THE ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANUP PROCESS CAN BE CHALLENGING FOR DRY CLEANERS BECAUSE IT’S TYPICALLY A ONCE IN A LIFETIME EXPERIENCE–SIMILAR TO BEING CURED OF A MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS.

BY: JEFF CARNAHAN

For those who don’t frequently deal with environmental cleanup (also known as remediation), the reasoning, objectives, and process can be a bit of a black box. It’s not dissimilar to how most of us feel about a medical procedure. Here are three things people usually feel before embarking on a medical procedure:

1. We must rely on the expertise and knowledge of others to even know there is a specific problem;
2. We trust that the healing procedure being proposed will fix the problem
3. We don’t really know what the procedure will be like, but we know that it might hurt.

The medical analogy is a particularly good analogy for the environmental investigation and cleanup process. Previously, I’ve discussed Environmental Investigations 101: Understanding PCE Contamination and how the collection of subsurface samples and the application of scientific principles result in a picture of what the contamination is, where it is, and how bad the problem is. In the medical analogy, this would be the phase consisting of seeing the doctor with the evidence you have that there might be a problem, getting tests completed like an MRI or a biopsy, and receiving the diagnosis.

Upon hearing that a problem exists, the anxiety can start to take hold for the patient because questions arise, for which the answers are unknown. Some questions may include:

1. What can be done about it?
2. Is there a cure?
3. How long will this take to cure?
4. Does my doctor know what they are doing?
5. How much is this going to cost?!
6. Will my insurance cover it?

These questions represent the unknown, and the unknown can be terrifying. Any doctor will tell you that some people are so afraid of these questions that they’d rather not even know if they have a problem, and foolishly never seek a medical exam. Any doctor will tell you if you think you have a problem…find it and fix it. You’ll live a longer and happier life. With the medical analogy in mind, I’d like to focus this article back on the environmental remediation process to answer as many questions as possible for you, to eliminate the unknowns, and to alleviate the associated anxiety.

THE FEASIBILITY STUDY – WHAT’S THE CURE?
So, let’s say that from the environmental investigation your dry cleaner site has just been diagnosed with a nasty case of contamination by hazardous chemicals. Since the goal of your environmental practitioner is to ensure that the problem gets fixed, there first needs to be an assessment of all the potential cleanup technologies that could be used alongside the specific characteristics of your site. Questions that need to be answered include:

1. Are any people currently being exposed to the contamination?
2. What amount of contaminant may safely remain after cleanup and still be suitable for future planned land use (i.e. what are appropriate cleanup objectives)?
3. How will each potential remedial technology interact with the exact type of soils and geologic materials beneath your site?
4. How will the naturally occurring geochemistry of soils and groundwater interact with any potential treatment chemicals?
5. How long would each remediation technology take to reach the cleanup objectives if implemented?
6. What are the comparable unit costs per measure of contaminant removed from the ground for each anticipated technology?

Ultimately, the question to be answered is, What is the best and most cost-effective cleanup technology to meet our objectives? This process is called a Feasibility Study and it determines which cleanup approach is the most feasible.

Read about a former dry cleaning site that we cleaned up in 120 days with thermal technology.

During the feasibility study, as the business or property owner, you’ll need to make sure to speak up and let your consultant know if there are any limitations that they should be considering for the cleanup approach. For example, parking areas that absolutely must remain clear during business hours, areas of the building that cannot be disturbed no matter what, or even simple things like traffic flow patterns for your drive-through lane. We have done work for a lot of dry cleaners, so we always think to ask about these kinds of things, but not every remediation engineer does. All your business considerations could have a significant impact on which cleanup technology can be implemented. If your building is located directly over the area of soil contamination, a common remedial technology could be demolition and excavation. While this may make perfect sense to the remediation engineer, having your building torn down in order to dig a big hole may not exactly fit into your business operation plans. The bottom line here is to speak up early in the process and make sure your business needs are heard before the project begins.

