Category: Company News

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind – The environmental consulting experts at Indianapolis-based EnviroForensics®, announced that they are adding even more experience and knowledge to their already established and nationally respected vapor intrusion (VI) mitigation service team. The industry-leading environmental consulting firm has acquired Vapor Protection Services® (VPS), a VI mitigation company, in a move that now allows them to provide turn-key, premier VI services through a wholly owned subsidiary.

VPS is a highly acclaimed and recommended, healthy indoor air company, specializing in the design and implementation of mitigation systems for volatile organic compounds, radon and other contaminants that, through a vapor intrusion pathway, can present a threat to human health. For years, VPS, has provided its certified mitigation solutions to environmental consultants, businesses, and building owners throughout the region. By bringing the VPS certified mitigation experts in to work side-by-side with their team, EnviroForensics’ respected VI consultants and engineers will be able to more efficiently and responsively serve their clients. “The vapor intrusion mitigation approaches designed and installed by VPS have always been exactly what we’ve needed for our sites with VI concerns. When dealing with VI at hazardous waste sites like we do, a regular radon-style system just isn’t good enough, and VPS has understood that. I am extremely excited to have that expertise on our team”, says Megan Hamilton, Director of Vapor Intrusion and Risk Assessment at EnviroForensics.

This is the latest development in what has been a banner year for EnviroForensics®. The environmental consultant marked its 20^th anniversary, created more than a dozen new positions, and posted record revenues in 2016. The company also celebrated the grand opening of a brand new headquarter building; a refurbished industrial structure boasting 23,000 square-feet of open-concept work space, state-of-the-art field training labs, and unique works of art from some of the Indiana’s most beloved artists.

“We are thrilled to welcome VPS to the EnviroForensics family,” said Nancy Shields, EnviroForensics President. “We value the longstanding success and expertise of VPS and are committed to providing their team of VI Mitigation specialists the resources they need to continue their success. This investment also illustrates our confidence in the continuing future needs for appropriately designed and installed VI mitigation systems. Both existing and new clients will see the benefits of our subsidiaries’ efforts as they continue to make indoor air healthier for everyone.”

With the acquisition of VPS, EnviroForensics® executives have their eyes forward to another year of improved customer service and growth. The addition of VPS’ certified mitigation services solidifies EnviroForensics’® commitment to providing top-notch services and solutions to its clients, and increases the probability of gaining a foothold in new markets.

We are always looking for ways to better serve our clients when it comes to remediation design. After all, they rely on our expertise and command of chlorinated solvents to guide them through what could potentially be a very challenging chapter in their lives. Continually developing our abilities to think critically and make sound, confident decisions can go a long way towards choosing the best course of action.  Enter the EnviroForensics Colloquium series; a series of bi-weekly discussions held among our staff to facilitate discussion and learning regarding the topic for that session.

The most recent discussion focused on remediation design, and more specifically, how our teams go about choosing one remedial technology over the other. It’s a significant subject, since the client’s wishes are heavily considered during this process.

Ranking Remediation Design Approaches

Our technical staff utilize screening matrices that help the tech team rank the remedial approaches to a given project Site. Geological conditions are typically the first elements to be taken into account. Understanding the nature of the soil and how layers of rock or sediment stack up provides the starting point in determining the technology needed to reduce contaminant concentrations. There are some remedial applications that don’t have the effectiveness in certain types of soil or geological conditions.

Contaminant Conditions

Contaminant Conditions (the nature and extent of impact) are also an important consideration during remediation design. How much is in the soil and groundwater? And where is it traveling? How fast?  These answers can narrow down the options based on what technologies will be effective in treating the impact.

Land Usage

Land usage must also be assessed. What is the property’s use right now? How will it be used in the future? If it’s a business and it’s going to continue to be one, the cleanup strategy will be considerably less invasive and more labor intensive.  Cleanup standards are different for residential vs commercial land use.

Cost-Effective Approaches

We prioritize cost-effectiveness. Our aim as a company is to utilize a technology that will require the fewest resources while maintaining a high level of effectiveness.  Not hitting on either of these targets causes costs to rise.  We focus on our client’s needs and receive a fair amount of business through word of mouth.  We take great pride in that.

Timing

Which brings us to another important client –driven factor; timing. How quickly does the client need this project to be finished? And what kind of technologies can deliver the desired effects in that period of time? We want to be able to close out the project as quickly as we can: effectively remediating the contamination while keeping with the client’s needs.

