Month: November 2019

7 Things to Know About Using CGL Policies with State Cleanup Funds

Posted on by Alex Miller

ADDRESSING ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES FOR A DRY CLEANING BUSINESS CAN GET EXPENSIVE. TO HELP DEFRAY THE COST, SOME STATES HAVE CLEANUP TRUST FUNDS FOR DRY CLEANERS TO PAY INTO AND EVENTUALLY USE. AS OF NOVEMBER 2019, THOSE STATES ARE ALABAMA, CONNECTICUT, ILLINOIS, FLORIDA, KANSAS, NORTH CAROLINA, OREGON, SOUTH CAROLINA, TENNESSEE, TEXAS, AND WISCONSIN.

BY: DRU CARLISLE

While it would be ideal to rely on these funds alone to pay for necessary investigation and remediation services, it’s not always the most viable option because while there are certainly strong funds still in operation, we have seen that some funds are considering sunsetting, and with others, reimbursement payments are being delayed.

Another or additional solution for dry cleaners is to track down their historical Commercial General Liability (CGL) insurance policies. By locating these policies, a dry cleaner can use them as assets (money) to help cover the costs associated with environmental investigations and cleanups, such as investigation, remediation, and legal fees. We’ve been assisting dry cleaners in states with and without trust funds through this process for over two decades.

Here are some common questions we hear from the dry cleaning community about state cleanup funds.

1. WHAT CAN DRY CLEANERS IN STATES WITHOUT ADEQUATE CLEANUP FUNDS DO TO GET HELP WITH FUNDING THEIR CLEANUPS?
The first thing that a dry cleaner should do is look for all of their old insurance policies. Typically, the older the policy, the fewer restrictions they have regarding covering environmental contamination claims. Generally, we need policies that were issued before 1985. Dry cleaners should look through all old bank records, and write down the name and company of all insurance brokers they have worked with. Secondly, they should jot down a history of when they started at the location, who they purchased insurance from, what types of stores were at that location (or adjacent) and what other insurance was part of the property. They will also need to identify whether or not there was a previous dry cleaner who may have caused or contributed to contamination. Finally, we recommend not moving forward without expert advice. Often times if a dry cleaner launches into a cleanup without notifying insurance carrier(s), they will not be reimbursed for money spent on the site investigation and cleanup.

2. WHY ARE INSURANCE CLAIMS SO SIGNIFICANT IN TRIGGERING INSURANCE COVERAGE?
Making a valid claim to your carrier can mean the difference between paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for a site cleanup compared to paying a small amount for startup costs like. In most instances, a valid claim made to an insurance company will be defended. Among other things, this defense can include legal fees and site investigation activities.

3. SHOULD A DRY CLEANER PAY OUT-OF-POCKET EXPENSES FOR A CLEANUP THEN LATER TENDER A CLAIM TO RECOVER THAT LOSS OF EXPENSES?
Depending on the state, it is common for an insurance carrier to decline paying costs incurred before a claim was tendered. We have had several clients that spent money on investigations and cleanups, but were only reimbursed a fraction of their costs because the insurance carriers felt they could have managed the work differently and cheaper.

4. IF A DRY CLEANER IS WAITLISTED FOR A CLEANUP FUND, CAN HE OR SHE PROCEED WITH THE SALE OF THE BUSINESS? WILL THE VALUE OF HIS OR HER BUSINESS BE ADEQUATELY PROTECTED?
In many states that have cleanup funds, a prospective purchaser agreement (PPA) will allow a property transaction to proceed prior to a regulatory release and sign off of no further action. However, a PPA generally does not remove any contingent liabilities associated with the dry cleaning site; but instead delays the inevitable site investigation and potential cleanup. It also allows the purchaser more time to discover any additional problems that the seller’s are often responsible for.

