[E&E seminars] Freeman Lecture, Monday April 9, 6 PM, MIT Tang Center

[Gayle Sherman]

Hello, Please mark your calendars for the Annual John R. Freeman Lecture on
Monday, April 9, 2007 at the MIT Tang Center, Bldg. E51.  Denis R. LeBlanc,
will discuss "Cape Cod's Billion Dollar Ground-Water Cleanup: The Hydrologic
Story" at 7:00 pm in the Wong Auditorium, following an open reception. 

 

 

Cape Cod's Billion Dollar Ground-Water Cleanup: The Hydrologic Story

 

The Annual John R. Freeman Lecture         Monday, April 9, 2007
MIT Tang Center 


Open Reception: 6:00 PM, Ting Foyer


Lecture: 7:00 PM, Wong Auditorium

 

Abstract: The cleanup of ground water at the Massachusetts Military
Reservation on Cape Cod is one of the most visible and expensive of the
Department of Defense's environmental restoration projects. More than two
dozen plumes of industrial solvents, explosive compounds, fuel compounds,
and perchlorate extend up to several miles from the reservation toward
coastal streams, ponds, and wetlands. In 2007, more than 20 years after the
cleanup effort began, about 20 million gallons per day are pumped from 68
wells to contain and remediate the plumes. 
     The cleanup is the product of many years of complex interactions among
scientists, engineers, water managers, regulators, and the public. Everyone
agreed that sound science was necessary to support the cleanup, but they
also wanted quick action to protect "Cape Cod's Quabbin." The speaker, a
hydrologist who has served for more than thirty years with the USGS, will
examine how studies to understand the Cape's hydrology were interwoven with
the cleanup's engineering and policy decisions, and how cleanup actions
sometimes outpaced that understanding. When the aquifer will be "clean
enough" remains an unanswered, potentially controversial question. 


Denis LeBlanc is a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in
Northborough, Mass. He presently is project leader of the USGS Cape Cod
Toxic Substances Hydrology Research Site and also coordinates USGS technical
assistance to the ground-water cleanup programs at the Massachusetts
Military Reservation. Mr. LeBlanc received a B.S. in Hydrology from the
University of New Hampshire and an M.S. in Civil and Environmental
Engineering from MIT. He joined the USGS in 1975, where he has been involved
in many studies of the ground-water resources of Cape Cod.

The Tang Center is located at 70 Memorial Drive, a short walk from the
Kendall Square T stop on the red line; public parking is available in the
Marriott garage.  This is where the previous Freeman Lectures have been
held; please see the interactive map  http://whereis.mit.edu/.  

 

The Annual John R. Freeman Lecture is cosponsored by The Environmental and
Water Resources Group, Boston Society of Civil Engineers Section, ASCE and
the MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

 

Please visit http://ceeserver3.mit.edu/freeman/index.html for more
information, including a pdf flyer.

-Gayle 

 

--------------

Gayle Sherman

Administrative Assistant

MIT Room 48-209

Cambridge, MA 02139

tel.: 617-452-3022; email:  <mailto:gsherman at mit.edu> gsherman at mit.edu

 

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