Useful News, Tips and Updates
Utah DEQ UST Testing Deadline
The new State UST rules went into effect on January 1, 2017. These rules require annual testing or inspection of automatic tank gauges (ATGs). In addition, overfill prevention devices, spill buckets, and containment sumps used for piping interstitial leak detection must be tested or inspected every three years. The initial testing or inspection of these components must be completed by October 13, 2018 for the UST to remain in compliance. Do not wait to have this work done because, in the State of Utah:
· There are approximately 4,000 tanks,
· Each tank may need 3-4 components inspected or tested (over 12,000 components) in the next 18 months.
A REMINDER FOR ALL UTAH UST OWNERS
New State of Utah UST rules went into effect on January 1, 2017. Required inspections, installation, testing, and repair of UST equipment must be completed by October 13, 2018. What do the new rules say? Check them out at:https://documents.deq.utah.gov/environmental-response-and-remediation/ust-lust/branch/2017-summer-utah-tank-news.pdf .
Call 801 536-4100 with any questions.
We encourage you to initiate any required work now; DON’T WAIT or you could be late.
Managing Your Environmental Consultant
How to Select an Environmental Consultant
How to Choose the Right, Best Environmental Consultant
Consultants, some but not all, will sometimes employ a variety of tactics to enhance their revenue stream and obtain additional work when it enures to their benefit. Sometimes they will do as little as possible with the intent of generating a new contract, create work plans with agencies without your review, deploy as many resources from their company as possible, low-ball their bids to gain change orders later, send out low payed, under-qualified personnel, ignore your business model and/or financial concerns, cave in to regulatory demands on a whim then a whimper, and convert any little issue into a project. A large national bank recently showed us what happens to internal ethics when the managers, empowered by their magic spreadsheets, start pushing too hard for sales and accounts.
First, there are consultants out there who will do the bare minimum under a scope of work or required per State guidelines; and then recommend additional work they could have taken care of in the first place with little effort and cost. We have taken over many projects when our competitors did the bare bones minimum. For example, a competitor collected the requisite four (4) samples under a tank and then recommended remediation when they could have ended the whole fiasco with one more sample just 12 inches away from their last sample! We got the remediation. Make sure your consultant goes the extra mile! We do!
And when budgets are tight for whatever reason, either fiscal budgeting does not cover an unforeseen event or you are on the last pennies of retirement, it is frustrating. Either way, hopefully you have someone that will step up to the plate and help. We have done both. One evening I stayed up til midnight hand drilling perforations into PVC casing to make a soil vapor extraction well casing, among other things, for a retired army engineer 2-tour veteran of the Philippines in World War II. Someone buried a large fiberglass gas tank in the driveway of the home he had purchased years ago and neighbors started complaining of fumes. I told him not to move a muscle til I got over to his place after hearing the astronomical quotes he was getting. All issues were resolved.
Sometimes consultants will issue reports without your review of the recommendations. While good science stands on its own merits, you always have to right to discuss recommendations before they go to a regulator or agency. It is very manipulative to force you to face a scope of work that the agency and consultant put together without your input. It is just as manipulative for a consultant to gain more work because they did not educate you. We always make sure we are on the same page.
Consultants love to "turnkey" projects; but you may have personnel, equipment, supplies, computers, offices, or other resources that you can bring to bear on a project to reduce costs. As an owner/operator you have the right to do more work than you may believe. We always work with the responsible party to see what they can or want to do on the project.
Consultants love change orders. The best of the best rarely need or request them. Sometimes mother earth does not want to cooperate and sometimes it is inevitable. We recently won a bid because we pointed out several pitfalls facing the client on a forthcoming land issue and demolition. Apparently we were the HIGH bidder because we "saw" what was coming; and yet we still got the work. The low bid ended up scaring the client because they woefully underestimated tree removal tonnage and we knew it. Then we confirmed it, without charge, by running an arboreal model showing the tonnage was very significant.
Bigger companies have overhead and personnel they have to keep busy. What that means is that they will send "beginner" personnel to your site with a "bugs, bunnies, and trees" diploma or certification from somewhere and pay them 15 bucks an hour and bill you 75 to 150 or more bucks an hour depending on which market you are in. And then try to convince you the company provides oversight or something. It is serious profit margin for these bigger companies like a 32oz soda at the gas station yet just as healthy for your project! We always send seasoned professionals to your site with even more advanced professionals joined at their hip. Usually we send folks with graduate degrees and more than a decade of experience.