Furthermore, the involvement of a dry cleaner in a fund does not remove any contingent environmental liabilities from the site itself, nor does it fully protect the dry cleaner from any potential actions that might arise from contamination. These issues could include diminished values to property or to other properties that might be affected by contamination coming from the site. Also, the cleanup funds do not fully protect a dry cleaner from a citizen or third party suit associated with contamination coming from his/her site.

Learn how to sell your dry cleaning business in three steps

5. HOW CAN DRY CLEANERS IN STATES WITH CLEANUP FUNDS EVALUATE WHERE THE BEST FUNDING IS FOR THEM?
Such funds may best be used for either actual cleanup efforts, known as remediation, for which insurance dollars are generally more difficult to recover, or for sites at which such insurance dollars or other responsible parties cannot be identified. Cleanup fund dollars may also provide seed money to perform any insurance archaeology or pay for other efforts that can identify where dollars for cleanup may be found. The bottom line is that a fund with enough money to pay for cleanups is a good thing. However, the problem is that most states do not have enough money in the fund to cover the necessary cleanups at this time.

6. WHAT WOULD BE AN IDEAL SITUATION FOR A DRY CLEANER WHO HAS ACCESS TO A STATE CLEAN-UP FUND AND INSURANCE COVERAGE?
An ideal situation is a fund that allows dry cleaners to pursue any and all avenues to bring dollars to the table and be available as a safety net for cleaners that do not have other avenues to pursue. Ideally the fund would be used to seed initial efforts, such as finding insurance dollars to bring to the table. We have had situations where the historical insurance paid the deductible required by the fund, the fund monies kicked in and the insurance addressed dollars above the fund limit.

See how one dry cleaner’s state funding challenges were solved by insurance archeology

7. WHY SHOULD DRY CLEANERS FEEL CONFIDENT ABOUT THEIR ABILITY TO FIND HELP WITH CLEAN-UP WHEN STATE CLEANUP FUNDS ARE NOT AVAILABLE OR ARE NOT FINANCIALLY ADEQUATE?
Our experience has been that dry cleaners, particularly dry cleaners that have been at their site since at least the early 1980’s, have an excellent opportunity to get the site investigation and remediation paid for by either their old insurance companies or other responsible parties. We have even conducted individual site investigations costing over $2,000,000 at no cost to individual dry cleaners by using liability insurance policies from the 1980’s to pay for contamination problems. After successfully working on over 200 dry cleaning sites nationwide, we have helped settle over $500,000,000 in insurance coverage claims, including individual projects in excess of $44,000,000. There’s no reason why contamination has to destroy the value of a dry cleaning business when there are viable solutions available.

To find out if historical insurance assets are an available funding avenue for you, contact us for a confidential consultation.

Dru Carlisle, Director of Drycleaner Accounts
For over 10 years, Dru has helped numerous business and property owners facing regulatory action, navigate and manage their environmental liability. Dru has vast experience in assisting dry cleaners in securing funding for their environmental cleanups through historical insurance policies. Dru is a member of numerous drycleaning associations in addition to serving on the Midwest Drycleaning and Laundry Institute (MWDLI) advisory council and on the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute Board (DLI) as an Allied Trade District Committee Member.

How to Sell Your Dry Cleaning Business in Three Steps

Posted on by Alex Miller

ENVIROFORENSICS AND EHRENREICH & ASSOCIATES DISCUSS HOW ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION ISSUES CAN IMPACT THE PROCESS OF SELLING A DRY CLEANING BUSINESS, AND HOW DRY CLEANERS CAN BEST PREPARE FOR THE TRANSACTION.

Person handing keys to a drycleaning property over to new property owners

BY: JEFF CARNAHAN & RICHARD EHRENREICH

We’ve talked several times in this featured column about what triggers an environmental cleanup, and you likely know by now that buying or selling a property or business is the most common catalyst for environmental cleanups. While businesses are put on the market routinely, there are several factors at play today that have resulted in higher than normal transaction activity amongst dry cleaners.  

