JWI Adds LEED to Our Sustainability and CSR
Services
JWI is increasing our Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) services by adding LEED AP accreditation for several of
our employees. LEED stands for Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design. LEED is a comprehensive
program for sustainable development that was developed by the
U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). JWI is
a member of the USGBC; selected staff of JWI are pursuing LEED
AP accreditation, which we expect to complete in May of this
year. We will keep you posted on our
services in this area.
The USGBC Member Logo is a trademark owned by the U.S.
Green Building Council and is used by permission.
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Paul
Nuti, P.E. Joins JWI
JWI is pleased to announce that Paul Nuti, P.E. has
joined our company. Paul is a registered
Professional Engineer in Civil Engineering with over 14 years
of experience in the environmental industry, with particular
expertise in solid waste
management.
At JWI, Paul is developing our solid waste and
recycling practice areas, in addition to handling our
traditional environmental services projects.
Paul brings a wealth of engineering experience to JWI,
and we look forward to discussing opportunities for him to
assist you with your projects.
FULL BIO
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Johnson Wright, Inc.
3687 Mt. Diablo Blvd.
Suite 330
Lafayette, CA
(925) 403-6200
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Managing Regulatory Agency
Oversight Costs
A
cost element for contaminated sites that is often
overlooked or not challenged by review is the regulatory
oversight cost. Depending on several
factors such as the complexity of the site, the
financial status of the potentially responsible parties
(PRPs), and the agency's scope of oversight, the
regulatory oversight costs can be as much as 20% of the
total site investigation and remediation
costs. Given that regulatory agencies
will be involved with a site cleanup from start to
finish, these costs can be significant.
For example, at Superfund sites where both the
United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA)
and state regulators are overseeing the activities of
the PRPs, these costs can easily reach
$500,000.
FULL
ARTICLE >>
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USEPA Risk Assessments for
Nanomaterials
Nanotechnology refers broadly to the science of
fabricating chemical devices that are 100  nanometers
or smaller. By way of illustration, a
sheet of paper is approximately 100,000 nanometers
thick, or 1,000 times the size of the largest
nanomaterial. The United States
Environmental Protection Agency and the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences are working
on the development of methods to quickly screen
nanomaterials to identify hazards that warrant further
scrutiny. Nanoscience and nanotechnology are relatively
new, but already nanoparticles made from C60
(Buckminster fullerenes or "buckyballs") are finding
potential applications in consumer products ranging from
car lubricants to cosmetics and
medicines.
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New
Pollutants or Old?
Pharmaceuticals in Drinking
Water
A recent news series by the
Associated Press (AP) reported the discovery of
pharmaceuticals in  municipal drinking
water. The pharmaceuticals included
antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and
hormones. The reported concentrations
of these pharmaceuticals in municipal drinking water
were measured in quantities of parts per billion or
parts per trillion, which are far below the levels of a
medical dose. Although
pharmaceuticals have been previously detected in our
waterways, new advanced technologies have been developed
that can detect concentrations measured at the levels of
parts per billion or parts per
trillion.
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New ASTM Standard for Vapor
Intrusion
An international standards organization
has approved a new standard for assessment of toxic
vapor intrusion into buildings. ASTM
International approved the new standard, E - 2600, Practice
for Assessment of Vapor Intrusion into Structures on
Property Involved in Real Estate Transactions, which
provides guidance for vapor intrusion testing. According to
ASTM the specific intent of the standard is to establish
a methodology to determine whether or not there is a
reasonable probability that vapor intrusion could
present an environmental risk and liability. Additionally,
for commercial real estate transactions the vapor
intrusion investigation could be used independently or
in conjunction with the existing ASTM standard for
conducting Phase I Environmental Site
Assessments.
The vapor
intrusion evaluation process in the new ASTM standard
consists of four tiers. The first two (Tier 1/Tier 2)
are "screening tiers" which are used to assess the
potential for a vapor intrusion concern to exist, so
that properties with a low risk can be screened out
quickly and inexpensively. The third tier provides for
more site-specific and comprehensive investigations if
the potential for vapor intrusion cannot reasonably be
eliminated at the Tier 1/Tier 2 levels. Tier 4 addresses
vapor intrusion mitigation alternatives. The process
described in the ASTM standard is designed to complement
existing Federal and state vapor intrusion policies or
guidance.
ASTM is a voluntary standards development
organization of over 30,000 technical experts
representing producers, users, consumers, government and
academia from over 120 countries. ASTM is not a
regulatory or governmental organization. As such
the standards developed by ASTM are not regulatory
standards, but are often incorporated into the standard
of practice in the environmental industry.
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Changes in California
Environmental Cleanup
Procedures
In California, the Department of Toxic Substances
Control (DTSC) is one of the agencies that is
responsible for direction and oversight of environmental
cleanup actions. At a recent industry conference,
the Chief of the Site Cleanup Unit for DTSC described
some of the changes in the way that DTSC plans to
oversee cleanup of contaminated sites. DTSC's Site
Cleanup Program, which is responsible for oversight of
the investigation and remediation of hundreds of
contaminated sites in California, is changing their
focus to accelerating cleanup by streamlining document
review, developing presumptive remedy guidance documents
to eliminate the Feasibility Study (FS) step, and
holding initial project scoping meetings to reduce
document review and negotiation time during
cleanup. Vapor intrusion continues to be one of
the biggest concerns raised by DTSC from a public health
protection perspective. DTSC is in the process of
revising its guidance document on vapor intrusion to
address concerns with data quality and sample collection
methodologies. Overall, DTSC's Site Cleanup Unit
is making a concerted effort to develop a more uniform
and consistent oversight approach among various regional
offices/branches in California. There is also a
big push to make site documents available via the
internet. Technical and regulatory documents for
contaminated sites that are regulated by DTSC can be
found at http://www.envirostor.dtsc.ca.gov/public/.
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