December 9, 2003
9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
On December 9, 2003, the following members of the Remediation Technologies Development Forum's (RTDF's) Sediments Remediation Action Team met in a conference call:
John Davis, The Dow Chemical Company
Kelly Madalinski, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Dennis Timberlake, EPA
Chris Hartnett of ERG also participated in the call.
This conference call was held to discuss the Sediments Remediation Action Team meeting that is scheduled to take place in Baltimore, Maryland, in February 2004. The meeting will feature a general session (which will include updates on a variety of sediments-related topics) and a workshop (which will be titled "In Situ Treatment Technologies for Contaminated Sediments"). Prior to the call, Kelly Madalinski distributed a draft meeting agenda and a list of questions that should be addressed during the workshop. Call participants reviewed both of these products during the conference call and decided that the following needed to be done to finalize them:
Obtain clarification on the topics that will be discussed during the "Miscellaneous Business Items" session. John Davis agreed to contact Nancy Grosso for clarification on this session.
Adjust some of the speaker time slots. Call participants advised extending the time allocated to Leah Evison to 40 minutes and shaving 5 minutes off of the talks Grosso and Davis are going to deliver.
Split the discussion sessions into shorter segments. In the draft agenda that Madalinski distributed, 1-hour-long discussion sessions were included at the end of each meeting day. Davis suggested breaking the two discussion periods into four shorter sessions and peppering them throughout the workshop. Madalinski agreed to modify the agenda to reflect this decision.
Clarify who is speaking. Davis said that he will contact Peter Adriaens to find out how he and John Wolfe plan to split up the bioremediation discussion. Madalinski will contact Tommy Meyers to determine who will be presenting information about the Erie Pier ECGO demonstration project.
Secure additional speakers. Madalinski will invite Scott Douglas to speak at the meeting. Davis said that he would like to invite Jeff Talley to speak as well, but that he has not been able to find accurate contact information for him. Madalinski agreed to ask Meyers for Talley's contact information.
Modify some of the presentation titles. Davis said that he would contact Adriaens, Kevin Gardner, and David Constant to obtain titles for their talks. He will forward the titles to Madalinski, who will incorporate them into the agenda.
Modify the agenda to include introductory material and a list of questions for the workshop session. Madalinski agreed to include a paragraph that explains what the Action Team hopes to accomplish under the workshop agenda item. (Potential outcomes include developing a white paper, writing an article, identifying future research opportunities, forming partnerships, and/or identifying future needs.) In addition, Madalinski will provide a list of questions that should be discussed during the workshop. Call participants agreed that the questions Madalinski distributed prior to the conference call were excellent, but that they should be grouped into categories. Call participants brainstormed about potential categories and came up with the following: (1) the basics of the technology, (2) stage of development, (3) lessons learned/obstacles encountered, and (4) future direction/next steps.
Release the next draft of the agenda to the Sediments Remediation Action Team leaders and the speakers before distributing it to the entire Action Team. Madalinski agreed to release the next version of the agenda by mid-December 2003. He will give the Action Team leaders and the meeting speakers a chance to review it before distributing it to a larger audience. That way, the speakers will be able to see who else is on the agenda and make sure that their talks are not redundant. (Madalinski said that he would specifically check in with Dick Luthy and Upal Ghosh to make sure that their talks will not cover identical material.)