THE DRY CLEANING MARKET DOWNTURN

A downturn in the dry cleaning market has been brewing for a couple of decades, but the biggest hit began during the 2008 recession created by the housing lending market. Unemployment rose and many service businesses, dry cleaners included, were heavily impacted by a tightening of discretionary spending by consumers. Profit margins were reduced across the industry as customer spending decreased, and many smaller operators were not able to weather the storm. To make matters worse, the environmental concerns related to the use of many dry cleaning solvents, mainly perchloroethene (Perc), were on the rise. Dry cleaners started being pressured by property owners, regulatory agencies, and consumers to switch to less problematic solvents. This is not as easily said than done since making the switch means buying expensive equipment, which can compound the burden of already depressed profits. Some dry cleaning business owners who had been prosperous during previous decades and who were nearing retirement age took the clue that it was time to sell and retire. Others just couldn’t make the numbers work anymore and started looking for larger operators to sell their business to without much hassle.  

Now that the national economy has been in slow recovery for around ten years, rent is on the rise. For those dry cleaning operators who don’t own their property and are still waiting for business to pick back up, this further compounds the problem. Property investors are renovating and improving many retail centers to substantiate the higher rents, and some dry cleaners are losing their leases unless they make a solvent change away from Perc. Retail property owners want to be associated with “green” dry cleaners only. 

In addition, business fashions have become more casual and hasn’t required as much dry cleaning, thereby removing the potential relief from the recovery of discretionary spending habits alongside the lower unemployment rate. While the industry is already adapting to meet the changing wants and desires of their customers, many smaller and long-term family dry cleaning businesses find themselves between a rock and a hard place.  

FACTORING IN THE POTENTIAL FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION 

Whether you are considering a sale of your dry cleaning business or considering a purchase of a dry cleaner whose owner may be implementing an exit from the business, the fear of possible environmental contamination will need to be addressed during the process.  

Selling or buying a dry cleaning business is no different than the mergers or acquisitions that you may read about involving much larger companies. When one business buys another, there are assets and liabilities that must be transferred, held, or dispersed. Buyers will want to pay a fair market rate for the positive assets of a company and try to avoid taking the liabilities as part of the deal. Liabilities typically carry with them a negative monetary value and serve to lower the purchase price.  

Environmental contamination issues are always on the liabilities list. From the seller’s perspective, they want to be able to get the full value for business and be able to walk away from the liability as well. Many dry cleaner deals fall through when the negative value of the environmental liability offsets the positive value of the business assets to the extent that the sale price is no longer motivating to the seller.   

In order to save the deal, the environmental liabilities can be separated from the sale such that the buyer only purchases the assets of the dry cleaner at fair market value under a new corporate entity and the seller retains the environmental liability. This allows the deal to go through and maximizes the value of the sale, but the seller is left holding a bag of liability with a huge potential negative price tag. Keep in mind this is not Plan A and will not provide you the most value.  

The fact that a dry cleaner’s old commercial general liability (CGL) insurance policies are viable positive assets to the business often goes without consideration. If a business is sold leaving the corporate entity intact, those old policies will transfer as well, thereby offsetting the negative value of the environmental liabilities. Similarly, if a business is sold as an asset-only acquisition into a new corporate entity, the old CGL policies will remain with the policyholder who retains the environmental liability. The fact that your historical CGL policies can play so monumentally into this process is a testament to finding and utilizing them.  

THE THREE STEPS TO SELLING YOUR BUSINESS 

There is some good news out there for dry cleaners and the garment and textile market as the industry changes and adapts to meet the changing needs of their customers. Some operators are even looking to take advantage of shrinking competition and double-down on a consolidation strategy. If you are looking to sell your business within the next couple of years, take the time to do some planning so that you can maximize your returns and avoid surprises that could kill a deal to sell your business. It’s a buyer’s market right now, so give yourself a fighting chance.  