Regardless, few have any business experience. At Hess Environmental, we are successful business men and women with extensive business experience. We conduct project work above industry standards, with an eye to your bottom line instinctively built into the process.
We have been doing this for decades and we are your advocate. We have no problem negotiating with and working with regulatory agencies on your behalf. It is easy profit margin for many companies to say, "Oh well. The agency said so." If it is scientifically justifiable, we will confront the agency with the salient facts of the matter.
And guess what? We do not charge for phone calls and emails and meetings in between projects. Sometimes we recover those costs on a pending project; and sometimes we get the client out of having to do any work when we help get the project or the environmental aspect of a project eliminated. This happened out west recently when a client thought they had an oil spill to clean up. After looking at aerial photos, assessing well and pump locations, concrete foundations, we determined that it was a minor hydraulic oil drip around a pump. Hardly a reason to mobilize! The project was canceled before it was awarded and the tenant's maintenance personnel took care of it.
And yes honesty and integrity to the core is key. We recently were asked to look at a reclamation project that could have easily exceeded 6 to 7 digits and we could have easily won this project given our good long standing of trust with this particular client. We requested the archived files that went back decades which had to be "excavated" out of the warehouse. No one at the company knew what was in those boxes. It took us hours to sort through several boxes of decades old documents; four hours to be exact. We found it. One letter, one page long at least 20 years old wherein we found that the agency with jurisdiction at the time had released the company from any further action regarding the project. That same year, this agency actually confirmed their decision in a follow up letter, which was also found deep in the four boxes of documents. All for 4 hours of consulting, we saved our client a cool $500,000.00 to $1,000,000.00 that we could have easily turned into a project and justified it.
At the end of the day, when you cut that check, make sure it is with a smile on your face when you say, "Phew, these guys are worth their weight in gold!"
ASTM E1527-13 Standard Update:
The ASTM standard for the Real Estate Phase I Environmental Assessment has changed.
Make sure you are aware of the requirements for environmental professionals under the new ASTM Standard E 1527-13.
The ASTM Standard for Phase I Environmental Site Assessments was updated in order to strengthen and clarify areas of weakness and ambiguity in the standard. The new version of the Phase I ESA standard, ASTM E1527-13, fulfills requirements of the All Appropriate Inquiry (AAI) rules according to the US EPA.
The Phase I Environmental Site Assessment scope of work remained largely the same as before and many of the revisions to the ASTM E1527 standard clarify technically and scientifically ambiguous language. For example, a new category of Recognized Environmental Condition (REC) has been implemented: the Controlled Recognized Environmental Condition (CREC), which would apply to risk-based closures of contaminated sites. This new term requires a new, more in depth discussion of findings and conclusions in the Phase I ESA Report because "risk-based" site closures introduce a world of science unfamiliar to most users of the Real Estate Phase I Environmental Report and perhaps many consultants. This impacts the report user's understanding and management of environmental risk for their businesses, organizations or entities. To be certain, this aspect of environmental science with require some education of the industry.
The Controlled Recognized Environmental Condition: CREC
When conducting the Phase I, consultants look for the site closure letter which usually indicates no further action by the environmental agency with jurisdiction over the site. Once the consultant has the letter or can reference the letter in the report, she or he can move on to complete the report. The problem is, or has been, the site can still be contaminated regardless of the "no further action letter." Your read that correctly. You might be purchasing or otherwise trying to close a financial transaction on an environmentally impacted site.
Sites can be closed which remain contaminated based on their potential to impact human health and/or the environment. For example, a site which is impacting the drinking water supply of a small town might not receive a closure letter until it meets the most stringent possible clean up standards. The same site, however, might receive the proverbial "clean site closure letter" if it only contaminated non-potable ground water and the contamination does not exhibit the ability or future ability to diminish human health. There may or may not be a recorded restricted engineering or land use limitation encumbrance attached to the property.
