California Water Gardens is based in Newburgh, NY and our service area extends through most of the lower Hudson Valley. We ServiceOrange County, Rockland County, Ulster County, Dutchess County, Putnam County and Westchester County in the New York area and Bergen County New Jersey.

We will design and install any koi pond or water garden that fits your needs. Whether its a small back yard pond or a Natural swimming Pond, Commercialor residential. Your pond can be built using concrete or an EPDM liner, which has a 20-year manufacturers guarantee.

As well, California Water Gardens doesrestoration work on pre-existing ponds and fountains. And we offer year round pond maintenance. For more information on the many services we offer please visit our servicepage.

We carry an assortmentof pond and water gardens supplies needed to build or restore any pond. Aquatic plants such as, Water Lilies, Irises, and Hardy Lotuses, Marginals and Bog plants are also available. We also stockgold fish and select Japanese Koi.

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California Water Gardens California Water Gardens

Duckweed grows in ponds that are stagnant, contain fertilizer or manure runoff, or don't have enough agitation and aeration from wind, waves or running water. It can be quite a nuisance in decorative ponds and can take over the entire surface without some form of duckweed control. Options to kill it include herbicides, aeration and adding creatures that eat the duckweed.

Disturbing the water surface will make the pond a less friendly environment to duckweed. Many pond owners do this simply by raking up the duckweed as it arises with a long pool-cleaning rake. Another option is to install aerating devices at the perimeter of the pond, or adding fountains to the pond to keep the water surface moving.

Aquatic herbicides are available from pool, pond and landscape suppliers, and range depending on the season, severity and location of the duckweed. Many of them require multiple applications, and the pond will likely not be safe for use during treatment. Some pond herbicides used by pond care companies against duckweed in particular are PondWeed Defense and RedWing. These are best used in ponds with large water turnover or ones that are not contained. Another herbicide designed to work on duckweed is called Reward.

Some fish, when introduced into a pond, will clear it of duckweed. Goldfish, koi and carp will eat duckweed in some amount. Grass carp are commonly used for this purpose and work well in smaller ponds. However, putting these fish in a pond also will incline the pond toward algae blooms, as they create an organic cycle of waste and food in the pond. Note they are restricted in some areas, such as near the Great Lakes and their watersheds.

There are a few pond herbicides available that will kill off duckweed and other aquatic weeds by non-toxic treatments. These include White Cap and Sonar, both of which work by keeping the duckweed from producing the carotene it needs to survive. Without carotene, the chlorophyll in the weeds breaks down quickly and the plants will die. These products are often considered safer than harsher chemical herbicides, but work best in larger ponds.

If an overgrowth of duckweed persists, the soil in the pond bottom may be full of plant-supporting nutrients from farm runoff or animal waste. To fix the problem once and for all, consider having the pond bottom dredged up and removed.

Read more from the original source:
Things That Kill Duckweed in Ponds | Garden Guides

Floods cause greater property damage and more deaths than tornadoes or hurricanes. And Houstons flood is truly a disaster of biblical proportions: The sky unloaded 9 trillion gallons of water on the city within two days, and much more might fall before Harvey dissipates, producing as much as 60 inches of rain.

Pictures of Harveys runoff are harrowing, with interstates turned to sturdy and mature rivers. From Katrina to Sandy, Rita to Thoku, its easier to imagine the flooding caused by storm surges wrought by hurricanes and tsunamis. In these cases, the flooding problem appears to be caused by water breaching shores, seawalls, or levees. Those examples reinforce the idea that flooding is a problem of keeping water outeither through fortunate avoidance or engineering foresight.

But the impact of flooding, particularly in densely developed areas like cities, is far more constant than a massive, natural disaster like Harvey exposes. The reason cities flood isnt because the water comes in, not exactly. Its because the pavement of civilization forces the water to get back out again.

* * *

There are different kinds of floods. Theres the storm surge from hurricanes, the runoff from snowmelt, the inundation of riverbanks. But all these examples cast flooding as an occasional foe out to damage human civilization. In truth, flooding happens constantly, in small and large quantities, every time precipitation falls to earth. People just dont tend to notice it until it reaches the proportions of disaster.

Under normal circumstances, rain or snowfall soaks back into the earth after falling. It gets absorbed by grasslands, by parks, by residential lawns, by anywhere the soil is exposed. Two factors can impede that absorption. One is large quantities of rain in a short period of time. The ground becomes inundated, and the water spreads out in accordance with the topography. The second is covering over the ground so it cannot soak up water in the first place. And thats exactly what cities dothey transform the land into developed civilization.

Roads, parking lots, sidewalks, and other pavements, along with asphalt, concrete, brick, stone, and other building materials, combine to create impervious surfaces that resist the natural absorption of water. In most of the United States, about 75 percent of its land area, less than 1 percent of the land is hardscape. In cities, up to 40 percent is impervious.

The natural system is very good at accepting rainfall. But when water hits pavement, it creates runoff immediately. That water has to go somewhere. So it flows wherever the grade takes it. To account for that runoff, people engineer systems to move the water away from where it is originally deposited, or to house it in situ, or even to reuse it. This processthe policy, planning, engineering, implementation, and maintenance of urban water systemsis called stormwater management.

According to my Georgia Institute of Technology colleague Bruce Stiftel, who is chair of the school of city and regional planning and an expert in environmental and water policy governance, stormwater management usually entails channeling water away from impervious surfaces and the structures built atop them. In other words, cities are built on the assumption that the water that would have been absorbed back into the land they occupy can be transported away instead.

Like bridges or skyscrapers designed to bear certain loads, stormwater management systems are conceived within the limits of expected behaviorsuch as rainfall or riverbank overrun events that might happen every 10 or 25 years. When these intervals are exceeded, and the infrastructure cant handle the rate and volume of water, flooding is the result.

Houston poses both a typical and an unusual situation for stormwater management. The city is enormous, stretching out over 600 square miles. Its an epitome of the urban sprawl characterized by American exurbanism, where available land made development easy at the edges. Unlike New Orleans, Houston is well above sea level, so flooding risk from storm surge inundation is low. Instead, its rainfall that poses the biggest threat.

A series of slow-moving rivers, called bayous, provide natural drainage for the area. To account for the certainty of flooding, Houston has built drainage channels, sewers, outfalls, on- and off-road ditches, and detention ponds to hold or move water away from local areas. When they fill, the roadways provide overrun. The dramatic images from Houston that show wide, interstate freeways transformed into rivers look like the cause of the disaster, but they are also its solution, if not an ideal one. This is also why evacuating Houston, a metropolitan area of 6.5 million people, would have been a terrible idea. This is a city run by cars, and sending its residents to sit in gridlock on the thoroughfares and freeways designed to become rivers during flooding would have doomed them to death by water.

* * *

Accounting for a 100-year, 500-year, or million-year flood, as some are calling Harveys aftermath, is difficult and costly. Stiftel confirms that its almost impossible to design for these maximal probable flood events, as planners call them. Instead, the hope is to design communities such that when they flood, they can withstand the ill effects and support effective evacuations to keep people safe. The Houston event seems like an illustration that we havent figured it out, Stiftel says.

Many planners contend that impervious surface itself is the problem. The more of it there is, the less absorption takes place and the more runoff has to be managed. Reducing development, then, is one of the best ways to manage urban flooding. The problem is, urban development hasnt slowed in the last half-century. Cities have only become more desirable, spreading outward over the plentiful land available in the United States.

The National Flood Insurance Program, established in 1968, offered one attempt at a compromise. It was meant to protect and indemnify people without creating economic catastrophe. Instead of avoiding the floodplain, insurance allowed people to build within it, within management constraints recommended by FEMA. In theory, flood-hazard mitigation hoped to direct development away from flood-prone areas through the disincentives of risk insurance and regulatory complexity.

Since then, attitudes have changed. For one part, initial avoidance of floodplains created desirable targets for development, especially in the middle of cities. But for another, Stiftel tells me that attitudes about development in floodplains have changed, too. Its more about living with water than it is about discouraging development in areas prone to risk.

Sometimes living with water means sidestepping the consequences. Developers working in flood zones might not care what happens after they sell a property. Thats where governmental oversight is supposed to take over. Some are more strict than others. After the global financial crisis of 2008, for example, degraded local economies sometimes spurred relaxed land-use policy in exchange for new tax bases, particularly commercial ones.

