
- Spenger's will be on the left and guest parking is to the right.

From San Francisco and points north.
- Take Interstate 80 towards Berkeley and exit at University Avenue and keep right.
- You will pass over the highway and at the first stoplight, Sixth Street, turn left.
- Take the first left at Hearst Street. -Go 2 blocks and turn left again on Fourth Street.
- Spenger's will be on the left and guest parking is to the right.

From points east.
- Take Highway 680 to Highway 24 and Highway 24 to Highway 580.
- Head west on 580 West following the signs to Berkeley/Sacramento.
- Take the University Avenue off-ramp and stay in your right lane.
- Follow the Fourth Street/Frontage Road signs.
- Turn right on Hearst Street and go 3 blocks to Fourth Street and turn right.
- Spenger's will be on the left and guest parking is to the right.

TIMES:
5:30 - 6:30 -- No-Host Social and Registration
6:30 - 7:30 -- Dinner and Announcements
7:45 - 8:30 -- Keynote Speaker
8:30 - 8:45 -- Questions & Answers

Dinner Choices:
Vegetarian – Penne pasta with roasted red peppers, olives, capers, sun dried tomatoes, sweet garlic and olive oil
Non-Vegetarian – Chicken Cordon Bleu with whole grain mustard sauce
Non-Vegetarian – Grilled Mahi Mahi with mango salsa and bbq sauce
Dinner includes salad, rolls & butter, vegetables, coffee or tea

Dinner Costs:
$35 for members
$40 for non-memebers
$15 for students

Please pay at the door, cash or checks payable to GROUNDWATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION (GRA)

RSVP REQUIRED
Please submit electronic reservation by ***Friday April 14, 2006***

>> SUBMIT RSVP - http://www.grac.org/reservation

If you have any announcements or questions please contact the branch President, Mary Morkin at Geomatrix Consultants, Inc. at mmorkin@geomatrix.com or (510) 663-4111.

CANCELLATION POLICY: GRA will accept cancellations with no charge until noon on Friday April 14, 2006. At that time, we must submit a final headcount to Spengers and we will be charged accordingly. If you cancel after that time, or are a no-show, we will ask you to pay the cost of your meal. Thank you for your cooperation.

GRA SAN FRANCISCO BAY SECTION MEETINGS
By Bill Motzer - SF Section GRA Secretary

November 2005 Meeting

Sixty-seven members, non members and students attended the meeting. Dr. Driscoll's presentation topic was: Protecting Your Professional Reputation in a Time of Decreasing Ethical Behavior: It is Up to You! Dr. Driscoll, the author of Groundwater and Wells , gave several examples from his career of questionable behavior that greatly increased the time and expense of environmental cleanups and other projects.

December 2005 Meeting

Dr. Beth L. Parker was our speaker for the December 7, 2004 meeting at the Ramada Plaza Hotel in San Francisco . Held in conjunction with GRA's DNAPL Source Zone Remediation and Characterization Symposium , it had the year's best attendance, with 160 members and non-members including participants from the People's Republic of China , Tiwan, New Zealand , Australia , and Canada . Dr. Parker currently is Research Associate Professor at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Waterloo . Her talk, titled: Nature of Chlorinated Solvent Source Zones in Sandy Aquifers: Insights from Field Studies, was based on investigations that she and her graduate students have done in the past 10 years in chlorinated solvent dense non aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs).

Dr. Parker's studies showed that almost all chlorinated solvent contamination to groundwater can be attributed to DNAPL sources. Experiments, at the Borden, Ontario, Canada site and other industrial sites in the U.S. and Canada , involving complex DNAPL and dissolved solvent zones show that many can not be detected by conventional monitoring wells and sampling. Considerable solvent masses may remain as both sorbed and dissolved components in down gradient plumes decades after the main contaminant source has been removed. Many of the studied sites from the 1950s through 1970s have gone through considerable changes since initial contamination; this results in difficult identification of original DNAPL source zones and in more complex and expensive remediation methods.

The short space for this summary can not do justice to the Dr. Parker's excellent slides. A few of her DNAPL-related publications are listed on her website, http://www.waterloodnapl.com/dnapl_beth_parker.htm

• February 22, 2006, Stephen Hill & Alec Naugle, Annual Update from the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board
• January 25, 2006, W. Andrew Jackson, Ph.D., Water Resources Center, Texas Tech University, Occurrence of Atmospherically Generated Perchlorate in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions of North America
  , Nature of Chlorinated Solvent Source Zones in Sandy Aquifers: Insights from Field Studies
• December 7, 2005, Beth L. Parker, Ph.D., University of Waterloo, Nature of Chlorinated Solvent Source Zones in Sandy Aquifers: Insights from Field Studies
• November, 9, 2005, Fletcher Driscoll, Fletcher Driscoll & Associates LLC , "Protecting your Professional Reputation in a Time of Decreasing Ethical Behavior - It is up to you!"
• June 15, 2005, Patricia Bobeck, Geotechnical Translations - Austin, Texas, "Henry Darcy's Public Fountains of the City of Dijon"
• May 24, 2005, Douglas M. Mackay, Dept of Land, Air & Water Resources - UC Davis, "Impact of Ethanol on the Natural Attenuation of Benzene, Toluene, o-Xylene and MTBE in a Normally Sulfate-Reducing Aquifer: Update on Field Experiments at Vandenberg Air Force Base"
• April 27, 2005, Philip B. Duffy, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, "Global climate change and impacts on California"
• March 24, 2005, Mark Smolley, Calpine Corporation, "Horizontal Directional Drilling for the Installation of a Natural Gas Pipeline"
• February 23, 2005, David Kill, 5th NGW McEllhiney Distinguished Lecturer, "Well Efficiency is Not a Myth"
• January 19, 2005, Stephen Hill, Chuck Headlee, and Sarah Raker, "Annual Regulatory Update San Francisco Bay Water Board"