SERDP and Noblis, Inc. hosted a second SERDP workshop on the acoustic detection and classification of underwater UXO in 2017 and the Workshop Report has just been posted. The workshop brought together modelers and experimentalists working in SERDP Underwater Munitions program, Office of Naval Research (ONR) Program Managers, and other knowledgeable members of the field to evaluate recent progress made in development of acoustics sensing and processing, and platform development to detect and classify underwater munitions and to recommend future R&D initiatives.
Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division (NSWCCD), WP-201708, has begun the laboratory evaluation of a High Shear Rotary Membrane System (HSRMS) for treatment of shipboard produced bilgewater. Expectations of HSRMS are to reduce both the cost of operation and shipboard footprint – in comparison to the bilgewater treatment systems aboard Armed Forces vessels.
Created by Sam Johnston
A cloud service offers flexible, fast, right-sized and cost-effective on-demand service with broad network access without the large upfront investment and ongoing maintenance cost of hardware ownership. While the private sector has been quick to adopt and move to cloud services, the transition has been slow at Department of Defense (DoD).
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Fractured rock sites, impacted with chlorinated solvents such as tetrachloroethene (PCE) or trichloroethene (TCE), remain a significant environmental challenge for the DoD. Efforts to apply in situ remedial technologies have often proved challenging and/or unsuccessful with respect to attaining remedial objectives in fractured rock aquifers.
The Department of Defense (DoD) relies on a large number of installations with extensive supporting infrastructure to prepare for and execute missions. In fact, the DoD is responsible for over 7,000 sites worldwide. Many installations, and their supporting infrastructure systems (e.g., energy, transportation, water resources, and medical services) are located in areas prone to natural hazards such as floods, coastal storm surge, droughts, extreme temperatures, fires, winds, and other events.
Many of you were able to attend the 2017 SERDP & ESTCP Symposium in Washington last November. We had 950 attendees for the Plenary Session, two days of technical sessions, short courses, and posters. I really enjoyed interacting with our many investigators and their students over the course of the Symposium.
The SERDP and ESTCP Munitions Response Program held an In-Progress Review in late February. We heard presentations from both FY-17 new starts and projects from earlier funding cycles that are completing. I’ll highlight a few of the projects for those that were unable to attend.
Erosion resistant protective coatings used on military aircrafts and shipboard surfaces have stringent performance requirements. These coatings are frequently applied on-site and under ambient conditions as multi-coat systems on metal alloys and composite substrates.
ESTCP 2017 Project-of-the-year Award for Environmental Restoration
1,4-Dioxane, a cyclic diether used as an additive in chlorinated solvents is a common and persistent groundwater contaminant. While conventional soil vapor extraction (SVE) can remove some 1,4-dioxane, a substantial residual source is left behind causing long-term groundwater contamination. Due to the compound’s complete miscibility in water, 1,4-dioxane becomes sequestered in the vadose zone pore water which serves as a long-term source of groundwater contamination.
ESTCP 2017 Project-of-the-Year Award for Resource Conservation and Resiliency
Detection of amphibian and fish species using conventional survey methods is not always possible. At least 22 at-risk amphibian species and over 40 at-risk fish species are known to occur on DoD lands. For elusive species, such as many amphibians and fishes, lack of reliable monitoring data can lead to an underestimate of the species’ distribution. An efficient alternative to traditional field surveys is the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) to detect species presence. Animals shed cells with their DNA into the environment regularly (through the shedding of skin, mucous, and excrement). By sampling this shed DNA, researchers can infer a species’ presence in the sampled environment using existing genetic methods.