Newsletter

Xiongping Zhang attended the 5th China International Rescue and Salvage Conference in Dalian, China, from 16-18 September. He presented a paper entitled “A New Search and Rescue Supporting System (EDS) for U.S. Coast Guard's Operational Search and Rescue”. Dr. Zhang’s presentation received an outstanding paper award by the conference committee.

Trevor Gilbert provided on-site OILMAP training for Shell Sarawak Bhd staff in Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia during September. Both OILMAP V6 and OILMAP Extension for ArcGIS were included in the training, which covered simulated spill exercises, modifying metocean information, and incorporating over-flight information and spill response in the simulations. Shell staff appreciated the ability to import metocean data from the Environment Data Server (EDS) and to export oil spill simulations in KML format for display and animation in Google Earth.

On 22 September Xiongping Zhang co-hosted a workshop in Beijing, China, for numerical simulation of offshore oil spills. Dr. Zhang presented oil spill simulation theories, tools and their applications. The workshop was authorized by China MSA, and co-hosted by China Academy of Transportation Science (CATS). Mr. Yiping Shao, an ASA authorized OILMAP engineer from Shanghai Academy of Environmental Science, presented applications of OILMAP in the Yangtze Estuary. Experts from 9 different agencies in China attended the workshop.

Sasha Zigic attended the 2008 APPEA Environmental Conference held 7-9 October at Coolum Beach, Queensland, Australia.

From 9-10 October Eric Comerma provided advanced CHEMMAP training to Cedre's intervention team in Brest, France. To assist Cedre’s role as an operational responder, CHEMMAP includes an EDS subscription to provide near real time wind and currents forecasts.

In October Eduardo Yassuda and Axel Schwartz provided OILMAP V6 training to TOTAL Austral in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Manager Francisco Bogado and his team have been very active in promoting TOTAL’s environmental and safety commitment in Argentina.

Eric Comerma attended Sea Tech Week’s SAR workshop in Brest, France from 13-17 October. He presented the paper “Improvement of Drift Prediction: Evaluation of Different Metocean Data Products Using Drifters in Australia”.

From 16-18 October Kelly Knee attended the New England Estuarine Society’s (NEERS) fall meeting held on Block Island, Rhode Island, focusing on global climate change in estuaries and coasts. She presented the paper “Visualizing Sea Level Rise along Estuarine Shorelines”.

Eoin Howlett and Mark Wholey attended the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association (MACOORA) Annual Meeting held 22-23 October at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. As DMAC (Data Management & Communications) representatives, Eoin and Mark joined scientists, users, educators, and others to discuss the current and future development of coastal ocean observing products and data streams and the emerging wind energy potential.

Craig Swanson participated in the International Conference on Marine Waste Water Discharge (MWWD 2008) held near Dubrovnik, Croatia, on the Adriatic Sea from 27-31 October. His paper entitled “Use of a Lagrangian Particle Model to Simulate the Far Field Transport and Fate of Effluent Discharge from the Proposed LACSD Outfall”, was presented as part of a series of papers at a special session of the conference focused on a large new outfall proposed for Los Angeles, California.

Eoin Howlett, CJ Beegle-Krause and Deborah French McCay attended the Clean Gulf Conference in San Antonio, Texas from 28-30 October. ASA shared a booth with Wilkens Weather and Nowcasting International. Deb presented a paper entitled “Guidance for Dispersant Decision Making, Potential Impact on Aquatic Biota” at the pre-conference workshop: Applied Research for the Spill Response Community. Eoin announced ASA’s partnership with Dynadec and introduced ASA-Dynadec’s new capability for route optimization.

From 3-5 November ASA hosted guests from China’s Hangzou Academy of Environmental Science (HAES). Xiongping Zhang and Lee Dooley introduced HAES executives to ASA’s offices and business methodologies, and provided a comprehensive tour of Rhode Island, including a fishing trip in Narragansett Bay.

Lee Dooley and Craig Swanson attended the Environmental, Energy, and Climate Change Business Summit on 7 November organized by Environmental Business Council of New England. The summit outlined trends and insights for the environmental consulting industry.

Deborah French McCay attended the 29th Annual Meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), 16-20 November, in Tampa, Florida. She presented the paper “Use of Population Modeling for Quantifying Injuries and Compensatory Restoration for Fish Kills – Example Application for Freshwater Species Present in Missouri”. The paper describes a model, developed by ASA and Industrial Economics for the Missouri Department of Conservation, which estimates injuries and damages associated with small-scale fish kill events.