1. ASSEMBLE A TEAM THAT WILL WORK TOGETHER EFFECTIVELY TO PROVIDE YOU WITH THE EXPERIENCE AND SPECIFIC KNOWLEDGE YOU NEED TO MAKE SURE NOTHING GETS MISSED. YOUR TEAM SHOULD CONSIST OF THE FOLLOWING SEASONED ADVISORS WHO ARE FULLY AWARE OF YOUR STATE’S REQUIREMENTS, AS NEEDED: 

  • A Business Broker and maybe a Commercial Real Estate Agent – Find a business broker that knows the dry cleaning industry. A good business broker is not just going to list your business for sale, and then collect their commission. A good business broker will spend a significant time with you to help you understand what will be attractive or repulsive to potential buyers. It’s important to understand the playing field because it’s a huge part of the process.
  • A Business Attorney – You’ll want a business attorney by your side because there will be numerous rules and laws that need to be closely adhered to during the sales process. The last thing you want to do is break the law by accident.
  • A CPA and maybe a Tax Attorney – You’ll need to understand the tax implications of gains realized from the sale and having a CPA and Tax Attorney can be there to explain these implications.
  • A Commercial SBA Banker – Chances are there will be some lending involved on the buy-side, and you’ll need to manage net proceeds from the sale on your side.
  • An Environmental Consultant – Since dry cleaners are historically known for environmental contamination, you’ll want to have an environmental consultant with chlorinated solvents experience by your side to help fulfill your investigation and/or cleanup requirements.
  • An Insurance Archeologist – You’ll want to gather all of your valuable assets as you’re preparing for this process and your old CGL insurance policies should be part of your list for asset protection.

2. DO A BUSINESS EVALUATION TO UNDERSTAND THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY BY TAKING INVENTORY OF THE COMPANY’S ASSETS AND LIABILITIES. HERE ARE A FEW QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU GET STARTED. 

  • What is your debt? 
  • What asset contracts do you have that would transfer with the business? 
  • What is your discretionary cash flow? 
  • What environmental liability might you, or do you, have? 
  • What historical insurance assets may be accessible to offset latent liabilities? 

3. DEVELOP WHAT YOUR OBJECTIVES FOR THE SALE BY ANSWERING THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS. 

  • How much money do you need to clear from the sale? 
  • What are the upfront costs of the transaction? 
  • Do you want any residual corporate entities to manage liabilities and assets? 

By taking these steps before you’re actively ready to sell your dry cleaning business, you’ll be prepared with the information you’ll need to move forward. You’ll also have the right team by your side to help you achieve your goal of selling your business for the best price. Don’t let environmental contamination stall your plans to sell your dry cleaning business.  

If you are currently going through this process or you are planning on selling your business soon, contact EnviroForensics President, Jeff Carnahan at jcarnahan@enviroforensics.com or Managing Member and Principle Consultant/ Broker of Ehrenreich & Associates, LLC, Richard Ehrenreich at richard@ehrenassoc.com as resources. We’d be more than happy to have a conversation with you about transaction preparation and environmental contamination.

As seen in Cleaner & Launderer

Headshot of Jeff CarnahanJeff Carnahan, President at EnviroForensics
Jeff Carnahan, LPG, has 20+ years of environmental consulting and remediation experience. His technical expertise focuses on the investigation and interpretation of subsurface releases of hazardous substances for the purpose of evaluating and controlling the risk and cost implications. He has focused on being a partner with the dry cleaning industry for the past decade, and he’s a frequent contributor to the national dry cleaning publication Cleaner & Launderer. He is an industry leader in understanding that environmental risk includes not only cleanup costs, but also known and unknown third-party liability.

