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The
History of the West Coast Conference, its Goals, and the
Role of the Scientific Advisory Board
The first West
Coast Conference on Hydrocarbon Contaminated Soils and
Groundwater, held in Newport Beach, CA, February of 1990,
was a relatively small affair with thirty platform
presentations and no poster session. Despite its small size,
it was a huge success. The tremendous interest in
hydrocarbon contamination on the West Coast prompted the
annual continuation of the conference.
Seventeen years later, the conference continues to be a
success. At the most recent conference, West Coast 2007,
there were over 120 platform presentations and 75 poster
presentations.
The first
three conferences focused primarily on issues related to
hydrocarbon-contaminated soil and groundwater. However, by
the fourth conference, the organizers felt it was important
to recognize the diverse nature of soil and groundwater
contaminants and expanded the conference coverage to include
all types of soil and groundwater contamination. To
emphasize this change in focus, the term
"hydrocarbon" was removed from the conference
title. In 1999, the conference title changed again.
The new title, the West Coast Conference on Contaminated
Soils, Sediments and Water, reflected how the scope of the conference
was expanding to include all types of water contamination
issues and not just those related to groundwater.
In 2003
the title changed once again, removing the word
“Contaminated.” This change again maximized the breadth of
relevant topics, such as pollution prevention and
monitoring.
The
conference is intended to provide a common ground for the
presentation and debate of important information related to
soil and water contamination. As such, the success of
the conference relies in part on bringing together a diverse
group of environmental professionals representing the broad
spectrum of involved professions, including academia,
industry, consulting, engineering and regulatory agencies.
The scientific advisory board
(SAB) plays an important role in guiding conference development.
Advisory board members assist in this process in many ways,
including evaluating abstracts; proposing/sponsoring special
sessions; providing potential session topics, moderators,
presenters, and workshops; and by helping to identify means
to effectively promote the conference.
Click here to view the SAB members
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