A company wanted Pollution Prevention Plans and SPCC plans for nine of their many facilities. Most of the facilities had automotive and vehicle repair facilities, barracks, meeting halls and offices. In addition, each facility had storage tanks, flammable storage cabinets, grounds maintenance equipment. I developed plans for each of the 9 facilities that provided a prescriptive plan for meeting compliance with environmental regulations and to reduce waste disposal costs. The plans were used as a basis to create a model plan that could be used throughout their facilities.
Category: Documents
Chemical Information and Hazards Collection
A company wanted to develop a book that would have the chemical properties and handling requirements for over 5,000 chemicals. Much of this data had to be searched and extracted from pubic sources. The data was in varying formats and quality. I wrote extraction routines to extract the data. Once the data was extracted, it had to be verified and transferred to a database. I created a database to compile the data from all the sources, which allowed the tracking of missing data.
Brownfield Cleanup
A prior landfill was to be used for the development of a large combined cycle power plant. A Budget of 2.5 MM was allocated for the initial investigation and cleanup of the site. The first step was to set a grid to identify the hot spots on the site that required further investigation. This was done by setting up a grid and perform core samples of each grid.
A Brownfield cleanup plan was submitted to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Once it was approved the remediation of the site began. The total cost for the initial remediation was $700,000 a savings of over $1.5 MM.
Evaluation of Paint Booth
A manufacturer wanted to expand their operation of the paint booth. The paint booth’s capacity was limited by the emissions of Hexavalent Chromium.
The existing paint boot had a filtration system to collect the overspray as a primary control device. A previous consultant suggested adding a water scrubber as a secondary control device. They proposed to monitor the discharge water stream to show that the scrubber was in proper operation.
Adding a scrubber as a secondary control device is not an efficient use of control technology. Further, measuring the concentration in the water discharge stream does not effectively measure the control. If the filtration system collected more materials, then the hexavalent chrome going to the scrubber would be reduced and the concentration in the discharge would be less.
I decided to look at the entire process. The paint in the spray booth was a mixture of 3 component paint mixture, which only one has hexavalent chrome. The Hexavalent Chrome emissions were calculated by assuming all of the Hexavalent Chrome that was in the paint were emitted.
The procedure called for mixing the paint for 30 minutes prior to spraying. I had an independent laboratory test the mixture after 30 minutes. The hexavalent chromium in the combine mixture was reduced to Tri-valent Chrome and considerably less before the mixing of the 3 components. The manufacturer was able to increase the production without adding additional air pollution control devices.
Forensic Schedule Analysis
After a devastating hurricane severely damaged a large metal manufacturing facility, the owner decided to consolidate their site from two manufacturing sites to a single more efficient site. The insurer argued that this consolidation caused delays restoring the site and therefore would not cover the loss claimed in the business interruption portion of the loss. The closed site was built in the early 20th century and was built in the current flood plain. As most of the buildings required complete reconstruction, the site would be required to be filled above the flood plain and the buildings would have to be constructed using current codes. In addition, the existing equipment would have to be removed and stored and the current buildings would have to be demolished.
The adjacent site was well documented during construction with photographic evidence that were in the state archives. This allowed us to establish the exact timeline for each phase of construction. We used the actual demolition of the closed site for the demolition portion of the schedule. We used these schedule elements to establish a theoretical timeline for the rebuilding of the closed site. This analysis showed that the consolidation of both sites into one actually took less time than to completely rebuild the closed site. This analysis was used in settlement negotiations with the insurer.
Asbestos Database Structure
In the mid 1980’s to comply with the AHERA regulations, a large southern school district with over 100 individual schools had to manage the inspection and control of the asbestos containing materials. They needed to know the type of material, exact location, its condition and whether it was removed.
A database program was used to manages this information. I was the principle author of the database program. I set up the databases and designed the sorts and printouts. Despite the advancements in computer and software technology, the original program and database still provide the same function. While there have been modifications to the user interface, the school district is still using the original database structure and report function today..
Asbestos Abatement Investigation
A security worker in 2012 brought an action against a renovation contractor in who removed asbestos containing fire proofing materials in a portion of the building that they did not have access to. The project took place in the early 1980’s when the asbestos regulations were in their infancy.
I discovered there was a boiler replacement project with a different contractor that occurred around the same time of the renovation to the office building. The fireproofing in the office building was removed under containment conditions. The boiler room insulation was removed as an open demolition project. The boiler and associated equipment had was insulated. At the time of construction of the boiler room the thermal insulation was an asbestos containing material.
Insurance Recovery Investigation
In an insurance case involving hurricane damage to a large manufacturing plant, we received over 100 GB of data from the client. This involved photos, cost estimates, repair estimates for each piece of major equipment, weather data, depositions, building investigation reports and other related information.
We organized and sorted the data so the hurricane damage to each of 2100 pieces of equipment could be evaluated against wind damage and flood damage. The equipment included large cranes, roll presses, CNC Machines, industrial lathes, boring machines and others. The equipment was sorted by type of equipment, building damage and location within the building to aid in this evaluation.
Each component of the machine was evaluated in its sensitivity to moisture and the repairs required to repair the machine. We were therefore able to determine the exact components of the machine that were damaged by the wind driven rain and the components that were only damaged by the flood waters.
Chemical Plant Survey
A large chemical plant had to be surveyed for asbestos. In a typical survey for asbestos in a building or a school, one would simply identify the suspect materials and note the location and condition and take samples of homogeneous areas to develop an asbestos survey and management plan. A chemical manufacturing plant is something quite different. A plant with a long history has gone through continuous development. The asbestos and non-asbestos materials in many cases are very similar in texture and color. We therefore, using the drawings and dates of the installation of the equipment and collected samples of each homogeneous area. Once the samples were analyzed, we went back and only assessed the materials that came back positive for asbestos.
Owner’s Representative
I performed duties as an Owner’s Representative for a large manufacturer of building products in a multi-state product liability lawsuit. I investigated the issues and assisted with the development of the scope of work which later became a model for over $500,000,000 in claims. I also assisted with the settlement negotiations of large home builders. I assisted with the negotiation and selection of the final General Contractor. I helped negotiated fees and incentives to streamline the entire process. Once the process began, I inspected houses for verification. I reviewed the contractor’s cost estimates and verified that the scope of work met the model agreement. As the work progressed, I review payment requests from the General contractor and reviewed change orders requests.