 

Headshot Richard F. EhrenreichRichard F. Ehrenreich, F- CBI, CED, SBA is the Managing Member and Principle Consultant/Broker with Ehrenreich & Associates, LLC. Richard is a recognize national expert in the Exit Strategy and Sale of Privates Owned Businesses. Richard has served in leadership roles for multiple dry cleaning associations. He is the third generation of family businesses that serve the Dry cleaning Industry for over 60 years. Over the past 15-years, Richard has completed over 800-unit evaluations, plus various legal and financial issues.

Start Recycling in 5 Easy Steps

Posted on by Alex Miller


One of the most important things you can do as an individual to clean up the environment, is to learn how to recycle. Every November 15th, Keep America Beautiful and its 1,200 local affiliates, celebrates America Recycles Day. A day dedicated to educating the masses about recycling, and getting more Americans to commit to more sustainable lifestyles.

Why recycling is important

The average American produces 4 pounds of waste material each day (Not a typo). The amount of waste produced annually in the United States alone could circle the globe 24 times! A significant portion of that is plastic, aluminum, cardboard, paper, and glass that could be recycled instead. As the population continues to grow, and we produce more waste, we’re going to eventually run out of places to put it. Landfills also present their own set of problems. They emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and require deforestation, both of which contribute to the growing climate crisis. They can also leach hazardous runoff into the soil and groundwater, and pose a threat to surrounding populations.

Promoting sustainable values everyday 

As an environmental engineering firm, EnviroForensics creates healthier communities through remediating and removing environmental contaminants. Professionally, our team has taken the Partners Pledge as a part of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s (IDEM) Indiana Partners for Pollution Prevention program. Individually, our team members mobilize through the EnviroForensics Sustainability Council, organize regular neighborhood cleanups to pick up litter around our office, and push for more sustainable initiatives within the company. We also encourage each other to develop the sustainable habits that will lead to waste reduction. 

How to get started

Recycling is a lifestyle change that requires discipline and repetition. Here is a tried and true 5-step process that will make this easier. 

1. Start out small
Breaking old habits can be really difficult. Try to start out small by understanding what can and cannot be recycled.

Recyclable

  • Aluminum cans
  • Corrugated cardboard
  • Junk mail
  • Glass bottles

Not Recyclable

  • Plastic shopping bags
  • Foam cups or containers
  • Soiled food items
  • Broken glass

2. Purchase separate bins for recyclables at home 
Now that you know what you can recycle, you can start sorting your household waste into trash and recyclables. Make it easy on yourself and put a few recycling bins around the house. It may take a couple of tries to remind yourself to not throw your used aluminum cans in the trash, but that will change over time as you start to develop the habit.  

3. Find a public drop-off location
If you don’t have curbside service, try to find a public drop-off area. Most major cities have locations throughout the area that accept recyclables free of charge. Another option is to see if your workplace has recycling services, and if they allow employees to dispose of their recyclables there.

4. Subscribe to curbside pickup
Once recycling has become second-nature, and you feel comfortable paying a little extra, subscribe to curbside pickup service. Most private waste management companies have this as an option, and it normally only costs about $6 extra a month. To put that into perspective, a cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich at Starbuck’s can run you almost $10.  

5. Tell people how easy it is and to join the movement 
Now that you’ve developed the habit of recycling, tell your friends and family how easy it was, educate them on how they can do it too, and get them to commit to recycling. 

Take the #BeRecycled Pledge

This post is brought to you by the EnviroForensics Sustainability Council

The EnviroForensics Sustainability Council advances education through community relations and implements sustainable practices in our operations and facilities.

What are Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)?

Posted on by Jackie Cabrera

In this article, EnviroForensics’ Senior Project Manager R. Scott Powell shares his expertise on PCB contamination, remediation, and mitigation, and provides a 101 introduction to this man-made organic chemical. Scott has worked on a variety of projects with PCB contamination across the Midwest.

Do you have a PCB issue?

