In late May, the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) teamed up with the U.S. Department of Energy and the College of West Virginia to present "Environmental Technology and Training 2000," a two-day meeting that included presentations, discussions, and demonstrations. More than 300 people attended the event held at the college campus in Beckley, West Virginia.
More than 40 exhibits were available at this event, plus demonstrations of applied innovative environmental technologies. Participants watched from a grandstand as trained operators, wearing hazardous materials protective gear, demonstrated DOE equipment and technologies including sonic drilling, a
heavy weight cone penetrometer, and a magnetometer towed array.
The first day of the conference focused on setting accreditation standards for hazardous materials training. Speakers included Frank Hanley, IUOE's general president; Tom Bechtel, director of DOE's Morgantown Energy and Technology Center; John Moran, DOE's Special Assistant to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Worker Health and Safety; and John Maestas from the College of West Virginia.
Panel discussions on the second day addressed applied innovative technologies and decontamination and decommissioning. Participants included DOE's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Technology Development Clyde Frank; Kenneth Olden, director for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; and Paul Hill, president of the National Institute for Chemical Studies. Dr. Frank discussed new DOE technologies that were available at the conference and suggested participants "Kick the tires" on such equipment as the sonic drilling rig—which, Frank said, "is 90% faster than cable tool drilling."
The IUOE is currently the single largest provider of skilled workers engaged in hazardous materials cleanup in the United States. Hanley told participants delays were avoided at the Oklahoma City bombing site, because the 73 union member volunteers operating heavy equipment there were trained to deal with hazardous materials.
<
