ETHICS TRAINING
• Tell colleagues if you are seeking information to use in a lawsuit or claim.
Article IV: Responsibility to the Profession
IV. Advance the profession of environmental and engineer- ing geology • Set a professional example for all.
• Upgrade technical capabilities through continuing education and professional activities. • Encourage academic development.
• Encourage qualified persons to enter the field of environmental and engineering geology.
• Advertise and solicit geologic services.
2.4: American Institute Of Professional Geologists (AIPG): AIPG Policies And Procedures, Code Of Ethics (Paraphrased)
AIPG Code Of Ethics Has Three Parts That Include Five Canons (Broad Principles) Sectioned Into Standards (Goals) Such As 1.0, 2.1, 2.2, And Rules (Mandatory Conduct) Which Are Detailed As Subsections In The Code Of Ethics.
Following Are Sections That Summarize The Principles, Goals And Rules. 1.0. Maintain integrity and professional conduct.
2.1. Protect human health, Safety and welfare and avoid actual or appearance of impropriety. Uphold all laws and regulations.
2.2. Be accurate, truthful and candid in all communica- tion with the public.
2.3. Provide impartial service to the public.
3.1. Provide employers with information on any poten- tial conflict of interest.
3.2. Protect customers’ interests and do not use cus- tomers’ information for personal gain without written permission.
3.3. Provide competent professional information based upon personal knowledge, education or experience, and provide customers with names of other profes- sionals for information, if appropriate.
3.4. Be diligent and timely in performing work.
3.5. If customers actions conflict with professional or ethical standards, either correct the actions or resign.
4.1. Give credit to other professionals’ work.
4.2. Be accurate, truthful, and candid in all com- munication regarding professional colleagues. Recognize that differences of professional opinions are common, and do not provide false, exaggerated, misleading, unwanted, or defamatory communica- tion about professional colleagues.
5.0. Strive to improve The Profession of geology by improving professional knowledge, cooperating with colleagues, and encouraging development of geologic sciences. Encourage colleagues to further professional practices. Disallow and/or report unprofessional or unethical behavior.
3. What Ethical Situations Do We Encounter?
Following are two possible scenarios and considerations for proper ethical actions.
Example 1. In evaluating a property for cleanup actions, laboratory results from 15 different drilling points demon- strate that one out of the 15 is anomalous and above regulatory limits. What do you do?
The answer is somewhat gray. First, it is an anomaly when compared to results from other data points; therefore, it may be a false positive. Second, the mean value of all data points may be acceptably within the range of regulatory requirements. If the 15 samples are taken on a grid pattern with drill spacing close enough to demonstrate that they are representative of the area under question, this average may be ethically accept- able. This could be appropriate in the case of determining soil contamination; however, it would be unacceptable in the case of determining groundwater contamination. The reason for this is that persons walking or working on the surface would only encounter the contaminated area during a short period of time;. If it is groundwater contamination, a person could drill a drinking water well at the point of contamination and ingest an unhealthy amount of contaminated water. The ethi- cal procedure would be to make a complete report to proper regulatory authorities including all results and conclusions. Then, decisions may be made to either obtain additional data or to accept the results of the study with a conclusion as to whether cleanup is required or not,
Example 2. Under a similar scenario, an ore body, rather than a cleanup, may be under evaluation. Assume that one sample out of 15 has analytical results that, when averaged with the other 14, causes the average grade of ore to be 50% higher than the average grade without using that one value. What do you do?
The answer to this question is rather clear to experienced mining geologists who have undergone financial successes as well as setbacks or failures. This type of anomalous data point is truly part of the ore body, but can be considered a “nugget” hole. Going back to early gold mining days, nuggets of gold could be found downstream of the actual ore body.
The nuggets were evidence that an ore body did in fact exist, but more evidence was needed to start the costly process of mining. Additional investigative work may have resulted in finding the actual ore body and mining it out. Any data point that, by itself, results in upgrading the average value of an ore body by more than 10% must be considered an anomaly and treated as such in calculating the average grade of the ore body. It also must be remembered that the data point is real. The ethical procedure is to allow some value to this data point in calculating the grade of the ore body.
In the writer’s 15 years of mining experience, this procedure would include using all data points to determine the areal extent of the ore body. This includes assigning a “proven” area around each drill hole such as a circle or ellipse of influence. Connecting all these circles by tangent lines yields a “connect the dots” area that could be the ore body. A specific “proven” area/volume may be assigned to the anomalous drill hole with the rest of the area/volume assigned as the larger portion of the ore body. An example may be to have 14 data points with a value of 10 and one data point with a value of 80.
The resultant mean is 14.6. The writer has learned that this value would exceed the produced value. If a specific per- centage value is assigned to the anomalous data point, a more realistic result may be obtained. For instance, a calculation of
30 TPG •
Jan.Feb.Mar 2021
www.aipg.org
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56
