Environmental Consulting Services
Environmental consulting is essential in many engineering sectors and Achievement Engineering Corp. offers many different environmental consulting services. These services are Phase I ESA, Phase II ESA, hazard closure, industrial hygiene, dust mitigation plan, asbestos dust mitigation plan, Health, and Safety Plan (EHASP). Environmental consulting is important for the protection of human beings and our natural world. There are dire consequences to the mishandling of our environment. Therefore there are many regulations and testing put into place to avoid environmental and human catastrophes.
Phase I ESA is done by an environmental professional to look into all laws and regulations surrounding your property or industry. It is an important preventive step in avoiding ecological risks to the Earth and humans. Phase II ESA is needed if Phase I ESA results in a report showing contamination. Phase II ESA takes a more in-‐ depth look into that contamination and takes all different types of environmental samples. Hazard closure is the safe disposal, transport, or reuse of hazardous material that has been stored in facilities that are being closed. Industrial hygiene is all about protecting humans in their workplaces, their safety, and anticipating and controlling scenarios that could cause illness or injury. Dust mitigation plans are an environmental consulting service that takes care of the amount of dust created at a job site. It is the mitigation of dust entering the atmosphere, which can be harmful to human health. The asbestos dust mitigation plan is a critical environmental service to identify dust migration pathways and monitor that this dust does not have asbestos. Finally, the Health and Safety Plan (EHASP) is the standard for Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency response. The factors included in the Health and Safety Plan (EHASP) are:
- Project safety and authority.
- Medical surveillance.
- Safety/orientation training.
- Hazard assessment.
- Air monitoring control.
- General project safety requirements.
- Personal protective equipment requirements.
- Denomination/contamination reduction purposes.
- Emergency response procedures.
There are many other sectors to the environmental consulting world, including sampling and reporting with environmental contamination.
Environmental Sampling
Environmental sampling is important for looking into the science as to why certain things harm the environment and humans and to what extent. An environmental sampling includes but is not limited to microbial sampling, air sampling, water sampling, and environmental surface sampling. Microbial sampling is through any outbreak and finding the root cause of the outbreak plus laboratory analysis. Air sampling must be done by comparing results with air sampling results found in other controlled situations, areas, conditions, or time periods. Water sampling is done to detect waterborne pathogens or other contamination. For water quality measurement, you can use aerobic, heterotrophic plate counts, and membrane filtration. Environmental surface sampling is for finding the sources of environmental contamination. The reason for all of this environmental sampling is to keep humans and the environment safe and healthy and to follow federal and state guidelines that are set for environmental regulation and compliance.
Environmental Report
Environmental reporting can be a long, slow, and complicated process. It involves many different forms to get accurate reporting on the hazards present. Some of the forms needed to do environmental reporting are Tier II, Form R, CFATS (DHS), and State-‐Specific Regulations. Tier II is a federal form to inform the government and the general public of an organization’s hazardous chemical inventory. The Form R must be used for each chemical used by your organization for every chemical and the notable adverse human health effects or negative effects on the natural environment. CFATS (DHS) is for regulation of storage of chemicals in protection from terrorist attacks. State-‐Specific Regulations is paying attention to the state-‐ specific guidelines that your state has for environmental regulation and protection.
Contamination Sampling and Testing
Environmental contaminants are left in the environment left there deliberately or accidentally left behind by some type of industry. We must look out for the primary pollutants when contamination sampling: radiological, pathogens, chemicals, and biotoxins. Radiological can be spread in the environment from nuclear power plants for energy or the making of nuclear weapons and improper disposal of the nuclear waste. Radiological nuclear waste in the environment is hazardous and can remain dangerous for thousands of years. Having nuclear waste in the environment can be deadly and cause congenital disabilities in humans and other animals. Pathogens in the environment have the obvious risk of causing disease in humans and other animals. They can enter our bodies through the air, surfaces, and water we drink. Chemicals in the environment are dangerous for ecological structures and humans that use resources impacted by chemicals. Biotoxins are other contaminations that enter the environment, such as lead and mercury. These types of toxins can easily make their way into the food system. Biological magnification describes this process. For example, mercury is in the ocean and becomes absorbed into plankton. Slightly larger fish eat these plankton, and even larger fish eat those slightly larger fish all the way up to a large game fish such as tuna. This tuna then has harmful levels of mercury in its tissues and body from consuming all of these smaller fish containing mercury. A sampling of this would be testing the mercury levels throughout the food chain.
