Category: Site Investigation and Remediation

IT’S IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THAT THE VALUE OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANUP IS MORE THAN JUST GETTING THE MOST FOR YOUR MONEY

The decision to undergo an environmental investigation and cleanup is an understandably tough one for drycleaners. It requires an outsized investment of time, money, and other resources that can put a small business under significant stress. But, in the long-term, deciding to address one’s environmental issues proactively can prove to be an incredibly business-savvy decision. An environmental cleanup not only removes contamination, but it also alleviates business stress, such as regulatory and legal liabilities while increasing the monetary value of your business investment.

WHO PAYS FOR AN ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANUP?

The short answer to this question, if you’re a dry cleaner, is you. By law, the parties responsible for potential environmental issues are liable for costs to clean up the problem. An environmental cleanup project may be the most expensive thing you ever buy. Our firm has been cleaning up properties contaminated with Perc for nearly 25 years, and we have seen that the average price ranges from $1 to $1.25 million dollars. That’s a pretty big lift for anyone, especially a small to medium-sized dry cleaner. Even if you can afford it, that doesn’t mean you want to afford it.

This is where I will stop and pose a question for you to ponder throughout this article, where is the value for a business to clean up contamination?

DIGGING INTO DIFFERENT TYPES OF VALUES

Value can be a subjective concept and it means different things to different people. Even by definition, it has multiple meanings. Maybe value isn’t the first thing considered when evaluating environmental problems, but it fits into the conversation in a few important ways.

1. The word value can be used as a noun as in “This customer’s dress has great value”, or as a verb like “I value my customers very much”.
2. Value can also be used as a meaning for one’s moral or ethical beliefs, such as “I respect this employee’s values”.
3. Value can also be used when talking about monetary exchanges such as paying for an environmental cleanup. We typically would think of value as meaning that we have received an ample amount of goods or services in exchange for the money we’ve spent. In environmental cleanups, maximizing this type of value is mostly managed by choosing an experienced consultant to lead the project with competitive pricing for completion of the work.

Now that we’ve covered the different ways value can be used, I’ll apply them to environmental issues with a few examples. Then you’ll have to decide which ones mean the most to you, based on your individual needs and…values.

ELIMINATE YOUR REGULATORY RESPONSIBILITIES AND INCREASE YOUR PROPERTY VALUE

The most common driver for initiating an environmental cleanup is the fact that a federal or state regulatory agency is requiring that it be done. There may be other factors that arise during the process that are also motivating, such as an identified human exposure, but the number one value that the cleanup satisfies is getting the regulator off your back. This can be huge for some businesses, but what else do you get out of it? Very simply stated, you also get a cleaner piece of property. A clean and unencumbered plot of commercial property is an investment. We all know that. There are real estate investment companies out there whose sole business model is to buy and sell commercial properties based on its predicted future price or value. As such, even if the primary objective of performing an environmental cleanup has absolutely nothing to do with the potential sales price of your property, the reality is that the commercial viability of a property will increase as a result of the cleanup. As a matter of fact, if a property owner could shift their mindset to fully understand and quantify the potential gains associated with an environmentally clean property, it may be a good enough reason alone for initiating such a project. The average cost of a dry cleaner environmental cleanup is pretty hefty, as mentioned above, but there are plenty of smaller examples where the cost of cleanup could be paid for by the resulting increase in property value. In such a case, the regulatory closure would be just a bonus.

Thinking about selling your dry cleaning business? Read our blog How to Sell Your Dry Cleaning Business in 3 Steps

ELIMINATE YOUR LEGAL LIABILITY

Value can also be added to cleanup projects by the elimination of long-term liability associated with environmental contamination. Whether or not it is on your radar, any time there is contamination, there is risk and liability, which can take many forms. Just think of the many ways that you may become aware of contamination; there are unique forms of liability in each.

Let’s say that an adjacent property owner has decided to sell their property and has undergone the due diligence process and that they have identified environmental impacts emanating from your dry cleaning operations. You may now be exposed to several types of liability from this single situation.

1. First, you have a liability to investigate and clean up the contamination on their property. That’s to be expected. What may not be anticipated is the risk of additional liability that could be associated with trespass. In many states, the law says that if contamination from one property “trespasses” upon a second property owned by a different party, there can be a lawsuit. This is important because in a trespass suit the judge may award punitive damages in excess of the cost of performing the cleanup itself. I’m not an attorney and I can’t give legal advice as to the interpretation of trespass laws, but I’ve seen my clients forced to deal with this situation.
2. Another type of liability that happens at times as related to environmental contamination is the threat of bodily injury or even wrongful death lawsuits. It’s no secret that Perc has been identified by the EPA as a likely carcinogen. Even though many dry cleaners have worked around this solvent for many years, or even their whole lives, people who aren’t as familiar with Perc as dry cleaners can be substantially more skittish about having been exposed to it. This risk of liability is most realized when contamination has entered drinking water supplies or indoor air at offsite buildings through vapor intrusion.
3. Liability could even potentially come from your own employees. Studies have even shown that people exposed to Perc in the workplace are subject to increased risk of several types of cancer, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Typically, your successful OSHA monitoring practices should protect you from having this problem.

The intended purpose of mentioning all these potential liabilities is to highlight the fact that when an environmental cleanup is performed, these issues get brought to light, and then put to bed. The value that brings can be immeasurable.