In other cases, floodplains have been managed through redevelopment that reduces impervious surfaces. Natural ground cover, permeable or semi-permeable pavers, and vegetation that supports the movement of water offer examples. These efforts dovetail with urban redevelopment efforts that privilege mixed-use and green space, associated with both new urbanism and gentrification. Recreation lands, conservation lands and easements, dry washes, and other approaches attempt to counterbalance pavement when possible. Stiftel cites Chinas sponge cities as a dramatic examplea government-funded effort to engineer new, permeable materials to anticipate and mitigate the flooding common to that nation.

* * *

But Thomas Debo, an emeritus professor of city planning at Georgia Tech who also wrote a popular textbook on stormwater management, takes issue with pavement reduction as a viable cure for urban flooding. We focus too much on impervious surface and not enough on the conveyance of water, he tells me. Even when reduced in quantity, the water still ends up in in pipes and concrete channels, speeding fast toward larger channels. Its like taking an aspirin to cure an ailment, he scoffs. Houstons flooding demonstrates the impact.

Instead, Debo advocates that urban design mimic rural hydrology as much as possible. Reducing impervious surface and improving water conveyance has a role to play, but the most important step in sparing cities from flooding is to reduce the velocity of water when it is channelized, so that it doesnt deluge other sites. And then to stop moving water away from buildings and structures entirely, and to start finding new uses for it in place.

That can be done by collecting water into cisterns for processing and reusein some cases, Debo explains, the result can even save money by reducing the need to rely on utility-provided water. Adding vegetation, reclaiming stormwater, and building local conveyance systems for delivery of this water offer more promising solutions.

Though retired from Georgia Tech, Debo still consults on the campuss local stormwater management efforts. In one case, the institute took a soccer field and made it into an infiltration basin. Water permeates the field, where it is channeled into pipes and then into local cisterns.

In Houstons case, catastrophic floods have been anticipated for some time. The combination of climate change, which produces more intense and unpredictable storms, and aggressive development made an event like this weeks almost inevitable. The Association of State Floodplain Managers has called for a national flood risk-management strategy, and the Houston Chronicle has called flood control the citys most pressing infrastructure need. A lack of funding is often blamed, and relaxed FEMA regulations under the Trump Administration wont help either.

But for Debo and others, waiting for a holistic, centralized approach to stormwater management is a pipe dream anyway. Just as limiting impervious surface is not the solution to urban stormwater management, so government-run, singular infrastructure might not be either. Its much more difficult, and a much bigger picture, Debo insists to me. There is no silver bullet for stormwater management.

* * *

One problem is that people care about flooding, because its dramatic and catastrophic. They dont care about stormwater management, which is where the real issue lies. Even if it takes weeks or months, after Harvey subsides, public interest will decay too. Debo notes that traffic policy is an easier urban planning problem for ordinary folk, because it happens every day.

So does stormwaterit just isnt treated that way. Instead of looking for holistic answers, site-specific ones must be pursued instead. Rather than putting a straight channel through a subdivision, for example, Debo suggests designing one to meander through it, to decrease the velocity of the water as it exits.

The hardest part of managing urban flooding is reconciling it with Americans insistence that they can and should be able to live, work, and play anywhere. Waterborne transit was a key driver of urban development, and its inevitable that cities have grown where flooding is prevalent. But there are some regions that just shouldnt become cities. Parts of Houston in the floodway, parts of New Orleans submerged during Katrina, parts of Floridathese places never should have been developed in the first place, Debo concludes. Add sea-level rise and climate-change superstorms, and something has to give.

Debo is not optimistic about resisting the urge toward development. I dont think any of its going to happen, he concedes. Until we get people in Congress and in the White House who care about the environment, its just going to get worse and worse.

Even so, theres reason for optimism. If good stormwater management means good, site-specific design, then ordinary people have a role to play, too. Residential homeowners who install a new cement patio or driveway might not even realize that they are channeling water down-grade to their neighbors, or overwhelming a local storm drain. Citizens can also influence stormwater issues within their municipalities. Many folks know that they have a local city council and school board, but local planning, zoning, and urban design agencies also hold regular public meetingsunfortunately, most people only participate in this aspect of local governance when they have an axe to grind. For the average American concerned with the deluge, the best answer is to replace an occasional, morbid curiosity with flooding with a more sophisticated, long-term interest in stormwater management.

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Houston's Flood Is a Design Problem - The Atlantic

Ganesh Chaturthi is a Hindu festival that celebrates the birth of Lord Ganpati with great fervor and joy. Ganesh Chaturthi 2017 will be celebrated on August 25, 2017, in India. The festival of Ganesh Chaturthi is also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi and is marked with the installation of Ganesha clay idols in several homes. There are several easy decoration ideas to prepare for the Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations. From ordering and setting up beautiful makhars to making easy and visually stunning flower assemblies and other DIY projects, people take a lot of efforts to make Ganpatis stay in their house as pleasant and aesthetic as possible.Ganesh Chaturthi 2017: Date, Muhurat, Puja Vidhi, Fasting & Auspicious Timings of Ganpati Festival.

While there are extravagant pandals that house Lord Ganesha idols in different styles and designs. The Ganpati decoration ideas range from the simple and easy DIYs which are eco-friendly and give a unique look to the whole settings to the traditional decorations using LED string lights and flowers. Florists come up with beautiful flower assemblies especially for Vinayaka Chaturthi, and some innovative artists also enjoy making anything from the classic mount Kailasa with plaster of Paris to beautiful backgrounds with quilling and origami designs.

In the recent times, people have shifted from the thermocol designs to settle for something more environmentally friendly like paper and wood based designs. Some people have also chosen to opt for innovative Ganpati idols that can be immersed at home and will not pollute the ponds, lakes and other water bodies. Ganpati Idols made completely with chocolate or mud based idols are now preferred as people try to live an eco-friendly life and celebrate a green Ganpati. Whether it is a green Ganpati or some simple and basic Ganpati decorations, the options are endless. Here are a few Ganesh Chaturthi Decoration Ideas to prepare in time for Ganeshotsav.

Origami arts have a certain charm that ties the whole look together. While there are various intricate designs in Origami and paper crafts that need a lot of precision and experience, it is extremely easy to make a few simple designs like the Origami Swan, Umbrella, butterflies etc. Make a bunch of these origami designs and stick them to a plain wall or decorative cloth to get a custom made Ganpati decoration. You can also go for a specific colour design that will bring the whole look together.

A post shared by Hopasholic (@hopasholic) on Aug 14, 2017 at 7:03am PDT

If buying the customised flower decorations for Ganpati seems unreasonable there is an easier way of making your own flower assemble by simply arranging different coloured flower torans as well as decorative torans to fall down a wall. This effect gives the wall a lot more definition and placing the Ganpati idol in front of such decorations with some string lights attached will bring the whole look together.

This ganesh chaturthi go green decorate ganeshji with live plants #ganesh#jaiganesh#ganeshchathurthi #ganeshdecoration#ganeshchaturthidecorationideas#ganeshchaturthi2017#ganeshchaturthi

A post shared by The Garden Shop Indore (@thegardenshops) on Aug 21, 2017 at 5:58am PDT

While eco-friendly Ganpati decorations are a thing, some environmentalists enjoy taking this a notch higher and decorate their house with live plants and their leaves for Ganpati. There are several beautiful Ganesh idols made from leaves, bamboos and special mud Ganpati idols that can be immersed in a bucket of water and used to water plants as well. Using live plants to decorate for Ganesh Chaturthi.

Paper quilling art is a craft that is easy to make and can be completely mesmerising. This craft can be used to either make small Ganpati as well as some decorative designs for the wall. The quilling flowers are a less expensive and easily manageable alternative to the designer flower bouquets and assemblies that are often bought to compliment the Ganpati idol. Much like the Origami art, these quilling art ideas can also be twisted according to personal preferences, and if you feel like thinking out of the box is not your things, following videos and books as is will give equally stunning results.

A post shared by Precious Momentss (@preciousmomentss_events) on Sep 7, 2016 at 1:25am PDT

For those who cannot make these easy and pretty decorations, there is always a ready made option that works wonders. Makhars made with flowers, or thermocol are easy to install and give the perfect backdrop for your Ganesh idol. Accessorising this makhar with some colourful fairy lights and focus lights will give you spectacular effects and make your Ganpati idol stand out.