An example of a CREC in the State of Utah has to do with the hazardous metal Arsenic. Arsenic occurs naturally in the State of Utah in both soils and ground water. Hess Environmental commonly encounters naturally occurring or background Arsenic levels over 20 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) in soils. The designated clean-up level is under 10 mg/kg in many States and the US EPA target concentrations can be much lower and yet, we are able to obtain clean closure letters or letters of no further action.
Once you understand you are buying a contaminated site, you may find yourself wondering "What does this all mean?" As Shakespeare's Hamlet said, "Aye, there is the rub." Regardless of the consultants recommendations or the depth to which the consultant researched and explained the problem, if it is addressed at all, you will have to ultimately decide how much risk management you or your client wants to purchase.
Several questions may come to your mind such as:
Vapor Migration Risk
ASTME1527-13 also includes a “slightly” better approach to assessing Vapor Migration Risk originating from adjacent properties such as leaking gas stations and landfills which includes a stronger imperative for conducting regulatory file reviews on such sites. Many environmental professionals already perform this research during the Phase I ESA when necessary based on the risk level of the adjoining property. Overall, we anticipate the additional items in the new standard will impact the cost and timing of the Phase I Report.
"ASTM revised the definition of “migrate/migration” to specifically include vapor migrations.
This revision clarifies that releases of contaminants that migrate via vapor in the subsurface or in soils are recognized environmental concerns. Prospective property owners will have the added assurance that releases that migrate onto a subject property via a vapor pathway will be identified as recognized environmental conditions."
ASTM 1527- 13 now sets the standard for the industry best practice. The additional requirements of ASTM 1527-13 should help Environmental Professionals provide greater clarity and environmental risk management for clients.
Contact us anytime at (801) 361-9296 or mailto:hess.remedy@gmail.com for additional guidance
The new State UST rules went into effect on January 1, 2017. These rules require annual testing or inspection of automatic tank gauges (ATGs). In addition, overfill prevention devices, spill buckets, and containment sumps used for piping interstitial leak detection must be tested or inspected every three years. The initial testing or inspection of these components must be completed by October 13, 2018 for the UST to remain in compliance. Do not wait to have this work done because, in the State of Utah:
· There are approximately 4,000 tanks,
· Each tank may need 3-4 components inspected or tested (over 12,000 components) in the next 18 months.
A REMINDER FOR ALL UTAH UST OWNERS
New State of Utah UST rules went into effect on January 1, 2017. Required inspections, installation, testing, and repair of UST equipment must be completed by October 13, 2018. What do the new rules say? Check them out at:https://documents.deq.utah.gov/environmental-response-and-remediation/ust-lust/branch/2017-summer-utah-tank-news.pdf .
Call 801 536-4100 with any questions.
We encourage you to initiate any required work now; DON’T WAIT or you could be late.
Managing Your Environmental Consultant
How to Select an Environmental Consultant
How to Choose the Right, Best Environmental Consultant
Consultants, some but not all, will sometimes employ a variety of tactics to enhance their revenue stream and obtain additional work when it enures to their benefit. Sometimes they will do as little as possible with the intent of generating a new contract, create work plans with agencies without your review, deploy as many resources from their company as possible, low-ball their bids to gain change orders later, send out low payed, under-qualified personnel, ignore your business model and/or financial concerns, cave in to regulatory demands on a whim then a whimper, and convert any little issue into a project. A large national bank recently showed us what happens to internal ethics when the managers, empowered by their magic spreadsheets, start pushing too hard for sales and accounts.
First, there are consultants out there who will do the bare minimum under a scope of work or required per State guidelines; and then recommend additional work they could have taken care of in the first place with little effort and cost. We have taken over many projects when our competitors did the bare bones minimum. For example, a competitor collected the requisite four (4) samples under a tank and then recommended remediation when they could have ended the whole fiasco with one more sample just 12 inches away from their last sample! We got the remediation. Make sure your consultant goes the extra mile! We do!
And when budgets are tight for whatever reason, either fiscal budgeting does not cover an unforeseen event or you are on the last pennies of retirement, it is frustrating. Either way, hopefully you have someone that will step up to the plate and help. We have done both. One evening I stayed up til midnight hand drilling perforations into PVC casing to make a soil vapor extraction well casing, among other things, for a retired army engineer 2-tour veteran of the Philippines in World War II. Someone buried a large fiberglass gas tank in the driveway of the home he had purchased years ago and neighbors started complaining of fumes. I told him not to move a muscle til I got over to his place after hearing the astronomical quotes he was getting. All issues were resolved.