BONUS: YOU BECOME AN ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARD

An obvious, but perhaps often overlooked value to performing an environmental cleanup is that by improving the environmental conditions of your little corner of the world, you are on the positive side of the environmental history. Our planet has seen its fair share of degradation through the last several centuries brought on by advancements in the industry. There was a time when the progress of civilization almost always meant the degradation of environmental quality. The industrial revolution in the US and Europe was a time of great strides in technological innovations that created a huge boost for humans and a huge hit to the environment.

Dry cleaning as we know it came around toward the end of the industrial revolution. For decades now, the trend has been toward reversing those negative effects and focus has been more on improving environmental conditions. There has been a shift in our values on that matter. There is good news because this shift in values toward more environmentally friendly industrial technologies doesn’t need to interfere with continued technological advancement. So, while “greener” industrial development marches on, the process of restoring those environmental damages that occurred in the past is in full swing. When you take care of your regulatory obligation to clean up a property, not only do you increase the value of your property and relieve those liabilities as discussed above, you also get to be a part of cleaning up of the planet. Even if that doesn’t resonate strongly with you personally, I’d hazard a guess that it does with a good portion of your customers.

Learn more about how an environmental cleanup can be good public relations for your dry cleaning business

That brings me to the last point of added value from an environmental cleanup – peace of mind. There can’t be a dollar amount assigned to the value of putting all of this behind you. I’m sure that everyone can relate to how issues perceived to be negative can linger and tap your energy day after day. Once the issue has been tackled and resolved, we always say to ourselves, “I wish I had taken care of that years ago”. The common wisdom that has been passed from generation to generation in almost every major philosophical discipline is, “Thinking is harder than doing”. When it is time for you to tackle your environmental issues and conduct a cleanup, please be sure to recognize that there are many ways for it to be valued for your business, your community, and last but not least your peace of mind.

Contact us to learn more about how you can get maximum value out of your environmental cleanup.

As seen in Cleaner & Launderer

Environmental cleanups involve a great deal of creativity to make sure that the goals are met within acceptable timeframes, regulatory requirements, and of course, budget. The whole game plan is to reduce the amounts of contamination in the ground to levels that are deemed safe for human health and the environment should an exposure occur at some time in the future.

While a good environmental consulting firm will be able to tell you what kind of cleanup approach is most likely to be successful, they will base that opinion on their own past experience in similar situations and the published past experiences of their professional peers in the industry. Unfortunately, there is not an “off-the-shelf” approach that is guaranteed to work, so in many ways, a cleanup effort is a proverbial roll of the dice.

However, there are some consulting firms like ours who will stand behind their designs and guarantee results. Our ability to do this is due to several factors that help us hedge our bets when performing an environmental cleanup. If you follow these three rules of creating a successful cleanup plan, you can come out on top as well.

1. Experience Counts!

During my college pursuits, I had a professor who always used to say, “The best geologist is the one who has seen the most rocks”. I always took that to heart and mention it often to my peers. I’m sure it’s also true that the best cleaner is the one who has processed the most articles of clothing or textiles. Why? Because they are the ones who have experienced the most situations where challenges have come up that needed to be solved. They’re the ones who learned from each of those situations and tweaked their process to make sure that the occurrence of the same problem was minimized in the future. Each challenge is a learning opportunity, and those who have learned the most, are frequently the best.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it a thousand more times that when you are choosing your environmental consultant to design and implement your environmental cleanup strategy, you need to find one who has a great depth of experience with dry cleaner sites. They are the ones who will understand the nuances of Perc contamination. They are the ones who have had to decipher the subtle differences between releases from dry cleaner operations and other kinds of processes. They’re the professionals who have seen the most cleanup challenges and solved them to get the job done and achieve regulatory closure.

Get a step-by-step process in “5 considerations when selecting an environmental consultant for dry cleaners”

2. Strategically Plan Investigation to Save Money During Remediation

Let’s face it; the subsurface environment is a bit of a black box. Geologists and environmental professionals are educated and trained to interpret a wide view of conditions beneath the ground from only a handful of data collection points and samples. The more data collected during investigation phases, the better conditions are understood and the greater the odds of a successful remediation later. Remember that the process is:

1. Investigate the nature and extent of contamination; and
2. Perform the cleanup.

If the full nature and extent of contamination is not really understood, the cleanup plan has almost no chance of success. Way too often, consultants with less experience think that just because they have the contaminant plume defined in all directions, they are finished with the investigation. There are a lot more data points that need to be explored to really understand the nature of the impacts, which will also allow for a good predictive cleanup approach to be prepared. These include, in part, the naturally occurring geochemistry of the soil and groundwater, actual measurements of porosity and permeability, the calculated rate of groundwater migration across the site, the organic content of soils, the infiltration rate of rainwater down through the soils and into the groundwater, etc. These data points are where the surprises usually come during cleanup if they haven’t yet been considered.

The trick to making sure that an environmental investigation is performed correctly is to collect information needed to design the cleanup approach and retrieve that data at the same time. If the focus of the investigation is to simply determine the extent of the contamination plume, then only part of the picture is being captured. Given that situation, a separate remedial planning phase of the investigation will then have to be undertaken to get this vital information, which will likely involve going back to areas where the previous sampling has already occurred. This adds cost to the project. Because of this point, there may be hesitation to approve the remedial planning investigation, leaving the consultant to design a cleanup approach without all the necessary information.