These decorative ideas can all be done last minute, and even the DIY ideas will not take more than an hour. While we have other options like making paper mesh and plaster of Paris mountains and other decorative with a 3d effect, they are bound to take much longer. We hope that these Ganesh Chaturthi decoration ideas will come in handy and help you to prepare for the grand celebrations of Ganeshotsav 2017.

Originally posted here:
Ganesh Chaturthi Decoration Ideas: Innovative & Eco-friendly Designs for Decorating Homes This Ganpati Festival - India.com

Broken water mains, frozen sewer lines, failing manholes, degraded streets, sub-grade gravel failures, and broken, uneven pavement in the streets are finally being addressed.

Posted on 8/24/17

By Lisa Nowatzki

The city of Langdon has hired Moore Engineering, Inc., to assess the streets, sewers, and wastewater problems. Andrew Aakre is the project manager. Aaker has reviewed all of Langdons infrastructures, identified the problem areas and compiled a plan to correct the damage.

Beginning sometime in October 2017, weather permitting, Langdon residents will switch over to Northeast Regional Water District (NRWD), and it will provide water services for Langdon. NRWD is the result of the merger between the former Langdon Rural Water and North Valley Water Systems.

Gordy Johnson of NRWD states, More crews will be hired for the project. The next six weeks are going to be very busy. I think Langdon customers will enjoy the taste and good quality of the naturally soft water NRWD will provide.

Besides water provisions, the citys current infrastructure consists of water treatment and supply, the sewer collection system, the four-cell pond/lagoon system for wastewater, and the storm sewer system. The city also maintains two 250,000 gallon water towers and one 500,000 gallon clear well located at the water treatment plant.

According to Aakre, The city is not able to completely move water from one pond to another, which reduces the volume available for treatment. The plan is to equip the city with a transfer pump station to allow water to be moved from one pond to another. The other improvement is to install rip rap rocks around the two western ponds to protect the ponds from the erosion that has occurred in the past.

The water system has older cast iron pipes that are susceptible to breaking, especially in the winter. Broken gate valves makes it hard for staff to isolate problems. One of the water towers also has some operational challenges.

Some of the sewers are too shallow and freeze during the winter. The city has six lift stations that pump waste water/sewage from a lower to higher elevation. Aakre plans to repair/rebuild the other lift stations so that the lift station on fifth street can be eliminated.

The citys sewer system has quite a few older clay tile pipes. The clay lines show signs of cracking, misalignment, root intrusion, and susceptibility to infiltration and inflow. Replacement is the only option.

The storm sewer system is mostly undersized and doesnt drain properly. This causes the water to back up into the streets causing streets to break down quicker. Freezing sewer problems are on 13th and 14th Avenues and areas east of Third Street.

To address all of the infrastructure problems, Aakre has developed a two phase plan. In phase one, the waste water lagoon operational challenges will be addressed. Storm sewer/drainage on 12th Avenue will be improved.

Defective gate valves will also be replaced in some areas. Replacing the aging gate valves in those areas will help determine the size and condition of the undocumented water mains. Also, sanitary sewers and water mains will be replaced and installed deeper in the ground. After the work is completed, the streets will be replaced.

During phase one, red areas on the map will have water and sanitary sewers replaced with full street replacement. Black areas will have water, sanitary sewers and storm sewers replaced, and some lagoon repairs done.

During phase two, more sanitary sewers and water mains will be placed deeper in the ground. More storm sewer mains will be replaced to improve storm water collection. Then streets will be replaced when all the other work is complete.

During phase two on the map, the black areas will have water, sewer, and storm sewers replaced. The red areas are slated for water and sewer replacement. The green areas will have the sanitary sewer replaced, and in the blue area only water mains will be replaced.

Some of the cost of all replacement and repairs has already been offset.

The grant for phase one has been approved by USDA, Aakre shared. To further pay for the improvements, the city plans on redirecting funds that have been used to pay off other infrastructure debt. These funds will be applied toward paying off this projects debt. The redirected funds will cover all of the phase one project and the majority of the phase two project that is being reviewed by USDA.

The phase one project scheduled calls for bids. Those have being taken already. Most of the construction will take place during the 2017/2018 construction season.

Phase two is slated to be surveyed and designed during the winter/spring of 2018. The final design will be completed by the summer of 2018. Bids will be taken during the summer/fall of 2018 and construction done during the 2018/2019 construction season.

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See more here:
Langdon's streets and waste water replacement project - Cavalier County Extra

During EuroGeo 6, Dr. Ian D. Peggs, P.E., P.Eng chaired a special panel discussion on geomembrane wrinkles, bridging, uplift, and ballasting. The recorded session featured panelists Paul Guinard (SOPREMA), Adnan Berkay zdemir (Atarfil), Michael Flynn (FLI Group), Catrin Tarnowski (GSE), and Richard Thiel (Thiel Engineering). We publish here, with permission of the EuroGeo 6 organizers (the Turkish Chapter of the International Geosynthetics Society) and the participating panelists, the sessions transcript, some slides from the presentations, and links to the full video record from the session.

We thank Ian Peggs and Wendy Cortez of I-CORP International for orchestrating this transcript release and all affiliated permissions.

RELATED: EuroGeo 6 Geomembrane Panel Discussion Parts 1 and 2

The transcription is comprised of 5 recording parts (18 minutes each). The opening speech is given by Ian D. Peggs, chairman of the session. All video files may be found on the EuroGeo 6 special session page: http://www.eurogeo6.org/en/EuroGeo6-Speciality-Session-2.html

The time stamps included in this transcript are in accordance with the recordings. Slide numbers are used to refer to the visual aids used during the presentation. The series of slides are available for download here (PPT 22 MB file). NOTE: Not all images from the presentation are included in this special publication on Geosynthetica.

The transcript picks up here with a continuation ofPaul Guinards presentation from Parts 1 and 2.

We have to think about the nature of the content What is in the pond or landfill? Is the geomembrane exposed or not?. The geometry of your construction also matters. Is it a big landfill or a small pond?. The location also matters, a pond in Iceland or Burkina Faso will not face the same problems.

Slide 56 => [00:00:49]

Once the geomembrane is chosen, you have to figure out how to insert it. You could limit the free length of the material to prevent wrinkles, use correct ballasting and use anchors and do not cover the material during thermic variation. Thermic protection is also important, the color of the material should be considered.

Open Floor Discussion [00:02:30]

Issue 1 [00:02:30]

Ian Peggs opens the floor for open discussion:

Audience Member 1asks the floor about sharp corners. Do you terminate both panels at that corner or do you wrap the panel around and make the weld on the flat side?

Michael Flynn [00:03:36]: I personally would terminate them at the corner but each project is different. It depends on the design. These decisions have to be made on site by the project manager depending on the circumstances. As far as I am concerned, no geomembranes have any value in a site specific project unless they are installed properly. I will go to my grave believing that you have to install the product correctly, no matter what it is. It all down to the site management and project management.

Example of sharp corner in an installation. Photo from FLI Group presentation.

Richard Theil [00:04:42]: Whenever I design ponds, I design them with round corners because we find a lot of bridging around sharp corners.

Issue 2 [00:07:46]

Audience Member 2 asks the floor what to do when wrinkles occur. Rick, in your specifications, you say to stop work but what if the wrinkles do not go away? How do you continue work?

Richard Theil: Wrinkles almost always disappear with lower temperatures. We do a lot of night covering but there is the occasional really bad wrinkle that does not disappear. Then you have to make that decision: Do I cut this and make extrusion welds (which none of us like) or can I find a way to split it up or leave it? There is not one answer for that but we go to a lot of extent to not get in that position. I find that timing is everything and color helps a lot.

Richard Theil [00:10:56]: I had the same thought when I heard the ratio. The fact is when you have a large installation with polyethylene and start to get 50 to 75 mm wrinkles, this ratio will always work. The ratio becomes a problem when you have a big floppy guy (wrinkle) that comes down to the toe.

Typical wrinkles during overliner placement in most of the world. Photo by Thiel Engineering

Catrin Tarnowski [00:11:54]: I can support what Rick just mentioned. The German view is the same. Installation of top soil should stop once the wrinkle is higher than 50 mm. A wrinkle of that height would not have ratio below the mentioned figure (h/w=0.6).

