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The Chemistry of Hazardous Materials
Published in Armen S. Casparian, Gergely Sirokman, Ann O. Omollo, Rapid Review of Chemistry for the Life Sciences and Engineering, 2021
Armen S. Casparian, Gergely Sirokman, Ann O. Omollo
Two quick notes of enlightenment the authors would like to offer are as follows. First, authority and responsibility to regulate health and safety matters are divided up among various federal agencies (over which there may be overlap). OSHA has jurisdiction to oversee health and safety questions occurring within the borders or “inside the fence” of any industrial or commercial place of business or employment. An employer has the responsibility and duty to provide and ensure safe and healthy working conditions for all of its employees. Violations should be brought to the attention of OSHA, headquartered in the US Department of Labor. EPA has jurisdiction to protect all elements of the environment—air, water, land, or areas “outside of the fence,” which affect the health and safety of the general population and citizenry at large. In short, EPA has the authority and responsibility to protect environmental quality against contamination or pollution. DOT has the authority and responsibility to ensure the safe transport of all hazardous materials whether by air, land, or waterway, i.e., anything in motion. The Coast Guard and US Army Corps of Engineers share responsibility for environmental protection and transportation safety within and adjacent to all navigable waterways of the United States and all their tributaries, in essence covering all waterways of the United States.
Epa’s Contaminated Sediment Management Strategy
Published in Herbert E. Allen, Metal Contaminated Aquatic Sediments, 2018
The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE), as the federal agency designated to maintain navigable waters, conducts a majority of this dredging and disposal under its Congressionally authorized civil works program [27]. The balance of the dredging and disposal is conducted by a number of local public and private entities. In either case, the disposal is subject to a regulatory program administered by the COE under the above statutes. EPA shares the responsibility of managing dredged material, principally in the development of the environmental criteria by which disposal sites are selected and proposed discharges are evaluated, and in the exercise of its environmental oversight authority. Dredged material management activities are also subject to NEPA, as well as a number of other laws, executive orders, and state and local regulations.
Stormwater Laws and Regulations
Published in Roger D. Griffin, Principles of Stormwater Management, 2018
These were notable in that they established federal authority: To prohibit the construction of any bridge, dam, dike, or causeway over, or in, navigable waterways of the United States (without Congressional approval).Extended that authority to include “… any port, roadstead, haven, harbor, canal, lake, harbor of refuge … or of the channel of any navigable water of the United States.”Required the approval of the [Army Corps of Engineers] Chief of Engineers for any excavation or fill within those navigable waters. This included “…contaminated sediments associated with dredge or fill projects.”Established “the authority of the Corps of Engineers to issue permits for the discharge of refuse matter into, or affecting, navigable water.”
Fatigue life updating of embedded miter gate anchorages of navigation locks using full-scale laboratory testing
Published in Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, 2023
Brian A. Eick, Nathaniel M. Levine, Matthew D. Smith, Billie F. Spencer
The inland navigation system in the US allows for the transportation of billions of dollars annually on the nation’s inland waterways. The system relies on a network of locks and dams to maintain a navigable depth of water in the rivers and allow vessels to traverse areas in the river with varying water elevations. In the US, most river locks use miter gates as both the damming surface and door to the lock chamber. These gates are supported in part by steel frames referred to as miter gate anchorages, which are embedded in the concrete lock chamber wall and connected to the miter gate by steel bars. As the gates swing open and closed, the miter gate anchorages are pseudo-statically loaded in tension as they resist the overhanging moment caused by the weight of the miter gate itself. Dependent on shipping traffic, miter gates can swing open and closed some ten to twenty times per day which, when considered over decades of gate swings, leads to concerns about material fatigue of the embedded anchorage. Fatigue is particularly concerning given that many anchorages have been in service for some eighty years, and their embedment in concrete precludes visual inspection, and so the condition of miter gate anchorages is typically unknown.
An integrated approach to evaluating inland waterway disruptions using economic interdependence, agent-based, and Bayesian models
Published in The Engineering Economist, 2023
Paul M. Johnson, Hiba Baroud, Craig Philip, Mark Abkowitz
The U.S. inland waterway system is an extensive collection of navigable channels, ports, and locks and dams that are crucial for maintaining the success of the domestic economy (Camp et al., 2013; MacKenzie et al., 2012; Whitman et al., 2019). Every year, more than 2.3 billion tons of commodities are transported along the inland waterways, which amounts to roughly 15% of total U.S. freight (Folga et al., 2009; USACE, 2022). These shipments have exemplary safety records, low carbon emissions, and low costs compared to other modes of transport (Oztanriseven & Nachtmann, 2020; Philip & Johnson, 2018; Schweighofer, 2014). Perhaps most important though, inland waterway ports serve as vital hubs connecting a broader, multimodal network of barge, rail, and truck transport (MacKenzie et al., 2012; Oztanriseven & Nachtmann, 2020).
Feasibility of retrofitting existing miter-type lock gates with discontinuous contact blocks
Published in Journal of Structural Integrity and Maintenance, 2019
Brian A Eick, Matthew D. Smith, Travis B. Fillmore
The inland navigation system in the US facilitates the waterborne transportation of billions of dollars of goods on inland riverways annually. The primary infrastructure utilized on the inland navigation system comes in the form of locks and dams. Dams are constructed to ensure that inland rivers maintain a navigable depth of water while the lock chambers are constructed to transport vessels from portions of rivers with different water elevations. The most common type of lock gate in the US is a miter lock gate, which comprises greater than 90% of all lock gates in the US (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 2014a). Characterized by their primary load-carrying members, miter gates are either vertically framed (using vertical steel girders) or horizontally framed (using horizontal steel girders). This study will focus on horizontally framed miter gates and particularly on one of the critical components of these types of miter gates needed to transfer load in the intended fashion, namely, the contact blocks in the quoin region. To illustrate the components of interest, a typical horizontally framed miter gate is shown in Figure 1, while a simplified drawing of the gate is shown with the quoin region and the contact blocks labeled in Figure 2. The large steel diagonal members, also clearly seen in Figure 1, are labeled in Figure 2 for clarity. The contact block in Figure 2 is the solid black piece that spans the height of the quoin region of the gate. Generally, miter gates in the US are on the order of 10 to 20 m (35 to 65 ft) high, and the contact blocks in the quoin region are intended to span the entire height.