If performed appropriately, remedial planning investigation efforts can be added for as little as a 10% increase in costs. However, if something is overlooked during an investigation and a cleanup plan is inappropriately designed because of it, the extra effort could easily double the price of the cleanup itself. If you ask a remedial contractor what causes cleanup plans to fail, they will almost always say a lack of adequate investigation data. I always ask them that, and that’s what they always say. Spend the extra 10% on an investigation, it will save you money during remediation. Period.

Read more about remediation strategy best practices

3. Combine Remedial Technologies

Ideally, once a cleanup begins, it ends when the remedial objectives have been met and enough contamination has been removed. Sounds simple enough. Many times, cleanup projects start very well and appear to be heading toward closure (even under budget), but the cleanup appears to stop working. This is among the challenges requiring creativity to get the last bit of contamination out of the ground. Oh sure, the first 90 to 95 percent of the contamination is removed very quickly and effectively and this makes everyone happy. But as time passes, the effectiveness of the cleanup can dwindle making everyone unhappy. The levels of contamination may continue to slowly decrease, but never quite get to closure levels under a single approach. It’s not so much that it stopped working, as it is that it reached a point where it is no longer cost-effective to continue. This happens with a lot of good cleanup technologies. So, with the clock still ticking, the money still flowing into the project, and contamination removal rates slowing, there needs to be a shift in strategy to get the job completed.

With a multitude of remediation technologies available for use, it’s important to follow a logical, yet creative path to select the right combination from the very beginning. For example, let’s say technology A is used because the level of contamination is high, and it is expected to effectively reduce the level of impact to low, but not low enough. When the removal rate of technology A slows down to a crawl, we change to technology B to treat the remaining concentrations to a lower level and achieve closure. Usually, technology B can be performed at a lower unit rate cost than technology A and therefore, project costs can also be constrained. Clearly, cost considerations are very important, but for the purpose of this discussion, the point is that it should not be assumed that using one contaminant removal technology alone is the right approach.

Dealing with the stress and cost of environmental contamination issues is bad enough on its own. Paying attention to these three rules of cleanup planning will help you avoid a bad roll of the dice and let you double down on your bet for a successful project.

As seen in Cleaner & Launderer

Jeff 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.

DRY CLEANERS EVERYWHERE HAVE BEEN WORRIED FOR DECADES ABOUT POTENTIAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION FROM THEIR PAST OPERATIONS. THROUGH THE YEARS, YOU’VE BECOME ACCUSTOMED TO THE FACT THAT PETROLEUM-DERIVED SOLVENTS AND CHLORINATED COMPOUNDS LIKE TETRACHLOROETHENE (PERC) ARE BAD IF RELEASED TO THE ENVIRONMENT. WELL, NOW THERE IS A NEW PROBLEM TO THINK ABOUT, AND IT IS CALLED PFAS.

BY: JEFF CARNAHAN

I believe that most dry cleaners were just beginning to feel like they were well-informed of the risks environmental liability contributes to their businesses, then all of a sudden came the onset of vapor intrusion (VI) issues a little over 10 years ago. It was gradual in the beginning, but at one point it seemed like dry cleaners were utterly swamped with new regulatory demands to immediately assess whether there could be VI problems emanating from their sites. Now, although still a part of environmental investigations, the VI panic has mostly subsided. As the VI exposure pathway was further studied and understood, the ultra-conservative approach initially unleashed by the regulators began to soften to a more reasonable level.

Well, there is a new bad guy in town, and its name is PFAS or perflouoroalkyl substances. It’s a big deal, and although the dry cleaning industry is in no way at the epicenter of the developing PFAS issue, dry cleaners will get involved before this is all over with. Similar to what we saw with VI, I certainly anticipate that the regulatory community will initially react with an abundance of caution as the toxicological and political process settle into a plan. There have already been incidences of dry cleaners being forced to include PFAS in their sampling plans when a solvent release is known to exist. In this article, I want to explain what PFAS really are, wherein the dry cleaning industry they may have been used historically, and how the regulatory process development has been progressing. You will need to stay aware as the toxicological study and regulatory reaction develops related to this emerging contaminant.

WHAT ARE PFAS AND WHY ARE THEY SO BAD?
Fluorosurfactants, otherwise known as perflouoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are a wide group of engineered chemicals created to lower the surface tension of water. The various individual chemicals are created by replacing the Carbon atom on normal petroleum hydrocarbons with a Flourine atom. Essentially, anything that has been developed industrially or commercially to be non-stick, or waterproof owes its success to PFAS. Although initially created in the 1930s, the first widely used PFAS material was polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), which was a non-stick coating developed by DuPont that became known by its trade name, Teflon. Given the wide success of Teflon, further research and development led the way to a total of nearly 5,000 different PFAS chemicals in subsequent years. Some of the other products that were created using this group of chemicals focused on water repellency and stain resistance, such as 3Ms Scotchgard. One of the most prevalent uses of PFAS chemicals has been in the production of fire-fighting foams, especially in the air transportation industry and especially at the United States Department of Defense facilities. There have been, and still are, a very wide range of products that contain PFAS chemicals, including:

Firefighting Foam

Some grease-resistant paper, fast food containers/wrappers, microwave popcorn bags, pizza boxes, and candy wrappers

Nonstick cookware

Stain-resistant coatings used on carpets, upholstery, and other fabrics

Water-resistant clothing

Cleaning products

Personal care products (shampoo, dental floss) and cosmetics (nail polish, eye makeup)

Paints, varnishes, and sealants

PFAS compounds are one of several groups of chemicals referred to as “Forever Chemicals”. This means that they are so well-built, so to speak, that they are extremely durable and don’t break down easily. It was great for the products they are used to make, but that also makes their presence in the subsurface very troublesome now that they have been determined to be hazardous to human health and the environment. Of course, when I say “now” they are known as hazardous, I really mean that it has been known by researchers for over 20 years that exposure to PFAS chemicals is harmful to humans, but it has taken this long to get the giant commercial and regulatory ship to turn. In fact, there are estimates that PFAS compounds can be found in the bloodstream of 98% of the United States population.