INITIAL CLEANUP ACTION – THE SURGERY
Once the appropriate cleanup objectives and remediation technology have been decided, there are a few steps to go through before work can begin. Typically, but not always, the regulatory agency will want to look at your remediation plan and have a chance to comment on it, or even to approve it. Once the agency has given the head-nod, an important point to remember is that you want to have the money conversation before you send the plan to the regulatory agency. Just like you always want to check whether or not your insurance will cover your medical procedure before you get it done. I talk about the cost of cleanup and funding alternatives a lot, so I’m going to skip that conversation, for‌ ‌now, other than to say that the money talk is the very first talk that you should have way before the investigation process even begins.

When you have gotten the green light to get started on the remedial action, things will start to move quickly because it’s go-time. Typically, when remediation work begins, there will be a flurry of activity for two weeks to a month while the initial work is completed. Remedial strategies commonly consist of an aggressive contaminant reduction effort, followed by a long period of monitoring to see how it has worked. During the initial treatment, there may be drill rigs, dump trucks, trailers, and people all over your site, and things could even be a bit messy.

Your environmental consultant should have provided you with a detailed schedule of events and they should keep you informed during the process so that you know exactly what to expect. You’ll need that information to keep your customers informed. I have had many clients actually take this time to post signage explaining to their customers that the business is doing their part to clean up an old environmental problem, demonstrating their commitment to their community and customers.

Are you looking for an environmental consultant? Read 5 Considerations When Selecting an Environmental Consultant for Dry Cleaners.

POST-REMEDIAL MONITORING – THE FOLLOW-UP VISITS
After the initial cleanup effort is undertaken, things will slow down a lot. Monitoring of soil gas and groundwater conditions will need to be performed on a regular, routine quarterly basis for at least a year or so as the contaminant plume reacts to the aggressive, upfront cleanup effort. So, every three months your consultant will come back and collect the monitoring samples, and then they will be gone again. As mentioned previously, it is important to stay involved in the process so that you know how things are going. If you aren’t interested in the scientific details of the remediation monitoring results, at least understand the current conditions as concentrations of the contaminant should start lowering and getting closer to the cleanup objectives. When contaminant levels do reach the closure objectives, if all has gone according to plan, you get to start another monitoring period so that the regulatory agency has confidence that there won’t be a rebound or any remaining post-treatment contaminant in the future.

You can see how the environmental cleanup process gets a reputation for taking a long time because it does. Even after the bulk of actual cleanup activities are completed, there are likely at least two to three years of post-remedial monitoring that needs to happen. Fortunately, routine monitoring isn’t as disruptive as the initial cleanup action, but every few months you will get a reminder that you aren’t quite out of the woods yet, and that can be frustrating. Another thing to make sure you talk to your consultant about: There will be one or more drums of purge water generated during groundwater sampling that will probably need to be stored behind your building for a couple of weeks after each sampling event. Your consultant will label it and manage for its disposal, but there will need to be a short wait while analytical data comes back from the lab and removal can be arranged. If it’s in the way or takes too long to be picked-up, say something.

REGULATORY CLOSURE – CURED
When follow-up monitoring results show that contaminant concentrations have been reduced and have stayed that way, your consultant will submit all the results to the regulatory agency and ask for case closure. Sometimes this is called a No Further Action status. This is one last time to be patient because most regulatory agencies could take anywhere from two to six months to make this determination and set you free.

The site remediation process can be long, taxing and scary, but hopefully, these insights will give you a little bit of an insider’s perspectives on what to expect. Sometimes consultants and attorneys forget that even though they deal with this process every day, you don’t. Ask them to take the time to explain things to you in detail and help you understand what it will look like from your perspective and your customers’ perspectives. As commonly said, knowing is half the battle.

If you are going through the cleanup process and you have questions, or just want to bounce something off me, drop me an email at jcarnahan@enviroforensics.com. I’d be more than happy to have a conversation with you. I’m here to help.

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.

SELECTING THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT IMPROVES THE QUALITY OF YOUR DECISIONS AND THUS THE SUCCESS OF YOUR PROJECT. CONSIDER THESE PIECES OF CRITERIA WHEN SELECTING AN ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT FOR YOUR DRY CLEANING BUSINESS.

BY: JEFF CARNAHAN

Environmental contamination from past dry cleaning operations negatively affects many businesses, properties, communities and individuals across America. Dealing with environmental contamination has become a routine part of running a dry cleaning business–it’s even changed the standards for conducting environmental due diligence when buying or selling commercial property. I’ve compiled a list of five things dry cleaners need to consider when choosing an environmental consultant.

