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The founders of AristaTek are former employees of the University of Wyoming Research
Corporation, d/b/a/ Western Research Institute (WRI). WRI’s history is traced
back to when it was established in 1940 to investigate heavy oil petroleum resources.
In the 1960’s it became a U.S. Bureau of Mines research facility for continued research
in heavy petroleum resources and also the lead USA federal laboratory for shale oil
research. In the early 1970’s the facility started research programs in tar
sands resource recovery and underground coal gasification development. With
the 1973 oil embargo and rising energy prices during the 1970’s, it was a key research
facility in recovering fossil energy from unconventional sources. In 1978 it
became a U.S. Department of Energy Fossil Energy (DOE-FE) research facility called
the Laramie Energy Technology Center . In 1983, it was de-federalized and became
part of the University of Wyoming also located in Laramie . When the oil glut
arrived in the mid 1980’s, the federal funding of energy research diminished and Wyoming’s
Congressional delegation suggested WRI address other research programs that would
have more opportunity for funding from the federal government. One of these
areas was in public safety, since WRI had extensive experience in developing new energy
resources and these processes required assessing and developing the necessary safety
and health considerations to deal with these new processes.
Congress decided to use this Wyoming research capability and the research organization
was included in the 1986 Superfund and Reauthorization Act (SARA)[1]; specifically
§118(n), that outlined a DOE funded research program to investigate and develop new
hazardous chemical technology and develop a technology transfer program to convey
these new technologies to the public sector. The field projects included in
this program were conducted at the Liquefied Gaseous Fuels Spill Test Facility (LGFSTF)
located on Frenchman Flat at the Nevada Test Site, now known as the DOE HAZMAT Spill
Center or HSC.
To address chemical spill concerns not being met by the SARA implementation, Congress
also decided to implement more research in the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA)
that dealt with the predictions of toxic vapor clouds and upcoming regulations that
were to be imposed on industry in the late 1990s. Wyoming was again named in §103(f)
and §901(h) to conduct additional research investigations. These were conducted
at the LGFSTF and were to also assist in development of the data sets and modification
of the existing toxic vapor cloud dispersion models to improve the technology and
provide reliable prediction tools for those having to respond to or plan for accidental
hazardous chemical releases. These activities were to be jointly funded and
directed by DOE and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The first project under the SARA program that the founders as WRI employees conducted
was an investigation of 123 hazardous material accidents and report on their cause
and the resulting response actions taken by those in charge. This report (Nordin,
1989) found some similarities between these accidents. One specific observation
was that the responders had used essentially no prediction tools to develop evacuation
zones or consider what portion of the public was at risk. At a number of these
incidents responders didn’t have appropriate tools available and those that did, didn’t
have a properly trained individual on duty that could operate the software.
The AristaTek founders were WRI’s core hazardous materials research staff that conducted
a series of experiments at the HSC during the 1990’s. These field experiments
investigated evaporation rates of liquid chlorine and anhydrous ammonia in addition
to a significant study of the dispersion of dense gases in neutral and stable atmospheric
conditions. The dispersion investigations culminated in the Kit Fox Series that
was funded by industry,[2] DOE, and EPA (see figure below). This was the first
large scale field experiments conducted to understand dense gas behavior in “worst-case”
conditions (stable atmospheric conditions). These “worst-case” conditions occur
at nighttime with very little wind, which results in little turbulence or mixing.
The toxic or hazardous vapors from a chemical spill which are typically heavier than
air will seek low areas and require longer distances and time periods to disperse
into the surrounding atmosphere. In all the previous field experiments measurements
in the nighttime conditions had never been attempted because of the cost and difficulty
in designing such experiments. Hence, the Kit Fox Series have provided the scientists
that develop mathematical models with the first data set that allow them to validate
and verify the predictions their mathematical models.
View of the Upwind Half of Kit Fox Series Test Grid
Based on the experience gained designing, preparing for and conducting the field experiments
at the HSC plus the observation made earlier that first responders lacked appropriate
tools to mitigate chemical spills, the AristaTek founders as employees of WRI developed
the PEAC (Palmtop Emergency Action for Chemicals) technology. The goal was to
place multiple databases with critical information plus predictive capabilities to
determine safe standoff distances for vapor clouds in the hands of the first responder
on the scene. Designing an intuitive interface that would provide quick and
ease access to information was envisioned to protect both the first responder personnel
and the public.