HOW ARE DRY CLEANERS INVOLVED?
I’m sure that you all know better than I do, the whole host of products that have been available through the years to make textiles, rugs, and leathers waterproof and stain-resistant. Clearly, these are the primary connection between the dry cleaning industry and PFAS, although there has been some discussion regarding detergents and other additives during the cleaning process. The theory is that during the cleaning process, some of the PFAS enter the waste solvent solution. As such, anywhere there has been an environmental release of dry cleaning solvent to the subsurface, the presence of PFAS is also possible because materials treated with related products may have been cleaned at the facility. The dry cleaning operations that actually performed waterproofing would be the most at risk.

HOW ARE PFAS BEING REGULATED?
Once released into the subsurface, PFAS chemicals are highly resistant to breakdown and are very soluble, and as such, they can migrate quite far in the groundwater. Drinking water supplies are of primary concern to the Federal and State environmental regulators. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has established health advisories for two of the most prevalent PFAS chemical contaminants, called PFOA and PFOS, based on the agency’s assessment of the latest peer-reviewed science. These advisories will provide the most up-to-date information on the health risks of these chemicals and aid drinking water system operators and state, tribal and local officials in making determinations as to the appropriate steps needed to address PFOA and PFOS in their communities.

The EPA’s assessment indicates that drinking water with individual or combined concentrations of PFOA and PFOS below 70 parts per trillion (0.07 micrograms per liter ug/L) is not expected to result in adverse health effects over a lifetime of exposure. Current studies indicate that exposure above these levels in drinking water could increase a person’s lifetime risk of several types of cancer, immune system dysfunctions, or developmental disorders.

One of the primary concerns about PFAS, given its widespread use and known releases to the environment, is its impact on the country’s drinking water supply. Although the US EPA issued its PFAS Action Plan on February 14, 2019, many states have expressed frustration with the EPA’s proposed plan and have started the process of regulating PFAS in drinking water themselves. As we saw the vapor intrusion regulation process evolve, some states have moved forward with their own versions of regulations and standards that present significant challenges to impacted industries.

Read more about PFAS and learn about currently available state resources

WHAT CAN I EXPECT?
From the environmental consultant’s perspective, I see this playing out very much as VI did in the 2000s, as I mentioned. As new toxicological studies are completed by those agencies to whom the US EPA relies upon to make their policy and regulations, there will be an ongoing debate in Washington D.C. This is certainly to be expected since PFAS chemicals have become such a large industry, the regulators will want to make sure they respond appropriately. There is a very large amount of money at stake, and a misstep that leads to over-regulation could create a huge financial crater in the US manufacturing, commercial and retail, and insurance sectors. As a business owner, I’m sure you can understand that perspective.

We have already seen some of our dry cleaner clients with known subsurface releases of Perc being asked by the state regulatory agency to start looking for PFAS as well. We’ll just have to keep an eye on regulatory developments across the states this coming year. In the meantime, it would definitely be worth the time to consider how PFAS could be associated with your past operations.

The good news is that subject to the same limitations I have written about many times, your business’ old commercial general liability (CGL) insurance policies could be used to pay for the investigation and cleanup of PFAS, if they are identified, just like Perc. Most of the time, however, if you are going to find PFAS, you will already have a solvent release problem.

The main impacts of this PFAS issue will be to draw even more dry cleaners into the regulatory process and to increase the cost of environmental investigation and cleanup. Instead of seeing it as another blow to the dry cleaning industry, you could see it as another reason to sit up and take notice of your potential environmental problems.

Have you been asked to include PFAS in your environmental sampling? Share your thoughts.

Contact EnviroForensics, the dry cleaning industry’s most trusted environmental consultant.

As seen in Cleaner & Launderer

Jeff 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.

REGARDLESS OF HOW CONTAMINATION CAME TO BE OR CAME TO BE DISCOVERED AT YOUR DRY CLEANING SITE, THE END GAME IS TO CLEAN UP THE PROPERTY WITH THE RIGHT TOOLS AND MOVE ON WITH YOUR LIFE. HERE WE DISCUSS THE REMEDIATION OPTIONS AVAILABLE FOR DRY CLEANERS.

BY: JEFF CARNAHAN

Some questions you may consider when faced with environmental cleanup include “What does the cleanup process look like?”, “How long does it take?”, “How much does it cost?”, “What kind of inconvenience will you or your tenant have to endure during the process?”. There are many options available for use during site remediation at dry cleaning sites, but several factors need to be considered to determine which of them is best, including:

1. Types of contaminants, like perc, that need to be addressed
2. Extent of the contamination like soil impacts and/or soil, groundwater and vapor
3. Property-specific geologic conditions like clay or sand
4. Naturally occurring geochemical conditions
5. Timing limitations
6. Cost limitations
7. Property usage limitations like building occupancy

Once a clear picture has been developed regarding your specific needs, then your environmental consultant can put together a remediation plan with the various tools from their tool belt to get the job done. Each technical component of the cleanup approach will have limitations, based upon your site needs, so putting together the right tools requires some creativity and a substantial amount of attention to your business needs. If this all goes smoothly, you can get your regulatory closure and peace of mind knowing that this challenge is now in the past.