1. REACH OUT TO YOUR PEERS FOR ADVICE AND REFERRALS, BUT DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE 

You are certainly not the first dry cleaner in your area to deal with an environmental release. There are many excellent national and regional dry cleaner associations, and some of their members have been through this before. Sometimes, just a conversation about someone else’s experience with the unknown can be enough to set one’s mind at ease, or at least give some level of comfort. One of the first things that anyone who has dealt with environmental contamination issues will tell you is that you need to hire a good consultant and a good attorney.

If you get a referral, evaluate the business situation of the person who gave you that referral. Be sure to ask:

1. What was their business situation?
2. What was the extent of their contamination?
3. What was their end goal?
4. How much did they spend out-of-pocket on costs?
5. Did they achieve their goal?
6. Was their property value restored to fair market price?

Remember each situation is unique. Be careful that you don’t fall into selecting an environmental consultant based upon close proximity or perceived to be the cheapest.

Selecting the right environmental consultant is one of the most important business decisions you’ll face and there are important differences between environmental consultants. If a business owner doesn’t know that there are differences between environmental consultants, countless hours and dollars may be wasted, projects could drag on for years and site closure or settlement may not be achieved.

2. FIND AN ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT THAT IS RIGHT FOR YOUR UNIQUE CIRCUMSTANCES 

An environmental consultant is typically a scientist or an engineer who has received specialized training about the way contamination behaves in the soil, groundwater, and air and possesses an understanding of the regulatory climate under which contamination issues are governed. Given the wide variety of geological conditions across the planet, the vast numbers of different types of contaminants in the world today, and the complex network of local, state, regional and national regulatory agencies; it’s a pretty tall order for one person to be an expert at them all. That’s why most businesses facing environmental issues hire an environmental consulting firm, which includes a number of individual professionals with expertise across many scientific and regulatory disciplines. This way you get the benefit of all this expertise for one price.

Your consulting firm must have demonstrated experience with successful investigations and cleanups of subsurface chlorinated solvents releases, like PCE and TCE

From an investigation perspective, it can be challenging to identify the true source areas of a Perc release, to determine the timing of when the release occurred, know where to look for downgradient portions of migrating groundwater plumes, and anticipate what caused the release.

From the cleanup perspective, chlorinated solvents, like perc, have chemical and physical properties that make it much more complicated to clean-up and achieve regulatory closure. It doesn’t breakdown in most natural subsurface environments and pockets of pure Perc product that hasn’t yet dissolved can be mobilized if appropriate care and skill aren’t exercised, which can create a bigger problem than already exists. I’d say a consultant who hasn’t yet managed over a hundred Perc dry cleaner sites probably doesn’t yet have a good feel for the unique complexities these sites hold.

PRO TIP: BE SURE TO INTERVIEW POTENTIAL CONSULTANTS TO FIND OUT WHAT THEIR AREA OF EXPERTISE IS. ASK FOR A VARIETY OF CASE STUDIES AND REFERENCES THAT DEMONSTRATES THE CONSULTANTS’ SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCE. REMEMBER THAT ONE TYPE OF CONTAMINATION IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER AND THAT ANY LACK OF SPECIFIC EXPERIENCE WITH PERC IS A POTENTIAL RED FLAG.

Download our Environmental Consultant Interview Questionnaire to help you during the interview process.

3. FIND AN ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT WITH EXPERIENCED VAPOR INTRUSION EXPERTS 

For many dry cleaner sites, vapor intrusion issues are typically at the forefront of concerns. Perc, a common dry cleaning chemical, has a high degree which means the volatility of the chemical almost always results in subsurface vapor or vapor intrusion. Since vapor intrusion is common at dry cleaner sites, you’ll want to find a vapor intrusion experts who also understand Perc sites.

Not all environmental consulting firms have vapor intrusion experts. Some firms shy away from the vapor intrusion work even though they do soil and groundwater sampling work on Perc or TCE sites. Firms without their own vapor intrusion experts often subcontract those services, which can dilute the internal communications with the client. A firm with demonstrated expertise in all forms of Perc contamination ensures that the vapor intrusion investigation, mitigation, and risk management can remain a strategic component of the entire site closure approach.