From 17-21 November Jennifer Cragan and Matt Ward attended the Chemical and Biological Defense Physical Science and Technology Conference (CBD-PST) in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jennifer presented a poster on SHARC (System for Hazard Assessment of Released Chemicals) for bulk shipped chemicals. Matt presented a paper on the chemistry of SHARC.

From 19-20 November Kelly Knee and Catarina Lemos attended the Northeast Regional Coastal Hazards Workshop in New London, Connecticut. The workshop focused on strategies to increase the resiliency of local communities to flooding hazards.

Deborah French McCay, CJ Beegle-Krause, and Jill Rowe from ASA, Dagmar Etkin of Environmental Research Consulting, and Colin Moore and Keith Michel of Herbert Engineering Corporation recently completed the study “Oil Spill Risk Analysis Review”. The study, commissioned by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) of the Washington State Legislature, evaluated oil spill risks (spill likelihood and consequences) associated with different sectors and geographical regions in Washington State. On 3 December CJ attended the first presentation of the study results to JLARC. Deb attended a second presentation on 7 January.

From 3-9 December Kelly Knee and Marc Zapata provided OILMAP and OILMAPLAND training to representatives from the Sakhalin Energy Investment Company (SEIC) Geomatics and Oil Spill Response departments. SEIC will be using ASA’s software for oil spill response in and around Sakhalin Island, Russia.

On 5 December Deborah French McCay met with the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) for the kickoff meeting on a project to update the EMSA manual and software tool used to evaluate dispersant effectiveness. The updated tool will provide responders with a quick guide to determine the likely water volume adversely affected by naturally (or chemically) dispersed oil and dissolved hydrocarbons, as well as the surface area impacted by floating oil. The data will be used to evaluate tradeoffs of dispersant use and plan monitoring activities. Dr. Walter Nordhausen is the EMSA technical manager directing the project.

In December Malcolm Spaulding was elected the first president of the Northeast Regional Association for Coastal Ocean Observing Systems (NERACOOS). NERACOOS was established to network and expand the ocean observation and prediction capacity throughout New England and Maritime Canada. NERACOOS supports NOAA’s comprehensive IOOS (U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System) program to ensure the sustained observation of the nation's coastal oceans.

We are happy to welcome Daniel Mendelsohn back to ASA. Originally with ASA from 1985-2001, he has been at Applied Technology and Management Inc. (ATM) for the past 5 years and now returns to lead ASA’s Energy Resources Group. Daniel has developed and applied numerous computer simulation models to address engineering problems in the environment and has provided support to the public and private sectors for environmental and permitting issues, environmental resource assessment, and model prediction including meteorological, hydrodynamics and pollutant transport and fates.

In recent years, Daniel has focused on the conceptual design, feasibility, planning and development of renewable energy system projects for electric power cooperatives, municipalities, state government agencies, resort developments, and several high-profile offshore wind energy projects in the U.S. He is experienced in the environmental issues facing regulators and the power industry and will work on multi-disciplinary teams at ASA to address energy, climate, and sustainability issues.

David Stuebe, a new addition to ASA’s team of scientists, graduated from the MIT-WHOI Joint Program with a Masters in physical oceanography in 2005. Since then, he has been working on coastal ocean modeling at the School for Marine Science and Technology. His experience covers coastal ocean dynamics, parallel programming, unstructured grid modeling, and operational forecasting.

Richard Sweetman joined ASA in early November as an environmental chemist. Rich has a broad background in the marine sciences, having worked as a biologist, ecologist, oceanography instructor, and chemist. His primary focus has been on coastal marine nutrients, with experience ranging from instrumentation design and development to data analysis and interpretation. Rich brings his chemical oceanography expertise to ASA’s modeling and service work.

CJ Beegle-Krause and ASA welcome a very small new face--Michael, born on 4 January. Mom (CJ) and Michael celebrated the New Year with chocolate cigars and a visit from Deb French McCay and Dagmar Etkin of Environmental Research Consulting.

• Eric Comerma and Deborah French McCay will be attending Interspill 2009, to be held at Parc Chanot, Marseille, France on 12-14 May 2009.