 THE CLEANUP STRATEGY AND GOAL

For environmental consultants to understand the right way to get contaminants out of the subsurface, they first need to learn how they got into the ground in the first place. Most of the time, one can consider a conceptual model consisting of a soil source area created by a spill. This can include leached contaminants to the groundwater, and then the impacts in groundwater have migrated to an extent and created a groundwater plume. Vapors can emanate from any portion of the impacted areas too.

Once the contaminants have moved through the subsurface to create these distinct reservoirs of impacts, environmental consultants can’t exactly reverse the process. Rather, they must address each reservoir independently, and a different cleanup technology might be necessary for each. It’s not uncommon for the soil source area and the groundwater source area to be actively remediated, while the downgradient plume is left to reduce naturally over time. Sometimes, all groundwater levels will reduce to acceptable levels just by removing a large percentage of the contaminants in the soil source area.

WHICH TOOLS (TECHNOLOGY) SHOULD BE USED?

The best way to decide which remedial technology is best used to address some or all the contaminants at your property is to look at their characteristics, capabilities, and limitations. Let’s look at some of those together, in order of the subsurface location of the contaminants.

USING EXCAVATION AND DISPOSAL FOR SOIL SOURCE AREA REMEDIATION

Excavation and Disposal is a common approach to remove contamination from soils above the water table in areas that have access to the ground surface. This doesn’t mean that excavation is only good for areas beneath the parking lot, or out back. Quite often, EnviroForensicsperforms surgical source area excavation activities inside buildings with active dry cleaning operations. It can be tricky, and planning is needed, both for the environmental work and to make sure that your operations aren’t interrupted, but it can be done. That being said, it is certainly easier to perform a significant excavation outside of buildings, and if the extent of impacts is limited and well-defined, it is often the fastest and easiest way to definitively remove a large amount of impacted materials from your property. Even for a sizeable excavation, we are talking about days or weeks, rather than months or years to achieve the objectives of the soil source area cleanup objectives.

USING SOIL VAPOR EXTRACTION FOR SOIL SOURCE AREA REMEDIATION

Another soil source area cleanup technology that is popular at dry cleaning properties is Soil Vapor Extraction (SVE). This technology takes advantage of the volatile properties of dry cleaning solvents and, as the name suggests. A SVE system includes a series of screened pipes that are installed in the soil, which are all piped together and connected to a high-volume, specially designed and manufactured industrial fan, or blower. When activated, air is drawn through the treatment area and extracted through the screened pipes.

The contamination in the soil transfers from within the soil itself to the circulating subsurface air, which then travels through the system to a discharge stack. Once passed into the air and exposed to sunlight, the volatile compounds are destroyed. The result is clean soil. SVE systems can be installed both inside and outside of existing buildings, and new buildings can even be constructed over the top of these systems, so access is not usually that big of a problem.

The potential usefulness of SVE depends mostly on the characteristics of the soil. Tighter materials like clay are not as conducive to SVE as sandier soils. Even in nice, sandy soils, the process can take a year or two following the installation and startup of the system. The blowers can be a little noisy, but in most situations, that can be taken care of pretty easily. SVE is a nice option because it also takes care of vapor intrusion problems at the same time it is cleaning up due to the negative pressure created in the subsurface during its operation.

USING THERMAL TREATMENTS FOR SOIL SOURCE AREA REMEDIATION

Another option for addressing contamination in the soil source area is the use of a Thermal Treatment technology. There are several alternatives available, but they all include the primary approach of heating up the subsurface to a temperature high enough to increase the volatility of the contaminant, and then capture the resulting vapors using an SVE system as described above. Thermal treatment has several advantages, such as being relatively quick and very reliable. It makes even more sense when used to treat the groundwater beneath the soil source area at the same time. The main drawback is the price because it’s usually a more costly options since so much electricity is used to create the high subsurface temperatures. Thermal is a great option if you absolutely must have a very clean site, have less than a year to do it, and you can avoid active usage of the area during the duration of the treatment. It’s possible to conduct thermal beneath buildings, but it is not usually feasible. EnviroForensics has used thermal at a dry cleaner site and the cleanup results were awesome. I wish we could use it more often.

USING IN-SITU FOR GROUNDWATER SOURCE AREA REMEDIATION

Directly beneath the soil source area, the area of highest groundwater impacts is usually found, which is referred to as the groundwater source area. When the remediation strategy involves the removal or destruction of contamination from the groundwater source area, there are many options to choose from.

In fact, the treatment of groundwater contamination is one of the most active areas of research and development in the environmental industry. Twenty years ago, it was common to install systems to pump out the contaminated groundwater, treat it at the surface, and then discharge it to a sewer. That practice didn’t really work very well, however nowadays most groundwater treatment actually takes place in the ground. When a treatment is applied in place, it is called an in-situ treatment.

