Oil Spill and Gas Leak Emergency Response & Prevention

Oil Spill and Gas Leak Emergency Response and Prevention
by Stephen Testa, James Jacobs, Robert G. Bea

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Book Description
Oil Spill and Gas Leak Emergency Response and Prevention highlights the complex nature of fossil fuel extraction methods, the unintended consequences when disasters occur, spill behavior, and environmental impact mitigation. The book gives equal treatment to both oil spills and gas leaks.

Recent environmental disasters, including the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, have focused the environmental, regulatory, and legal community on the need for safe and efficient fossil fuel extraction procedures. This very practical book will serve as the go-to guide for engineers, oil and gas producers, geologists, regulators, environmental consultants, and lawyers aiming to prevent such catastrophes and to deal with their after-effects when they occur.

This detailed guide focuses equally on oil and gas drilling, spills, leaks, and their effects from several perspectives: engineering techniques; long-term biological and environmental impacts; dealing with insurance claims, litigation, and legislation in overlapping jurisdictions; and much more.

Oil Spill and Gas Leak Emergency Response and Prevention

• Addresses the entire disaster relief effort
• Discusses environmental impacts ranging from biological effects to groundwater contamination
• Explains how to deal with aged oil and water wells
• Includes details on risk analysis for oil and natural gas fields
• Covers hydrofracking and groundwater contamination
• Contains global site examples from California, Alaska, the U.S. Gulf Coast, Kuwait, France, Peru, Ecuador, and other locations
• Provides interviews with lawyers and remediation professionals
• Includes the most current ideas on best practices for case closure

About the Author
Stephen Testa is executive officer of the California State Mining and Geology Board and has undergraduate and graduate degrees in geology. He has written more than 125 articles in the field of geology and environmental science, and has published 11 books. Testa is an expert on hydrocarbon recovery, resource recovery, and reuse and recycling of soils, sediments, and wastes. He is the past president of both the American Institute of Professional Geologists and the American Geological Institute and is president-elect of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Energy Mineral Division.

James Jacobs is chief hydrogeologist at Environmental Bio-Systems, Inc., and has both undergraduate and graduate degrees in geology. He won three Fulbright grants in environmental engineering. Jacobs also worked in oil fields in Alaska and California for close to a decade before working for two decades in the environmental assessment and remediation field.

Robert G. Bea was formerly chief engineer at Shell Oil Company and is currently a senior international consultant and professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. His primary areas of expertise includes ocean environmental conditions and forces; foundations design and construction; structures design, construction, maintenance, re-qualification; reliability and safety assessments; human and organization factors in safety of marine systems; and risk assessment and management of engineered infrastructure systems.

Delmar's Standard Textbook of Electricity

Delmar's Standard Textbook of Electricity
by Stephen Herman

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Book Description
Mastering the theory and application of electrical concepts is necessary for a successful career in the electrical installation or industrial maintenance fields, and this new fifth edition of DELMAR'S STANDARD TEXTBOOK OF ELECTRICITY delivers! Designed to teach by blending concepts relating to electrical theory and principles with practical 'how to' information that prepares you for situations commonly encountered on the job. Topics span all the major aspects of the electrical field including atomic structure and basic electricity, direct and alternating current, basic circuit theory, three-phase circuits, single phase, transformers, generators, and motors. This revision retains all the hallmarks of our market-leading prior editions and includes enhancements such as updates to the 2011 NEC, a new chapter on industry orientation, and new coverage of constant-current transformers and fuel cells as well as tips on energy efficiency throughout the text

About the Author
Stephen L. Herman has been both an electrician and a teacher for more than 30 years and has authored numerous textbooks on the subjects of electricity and mathematics. For 20 years, Mr. Herman served as lead instructor for the Electrical Technology Curriculum at Lee College in Baytown, Texas, where he received an Excellence in Education Award from the Halliburton Education Foundation. He also taught at Randolph Community College in Asheboro, North Carolina, for nine years, and helped establish an electrical curriculum for Northeast Texas Community College in Mount Pleasant, Texas.

What Your Contractor Can't Tell You: The Essential Guide to Building and Renovating

What Your Contractor Can't Tell You
by Amy Johnston

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Book Description
What Your Contractor Can't Tell You is a comprehensive guide to getting the best results while building or renovating a home. Most homeowners spend about 20% of their time on the plan and 80% of their time on a messy, traumatic, expensive construction phase. Pros spend 80% of their time on the plan and 20% on a smooth construction phase. But the homeowners can't know what goes into a solid plan unless someone tells them. This book is based on a simple premise...if homeowners knew even 10% of what the professionals in the construction field know, they could avoid 90% of the problems. Creating a dream home shouldn't be a nightmare. Hiring a contractor is an enormous investment and a high-risk endeavor involving decisions that will last forever. This book equips homeowners with the information and strategies needed to turn their vision into a home or a renovation that can be built on time and within budget. Chapters give detailed coverage of critical topics: design; selecting and supervising the architect and contractor; cost estimates; budget; plan specifications; contracts; dealing with town officials; and keeping track of everything along the way. For each stage of the project, there is detailed information on common pitfalls and how to avoid them, as well as insiders' tips which reveal what most contractors can't tell you. This book was previously published by Warner Books (2004) and titled What the "Experts" May Not Tell You About Building or Renovating Your Home.

About the Author
Amy Johnston is a Construction Manager and Owner's Representative based in Burlington, Vermont. She grew up renovating homes with her family and went on to build and renovate several of her own. For her clients, she has spent the last twenty years managing the design and construction or renovation of residential homes, affordable housing projects, historic downtown restorations and commercial spaces, totaling over a hundred buildings. As liaison between the parties on so many projects, Amy enjoys a unique perspective on the dynamics of successful design and construction. She is also the owner of Dreamhouse Institute,(dreamhouseinstitute.com), offering training seminars in construction management for both professionals and homeowners. It was her students in these seminars who insisted she write this book. Amy also speaks publicly on the topic and appears regularly on CNN's Open House.