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are man-made organic chemicals that were manufactured from approximately 1929 through 1979 when they were banned. PCBs were included in the manufacturing process of many materials and incorporated into products during this timeframe. At that time, the health risks of PCBs were not well understood or commonly known. PCBs were desired for their non-flammable, chemically stable, high boiling point, and insulating properties. PCB containing equipment, materials, and oils were regularly managed without sufficient care causing personnel and environmental exposures.

12 chemical structures for dioxin-like PCBs. Source

In 1976, the United States (U.S.) Congress passed the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA), which included regulations on PCBs and included the ban on the manufacturing or use of PCBs and other chemicals after December 1979. Because of PCB’s extensive use in the electrical utility sector, Congress did leave a caveat in the TSCA rules that allowed for PCBs to be used in equipment in a “totally enclosed manner” such as a transformer.

After the 1979 ban on the manufacturing of PCBs and PCB containing equipment, the most common source of PCB contamination on properties was from spills and releases from old leaking transformers, capacitors, and other electrical equipment that were left in service after the ban. These were generally addressed in the 1980s through the 2000s. However, unreported historical spills are still encountered to this day due to the chemical stability of PCBs.

Other potential sources of PCBs on your property can be from old equipment or other legacy materials such as: building caulking, window glazing, waste oil tanks, hydraulic equipment, oil-based paints, fluorescent light ballasts, thermal insulation, adhesives, large compressors, asphalt roofing materials, floor finishing, pesticides, printing inks, and wood treatment chemicals.

What are the health risks of PCBs?

The most common exposure routes of PCBs are direct contact and ingestion. Direct contact is likely from areas of PCB spills or leaking PCB containing equipment. Ingestion can be from improper hand washing after touching PCB contaminated areas or the consumption of fish or game in PCB contaminated areas. PCBs are a bioaccumulating molecule that collects in organisms and biomagnifies, which means that concentrations become more concentrated as they travel up the food chain.

An example of biomagnification of PCBs in the food chain. Source

PCBs are metabolized by the monooxygenase system (human metabolism of drugs) causing toxicity and can bond to proteins, RNA, and DNA causing DNA breakdown. Known human effects include dermal lesions, respiratory problems, reproductive and developmental problems, endocrine effects (thyroid problems), liver damage, liver cancer, stomach cancer, intestinal cancer, thyroid cancer, cardiovascular problems, musculoskeletal problems, and neurological problems, to name a few.

What is the current state of PCB use and what are my exposures?

PCBs have not been included in the manufacturing of materials in the U.S. since the 1979 ban. However, legacy issues remain at many properties.

PCB containing equipment that was manufactured before 1979 was allowed to remain in operation as long as the equipment maintained the PCBs in a “totally enclosed manner”. Some of these pieces of equipment can still be found in operation today such as fluorescent light ballasts and electrical transformers.

This is a photo of a former oil-filled transformer that had leaked from an elevated pedestal in an industrial building.
This is a photo of concrete stained with PCB containing transformer dielectric oil.

Though some of the initial PCB cleanup actions concentrated on the most prominent and visible PCB oil spills, other materials have been found to be PCB sources at facilities. Building caulking that was manufactured in the 1950s through the 1970s readily contained varying concentrations of PCBs. Even after the 1979 ban, these materials were stored and sold years after the ban since they met the exceptions of being manufactured before the ban was in place. Therefore, some structures built in the 1980s were subsequently contaminated during construction with PCB caulk. The PCB in caulk has been shown to migrate into the adjacent building materials, and as the caulk weathers that can migrate down to the soil.

Until recently, a prominent practice with a lasting effect can still be found at some sites today, which consisted of spraying down gravel parking lots and drives with waste oil to keep the dust down. Many times these waste oils contained PCBs.

One of the most extensive PCB impacted media is sediments along waterways and coastal areas. PCBs applied and used on land for agricultural, commerce, or industry follow the surface drainage, sewer drain lines, and other sedimentation paths flowing along drainage pathways to water bodies. Waterways receive sediment from multiple sources and subsequently distribute contaminants along their flow paths. PCBs are hydrophobic, which means that they are heavier than water and do not degrade readily, so they tend to settle into the sediments and get picked up by bottom-feeding organisms, which allows them to follow the food chain up to the top predators.