In-situ Chemical Oxidation (ISCO) and In-situ Chemical Reduction (ISCR) are processes wherein chemicals are injected directly into the groundwater treatment area through drill-rods or temporary wells, where the chemical reacts with, and destroys the contaminant. It is a fairly quick process, which is good, but that also means that the effective life of the chemical injected is short.

One of the main limitations of any in-situ injection approach is that the desired chemical reaction is only able to happen precisely in the area where it is injected. You must have enough injection points to actually disperse the chemical where it needs to be. Subsurface intricacies in the geologic conditions tend to hijack your injection strategy, thereby leaving areas inadvertently untreated. This can result in disappointing initial results that lead to additional injection events, which is why second and even third injection events are often planned for the cleanup strategy. There are great products available for in-situ application in groundwater, and we have had a great deal of success using them, but you just have to manage expectations and hedge your bets.

USING IN-SITU FOR GROUNDWATER PLUME AREA REMEDIATION

The area of contamination downgradient of the source areas typically carry the lowest relative concentrations, but they may still be quite high. The Downgradient Groundwater Plume is the most likely to cross property boundaries into locations that aren’t under your control, leading to the need for an active clean up even though the contaminant levels may be low. Also, it may be necessary to lessen the risk that an impacted adjacent property owner decides to sue you. The in-situ injections I mentioned previously are a great way to treat this section of impacts since the extent of the plume may be quite large and the volume of chemicals necessary to destroy the lower levels of contaminants may not be large.

Sometimes, the contaminant concentrations in the downgradient plume are low enough that the plume starts to shrink once active remediation is conducted in the source areas. This is actually what we hope for most of the time. In this scenario, the concentrations in the downgradient plume just needs to be monitored on a periodic basis to ensure that they continue to decline. When this strategy is undertaken, it is called Monitored Attenuation. Obviously, this is a pretty cost effective and non-invasive approach, but the timeframe can get pretty long. If monitored attenuation is attempted without aggressive cleanup in the source areas, it can go on for decades and end up costing more than active remediation.

WHEN IT COMES TO DESIGNING AN APPROPRIATE REMEDIATION FOR YOUR DRY CLEANING PROPERTY, CONSULTANTS HAVE A LARGE TOOL BELT. THERE DOES NEED TO BE A VERY FRANK, FACE-TO-FACE DISCUSSION ABOUT THE PRACTICAL AND REASONABLE IMPLICATIONS OF REMEDIAL IMPLEMENTATION, HOWEVER. DON’T BE AFRAID TO ASK YOUR CONSULTANT ABOUT THE STRATEGY TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE GETTING THE CLEANUP YOU WANT.

Contact EnviroForensics, the dry cleaning industry’s most trusted environmental consultant.

As seen in Cleaner & Launderer

Jeff 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.

LEARN HOW TO NAVIGATE THE ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATION PROCESS

BY: STEPHEN HENSHAW, PG

For years dry cleaners have suspected that they might have an environmental problem, but have been afraid to find out whether they do or not. It’s completely understandable why dry cleaners would be afraid of collecting soil and groundwater samples at their site. Of course, the biggest reason for not looking into the environmental conditions at your site or sites is opening Pandora’s Box. Simply stated, the cost of an environmental cleanup could cause financial hardships and sleepless nights.

SO, WHAT TRIGGERS AN ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATION? 

Sometimes you can control the situation, but most of the time you can’t. Below are five events that can trigger an environmental investigation at a dry cleaning site.

1. YOU’RE SELLING YOUR BUSINESS OR PROPERTYIf you want to sell your business or property, due diligence is required during business and property transactions to determine if the operating business and/or property carries any potential environmental liability including hazardous waste contamination, lack of permits, permit violations, and compliance deficiencies. Understanding these conditions allows the buyer to evaluate potential limitations, liabilities, and risks associated with the property. Often times, due diligence at a dry cleaner is going to uncover environmental problems. Due Diligence will start with a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) to identify if there’s any likelihood of contamination. For most dry cleaners, a Phase II ESA will be required, which includes collecting samples of soil, groundwater or building materials to analyze for various contaminants
2. YOU’RE REFINANCING YOUR PROPERTYIf you’re refinancing your property, your bank is going to require a Phase I ESA, which is the formal process that assesses the real estate for potential risk of environmental contamination. Again, for most dry cleaners, a Phase II ESA will be required.
3. YOU’RE RETIRING WITH PLANS TO HAND OFF YOUR BUSINESS TO YOUR CHILDREN OR GRANDCHILDRENIf you want to retire and hand off your business to your children or grandchildren, there’s a high probability that contamination may be lurking beneath your building due to decades of dry cleaning operations. Since you’re passing the business onto family, you’ll want to conduct environmental due diligence to make sure they are protected from liability.
4. YOUR NEIGHBOR IS SELLING OR REFINANCING THEIR PROPERTY, WHICH REQUIRES AN ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATIONIf your neighbor is selling or refinancing their property, they’ll conduct real estate due diligence. Their environmental investigation may uncover a commingled plume that may lead to you. This will lead to conducting your own environmental due diligence process.
5. YOU PURCHASED A PROPERTY AT TAX SALEIf you want to buy a property, which used to house a dry cleaner or any other commercial operation, you’re going to have to conduct real estate due diligence if you want to avoid taking on the environmental liability yourself.

WHAT IS A PHASE I ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT?

The first step in the due diligence process is performing a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA), which is an evaluation of recent and historical activities at and near the property to identify potential or existing environmental contamination liabilities. A Phase I ESA may be required by a bank or other lending institution during financing processes, or it could be recommended by your attorney or other business advisors.