Richard Theil: In response to J.P. Girouds comments and questions, I never measured it but that is the feeling.

Richard Theil: I agree. Those wrinkles are the hardest ones to remove.

Ian Peggs: How do you remove them?

Richard Theil: Its not easy. Of course we could cut them.

Ian Peggs: If you cut the wrinkle and overlap it to re-weld it, would you put a little keyhole at the end of the cut youve made? What about putting compensation in for allowing contraction during cold/low temperatures?

Jacques: If you have a wrinkle at the bottom of the slope, then when it changes from hot weather to cold weather, that bump at toe of the slope doesnt disappear completely but most of it is removed. Then when it heats up again, the bump gets bigger day after day. If you cut it and repair it and then the temperature goes down again, you get bridging. Then when it heats up again, you have to backfill it. Cutting a liner is like making a surgical operation; it wont ever be as good as it was if it wasnt cut.

Paul Guinard: That is very true when you have a landfill but when you have an exposed membrane with water in a basin, movement of the membrane can create wrinkles or bridging. Once the water starts coming you cant stop it so you have to anticipate wrinkles and bridging and their consequences. We have to limit it and that depends on many things, like the product and the thickness.

PART 4

Richard Theil [00:02:47]: There is a distinction between ponds (liquid containment) and liners covered with soil and loaded. With ponds, the failures were because of bridging popping a seam. I have never had a callback because of a wrinkle in a pond. The question that I am asking is: Are wrinkles in a pond a problem?

Michael Flynn [00:04:46]: From the installation prospective, I think these problems can be mitigated on site by a competent installer. The pressure on the installer is from the cost side, the weather side, the wind and the rain. Backfilling at night has been mentioned but it is likely to get rid of the wrinkles but create many holes that you will never see. I think the importance has to be on the installation not the material since all materials are good quality and are impermeable when in panel form, but unless the installation and welding are carried out correctly, the joints will be weak points in the overall integrated project. It is the decisions made on site during the installation process that are critical to the success of the installation.

Keeping the liner relaxed with movable ballast and open toed seams. Photo by FLI Group

Ian Peggs [00:05:55]: Who makes those decisions, the installer himself or the engineer?

Michael Flynn [00:06:04]: The engineer who is not on site makes those decisions and that is wrong. It should be the installer. They should be in unison and both agree on a plan but the plan changes every day because the elements change every day and the project manager must adjust his work plan accordingly in order to make progress with the works. Therefore, the sequence of work might create bridging or wrinkling conditions that need not be there. It is all part of the installation that has to be managed.

Ian Peggs [00:06:38]: Shouldnt the kind of work that is necessary be defined by the project engineer because he knows what is going on with the installation? He knows the service conditions, the temperature and so on. Will the installer know all that to be able to direct what he does to achieve that objective?

Michael Flynn [00:07:12]: I think that if the installer has the work plan and is fully aware of all aspects of the project, he can certainly manage the on-site works much better. Any installation plan has to be renewed on a daily basis depending on the conditions, whether its wind, rain, sunshine or something else. Often there is pressure from the client to backfill when the installation is not ready for backfilling. That can then create installation problems further on. All of the synthetic products have their own natural limitations and advantages. It is the fixing of the material on site that is unnatural. This needs to be recognized and respected for what it is. It really is a skill and has to be valued but it is often forgotten and is always undervalued. The drive to get the project finished compromises the professional installation decisions that would otherwise be made if time and cost allowed.

Richard Theil [00:10:14]: In the example presented by one of the speakers today, he (Adnan zdemir) provided us the calculation that said for a 20 difference, we will get about 0.43% strain. The question in my mind is: What percent of strain is allowable to bury in a trampolining situation?

Catrin Tarnowski [00:12:24]:I would like to say that the 0.25% is a BAM (Bundesanstalt fr Materialforschung und Prfung) regulation from Germany on the maximum strain on the geomembrane and this is related with the local puncture strength of the material. This has nothing to do with the allowable, limiting strain rate. This is discussed to be for 3-5% for good quality HDPE. The lesser the quality of the material the more critical it is.

Michael Flynn [00:13:50]: I do not think that the seaming in the corners is causing the trampolining. It is not causing (trampolining), it may be the victim of trampolining. Should we avoid having seams in the areas where trampolining is likely to happen? Which is in corners, in everything angle that is concave in shape.

Paul Guinard [00:14:18]: Do you think that there is a difference in strength between a weld made in the corner and a weld 50 cm away from the corner? I do not think there is much difference.

Catrin Tarnowski [00:15:10]: I would try to avoid seams where there is a likelihood of bridging. We have good design practices which avoid corner seams. They should be placed at the bottom and should not be at the toe of the slope. That is a design approach.

Richard Theil [00:15:52]: In the corner of the pond, where you have three corners coming together, it is very difficult not to have seams. It actually occurs in the worst place. This is exactly the places where we had these problems in multiple projects.

Catrin Tarnowski [00:16:52]: An additional precaution may be to put sufficiently thick geomembranes so that even if bridging does occur, the material would not be in a critical condition. If you have to consider doing an extrusion weld with a very thin material, and you have to place it in a critical area, it becomes a critical case. In that case, you might consider a thicker material just in that area.

Michael Flynn [00:17:25]: In 30 years of installation experience, I have never seen a failed weld in a corner. It is a theoretical weakness and that exists in the theoretical world but I have not seen it on a site installation where I have been involved.

Richard Theil [00:18:52]: This is the problem. Obviously the weld was not the best but it passed all the CQA but in fact it is the weak spot. I have seen it in tanks and ponds. The corners are the problem. It is not that the fusion seam that runs down through the corner, it is the extrusion weld that occurs in the unusual geometry of the triple corner.

Boyd Ramsey [00:19:00]: Theres a group called Platypus that makes an anchoring product and they have done a lot in changing the design and the effectiveness of exposed caps and covers. My question is: Has anyone used a soil anchor as a tool for wrinkle management?

Example of percussion-driven anchor used on exposed cap. Photo by Chris Kelsey of Geosynthetica.

Ian Peggs [00:19:40]: My guess will be no but I have no real justification. Has anyone seen anything like this?

Alan [00:19:50]: Not so much as a wrinkle management tool Ive come across the Platypus anchors being used on caps and exposed dams where there is wind concentration. With the correct methods of spreading the localized stress, it worked fine.

PART 5

Peter (Gentleman from South Africa) [00:00:49]: I have had very good experience managing wrinkles through the use of relatively inexpensive co-extruded textured liner. My experience is that by using the textured liner, thermal stresses are distributed into the subgrade. My experience is that you get a greater distribution of lower wrinkles so that when you do your cover those wrinkles flatten and the chance of folding over is very low.

Audience member 2 [00:04:00]: I have a comment. Should we not re-look at the value chain starting from the design and what we are really putting out there. In the sense of cost and time and also the experience of people. Over the years, in my experience, there is so much focus on the time the designer is allowed that we overlook the things during construction and CQA and also when advising the client of the extra costs. We need to start thinking about the numbers and the time needed to ensure the client is getting what they want.

Michael Flynn [00:04:57]: Id like to support that. I think all of the risk is on the project and the project cost and a bit more money spent on geomembrane and geosynthetic installation costs could make a much better project if the project site has enough time and resources to actually do the job correctly.

Jacques [00:05:34]: I am wondering why engineers continue to specify black geomembranes? We get less wrinkles with white or tan and you can still meet the specifications; especially since they cost the same.

Peter [00:07:00]: I think wind uplift is as much as a problem to the creation of wrinkles and it is more difficult to manage. It is a combination of good design and good installation practice. It requires the engineer and the client to work with the installation contractor to make sure that they avoid wind uplift. That is one thing you cannot put right. Once the wind moves 4 or 5 tons of geomembrane, you are not going to be able to get rid of the wrinkle and you are going to end up with wrinkles more than 50 mm high. That is certainly something to consider. I too have seen the Platypus anchor type to hold down liners in empty lagoons. One of the key solutions is to prevent air from getting under the material in the first place. So cut and fill reservoirs without actually sealing the bond above the ground. Those are very basic engineering principles, people forget about.