Contamination Report
We report contamination in the environment through different hotlines for emergencies and threatening situations, such as oil and chemical spills, biological discharges, and radiation emergencies. The contact is the National Response Center 1-‐800-‐424-‐8802. Also, in certain circumstances, you must report the release of hazardous substances to local/state officials. There also must be a report made of dumping happening in international waters. There are also many protocols having to do with the reporting and complaints of lead-‐based paints. All contamination reporting is vital for keeping humans and the environment safe, and all contamination reports must be made as soon as possible to avoid further environmental harm.
Wrapping up, there are many different sectors relating to environmental consulting and proper sampling, reporting and testing that can keep the environment safe. If contamination gets into the environment there can be devastating effects and it must be reported and cared for right away.
Phase I ESA
Risks can be costly is dealing with hazardous waste contamination discovered on your property. Performing an environmental site assessment prior to acquiring a property can minimize that risk.
It involves a review of records, a site inspection, and interviews with owners, occupants, neighbors and local government officials. While sampling and laboratory analysis are not always included in this phase, they should still be conducted by an environmental professional trained in the appropriate standards.
The review of government records and interviews may take a lot of time. To ensure a quality assessment, allow sufficient time for the process. We will make sure provide a report in the least possible time using trained professionals.
Phase II ESA
AEC can help you proceed with Phase II if your findings on Phase I suggests the chance of contamination.
Depending on the results of the Phase I, Phase II work could include surface and sub-surface soil analysis, groundwater analysis, installing monitoring wells, indoor air sampling, mold sampling, asbestos sampling, lead sampling etc. The need for any sampling or testing in Phase II Environmental Site Assessments is based purely on the findings of the Phase I.
Hazard Closure
The goal of closure oversight is to ensure that the hazardous materials in facilities undergoing closure are transported, disposed of, or reused in a matter which eliminates the need for further maintenance and any threat to public health and safety or the environment.
This is accomplished by a Hazardous Materials Specialist evaluating all submitted closure documents, determining if the facility is subject to Closure oversight, conducting inspections, and guiding businesses throughout the entire process by providing information on permits, fees, and other requirements.
Industrial Hygiene
Industrial hygiene is the science of anticipating, recognizing, evaluating, and controlling workplace conditions that may cause workers’ injury or illness.
Our industrial hygienists use environmental monitoring and analytical methods to detect the extent of worker exposure and employ engineering, work practice controls, and other methods to control potential health hazards.
Dust Mitigation Plan
Most construction projects in high density urban areas must prepare a Dust Mitigation Plan when operating equipment at the job site that is capable of causing or permitting emission of dust into the atmosphere during work progress. This plan provide precautionary measures to be taken based on the type and level of the dust measurement. AEC can provide dust mitigation plan specifically for each project and also provide monitoring devices during construction with the state-of-the-art equipment.
Asbestos Dust Mitigation Plan
This plan is required for grading projects located in Naturally Occurring Asbestos (NOA) designated areas to eliminate origins of dust from the site, identifying potential dust migration pathways, monitoring dust produced by site activities and implementing corrective actions as the need arises. AEC provides Asbestos Dust Mitigation Plan and along with monitoring during grading which includes sampling and testing the produced dust for finding any asbestos.
Site Characterization Plan
Under Construction
Health and Safety Plan (EHASP)
Environmental, Health and Safety Plan is required per the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal-OSHA) standard for Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (Title 8 CCR, GISO 5192) for any construction activity. This plan includes:
- Project Safety and Authority
- Medical Surveillance
- Safety/Orientation Training
- Hazard Assessment
- Air Monitoring Control
- General Project Safety Requirements
- Personal Protective Equipment Requirements
- Decontamination/Contamination Reduction Procedures
- Emergency Response Procedures