THE PHASE I ENVIRONMENTAL SITE ASSESSMENT PROCESS

The consultant conducting the Phase I ESA will inspect the site for signs of staining, evidence of spills, stressed vegetation, determination of underground and above ground tanks, secondary containment, violations, and operating practices. They will evaluate records at the fire department, local health department, state environmental agencies, and federal EPA, to determine whether fires or chemical spills were reported on the property or on neighboring properties.

This review would also evaluate what businesses are operating in the near vicinity that could cause environmental impacts and could impact the subject site. A Phase I doesn’t include actual subsurface samples such as soil, soil gas, or groundwater. However, there is a standard that must be followed under the American Standard for Testing and Materials or ASTM, which now includes determining whether indoor vapor intrusion is likely.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE PHASE I ESA? A PHASE II. 

If the Phase I ESA identifies a reasonable potential that soil and groundwater may be impacted, the consultant will suggest that a Phase II ESA be conducted.

The thing about conducting a Phase I ESA on real estate that has a dry cleaner is that, because of the history of dry cleaning operations, a Phase II investigation is nearly always required. In other words, one can be certain that if the real estate has an active or historical dry cleaner on the site and it is being considered for refinancing or purchasing, follow-up soil, soil gas or groundwater samples will be required.

A Phase II is a step further in the process of determining whether a dry cleaner has affected a piece of property. The Phase II is also referred to as a “subsurface investigation” and includes the actual collection of a series of subsurface (soil, groundwater) samples to determine whether the property has been impacted by chemicals that pose a risk to human health or the environment. This is where the costs start to add up when chemicals are identified.

Other items out of your control that can trigger environmental investigations include:

• Contamination showing up in municipal or private drinking water wells;
• Contamination showing up beneath neighboring or downgradient properties; and
• Regional investigations conducted under the direction of state or federal regulatory agencies.

These triggers can mean perchloroethylene (PERC) has been identified in the groundwater and because PERC is a common dry cleaning solvent focus is put on dry cleaners both past and present. We have seen situations where the perc levels in municipal drinking water wells and immediately set out to identify all dry cleaners that operated within a mile radius of the well over the past 50 years. With a little digging, it is fairly easy to identify the address, name and period of time that a dry cleaner has operated at a location. We have seen the states pursue a retired couple that operated a dry cleaner for just two years from 1958 through 1959.

WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO OPEN “PANDORA’S BOX”?

While no one wants to be the bearer of bad news, it’s important that all dry cleaners understand how investigations are triggered and what to expect once they are triggered. For this reason, we always talk about finding the businesses or property owner’s old comprehensive general liability (CGL) insurance policies first before the environmental investigation begins.

Old CGL policies may be the most valuable piece of paper you could ever have. Historical CGL policies written before 1985 or 1986 do not have absolute pollution exclusion language in them and therefore may be used to defend the insured against claims. A claim is what an “injured” party can bring against a business or individual that owned or operated a business that is found to have any amount of responsibility for the contamination found in the subsurface, typically the groundwater.

When confronting issues like this it’s important to have knowledge of the situation, process, and your options.

WHAT ARE OTHER POINTERS DRY CLEANERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT?

Our goal is to educate you about the environmental arena. Here are seven things you should know and do to be proactive and avoid surprises:

1. Understand how investigations are triggered.
2. Understand that your old insurance policies or those that you bought your businesses from may be worth millions of dollars.
3. Be aware of your surroundings and what drilling activities are happening in your neighborhoods.
4. Know your rights by reviewing your lease agreements.
5. Find your old insurance policies and store them securely.
6. Store information regarding the individuals that operated at your location before you did.
7. Seek a qualified environmental consultant for assistance.
8. Talk to an insurance archeologist.

And to remember the story of Pandora’s Box… Zeus had given Pandora a box and told her not to open it, but she did anyway. And even though all evils subsequently unknown to man escaped from the jar, at the very bottom of the jar there lay hope.

No matter your situation, we’re ready to find the best solution for you. Contact us today.

As seen in Cleaner and Launderer

Stephen Henshaw, CEO at EnviroForensics & PolicyFind has over 30+ years of experience and holds professional registrations in numerous states. Henshaw serves as a client manager and technical manager on complex projects involving contaminated and derelict properties, creative litigation, deceased landowners, tax liens, non-performing banknotes, resurrecting defunct companies and cost recovery. Henshaw’s expertise includes a comprehensive understanding of past and current industry and waste handling practices and the fate and transport of chlorinated solvents in soil and groundwater. He has served as a testifying expert for plaintiffs and defendants on high profile cases involving causation and timing of releases, contaminant dispersion, allocation, damages, past costs, and closure estimates. He has a strong knowledge of state and federal regulations, insurance law, RCRA, and CERCLA. He has managed several hundred projects including landfills, solvent and petroleum refineries, foundries, metal plating shops, food processors, dry cleaners, wood treating facilities, chemical distribution facilities, aerospace manufacturing facilities, and transporters and provides strategy instrumental in funding projects and moving them to closure.

TAKE COMMAND OF YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION AND SAVE YOURSELF A LOT OF STRESS AND MONEY 

BY: DRU CARLISLE

There is a stigma that goes along with environmental contamination. Unfortunately, this stigma makes business owners fearful of addressing their environmental contamination. This often results in either avoiding the problem or pretending the problem doesn’t exist, but environmental contamination won’t go away on its own. Therefore, it’s important to address environmental contamination head-on.