Catrin Tarnowski [00:08:09]: There is a crystallinity difference in both products so LLDPE will not show as much wrinkling as an HDPE does. If you design with anchor applications there is always a question, what may be the solution for it? You can have the same amount of wrinkles in any product but the difference is still there.

Catrin Tarnowski [00:09:21]: The experience is not that they are smaller, it is just the amount of the wrinkles is less.

Catrin Tarnowski [00:09:32]: No. That was a question that I wanted to ask the experts here. Do we measure the coefficient at different temperatures? Not every product has the same coefficient. Also, in my experience, if you have very low temperatures the coefficient is lower but I have never measured it.

Catrin Tarnowski [00:10:34]: What is missing here is that we do not specify the dimensional stability of the products and dimensional stability is important for laying flat characteristics. It is not the coefficient on its own. This is something that should be considered and GM13 does not focus on it. Its like it is not relevant and I think it is relevant. German specifications foresee such a value and they are good. Installers know if you have good dimensional stability and low shrinkage of your product you have better installation time. If you consider that you have low shrinkage on the edges and if you have high shrinkage in the middle, you will have waves which will occur during day time and they will not go away because the shrinkage behavior is different in the product and the material wants to move to the best position.

Catrin Tarnowski [00:12:39]: You can manage both. We produce both products and we know how do it.

Ian Peggs [00:12:45]: On that note, I have got 1:00 exactly, so we will wrap it up.

View original post here:
EuroGeo Transcript: Geomembrane Wrinkles, Bridging, Ballasting, Parts 3 5 - Geosynthetica.net

HTC has just released a new update for the HTC U11 bringing it up to software version1.27.400.9. The update is a 665MB download and adds 1080p video recording at 60fps, as well as the August Android Security Patch and various fixes and tweaks for better stability.

More importantly, HTC has now confirmed that the HTC U11 (as well as the HTC U Ultra and HTC 10) will be updated to the recently announced Android Oreo.

"We're excited to bring Android Oreo to HTC U11, HTC U Ultra, and HTC 10 owners worldwide! Details & additional devices to be announced soon," the firm wrote in an official Tweet.

HTC used to be one of the Android spaces shining lights. Its phone launches generated a lot of heat and punters, generally speaking, were very interested in what the company was doing on a monthly basis. New phones sold well and the company enjoyed rapid growth, which helped propel Android into the mainstream.

But then everybody else got in on the act and, well, things kind of started spiraling out of control shortly thereafter. Samsung and LG grew their share of the market and then, in recent years, we had an influx of Chinese phone makers (OnePlus, Huawei, OPPO) which made matters worse for HTC.

This fall from grace was not all HTCs fault, though it is a relatively small fish in a pond full of sharks. The fact that it has managed to hang on until 2017 is, quite frankly, a miracle. The companys financials for the last few years have read like a Cormac McCarthy novel (and not in a good way).

Still, things arent all bad. The company is now back, vying for your custom, with another flagship handset called the HTC U11.

As before it's a metal, premium-grade flagship, though this time with a bit of extra glass thrown in for good measure.

Can it fare better than 2016's all-metal HTC 10?

As time goes on I find it very difficult to critique the aesthetic design of most high-end smartphones, but particularly ones from HTC - HTC is arguably one of the earlier pioneers of luxurious metal smartphone design, but like Sony, it is also one of the Android OEMs that has remained mostly static.

In the case of the broad outlook of the smartphone industry though, it must be said that flagships are looking more and more alike than ever, and they all more or less fall into that iPhone/Galaxy S type design. Which is fair enough, clearly this is what consumers want and what they tend to buy. A kind of consumer tech natural selection has led us to this ubiquity of metal and glass slabs somewhere around the 5in size with rounded off corners, industrial style design, and neatly punched and machined grilles, ports, and buttons.

And, I dont really have a problem with this.

But from a critique perspective, the sameness does tend to blur the lines after a while, so much so that its difficult to venture any kind of useful opinion.

Im reminded of a professional wine expert friend of mine who, while we were holidaying in South Africa and tasting various locally produced wines, commented (as the rest of us tried desperately to identify the different notes and flavours) that a particular well-reputed Chardonnay tastes like a Chardonnay, much to our bemused befuddlement. Indeed, in the current market, many phones including the HTC U11, by the same token look like high-end phones.

In neither case is it a criticism, but nor is it praise; theres nothing wrong with the HTC U11 design (or indeed any other similarly designed phone), in fact its very good, but it still just looks like a high-end phone with nothing particularly spectacular about it. It cant really escape what it is. Just like that Chardonnay. Good. Very good. Great even...but not that different from the rest.

The last few successive generations of HTC flagship have not been very different from each other at all. Theyve still been pretty great when it came to aesthetic design and build, however, and the low number of units flying off the shelves could hardly be attributed to this facet of the phone.

I can totally understand why HTC went in a different direction this time around - as its sales of previous models werent doing well, it wanted to grab a bit of attention with something flashier.

Personally, for my blood (and I realise it is totally subjective), HTC went a bit too far on the flashy front - or should I say flashy rear. I just cant get past that high-sheen gloss metallic finish, its far too shiny. In and of itself I just find it garish and that is enough for me not to have any desire to use a phone like this as my daily driver, or even out in public.

But on top of that it does have many practical ramifications as well. Its more of a fingerprint magnet than even your average glass-backed phone, it is extra, extra slippery; it wont sit happily on virtually any surface you leave it on and it is unsteady in the hand. And as well as being unsightly, the mirror-finish back also reflects your face and anything else around it, but not in a nice way - remember those freaky circus mirrors from the fairground that give you a giant Franken-forehead or a huge goofy chin? Yeah, its like that and its because of the phones curvature combined with the mirror finish.

I do not like it, sir, not one bit.

Which is a shame, as otherwise there is a lot to like about the exterior design and build. As Ive come to expect from HTC, it is reassuringly solid and well put-together; the physical keys have excellent and satisfying clicky feedback (plus the power button is textured for easy location by feel), and best of all this is the first HTC flagship with proper IP67 waterproofing. Its great, this is the first HTC that you can take near the water - but what a price to pay that we have to put up with super shiny circus mirror finishes.

It is, aside from the shine, nicely shaped with an elegant, smooth curvature and an attractive layering of the glass and metal. I WANT to like this phones overall design - and its so closebut the finish ruins it. If HTC later releases a matte finish color option I for one will be much happier.

Battery life has been a serious sticking point of ours with past HTC flagships. I cant remember the last time we tested an HTC lead model where we were impressed with how long it could run on a single charge.

So, naturally, there was a lot of apprehension when testing the HTC U11.

In our standard video test, running a two-hour film (in this case The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug) from 100% charge, with the film pre-loaded and screen brightness set to full, the HTC U11 drained down to 69% charge.

Now, that is not bad by any means, in fact it is quite respectable. But how good or bad this actually is for you does depend on your typical use of a smartphone - and I think it's fine up until a certain level, at which point it kind of goes over a cliff.

For me, this is fairly decent power drain as Im not a power user and dont run my phones that hard outside of a testing scenario.

On a phone with this kind of battery consumption I can expect to get a good couple of days on a single charge, with my typical light-to-moderate use pattern, and I did encounter this in my non-video, day-to-day testing.

If youre a very light user who only does a bit of occasional browsing, and the odd call or text, youll find this phone will last longer, maybe three days or even a bit more.

However, if youre a bit of a smartphone fiend like Rich, youll blast through this things power reservoir in a day easily.

Id say this kind of battery life is fairly average for most high-end flagships, and for me this is fine, but for some its just not adequate. You need to factor in your own use patterns, are they light, moderate, or intensive? If you fall into the first two tiers youll probably be more than happy with the HTC U11. If youre in the third, this is a no-go.

Ultimately, its important to bear in mind that there are better options out there with much longer life even with intensive use; amongst others the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galxy S8+, the Apple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, the Google Pixel and Pixel XL, and the Huawei Mate 9.

So, once again, good...but not great. In this respect it's a lot like the previous handful of HTC flagships.

The HTC U11 sports a 5.5in Super LCD 5 touch display with a Quad-HD, 1440 x 2560 pixel resolution; giving a pixel density of 534ppi.

As with the design, I have mixed feelings about the display.

On the one hand, I like to give credit where its due; and this is on the whole a high quality display.