4. FIND AN ENVIRONMENTAL FIRM WITH SKILLED RISK COMMUNICATORS

When subsurface contaminants that have originated at your dry cleaner site migrate to off-site properties in the soil, groundwater or vapors, there are difficult yet necessary conversations ahead. Sometimes there are even conversations that need to be had with your own on-site employees, on-site tenants, or neighbors. Each of these communications regarding how contamination, that you are responsible for, has impacted their property, or potentially even exposed site occupants above health-based screening levels, is a high-risk of liability for you. Your environmental attorney is going to be intimately involved in these conversations, but a good environmental consultant is going to employ professionals who are highly skilled in explaining these situations to affected persons or communities.

In my experience of representing dry cleaners for over 20 years, I routinely need to convince next door neighbors to allow access for sampling on their properties and even explain how there may need to be restrictive covenants outlining a contract or agreement for their properties following regulatory closure.

Your environmental consultant should engage their professionals who have specific training and experience in risk communication and public relations to hold public meetings or interface with the occupants of buildings where vapor intrusion exposure issues are known to exist. Trust me, when you have a consultant walking into an elementary school gymnasium full of anxious parents to discuss a vapor intrusion concern on your behalf, you want them to have expertise in more than just the science of the matter.

5. FIND A FIRM WITH PROVEN ALTERNATIVE FUNDING EXPERTISE

The financial liability can be huge for a release of perc, and your ability to manage it is directly related to your ability to find the money to pay for it. Therefore, you need to find an environmental consulting firm with expertise in funding resources. A consultant who is truly looking out for your best interest is going to put your financial concerns near the top of the list of importance.

At my environmental consulting firm, we use your historical commercial general liability (CGL) insurance policies to help pay for the cost of environmental investigations and cleanup, among other sources.  

 

To learn more about historical CGL insurance policies and how to find, read How Does It Work? Insurance Archeology and CGL Policies

There are also other funding strategies that may be of assistance, such as state trust funds or cost recovery through litigation if there are other responsible parties. It’s important to be careful about relying too heavily on state trust funds. There are reports of state dry cleaning environmental programs having a lack of sustainability and delays in reimbursement, adding even more emphasis to the need for strategic financial planning. There may be municipal or state incentives available, should you find yourself in a position to partner with redevelopers. Financial planning, just like clean-up strategies, should be custom-tailored to your specific situation and needs.

PRO TIP: DISCUSS WITH THE CONSULTANT WHAT YOUR FINANCIAL RESOURCES ARE, BECAUSE IF YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO GET TO THE END GAME, YOU MAY BE BETTER OFF NOT STARTING AT ALL. YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT YOU ARE FACING SO THAT YOU’RE NOT SURPRISED. THIS MEANS YOU MAY HEAR THINGS YOU DON’T WANT TO HEAR.

IN SUMMARY

Selecting an environmental consultant may be the biggest decision for your business, so treat it very seriously. Select your consultant the same way you’d select your doctor. You wouldn’t want a foot doctor working on your heart and you shouldn’t have a tank removal contractor working on a solvent spill.

DO:

• Evaluate the consultant’s experience
• Download our Environmental Consultant Interview Questionnaire to help you evaluate your potential environmental consultant during your interview process
• Find out how many sites they have worked on
• Find out how many they have closed
• Find out if there are alternative sources of funding other than just your business. If the consultant doesn’t have a clue as to what you are asking, run the other direction.  
• Ask tough questions about the investigation and remediation process.
• Understand why you are doing the work and whether you need the site closed to sell the property or the business.
• Ask for a roadmap and plan of action.

DON’T:

• Select an environmental consultant based on a referral alone.
• Choose a consultant on price alone.
• Choose a consultant because they tell you what you want to hear.

Take all of these considerations and use them as evaluation criteria during your search for the environmental consultant. I always tell dry cleaners that your environmental consultant works for you and you need someone in their corner looking out for their well-being. If the environmental consultant you’re considering doesn’t feel right, it’s probably not right.

Have questions? Contact EnviroForensics today. As seen in Cleaner & Launderer

---

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.