For over ten years, I’ve spoken with hundreds of dry cleaners across the country about their environmental issues and I’ve heard every concern surrounding the topic of investigation environmental contamination and cleaning up environmental contamination. Those concerns don’t vary much across the board. If I have heard the phrase “I don’t want to open that can of worms” once, I’ve heard it a thousand times, and due to the high costs of environmental cleanups and the involvement of state regulatory agencies, it’s understandable why some might want to stick their head in the sand.

I’ve built relationships with drycleaners nationwide – some who have become clients and others who are still not ready to actively investigate the possibility of environmental contamination. I feel that it is my duty to explain why environmental agencies, consultants and engineers are not looking to put business owners or property owners in a pickle or a bind; in fact, looking into and addressing environmental issues, especially proactively, are not bad things. In fact, it’s time to consider looking at it in a new light.

Learn how to turn an environmental cleanup into good public relations for your business.

We’ve helped hundreds of dry cleaners, manufacturers, and chrome platers and metal finishers navigate their environmental concerns with little to no out-of-pocket costs to them. Our goal is to help our clients get out of a challenging situation without a large financial burden. We understand how challenging this process can be for business and property owners and have successfully helped our clients navigate through these often uncharted waters. Want to hear what our clients think? Hear from our dry cleaning clients and get an inside perspective on their environmental challenges.

PCE AND TCE ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION

We’ve had a lot of success cleaning up properties impacted with PCE and TCE, and our clients have had their own successes as well, in that they are having their environmental liabilities turned back into assets.

That is to say that their once contaminated property, which had little to no resale value, is now worth what it would be clean and unencumbered. You see, we are looking out for our clients and are the experts many have come to trust as the experts who wear the white hats. How do we do this?

• We are the experts who help get funding in place through the use of old insurance policies so that our clients don’t face financial ruin; the experts who clean up environmental contamination to the highest standard possible and return blighted properties and businesses to their fair market value; and
• the experts who handle every point of our clients’ environmental cleanups from start to finish on our clients’ behalves so that they are free to run their businesses, enjoy retirement, live their lives without worrying about what is around the next corner of their project.

My intention is not to downplay the process because there is no denying the fact that environmental cleanup is a huge deal. They are very expensive, they take a long time to complete, and they require a high level of trust between the business owner and the environmental consultant that the project will be taken care of as efficiently, professionally, and economically as possible.

Get our five tips for hiring an environmental consultant and download our interview questionnaire.

I do understand, and fully respect, the concerns of prospective clients who are frightened of taking the leap into the unknown. A proactive approach is by far the most beneficial approach for the Potentially Responsible Party and/or the business owner because they can be in control of the situation rather than being reactive to a situation like a lawsuit from their neighbor.

UNPACKING THE ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATION AND CLEANUP PROCESS

If you’ve read the Cleaner & Launderer column “The Environmental Corner”, you’ve read articles on a number of topics ranging from how historical insurance policies can be used to pay for cleanups to technical issues on how contamination can create vapors that can impact neighboring properties through vapor intrusion. The latter of the two topics is the key to all successful environmental cleanups and conversely, is also what usually confuses people the most.

Vapor intrusion concerns are often associated with environmental investigation and remediation projects Brownfields sites, dry cleaners, gas stations, commercial buildings, multi-unit residential, schools and large buildings. These concerns can impact public health and property values so they aren’t to be taken lightly or slowly. The earlier the vapor intrusion concern is discovered, investigated and remedied the better it’ll be for everyone involved.

To learn more about the environmental investigation and environmental cleanup process, read our 101 series: Environmental Investigations 101: Understanding PCE Contamination and Environmental Cleanup 101: Understanding what to expect during the remediation process.

FINDING THE FUNDS TO PAY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATION AND CLEANUP

Another area where business and property owners find challenges is finding the funds to pay for the environmental investigation and cleanup. Some opt to pay out-of-pocket because they don’t know there are other funding options available.

Old Commercial General Liability insurance policies, and by “old,” I mean policies that pre-date an Absolute Pollution Exclusion, which in most states is before ~1986, can pay for your environmental investigation and cleanup.

You’re probably asking yourself, “Wait, I can use my old insurance policies to pay for my environmental cleanup?”. Right now is when we can add “too good to be true” as another one of those phrases I hear so regularly, but dependent upon a few criteria it is true, and it’s why we encourage people to locate their old policies and store them in a fireproof storage box. There is a service for locating lost insurance policies, called Insurance Archeology if you are in need of assistance in finding yours.

I do stress that a proactive approach to all things environmental is truly the most beneficial way to go, for any business or property owner with a possible environmental liability on their hands. Waiting for someone to discover your contamination and pin it on you is a recipe for disaster, and anyone who has been in that position, which is becoming a more and more common occurrence, will tell you that it is not a pleasant one to be in.

Understand the difference between proactive or reactive when dealing with environmental contamination.

If you are ill-prepared when an environmental issue is placed in your lap, it could mean thousands of dollars, in some instances, tens of thousands, of out-of-pocket costs. A proactive approach means that you are in command of the situation and by being in front of the issue, you will save yourself a lot of stress and money. Don’t leave environmental contamination for your family and loved ones, or even strangers, to deal with.

Consult with us, it’s free and it’s confidential.

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.