The resolution means that image clarity is wonderfully sharp with absolutely zero in the way of jagged lines or artifacting. I also think the colour is impressive, its nice and punchy, and although white purity is never perfect on any phone, it is VERY good here.

Brightness levels are also robust, and I must say that given my grievances with some past HTC flagships having poor visibility in bright sunlight, I am tremendously impressed with the HTC U11s screen in this respect as it performs very well indeed; there are absolutely no issues web browsing outside on a sunny day.

However, it must be said that there are good reasons why plenty of smartphone OEMs are migrating over to OLED at the moment.

LCD was the mainstay of the smartphone space for a very long time, in spite of the fact that many OEMs were well aware of some of OLEDs superior qualities; lower power consumption, better contrast, deeper blacks, better readability and lower reflectivity in sunlight, and, except in the case of very high-end LCD wider viewing angles.

This is because at the time OLED hadnt yet been perfected (sharpness and colour accuracy was a bit squiffy in the early days), it still had a few disadvantages which meant the trade off wasnt worth it, and whats more, it was expensive and difficult to manufacture. Most of these issues have now been resolved, hence why big firms are switching.

Having used both OLED and LCD displays over the years and having watched the technologies gradually change, I can say that these days Im quite firmly in the OLED camp.

OLED is not perfect, no display type is, but when its well-implemented I simply find it more satisfying and rewarding to use than even the best LCDs.

Perhaps its the little things that really make a big difference, especially in the top tier where everything is so close and even the smallest infractions count when you're talking about 500+ handsets.

I mean, I understand it is nitpicking of an otherwise enjoyable phone screen experience but having got used to the very deep and pure blacks of OLED I really notice the grey-ish brown washiness of the blacks in the HTC U11s display.

Its one of those things that once it has been seen, it cannot be un-seen.

Its especially jarring given the tendency for smartphone makers to, as with the HTC U11, put a very pure black fascia surrounding the display panel - with this immediately adjacent to the display, you instantly see the screens blacks as being quite off by comparison.

I also cant help but wonder if part of the HTC U11s fairly average battery performance comes from the use of a QHD resolution LCD panel.

So where does this leave us? Well, its a tricky one. I dont want to say the HTC U11 has a bad display because it doesnt, its really rather good, its just not quite as good in some specific areas as some other offerings on the market. And at this point, I'm aware this is becoming a recurrent theme of the review.

Thus, once again, it's a question of what's important to you and whether you feel you're getting value for money.

If having very pure black depth and high contrast on a phone display isnt a big deal to you, then I think this is a great display youll be quite happy with, as in all other areas its very capable.

If on the other hand, you really value the qualities that OLED has brought to the table - and will grumble in your head every time you notice those soupy blacks - then this probably isnt going to float your boat.

Ill post the HTC U11 spec sheet below for you to have a look at and get an overview of the hardware, connectivity and so forth sequestered inside it. Then Ill give a commentary on some of the things which leap out. I won't be covering the processor and performance in this section, however, as that will get its own section later.

I cant single HTC out for doing this trick, because it seems like every other OEM also does it these days, but its bloody annoying when any of them do it and I feel it necessary to call them all out as and when, in the vain hope that eventually theyll all get the message.

As far as I can tell, the only version of the HTC U11 officially available in the UK is the 64GB storage model with 4GB of RAM, so we dont get access to the 128GB/6GB RAM edition, unless you import it at your own expense and effort.

Now, for me, 64GB of storage is more than enough, but I realise thats not the case for everybody - moreso now than ever that we find ourselves in the era of 4K multimedia and all that; file sizes are always getting bigger for everything from photos and videos, to apps and games.

Im sure a time will come when 64GB is too little storage for me also, and I suspect it wont be because my usage pattern has changed, itll be because content across the board is simply of a higher quality and therefore takes up more space.

So, in this respect its disappointing to be locked out of at least having the option to scale up to 128GB. Yes, both editions have microSD support for cards up to 256GB and this is fine if the majority of your storage gets taken up by multimedia, but if you install a lot of apps and games it can be a bit of an issue.

But I probably get more annoyed about how this locks us out of the 6GB RAM option as well. I used to run high-end gaming PCs so I know how RAM makes a difference when it comes to performance and leveraging the most out of CPUs and GPUs. Of course, the processor hardware needs to be built in such a way that it can make use of bigger quantities of RAM, otherwise theres no point.

But we know for a fact that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 can use 6GB quite happily, and it shows in benchmarking and real-world performance.

Is it a slow poke with 4GB RAM? No, not by any means, but 6GB would make things smoother and more importantly it will future proof the phone for higher-performance for longer, even as more demanding content arrives later.

Being shut out of this by virtue of geography is rather irritating to say the least. Again though, this is not uniquely HTCs offence, but it is part of the same disappointing bandwagon in this regard and I feel thats worth noting.

As weve come to expect from HTC, the audio experience is top notch. Many rival OEMs have stepped up their game quite considerably, but Im still yet to encounter a smartphone audio experience as good as HTCs and this still applies to the HTC U11 as much as any predecessor.

The BoomSound stereo speakers are simply excellent, offering crystal clear sound quality and loud volumes without distortion; there still isn't anything else out there in the smartphone market that can top this kind of audio.

On the in-ear audio side of things, this is a very different setup to whats come before. Much more advanced, though there are some changes which arent going to please everyone.

Yes, you guessed it, its the big Kahuna; the 3.5mm audio jack is gone. Its gone in favour of a set of proprietary HTC in-ear headphones which connect via the Type-C USB port.

I dont consider this to be a massive negative though, because if you have your own 3.5mm headphones already then HTC has you covered; a 3.5mm-to-Type-C USB adaptor is provided in the box, so you can still use your fancy pants kit from Bang & Olufsen, Sennheiser, Bose, JBL, and the rest.

However, there are good reasons to consider using the bundled-in headphones because they can do something pretty special; customised audio via the HTC USonic technology.

Weve seen this before on the HTC U Ultra, but obviously HTC has had time to tweak and optimise it a little more since then and it really does work like a charm. The headphones are really nicely designed, some of the most comfortable in-ear ones Ive ever worn, and they feature very effective noise-cancellation. This is useful in and of itself, but it is implemented to combine with HTC USonics ability to scan your ear canal and adapt the audio profile to its unique shape for optimum sound quality.

Best of all, HTC has taken efforts to make sure this is a quick and easy setup for users of all stripes, you just go into the relevant Settings menu and press one button. Thats it. It takes about five seconds.

The process will play you a sample audio which you can toggle your custom profile from the scan on and off to hear the difference and it is quite prominent, its almost like the difference between hearing normally and underwater; such is the clarity gained.

Its also really easy to create and switch between multiple custom audio profiles, so if you share your handset with a partner or something, theyre not locked out of the custom audio experience.

All in all, Im more impressed than ever with HTCs audio tech, and considering what came before that is saying something. There really is nothing else quite like this on the smartphone market outside of HTCs stable.

Edge Sense was teased quite a bit in HTCs promotional campaign; the technology means that the lower portion of the handset is pressure sensitive, allowing you to control certain phone features with a squeeze of the phone in your hand.

The setup is easy enough, and by default it will set up to open the phones camera app even from a sleep state, while a second squeeze will capture the image; quite handy for capturing a snap at a moments notice. I found that you can set it up so the squeeze is quite hard, so theres really little concern of it activating in your pocket or bag.

The functionality is quite expandable; toggling advanced mode allows you to have the phone respond to both a short squeeze and a squeeze-and-hold control to perform different functions.

I was fully expecting the squeeze to capture to add a bit of wobble and blur to the image, as you do need to give it a bit of welly, but I was pleasantly surprised so it seems the OIS is really doing its job here.

You can also assign these controls to do other things like launching Google Voice Assistant, launching a specified app, taking screenshots, toggling the phones flashlight, recording voice, launching HTC Sense Companion, and toggling Wi-Fi Hotspot on or off. The camera and Google Voice Assistant also have several layers of extra control for short or longer squeezes once the app is opened.

I guess this is a neat trick, and perhaps more useful for some people than others, or in certain circumstances. I do think things like the camera for taking quick photos, the flashlight, and perhaps the Wi-Fi HotSpot could all be quite useful. Likewise if you make a lot of voice memos the voice recording could be a boon.

