Since 1976, PEC has been providing its clients with a wide range of consulting services, products, and monitoring and management solutions to meet the challenges imposed by ever-changing permafrost environments. The trend of warming ground temperatures over the last 40 years has resulted in changes to the mechanical, hydraulic, chemical, and thermal properties of permafrost-affected soils and sediments. Through technology transfer and advanced research and development, PEC expertise is keeping its clients on solid ground.
Since releasing “Contaminant Behaviour in Freezing Soils and Permafrost: Fate, Transport and Transformation,” we have received a number of testimonials and have been honoured by the University of the Arctic when it featured our new publication in its September 2018 newsletter.
Royalties from the sale of our book sets have been used to establish an endowment at Carleton University that funds Graduate Scholarship in Northern Research.
Permafrost degradation
Environmental Impact Assessment
Environmental Impact Assessment
Infrastructure in Permafrost
Construction of Norman Wells Pipeline NWT
Physical and computer modeling of pipelines, roads and foundations in freezing ground and permafrost at natural scale and in controlled environments. Studies relating to climate change on infrastructure in permafrost regions specifically changes in the temperature, distribution and seasonal depth of active layer with implications for infrastructure founded in permafrost.
Notable Studies
- Mackenzie Gas Pipeline Project
- Norman Wells Pipeline Study
- Evaluation of Lightweight Aggregate for use as a Thermal
- Insulation in Roads and Airports Runways
- Mackenzie Highway Project
- CSA (Canadian Standards Association) study Infrastructure in Permafrost: A guideline for climate change adaptation
- CSA study of Climatic Change Adaption of Electrical Infrastructure in Permafrost
Contaminants in Freezing Soils and Permafrost-Affected Terrain
Microstructure of silty soil prior to freezing
Microstructure of same soil, after contamination with diesel fuel and freezing
Until recently, the assumption that permafrost is impermeable to miscible and immiscible contaminants has underscored policies addressing Arctic waste disposal. Studies conducted by Dr. Thomas L. White, president PEC indicate that permafrost should not be considered impermeable, as contaminants have been shown to penetrate freezing soils and frozen sediments. The observed and predicated climatic changes will inevitably alter the energy and mass fluxes within the near-surface layer of permafrost, which in turn will impact negatively on the mobility of contaminants in the Arctic.
Notable Studies
- Mobility of Contaminants in Permafrost underlying DEW Line Stations
- Performance of Sumps in Permafrost
- Evaluation of Contaminant Mobility at Norman Wells Refinery Site
- Microstructure and Hydraulic Properties of Contaminated Arctic Soils
- Contaminated Arctic Soils Database
Climate Change of Permafrost-Affected Terrain
Climate change presents a challenge to many areas of the globe, but none more so than the Arctic. Long-term temperature records from within the near surface permafrost zone of the northern hemisphere reveal that a warming trend of this layer has accelerated over the last 40 years. The observed recent climate warming of frozen soils and sediments presents significant challenges to the engineering of infrastructure in permafrost and to predicting the rates of mobility of contaminants in permafrost-affected terrain. Increases in permafrost temperatures result in changes to mechanical, hydraulic and thermal properties of soils and sediments, which in turn can impact negatively on pipelines, roads and utilities constructed in or on permafrost.
Notable Studies
- Mackenzie Highway Project
- Ground Thermal and Micro-Climatic Studies in Continuous, Discontinuous and Sporadic Permafrost
- Performance of Pipelines in Permafrost
- Mobility of Miscible and Immiscible Contaminants
- CSA (Canadian Standards Association) study Infrastructure in Permafrost: A guideline for climate change adaptation
- CSA study of Climatic Change Adaption of Electrical Infrastructure in Permafrost
- Svalbard Global Seed Vault