Sometimes consultants will issue reports without your review of the recommendations. While good science stands on its own merits, you always have to right to discuss recommendations before they go to a regulator or agency. It is very manipulative to force you to face a scope of work that the agency and consultant put together without your input. It is just as manipulative for a consultant to gain more work because they did not educate you. We always make sure we are on the same page.
Consultants love to "turnkey" projects; but you may have personnel, equipment, supplies, computers, offices, or other resources that you can bring to bear on a project to reduce costs. As an owner/operator you have the right to do more work than you may believe. We always work with the responsible party to see what they can or want to do on the project.
Consultants love change orders. The best of the best rarely need or request them. Sometimes mother earth does not want to cooperate and sometimes it is inevitable. We recently won a bid because we pointed out several pitfalls facing the client on a forthcoming land issue and demolition. Apparently we were the HIGH bidder because we "saw" what was coming; and yet we still got the work. The low bid ended up scaring the client because they woefully underestimated tree removal tonnage and we knew it. Then we confirmed it, without charge, by running an arboreal model showing the tonnage was very significant.
Bigger companies have overhead and personnel they have to keep busy. What that means is that they will send "beginner" personnel to your site with a "bugs, bunnies, and trees" diploma or certification from somewhere and pay them 15 bucks an hour and bill you 75 to 150 or more bucks an hour depending on which market you are in. And then try to convince you the company provides oversight or something. It is serious profit margin for these bigger companies like a 32oz soda at the gas station yet just as healthy for your project! We always send seasoned professionals to your site with even more advanced professionals joined at their hip. Usually we send folks with graduate degrees and more than a decade of experience.
Regardless, few have any business experience. At Hess Environmental, we are successful business men and women with extensive business experience. We conduct project work above industry standards, with an eye to your bottom line instinctively built into the process.
We have been doing this for decades and we are your advocate. We have no problem negotiating with and working with regulatory agencies on your behalf. It is easy profit margin for many companies to say, "Oh well. The agency said so." If it is scientifically justifiable, we will confront the agency with the salient facts of the matter.
And guess what? We do not charge for phone calls and emails and meetings in between projects. Sometimes we recover those costs on a pending project; and sometimes we get the client out of having to do any work when we help get the project or the environmental aspect of a project eliminated. This happened out west recently when a client thought they had an oil spill to clean up. After looking at aerial photos, assessing well and pump locations, concrete foundations, we determined that it was a minor hydraulic oil drip around a pump. Hardly a reason to mobilize! The project was canceled before it was awarded and the tenant's maintenance personnel took care of it.
And yes honesty and integrity to the core is key. We recently were asked to look at a reclamation project that could have easily exceeded 6 to 7 digits and we could have easily won this project given our good long standing of trust with this particular client. We requested the archived files that went back decades which had to be "excavated" out of the warehouse. No one at the company knew what was in those boxes. It took us hours to sort through several boxes of decades old documents; four hours to be exact. We found it. One letter, one page long at least 20 years old wherein we found that the agency with jurisdiction at the time had released the company from any further action regarding the project. That same year, this agency actually confirmed their decision in a follow up letter, which was also found deep in the four boxes of documents. All for 4 hours of consulting, we saved our client a cool $500,000.00 to $1,000,000.00 that we could have easily turned into a project and justified it.
At the end of the day, when you cut that check, make sure it is with a smile on your face when you say, "Phew, these guys are worth their weight in gold!"
ASTM E1527-13 Standard Update:
The ASTM standard for the Real Estate Phase I Environmental Assessment has changed.
Make sure you are aware of the requirements for environmental professionals under the new ASTM Standard E 1527-13.
The ASTM Standard for Phase I Environmental Site Assessments was updated in order to strengthen and clarify areas of weakness and ambiguity in the standard. The new version of the Phase I ESA standard, ASTM E1527-13, fulfills requirements of the All Appropriate Inquiry (AAI) rules according to the US EPA.
