Southwest Ohio Chapter

SWOC Meetings & Events

SWOC Members Attend the Annual Conference & Exhibition

Several of the members of both the SW Ohio Chapter and the East Central Section attended the ACE in Calgary. It was a reminder that the ACE is the premier education, networking, and solutions event for environmental professionals. The 2010 conference was highlighted with a strong technical program focused on key issues in our field including the “Critical Review of Multi-Pollutant Air Quality Management: Prospects for the Future.” Several Professional Development Courses were offered, and there were great opportunities for all of those involved in the environmental field to network with professionals from a broad spectrum of the environmental arena.

On Wednesday morning, members from the Section and Chapter met over breakfast to exchange ideas, renew old friendships, and forge new relationships, and to discuss technical and regulatory activities at the conference, Chapter, and Sectional levels. All this was great fun for all in a friendly work environment! Here are a few pictures taken during our breakfast meeting. Thanks to Anne Highway, Section Chair, and Bill Garber for pulling the meeting together! Much appreciated.

Gary Bramble Awarded A Fellow

Kudos go out to Gary Bramble for receiving one of the great honors that A&WMA has to offer, the Fellow position. Only one or two members each year from our 8,000 members receive this honor, so we feel fortunate that Gary received this well-deserved award during the “Honors and Awards” luncheon. Gary’s many years of service to the Chapter, the Section, and the national A&WMA were recognized, and, as many of you know, was capped off with his representation at Copenhagen COP 15 earlier this year as the official A&WMA delegate. His A&WMA- facilitated blog of the event, which was highlighted on the home page of the national A&WMA site, provided an insight into the conference and the issues that most were not privy to, and added to our understanding of the key issues surrounding global warming.

SW Ohio Chapter Meeting - "Breakfast with the Regulator" - 2010

As our first local/chapter meeting to kick off the new year, the SW Ohio Chapter re-initiated the “Breakfast with the Regulator” series. The event took place at the Racquet Club in the Kettering Tower in downtown Dayton. For those who did not attend, this site is very accessible from I-75 with easy parking. The meeting was sponsored by Wray Blattner of Thompson Hine LLC. Our thanks to Wray and the firm for reserving this beautiful meeting venue and for helping to sponsor the event.

Our featured Agency speaker was John Paul, Director of RAPCA in Dayton. Director Paul provided a very insightful overview and in depth review in his presentation entitled “USEPA’s Astounding Pace and Workload”. In his talk, Mr. Paul covered NAAQS Revisions in Ozone, PM 2.5, and SO2, NOx, Pb and CO. He also covered EPA Federal Measures, Congressional Legislation, Greenhouse Gases rules and legislation, and the GHG BACT process.

As always with the Director, the presentation was full of front line, current and upcoming, air based environmental knowledge. The presentation is attached and can be downloaded from this site.

We also had another excellent talk from Gary Bramble of Dayton Power & Light. Fresh off his trip to Copenhagen for U.N. COP15 (where Gary Blogged for the Air and Waste Management Association and was featured on the home page of the national site!), he gave us a unique, insiders view of the City of Copenhagen, the feel of the meeting, information on some of the key participants, and related stories. Gary was, as he noted in his presentation, “An Environmental Engineer Seeking Climate Change Science Among the Politics of a United Nations Conference”.

Gary had some excellent points about how A&WMA professionals should work to understand the current state of climate science and related trends in renewable energy engineering. He also urged A&WMA members to be a climate science resource to the general public, and to look at climate change as an emerging science to be studied.

Gary’s presentation is also attached for review in this document.

Thanks go out to the 29 attendees, and our excellent speakers. Remember that our goal in the SW Ohio Chapter is to engage you in the networking and technical aspects of the group, and to always look for ways to provide value to you, the members. Your participation is encouraged and welcomed.

Fall Meeting

Many thanks to so many of you for attending the “Fall Meeting” of the SW Ohio Chapter meeting at the GE Learning Center on September 19th! The meeting was well attended by a diverse group from the manufacturing, regulatory, academic and consulting communities.

We want to acknowledge and thank our Platinum Sponsor, GE, and especially, Jim Sumner and Harold Jones. The attendance, speakers, energy, atmosphere, networking and information exchanged were exceptional, and made for an excellent and rewarding meeting. We also want to acknowledge our great speakers: Harold Jones from GE, and Tom Winston, Lee Burleca, Alan Harness, Carolina Prado,Sarah VanderWielen, Robyn Kennedy and Linda Ours-all from OEPA! Great job of keeping us informed. Thank you.

NOTE: Selected Presentations are available below.

Winston Kennedy Jones Here are some additional pictures from the meeting. Enjoy and plan on attending our next big meeting, the “All-Ohio” meeting in the Spring, which is in planning.