Safety Concerns

Safety concerns can loom large for some technologies. A miscalculation on a subsurface injection or a slip of the wrist on the operating lever of a backhoe can pose serious threats to health and safety at the project Site. One of our core values here at EnviroForensics involves “contributing to a healthy community.” We like to practice what we preach, so if there’s a different, more safe method of remediation, we will always go in that direction.

Continual Learning

EnviroForensics provides this and many other training and learning opportunities for our staff at all levels.  Chlorinated Solvents are our specialty, and activities like these allow us to retain a high level of excellence in this niche. It should be noted we operate with a “we over me” mentality often collaborating in teams to ensure the client get the best service possible, and education is key for this to happen.  The colloquium series is a led discussion by our Chief Geologist or a different expert on a topic.  Attendees are provided materials to read or consider prior to the meeting.  We keep our eyes forward to stay on the cutting edge of technology and the most effective application of our skills.

It was the continuation of what has been a very exciting year in the history of EnviroForensics. Thursday night, we welcomed more than 200 people through our doors at 825 North Capitol to get an up-close look at our brand new headquarters; the culmination of more than a year’s long effort to bring new life to an old costume warehouse and transmissions garage. True to form, EnviroForensics combined the celebratory activities with an opportunity to convey an important message of environmental and human rights awareness.

The event began with an important discussion about clean water accessibility. Our partners with Water for Empowerment are working towards bringing clean water and hygienic education to women in the developing world, and tapped two like-minded individuals to speak on the subject in front of a large crowd gathered in the Community Room.

State Representative and Democratic Candidate for Lt. Governor, Christina Hale, has spent a good portion of her career in politics fighting for women’s rights. She talked about the widespread effects of water poverty, and emphasized the value of a proper education, especially for women in the developing world. The main speaker, Wateraid’s Vincent Casey, took over the discussion to detail what happens on the ground in water impoverished areas and how his group is combatting those obstacles. It’s a multi-faceted effort focused on the delivery of technology to cultivate clean water and the educational resources to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle long after Wateraid has left.

Following the presentation, the building itself took center stage.  Friends, family, and colleagues passed through the halls on guided tours and impromptu jaunts; beverages and finger foods in hand as they heard the stories of the 13 Hoosier artists whose work dots the walls of the newly refurbished structure. The Community Room lived up to its name, becoming the epicenter of the celebration and serving as a space for people from all walks of life to gather in friendship, enjoy a tasty snack, and take in a slideshow of the building’s construction from start to finish. It was a night to remember, a night to cherish, and truly one that embodies the heart and soul of EnviroForensics.

 

Take Virtual Tour of Our Building:

EnviroForensics provides our clients with strategic solutions to complex, multi-faceted problems.  Our staff works diligently within reasonable timeframes based upon our clients’ goals; striving to avoid the bureaucratic and institutional slow-downs that very commonly plague environmental cleanups.  The owner of a now defunct manufacturing facility and property recently contacted EnviroForensics to get a cleanup of multiple contaminants started after efforts by prior teams had been stalled for over a decade.  Soil and groundwater had been contaminated by chlorinated solvents and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and the majority of the building’s interior was coated with PCB laden dust and oil.  Quick negotiations with the regulators, and our team’s specialized knowledge and experience, allowed EnviroForensics to expedite a work plan and respond quickly to the owner’s requests.

PCBs are highly toxic and do not break down easily, so the EnviroForensics staff completed a detailed assessment of the building to determine the best options for managing materials that were exposed to PCBs during historical site operations.  EnviroForensics is address the contaminated building materials in accordance with the complicated and highly prescriptive Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA).  The owner wants to make the property a productive facility within the city again, so potential exposure to contaminants for new site workers will have to be eliminated completely.  EnviroForensics efforts at the site can help make this desire a reality.

Outside of the building, EnviroForensics continues to evaluate subsurface conditions.  Monitoring wells that were previously installed at the property had not been sampled in years.  Due to this time of inactivity, the monitoring wells needed to be reconditioned by surging the well to loosen the fine particles that accumulated in the wells’ annular space, and then purging the sediment laden water.  This “surge and purge” method restored the monitoring wells’ production rate and reliability.  The entire network also needed to be resurveyed to accurately assess contaminant migration.

With a better handle of these complex issues, the EnviroForensics team plans to finalize the investigation of the site contamination, and prepare the Remediation Work Plan that the regulators have been requesting for years.

EnviroForensics said “yes” to a request for volunteers from the Hoosier Environmental Council.

Their assignment; find traces of lead poisoning in the ground at Muncie parks, playgrounds and community gardens.

