Contest Challenges Students To Find Solid Waste Solutions International Design Competition

WORLD WASTES STAFF

A Michigan State University student engineering team beat out 24 other university and community college teams to garner first place honors in the 4th annual Waste-Management Education and Research Consortium (WERC) International Environmental Design Contest.

The contest, held April 10 to 15 at New Mexico State University, put student teams in head-to-head competition to devise a solution to a remediation/water harvesting challenge that faces government and industrial sites in many parts of the world.

To cleanup the soil, the Michigan team chose a process that included multiple solvent extractions followed by a single-stage water rinse. For water harvesting, the engineers chose a fly-ash/water sealant application. It was awarded $10,000 for its first place solution.

The Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology placed second, the West Virginia University graduate team placed third and Mesa State College placed fourth in the contest.

The student teams presented their solutions to a panel of professionals from the industry, academia and government.

They were required to examine all aspects of the environmental challenge including regulations, effectiveness, health and safety, historical applications, theo- retical applications, practical applications, cost effectiveness and communications issues.

Each team was required to submit a written report, an oral presentation and a demonstration on how its bench-scale model would affect decontamination.

WERC, Las Cruces, N.M., is a consortium of universities and national laboratories that develop resources to address waste management and environmental restoration issues.

Acquisition Boston-based BioMedical Waste Systems, Boston, has acquired River Bay Corp., Jackson, Miss.

Clean-up Technology Inc., Santa Monica, Calif., has purchased Unison Transformer Services, a division of Union Carbide.

Perma-Fix Environmental Services Inc., Atlanta, has aquired most of the environmental businesses of Quadrex Corp., St. Louis.

United Waste Systems, Greenwich, Conn., has acquir-ed PRTR Inc., Marlborough, Mass.

RMT Inc., Madison, Wis., has acquired Braithwaite Con-sultant Inc., Ann Arbor, Mich.

Agreements The Institute of Gas Technology, Chicago, has signed a license and technology assistance agreement with Takuma Co. Limited, Osaka, Japan.

Black & Veatch, Kansas City, Mo., has signed an agreement with Vietnam to be its partner on various solid waste projects.

Awards The American Society of Civil Engineers has recognized the Spokane, Wash., Northside Landfill with an award of merit. The landfill was engineered by CH2M Hill.

Wheelabrator Falls Inc., Morrisville, Pa., a subsidiary of Wheelabrator Technologies Inc., Hampton, N.H., has been awarded the Pennsylvania Resources Council 1994 Recognition Award for using recycled material as structural fill for its materials recovery facility.

Safety-Kleen Corp., Elgin, Ill., has received Environmental Compliance Awards from Environmental Information Limited.

Distributors Lindemann Recycling Equipment Inc., Charlotte, N.C., has appointed the following companies as distributors: Ingolds Hico, Bell Air Md.; G & L Recycling and Composting, Chatham, Ontario; Reconversion Products, Ashville, N.C.; Recycling Systems, Springfield, Pa.; and Rose Waste Systems, San Jose, Calif.

Contracts Harris Waste Management Group Inc., Peachtree City, Ga., has been awarded a contract by the Defense Nuclear Agency to supply equipment to the Russian government.

ABB Raymond, Lisle, Ill., has been awarded a contract by Rust Remedial Services Inc. to design and fabricate an incinerator for soil remediation.

Camp Dresser & McKee Inc., Cambridge, Mass., has been awarded a contract by Sar-asota, Fla., to engineer the construction of the county's landfill and ancillary facilities.

Apasco Cement, Apaxco, Mexico, has awarded a contract to Tire Management Inc., Dayton, Ohio, to supply a whole tire feed system for its Apaxco plant.

Rader Companies, Memphis, has received a contract from Metric/Kvaerner, Fayetteville, N.C., to design and supply a boiler fuel handling system for an energy generation facility at DuPont Fayetteville Works, Fayetteville, N.C.

National Recovery Technologies Inc., Nashville, Tenn., has been awarded a contract by the Replastic Consortium, Milan, Italy, to supply part of a waste processing system for a demonstration plastics recycling center.

Expansions LandGas Development Corp., Chicago, has created LandGas Technology Group to develop and own landfill gas collection systems.

SCS Engineers, Reston, Va., has opened a satellite office in Richmond, Va. AutoTrac Inc., Dallas, has been acquired by HRB Systems, Dallas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of E-Systems Corp.

Imco Recycling, Irving, Texas, plans to expand its Uhrichsville, Ohio, aluminum processing plant by 25 percent.

Leggette, Brashears & Graham Inc., Wilton, Conn., has opened an office in White Plains, N.Y.

Fiscal Amtech Corp., Dallas, increased its revenues for the first quarter 62 percent to $18,959,000, compared to revenues of $11,687,000 for the first quarter of 1993.

Chambers Development Co. Inc., had a net loss of $2 million on revenues of $59.8 million for the first quarter of 1994.

Joint Ventures Resource Energy Corp., Fort Smith, Ark., has entered into a patent licensing agreement with Metro-waste, Malaysia, to build waste-to-energy plants in the Asia-Pacific region.

Minnesota Methane LLC, Minneapolis, and Ziegler Power Systems, Bloomingdale, Minn., have begun to produce electric generation with methane gas from the Burnsville sanitary landfill in Minnesota.

Weston International, a subsidiary of Roy F. Weston Inc., West Chester, Pa., has entered into a joint marketing agreement with Pepper International Associates, Philadelphia, to pursue environmental assignments from Pepper Interna- tional's Beijing office.

Raytheon Engineers & Constructors, Lexington, Mass., has agreed to form a joint engineering and construction services company in Mexico with Desarrollo de Ingenieria S.A. de C.V., Mexico City.

New Address Stone & Webster Engineering Corp., North Miami Beach, Fla., has moved. The company's new address is: Aventura Corportate Center, 20803 Biscayne Blvd., Suite 303, North Miami Beach, Fla. 33180.

Operations Resource Recovery Systems, Essex, Conn., has begun operation of the Columbia County Materials Re-covery Facility in Claverack, N.Y.

Permits Burrtec Waste Industries Inc., Fontana, Calif., and Kaiser Resources Inc., Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., have received approval for a solid waste facilities permit for the proposed West Valley Materials Recovery Facility in Fontana, Calif.