The first prototype (1996) was developed using Microsoft Visual Basic on a Casio Z-7000
palmtop that had a limited memory, a slow processor and no backlighting. The
prototype’s database included only about 20 chemicals and the PAD calculations were
based solely on the IDLH of the selected chemical. The interface was designed
to follow the methodology used in the 1993 Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) developed
by the U.S. Department of Transportation. This allowed information to searched
by either chemical name, UN Number or Guide Number. The databases were limited
to chemical properties and response procedures found in the “orange pages” of the
ERG.
The first commercial product was developed for an Apple Newton MessagePad 130 platform,
which at that time was the best available product. The MessagePad 130 platform
had sufficient memory to contain the targeted database and executable code anticipated
and the processor was considerably faster than the Casio. It also had backlighting
as a standard feature, which was one of the primary drawbacks identified with the
Casio prototype.
On August 27, 1996 , a patent application was submitted to the US Patent and Trademark
Office to protect the methodology of the PEAC dispersion modeling process. US
Patent #5,724,255 was issued to the inventors on March 3, 1998 that was assigned to
the University of Wyoming Research Corporation.
Initial sales of the PEAC technology in the fires service were slow and WRI sought
to either sell the technology or license it to a separate entity. In 1998, the
WRI developers, a.k.a. inventors of the PEAC technology, proposed to the WRI Board
of Directors that they be allowed to create a for-profit spin-off and license the
PEAC technology for commercial development. AristaTek had been formed in January
1999 as a Wyoming corporation and in March 1999 the Board of Directors agreed to the
licensing proposal. AristaTek commenced operations in April 1999 and in December
2000 the patent was assigned to AristaTek.
In the summer of 1997, the WRI developers of the PEAC technology submitted a proposal
to the Technical Support Working Group (TSWG) that was overseeing the development
of tools and procedures to meet the requirements of the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici Act.
This development program was to support the Domestic Preparedness Program to counteract
the threat of domestic and/or foreign terrorists organizations by training and equipping
the civilian and military emergency response agencies across the nation.
In March 1999, a contract was awarded to WRI to develop the PEAC-CW product to incorporate
the chemical warfare agents and their chemical precursors into the PEAC product.
The project required another organization under contract to TSWG, Edgewood Chemical
Biological Center (ECBC), to assemble the data related to the chemical warfare agents
and their chemical precursors for inclusion into the PEAC‑CW product.
AristaTek was the subcontractor that incorporated the ECBC data into the PEAC‑CW
database. AristaTek also converted the software source code from the original
Newton Script to Windows CE compliant software source code. The PEAC‑CW
project was completed in June 2000. The PEAC‑CW 2000 for Windows product
has essentially the same executable code and database as the PEAC‑CW 2000 product
for Windows CE operating system in the Pocket PC platforms.
With the tragic events of the September 11, 2001 , a decision was made to incorporate
additional information into the PEAC application that relates to weapons of mass destruction
(WMD). The new information included databases for biological agents, explosives,
and radioactive isotopes. In addition, the use of volatile memory in the Pocket
PCs had been found to cause headaches for users that failed to maintain periodic power
on their platforms and prevent the loss of the third party PEAC application from main
memory. AristaTek incorporated the use of Compact Flash cards that utilize non-volatile
memory, and the ability to load the PEAC application into main memory from the Compact
Flash card when necessary. The resulting release was referred to as PEAC-WMD
2002.
Because there are many fundamentals of hazardous materials behavior requiring investigations,
the founders have continued to pursue and expand past research activities through
a not-for-profit affiliate. During 1999-2001, the AristaTek founders continued
to support the DOE HSC research program as part-time employees for WRI working under
the contract between WRI and DOE. Since WRI no longer had full-time staff with
a public safety research background, particularly with hazardous materials, WRI decided
it would relinquish its support contract for the DOE HSC to a new entity. Albany
County Research Corporation (ACRC) was formed by the principals of AristaTek as a
separate Wyoming not-for-profit corporation in November 2000 and signed a 5-year contract
to support the DOE HSC research program in April 2001. This entity continues
to seek research funding to conduct new studies in hazardous materials behavior and
transfer the new data and understanding into the public domain.
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[1] The 1986 SARA legislation that put Wyoming into the business of investigating
hazardous chemical technology also created the State Emergency Response Commissions
(SERCs) and the Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPCs).
[2] Petroleum Environmental Research Forum (PERF Project 93-16), which comprised the
following ten companies: Allied Signal Corporation; Amoco Corporation; Chevron Research
and Technology Co. ; CITGO Petroleum Corporation; Clark Oil and Refining Co. ; Exxon
Research and Engineering Co.; Marathon Corporation; Mobil Research and Development
Co.; Phillips Petroleum Co.; and Shell Research and Development Co.
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