Vick Webb, our corporate health and safety manager, and Nick Hill, senior project manager, spent a day in Muncie working alongside the HEC ‘s environmental health and water policy director Dr. Indra Frank (a frequent collaborator) and a Muncie team headed by Jenni Marsh, president and CEO of the United Way of Muncie and Delaware County.

Marsh says the effort was spurred by worries about detrimental effects of high levels of lead in the blood of children; levels that may harm brain development in pre-kindergarten children, during the most important time of brain development.

Marsh says. “We discovered: In 2014, 7% of the children tested in Delaware County had elevated BLLs. The national average of children with elevated BLL of 5 micrograms per deciliter is 2.6%. Our community’s average was more than twice that amount.”

The team fanned out to five Muncie parks and playgrounds, visiting every zip code in Delaware County’s Center Township. Using a hand auger and hand trowel, Vick and Nick extracted samples from the ground at three different locations in each park. The samples ranged from 2 inches to 8 inches deep. They were added to the team’s total and evaluated by HEC consultant Mike Ketterer of the Metropolitan State University of Denver’s chemistry department.

Ketterer received 54 soil samples from 18 specific sites. He carefully sub-sampled, oven-dried, ground and dissolved with acids. The lead was measured by flame atomic absorption spectrometry.

Ketterer says, “The majority of soil samples tested low for lead content. We did not find levels detrimental to public health.”

More testing lies ahead, but these preliminary results were “very good news,” says Dr. Frank of the HEC.

“Given the soil contamination that has been seen in other cities with similar industries, it was a tremendous relief to find only a limited number of samples with elevated lead, and those elevations were still within the EPA’s recommended limit for a playground of 400 parts per million.”

Dr. Frank adds, “For people in the center of Muncie and southern neighborhoods, I would recommend testing soil in vegetable gardens, since a few samples exceeded the limit for gardening of 200 ppm.”

The United Way’s Marsh says, “I must admit I am very surprised at how low the lead levels were. I thought we would see significantly higher parts-per-million because of their proximity to industry and lead contaminators.”

Marsh says the local committee — comprised of the United Way, City of Muncie, Ready by 5 and the Muncie Action Plan will discuss the next steps for reducing lead levels in Muncie.

And, she thanks everyone who volunteered their time and efforts. Specifically, she told Vick and Nick, “What a cool company you work for—that allows that kind of service—and what cool people you all are for taking EnviroForensics up on this opportunity!”

Marsh adds, “Each of you have worked on behalf of Delaware County’s children.”

 

EnviroForensics is at work remediating Crest Cleaners, a former dry cleaner in Mooresville, Indiana. Located within a mixed-use commercial and residential area, the Site is now undergoing cleanup due to historical dry cleaning activities that resulted in soil impacts onsite and groundwater impact that has migrated under buildings in the residential area.

EnviroForensics has completed excavation and removal of heavily impacted soils. Our team of environmental experts has utilized enhanced reductive dechlorination (ERD) along with in-situ chemical reduction (ISCR) to address contamination on the property. These techniques have been carefully chosen as the most cost-effective options to clean up the Site’s contamination. ISCR immediately eliminates groundwater impact, and over a two or three year time period, ERD utilizes naturally-occurring microbes to break down contaminants. Injections have been done at over 92 different locations. The goal is that after three years of injection and monitoring, the Site will be eligible for regulatory closure.

While ERD and ISCR are effective methods of reducing contamination on a property, methane is a by-product of these processes and can accumulate in nearby buildings. However, EnviroForensics is at the forefront of the industry in studying and addressing this issue. Recently, our Vapor Intrusion team presented a study entitled “The Production and Management of Methane in Soil Gas during Remediation at Drycleaner Sites” at the annual Association for Environmental Health and Sciences (AEHS) Foundation’s Conference on Soil, Water, Energy and Air. The study has also been approved for presentation at the Tenth International Battelle Conference on Remediation of Chlorinated and Recalcitrant Compounds, which will be held May 23-26 in Palm Springs, California.

At EnviroForensics, we work to ensure that contamination at your site of business is cleaned up in the most cost-effective and accurate way possible. Not only are our environmental professionals some of the best in the industry; we also have a team of insurance archeologists who are skilled in locating and utilizing historical insurance policies to help fund the costs of environmental investigation and remediation—meaning our clients pay little to nothing out-of-pocket.

Dealing with contamination on your property doesn’t have to be a burdensome and costly experience. Let EnviroForensics’ expert scientists and engineers develop the best remediation strategy for your unique situation.