The examples above outline some of the more common legacy issues that can be found on properties; however, there are many other potential pathways and sources for PCB exposure. Knowing the historical operations and maintenance practices on your property will provide some guidance on exposure risks.

Do I need to mitigate or remediate PCBs at my property?

Though PCB toxicity varies between the different PCB species (carbon, hydrogen, and chlorine combinations), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) looks at the total PCB concentration for regulatory risk assessment and material management. Under the self-implementing cleanup rules [40 CFR 761.61(a)], response actions for PCB impacts and wastes are based on the class of the material (such as bulk PCB remediation waste, porous surfaces, non-porous surfaces, and liquids) and the area occupancy time (such as low-occupancy or high-occupancy). Material class and occupancy should be determined by your environmental consultant following 40 CFR 761.61(a). As a rule of thumb, materials below the threshold limits can generally remain in place while materials that exceed their appropriate threshold limits may need to be mitigated or removed.

Below are some of the most common PCB impact conditions and risk mitigation approaches found today. If you have any of these situations present on your property, you should contact an appropriately trained environmental professional to address your specific site needs.

  • PCB impacts on non-porous materials like metal, glass, epoxy coatings, etc. may be able to be washed off and demonstrated through sampling to be “clean” requiring no further remedial action.
  • Porous surfaces like concrete, porcelain, brick, etc. may be able to be cleaned, but more likely than not, they will need to be sealed with a solvent resistant coating applied in two layers. When the PCB impacts of porous materials exceed 10 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg), the material may have to be removed and disposed of appropriately.
  • PCBs in the soil can remain in place with no action required when concentrations in the soil are less than 1 mg/kg, but when the concentration reaches or exceeds 1 mg/kg the soil will have to be removed or covered with an engineered control such as “clean” soil or pavement. If the PCB concentration in the soil exceeds 10 mg/kg, then it may have to be removed and appropriately disposed of.
  • PCB containing equipment can remain in service as long as it is in good condition. PCB equipment noted to be leaking will have to be replaced. Property owners disposing of PCB equipment will need to do so at an appropriately licensed landfill.

In addition, property owners need to be cautious of PCBs in sewers since the TSCA regulations have a PCB discharge limit of 3 micrograms per liter (µg/L) for liquids and 3 micrograms per kilogram (µg/kg) for solids. Though you may have a gravel parking lot with total PCB concentrations less than 1 mg/kg, requiring no additional action, the surface sediment can be transported to the storm or sanitary sewers during rain events. If this is a potential condition at your property, the sewer sediment and water will need to be sampled. If the materials within the sewer exceed the discharge limit of 3 µg/L for water or 3 µg/kg for sediment, then mitigation and/or remediation actions would be warranted to cease offsite exposure.

Site conditions, property use, and negotiations with U.S. EPA through your trusted environmental consultant will dictate mitigation and/or remedial actions appropriate for your property through a self-implemented approach, a performance-based approach, or a risk-based approach.

 
R. Scott Powell, PE, Senior Project Manager

Mr. R. Scott Powell is a Senior Project Manager with over 20 years of environmental consulting experience. Mr. Powell’s expertise covers a wide variety of projects ranging from due diligence, LUST/petroleum, hazardous material remediation, asbestos, lead-based paint, remedial actions, to remedial systems. He manages complex relationships fostering the cohesive involvement of several parties on multiple sites with co-mingled contaminant plumes requiring the implementation of remedial solutions for chlorinated solvents, hazardous materials, and petroleum hydrocarbon impacts. He has extensive experience with environmental regulatory compliance, including Clean Water Act (CWA), Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation Liability Act (CERCLA), Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA), Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA), and Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA). Mr. Powell manages negotiations with state and federal regulatory agencies, provides litigation support in matters concerning environmental issues, and acts as a third-party reviewer of work performed by others.