But with all of that said I cant say I felt the feature really improved my phone experience massively, and I wouldnt really miss it if it werent there. Definitely kind of cool though, so kudos to HTC for trying something new and quirky.

This is a hot topic. Cameras seem to be a very competetive battleground for lead flagships at the moment, and HTC has made a lot of noise about the capabilities of the hardware aboard the HTC U11.

To recap, here is the spec for the HTC U11 camera:

On paper HTC is certainly hitting a lot of the right notes. The firm points out that it has achieved the highest rating in smartphone camera history by independent imaging body DxOMark.

It also notes the camera is equipped with a "multi-axis optical and electronic stabilisation system", "super-fast autofocus in all lighting conditions", "more dynamic exposure range with HDR Boost", and improvements to white balance and noise reduction.

Having tested the phone I can say that none of this appears to be mere bluster.

As Samsung's recent camera offerings have proven with their dual-pixel phase-detection autofocus, autofocus speed is an incredibly important variable when it comes to fully leveraging a lot of the other camera specs - stuff like wide aperture sizes, large sensor sizes, and large pixel sizes - to get the best images.

These things make it easier for the camera to take in tons of light and detail, which will make better pictures, provided the shutter isn't open too long; which means the camera has to be able to focus, open the shutter and then close it again really, really quickly. Usually it's the focus speed that is the stumbling block.

HTC appears to have been taking notes, because addressing that is very much a key part of the HTC U11's setup.

"HTC U11 incorporates the same full sensor auto-focus technology that's found in top DSLR cameras. Typically, only a few sensors are used for focusing, but with our new UltraSpeed Autofocus, all of the pixels are used for phased detection autofocus."

And it really is fast, lightning snappy, in fact, which together with the intuitive UI makes capturing great shots really quick and easy.

Here's a couple of examples of the same shot with different focal points:

And here's the HTC U11 compared to a subsequent shot of the same flower under the same conditions by the Samsung Galaxy S8+:

As you can see, in terms of clarity, contrast and most other key variables, they are on pretty much the same level. The images are packed with detail and are rich and vibrant. A noticable difference occurs with the colour, however, with the HTC U11 being a little softer, less saturated, and more natural looking, while the Galaxy S8 goes for Samsung's typical punchy saturation and slightly more dramatic contrast.

This is really a matter of personal preference, although I'd argue it's easier to get the "Samsung look" on an HTC-captured image with post-capture editing quite quickly and effortlessly, rather than trying to tone down an image captured on the Galaxy S8+. Simply whack up the contrast and saturation and you're good to go.

Now, I've previously made it no secret that I'm a massive fan of Samsung's imaging setup. I consider the camera aboard the Galaxy S8 series (and, in the context of their then-contemporaries, the previous Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S6 series') to be one of the very best on the market. It's not just a question of image capture quality either, although it helps that it is so very high, but it's that combined with the ease of use.

There are many smartphone cameras available which can deliver as good or sometimes slightly better results, but in order to get them to deliver you have to really learn a few tricks and get to grips with fiddly elements of the controls.

You have to know a thing or two about photography, essentially.

One of the things I loved about Samsung's setup is that this simply wasn't the case - point, shoot, done; excellent quality photos and video with no fuss whatsoever. Anyone can do it.

And it's not necessarily the verybestquality, but it's so damn good that anyone but the most finicky of photography aficionados cannot complain.

Link:
HTC U11 Review: AMAZING Camera, AWFUL Design - Android Oreo Update Officially Confirmed - Know Your Mobile

A pond can make a great addition to any landscape. Homeowners may write it off as too expensive before getting an estimate or doing much research. If you're interested in adding a pond to your backyard, contact a professional. He or she will be able to to determine the best course of action for your particular space and can give you a better idea on the cost for a pond, highlighting certain factors integral to pricing.

Size and ShapeThe size of your pond will be a big factor in the cost. The larger the pond, the bigger the excavation and prep work. Giving your pond a really unique shape will increase the price but can have great visual appeal. If shape is less important, there is the option for prefabricated liner shells, which will decrease the cost to install a pond. Your climate will determine whether liner will work or not.

Pond LinerThere are a couple of different options for liners, all of which will impact the cost to install a pond. Most permanent garden pond liners include concrete and fiberglass. These liners last a long time: 50 years or more if maintained properly. Flexible liners are typically made out of different plastic products. These typically last 10 to 20 years. Plastic rigid liners are another option, but they can increase the price since they can be difficult to work with and are susceptible to damage from ice. This is good for homeowners in warm locales who are looking for a cheaper alternative.

Pond LocationDepending on what kinds of plants or fish you may want to have, location will be important. It's smart to consult a landscape designer who can help you determine what shaded areas might work best. This will ensure it is put in a place that will take less of a beating from the weather.

Pond SurroundsInstalling stone edging or other surrounds to your pond will spruce up the area and make it stand out even more. While increasing your total cost, it will add that finishing touch to make your pond look like a part of your yard.

Pond MaintenancePutting in a little bit more on the cost to install a pond will help you in the end with maintenance. By putting in a good filtering system, the water should remain clearer and collect less algae. This can also prevent dirt runoff which can cloud the water. If you put fish in your pond, then you will need to maintain UV heaters and chemicals to keep the water stabilized.

Waterfall Feature If you opt to include a waterfall, this can be a great addition to a pond and will give you that zen water sound in your space. Be prepared to pay more for the plumbing and design involved in creating one.

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2017 Pond Installation Costs | Price to Add a Pond

A number of major projects in Grays Harbor and Pacific counties are hung up because the funding for them is part of the state capital budget which, after a full legislative session and three special sessions, has yet to be passed.

Certainly the Westport dredging is a big one, but given that there is $70 million in spending for school construction it is hard to say what is more important, said Sen. Dean Takko (D-Longview). Cosmopolis school cannot go out to bid on their remodel as they do not know when they will get their SCAP money from the state.

SCAP is the School Construction Assistance Program, which provides funding assistance to school districts that are planning major new construction or improvement projects.

There is a strong expectation that the capital budget will be approved this summer, but its not clear when. Its been stalled over a fight in the Senate involving a fix that Republicans want to get around a state Supreme Court decision involving water rights.

Takko says some of the larger-ticket items are $8 million for a Naselle Hatchery renovation and $3 million in renovations at Twin Harbors and Cape Disappointment state parks. While those large projects get a lot of attention, Takko said some communities are waiting on amounts far less that can have just as great an impact.

Although it is only $30,000, North Beach Water cannot pay the contractor for a job as the Department of Commerce has told them they cannot forward the state money to them until the budget passes, he said. So even though the money is not the millions that some are waiting for, it has a big impact. This project on the Long Beach Peninsula would install a new well field to help the region with some of the water quality issues theyve had in recent years.

The mayors of both Aberdeen and Hoquiam agree the restoration of Fry Creek and the construction of the North Shore Levee are two of the most important projects either city has faced in many years. Increased flooding in recent years has created headaches for homeowners and city public works departments, and hundreds of residents are required to carry federal flood insurance, which is expensive, and properties within the existing floodplain have very low resale value.

Fry Creek restoration will include a number of improvements that would help mitigate flood risks, including removing culverts, creating a stormwater holding pond, and installing a new tide gate and pump at the mouth of the creek. These measures would allow for increased flood control and help return the creek to a more natural state.

The capital budget has $315,000 in it for the restoration and flood reduction design which is ongoing as public comment is taken and adjustments to the plan are made and another $1,915,000 for the implementation of the plan.

The North Shore Levees planning and design has been funded by a grant from the Chehalis Basin Flood Authority. As FEMA continues to look over the draft plan sent to them last month, there is just under $30 million in state and federal funds for construction of local priority flood protection projects in the current proposed capital budget.

There is $2.5 million in the latest budget draft for the Westport Marina project, which could go toward digging the marina out to depths of 15 to 17 feet. According to Port of Grays Harbor Public Affairs Manager Kayla Dunlap, the marina has not been fully dredged since 1980. Marina Business Manager Molly Bold said she has applied for the permits needed to perform the dredging, but fixing a start date for the project cant be done until the funds are released.

There is also more than $900,000 in the budget to make major improvements to the marinas public boat launch. The current gravel lot would be paved, the portable toilets replaced with restrooms, and a fish cleaning station installed.