The Phase I Environmental Site Assessment scope of work remained largely the same as before and many of the revisions to the ASTM E1527 standard clarify technically and scientifically ambiguous language. For example, a new category of Recognized Environmental Condition (REC) has been implemented: the Controlled Recognized Environmental Condition (CREC), which would apply to risk-based closures of contaminated sites. This new term requires a new, more in depth discussion of findings and conclusions in the Phase I ESA Report because "risk-based" site closures introduce a world of science unfamiliar to most users of the Real Estate Phase I Environmental Report and perhaps many consultants. This impacts the report user's understanding and management of environmental risk for their businesses, organizations or entities. To be certain, this aspect of environmental science with require some education of the industry.
The Controlled Recognized Environmental Condition: CREC
When conducting the Phase I, consultants look for the site closure letter which usually indicates no further action by the environmental agency with jurisdiction over the site. Once the consultant has the letter or can reference the letter in the report, she or he can move on to complete the report. The problem is, or has been, the site can still be contaminated regardless of the "no further action letter." Your read that correctly. You might be purchasing or otherwise trying to close a financial transaction on an environmentally impacted site.
Sites can be closed which remain contaminated based on their potential to impact human health and/or the environment. For example, a site which is impacting the drinking water supply of a small town might not receive a closure letter until it meets the most stringent possible clean up standards. The same site, however, might receive the proverbial "clean site closure letter" if it only contaminated non-potable ground water and the contamination does not exhibit the ability or future ability to diminish human health. There may or may not be a recorded restricted engineering or land use limitation encumbrance attached to the property.
An example of a CREC in the State of Utah has to do with the hazardous metal Arsenic. Arsenic occurs naturally in the State of Utah in both soils and ground water. Hess Environmental commonly encounters naturally occurring or background Arsenic levels over 20 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) in soils. The designated clean-up level is under 10 mg/kg in many States and the US EPA target concentrations can be much lower and yet, we are able to obtain clean closure letters or letters of no further action.
Once you understand you are buying a contaminated site, you may find yourself wondering "What does this all mean?" As Shakespeare's Hamlet said, "Aye, there is the rub." Regardless of the consultants recommendations or the depth to which the consultant researched and explained the problem, if it is addressed at all, you will have to ultimately decide how much risk management you or your client wants to purchase.
Several questions may come to your mind such as:
- Did my consultant even identify any risk based closures?
- Just how bad is it? How much contamination is there?
- What exactly is this chemical she or he is talking about?
- Was the original study done correctly?
- Were the other neighbors impacted?
- What if I want to sell in the future? What will be the future "psychological contamination?"
- Should I get a second opinion?
- Was there any litigation attached to the property? Anything pending?
- Was it in the air? Soil? Ground Water?
- On what basis was remediation terminated anyway? Why did they give it a clean closure letter?
- Does my organization only tolerate pristine properties? What is our risk tolerance?
- Should I take out environmental insurance?
- Should I perform additional studies? Many studies miss other areas of contamination.
Vapor Migration Risk
ASTME1527-13 also includes a “slightly” better approach to assessing Vapor Migration Risk originating from adjacent properties such as leaking gas stations and landfills which includes a stronger imperative for conducting regulatory file reviews on such sites. Many environmental professionals already perform this research during the Phase I ESA when necessary based on the risk level of the adjoining property. Overall, we anticipate the additional items in the new standard will impact the cost and timing of the Phase I Report.
"ASTM revised the definition of “migrate/migration” to specifically include vapor migrations.
This revision clarifies that releases of contaminants that migrate via vapor in the subsurface or in soils are recognized environmental concerns. Prospective property owners will have the added assurance that releases that migrate onto a subject property via a vapor pathway will be identified as recognized environmental conditions."
ASTM 1527- 13 now sets the standard for the industry best practice. The additional requirements of ASTM 1527-13 should help Environmental Professionals provide greater clarity and environmental risk management for clients.
Contact us anytime at (801) 361-9296 or mailto:hess.remedy@gmail.com for additional guidance
- Real Estate Professionals: Don't hesitate to ask for the name and credentials of the Professional assigned to perform the Phase I Assessment of the property. Do not settle for just the name of the company doing the Phase I.