Insights from the 35th Annual AEHS Conference

Posted on by Alex Miller

EnviroForensics’ Senior Engineer, Collin Martin, PE, CHMM, shares some insights from the 35th Annual AEHS Foundation Soils, Sediments, Water, and Energy East Coast Conference.

We had the opportunity to attend and present at this year’s Association of Environmental Health & Sciences (AEHS) Foundation Soils, Sediments, Water, and Energy East Coast Conference in Amherst, Massachusetts. The AEHS Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1990 to facilitate communication and foster cooperation among professionals concerned with the challenge of soil, sediment, and water assessment, cleanup, and protection. They focus on helping the international community adopt and maintain environmental sound and sustainable practices.

The conference itself dealt with site investigation, remediation, risk assessment, sustainability approaches, and cutting edge technology from the environmental consulting industry. It was jam-packed with technical presentations, exhibits, and workshops from all the leading consulting and regulatory bodies in the environmental field.

Insights on the emergence of PFAS and PFOS

We sat in on a three-hour session specifically dealing with PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances). These man-made chemicals have been top of mind in the environmental field because they were so widely used between the1940s through the early 2000s, and there is evidence that exposure to them may cause adverse effects in humans like low infant birth weights, immune system impacts, and cancer. Perhaps the biggest challenge PFAS presents is their persistent nature; they don’t break down and they can accumulate over time.

The session we attended talked about new regulatory guidance, release investigation, and remedial approaches to PFAS. It was intriguing to see how new compound modeling techniques combined with standard conceptual site model evaluations are opening a new path to source area identification for the challenges we will face with this emerging contaminant.

Presenting research and key findings to our peers

We also had the opportunity to share our own research and findings with our peers in the environmental field. We presented a poster entitled “Using soil gas concentration mapping to predict soil vapor extraction radius of influence variances and optimize remedial system design.” 

Soil Vapor Extraction (SVE) is one of the most commonly used technologies for the remediation of unconsolidated soils impacted by chlorinated volatile organic compounds (cVOCs). Even with a lot of data, an SVE system can run into unforeseen problems. Our objective was to see if the key to filling some of these data gaps was through soil concentration mapping. 

Along with presenting our findings, we also pioneered a new format of scientific posters. Our poster featured a more concise, condensed presentation of our findings with a QR code to a webpage that offered a deeper dive into the data. At conferences like AEHS, there can be hundreds of posters displaying seemingly endless amounts of data. Our poster addresses the main findings of our study, gives the conference attendees an opportunity to look into the underlying data sets at their leisure, and affords them more time to see other posters.

For a deeper dive into the data, check out our webpage for “Using soil gas concentration mapping to predict soil vapor extraction radius of influence variances and optimize remedial system design”

Continuing education and affirming remediation methods

It is our objective as scientists to have curiosity and be relentless in our pursuit of verifiable truths. We attend events like this to gain new perspectives on ongoing and emerging remedial challenges and affirm our own understanding of standard remedial planning practices. In this regard, a conference like AEHS is a net positive to both EnviroForensics and the entire environmental industry.

Learn more about the AEHS Foundation. Visit aehsfoundation.org.

Collin Martin, PE, CHMM
Collin Martin is a Senior Engineer and Technical Group Manager at EnviroForensics, and has over 14 years of diversified professional experience in environmental consulting. He has a focus on remedial technology assessment, mechanical system design, and remediation implementation oversight. He has designed and implemented over 20 remediation systems using a variety of remedial technologies, including air and ozone sparging, hydraulic fracturing, soil vapor extraction, multi-phase extraction, and thermal remediation. Mr. Martin has experience in all phases of remediation planning, feasibility studies, pilot testing, and mechanical system data analysis and optimization efforts.