As the cities of Hoquiam and Aberdeen look for solutions to the low-income housing shortage in the region, enlisting the help of the Seattle-based Low Income Housing Institute to find suitable locations and funding, $6 million is listed in the current capital budget for use in providing grants for high quality low-income housing that will quickly move people from homelessness into secure housing.

Dawn Thomas, legislative assistant to Rep. Brian Blake (D-Aberdeen), provided this list of projects in the area that are awaiting capital budget approval:

Construction of a compact roundabout smaller version of your typical roundabout at the intersection of State Route 12 and State Route 107 in Montesano, $550,000.

State Route 105 bridge replacements at Smith Creek, North River and the Middle Nemah, more than $1 million.

Development of a safe, multi-use trail crossing on the Willapa Hills Trail at State Route 106, $401,000.

Replacement of noncompliant comfort stations in Ocean City, $1,526,000.

Aberdeen landslide repair, $373,000.

Development of the Gateway Center in Aberdeen, $1,750,000.

Replacement of the Hoquiam Coastal Harvest roof, $206,000.

East Grays Harbor Fiber Project, which would spread fiber optics through Elma, the Satsop School District and all of east county, $436,000.

Hoquiam Library preservation, $250,000.

Lake Sylvia State Park Legacy Pavilion, $696,000. Friends of Schaefer and Lake Sylvia State Parks has pledged $200,000 of private investments into the project, which would construct a pavilion that could hold 80 people, complete with a fireplace, kitchen area and moveable walls that can be placed so the park could attract winter visitors.

Pacific County historic county courthouse grants program, $364,000.

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Senate's failure to pass a capital budget leaves local projects hanging - The Daily World

Wednesday, August 9th, 2017

By Nancy Allen

Keith Canary of Rockford speaks during a public meeting Tuesday held by the Ohio. . .

CELINA - Officials of a 4,500-head dairy proposed for northwest of Neptune say they plan to proceed despite a meeting on Tuesday attended by a large crowd composed mainly of opponents.

About 140 people packed the Mercer County Central Services Building conference room for the Ohio Department of Agriculture's open house and public meeting. Prior to the meeting, a few people outside the building carried signs calling for a boycott of Dannon Yogurt, which would buy the dairy's milk to make yogurt at its Minster plant.

The meeting was called to gather comments on draft permits to install and operate for MVP Dairy LLC, a partnership of VanTilburg Farms of Celina and McCarty Dairy LLC of Colby, Kansas. Twenty-five people with concerns about the dairy spoke during the 90-minute public comment period. One person spoke in favor of the dairy.

Most of the concerns focused on odor, manure runoff, groundwater contamination, exhausted wells, road damage from truck traffic and decreased property values. The meeting was punctuated by bursts of applause after several people had spoken. Many expressed concerns with nutrient-management issues that such a large facility might create. Many mentioned the Grand Lake Watershed's distressed status and issues with toxic blue-green algae. Some speakers criticized VanTilburg Farms management practices.

VanTilburg and McCarty family members attended the meeting but did not speak.

Melvin Steinbrunner, 8270 Rice Road, Celina, worries about the odor of the waste generated by 4,500 cows.

"The smell will be horrendous," he said. "I hope the people in Columbus think of the people who have to live here, because we're going to be stuck with this mess."

Charles Wurster, who lives a half mile away from the site, said he and his wife may move if the dairy is built. He noted that numerous other livestock facilities have sprouted up around him in recent years.

"We've all been silent and complacent too long," Wurster said. "We polluted our own lake, and now we look to pollute a Great Lake. We must stop building CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) and get back to our roots."

The proposed dairy is located in the St. Marys River Watershed, which eventually flows to Lake Erie.

Barry Davis, who lives on Davis Road, called the dairy's officials "greedy millionaires" and said he worried about a diminished quality of life if the dairy is built.

Jeremy Leugers, 7320 Bogart Road, who lives less than a mile from the proposed dairy, asked ODA officials to consider how the dairy would affect the community.

"Please think of all the people this will upset," he said. "Not the few who will make money."

At one point Kevin Elder, director of the ODA's Division of Livestock Environmental Permitting, reminded speakers that they had been instructed at the beginning of the meeting to keep their comments to three minutes each.

"This decision affects the rest of our lives, and you're limiting us to three minutes," a man said from the audience.

Neptune-area resident Maria Suhr urged crowd members to elect leaders who protect the environment and water quality.

The Daily Standard publisher Frank Snyder, whose son, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren live near the proposed dairy, said 4,500 cows would produce the same amount of waste as 19,000 people, based on information from a Canadian university.

Dennis Piper, Celina, said more and more livestock operations are moving into the northern part of the county, which traditionally has been dominated with row crop agriculture.

"You can see a trend of migrating the livestock from the southern part of the county to the north part," he said. "We have to learn (from) what happened in the Grand Lake Watershed."

Piper's comment was followed by thunderous applause.

Keith Canary lives across from Heartland Dairy Holdings LLC, 3101 Tama Road, a 1,200-head operation southwest of Rockford. He told the crowd that he and many other community members fought against the dairy's application for state permits more than 10 years ago, but it did no good.

Canary said Hopewell Township roads near the dairy have been "destroyed" due to the constant truck traffic to and from the dairy. When manure is irrigated onto farmland, he and his family must stay in their home for days afterward. Canary said he brought a spray bottle with manure in it. Crowd members chuckled when he offered to retrieve it from his car so he could spray it on Kevin Elder, director of the ODA's Division of Livestock Environmental Permitting, who facilitated the meeting.

Canary said he believed Tuesday's meeting would not change MVP's plan to build the dairy.

"What you're saying, doing, posting is not going to do squat," he said. "The only one that can pull the plug on this is VanTilburg."

Theresa Howick, 7531 State Route 197, Celina, spoke in favor of the dairy, saying she believed the ODA and MVP officials would protect the environment.

The public can submit written comments on the dairy's draft permits until 5 p.m. Aug. 15 by sending them to lepp@agri.ohio.gov, faxing them to 614-728-6335, or mailing them to the ODA's Division of Livestock Environmental Permitting, A.B. Graham Building, 8995 E. Main St., Reynoldsburg, OH 43068. Comments should be typed or handwritten legibly and should include the person's name, complete mailing address and email address.

Elder said a responsiveness summary to comments from Tuesday's meeting and any other written comments received by the Aug. 15 deadline would be mailed in about four weeks to those who commented.

Kyle VanTilburg this morning said the meeting did not change MVP officials' plan to proceed and pledged to run the facility correctly.

"It was hard not to take some of the things said personal, but at the end of the day we know we are doing things right and following regulations," he said.

VanTilburg has said the enclosed barns, the manure-flushing system and a state-of-the-art anaerobic manure-treatment system will control odors.

Every few hours manure will be flushed from the cow barns' aisles to keep water from standing and attracting flies. The anaerobic manure-treatment system should produce little to no odor water, VanTilburg said.

Ken McCarty this morning said he understands community members' concerns expressed during the meeting.

"I think the meeting was a good avenue for people to express their concerns, and there were some valid concerns, but I believe all are addressed in the permit adequately and are going to be monitored and addressed by the ODA," he said this morning. "I believe the best practices we are going to implement between the VanTilburg family and our family I think will quell any and all of those concerns."

The 82-acre site is located adjacent to Hasis Road on the south side of U.S. 33. MVP's owners on March 20 announced plans for the multimillion dollar facility and on April 20 held an informal open house for people to ask questions. A community meeting was held on June 19.

The facility would have six cow barns, two manure-settling basins, each capable of holding about 8 million gallons; a 32 million gallon anaerobic wastewater cell; a 27.5 million gallon irrigation pond; and a 4 million gallon pond for silage runoff. The operational facility would employ about 35 people, MVP officials have said.

The design includes a visitors' center to educate groups about the operation, farm officials have said. A manager from the McCarty family from Kansas will manage the new dairy.

The farm would annually produce about 12 million gallons of liquid manure and 25 million gallons of treated wastewater that would be applied via a center pivot to 800 acres of surrounding farmland owned by the VanTilburgs and others, according to information in the draft permit to install. An architectural drawing includes a site for a "future potential" digester, which would convert methane into energy.

Correction:

A dairy with 4,500 cows would produce the same amount of waste as 198,000 people, based on information from a Canadian university. The error was made in reporting.

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