PERC IS ONE OF THE MORE EXPENSIVE CONTAMINANTS TO CLEAN UP. HERE’S WHY IT’S SO EXPENSIVE TO CLEAN UP AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT.

Dry cleaners are keenly aware that the use of tetrachloroethene (PCE, known as Perc) in the textiles industry has become as heavily regulated as nearly any other industrial chemical to date. In fact, environmental concerns resulting from the current or past use of Perc are practically as common as those arising from old gasoline stations. Everyone has seen the vacant, seemingly valuable, corner lot that used to house a bustling gas station yet is now sitting in ruin. These old gas stations are known to have been the cause of environmental problems, and the high cost of the cleanup is often the reason why they go dormant for so long. Unfortunately, the amount of time and money that is required to investigate and ultimately clean up dry cleaner sites that have been impacted with Perc can be several times higher than at typical gas station sites. A common gas station site falls into the $350,000 range, and we have seen average closure costs for dry cleaner sites more in the $1 million to $1.25 million range. What makes Perc so much harder and more expensive to clean up than petroleum?

This article discusses a few of the complicating factors about Perc releases that make them so unique and so darn expensive.

1. PERC IS HEAVIER THAN WATER

Part of the reason that Perc releases are so challenging to investigate and cleanup is because of its chemical properties. PCE is over 60% heavier than water under normal conditions and sinks to the bottom while the groundwater floats on top. Likewise, when a release of Perc to the ground occurs and it reaches down to the groundwater table, it will continue to sink until it hits a layer of dense material, like clay.

It will sit there and continue to dissolve for a long time, which can cause a long groundwater contamination plume. The groundwater plume may also be very deep, depending on the geological conditions in your neighborhood. Big and deep means that more off-site properties are likely to be impacted as the plume grows. If multiple clay layers exist, there may be continuing sources of groundwater impacts.

FACT: PERC IS HEAVY AND CAN TRAVEL FAST AND FAR, WHICH CREATES LARGE PLUMES IN GROUNDWATER.

Petroleum products, including gasoline, diesel fuel, Stoddard solvent, and the like, are less dense than water. In contrast to Perc releases, once a petroleum spill reaches the groundwater table it floats on top of the groundwater and migrates horizontally. As a result, most petroleum releases are fairly shallow and comparatively simple to investigate and cleanup.

2. PCE IS RESISTANT TO NATURAL BREAKDOWN

There are naturally occurring microbes, bugs, in the subsurface that breakdown many organic compounds and materials. In the shallow zones, there is usually plenty of oxygen in the soils and groundwater, and oxygen-loving bugs thrive here. Some varieties of these bugs readily use petroleum contamination as a food source, which has the result of slowly reducing the amount of petroleum contamination over time. So, recall that most gas station and petroleum pollution is present in the shallower zones of the subsurface where there are plenty of these helpful, oxygen-loving bugs that eat petroleum, and voila; you have a cheap cleanup method. In fact, a common and cost-effective remediation strategy in these situations involves simply monitoring the effects until cleanup objectives are reached, which is called Monitored Natural Attenuation (MNA).

Conversely to petroleum releases, the type of bugs responsible for the biodegradation of Perc and other chlorinated solvents thrive in an environment without the presence of much oxygen (anaerobic conditions). The most common biological process that naturally occurring bugs use for breaking down Perc is called reductive dechlorination. In this process, the bugs cause hydrogen atoms present in the groundwater (H₂O) to be substituted for chlorine (Cl) atoms in the Perc molecule.

That’s why it’s called dechlorination. Each time a chlorine atom is plucked off the parent Perc molecule; Perc, which has four chlorine atoms, is transformed to trichloroethene (TCE), which has three chlorine atoms, to dichloroethene (DCE), which has two, to vinyl chloride, which has one, and ultimately to ethene, which is basically a Perc compound with no chlorines at all. While Perc and all its other daughter products are considered toxic, ethene is non-toxic.

So, cleanup of Perc spills can be performed taking advantage of these naturally occurring bugs, but they aren’t really found in very common places. The conditions present in the subsurface need to be studied carefully and a remediation plan needs to be devised that takes advantage of this complicated, naturally occurring process to help achieve cleanup objectives where spills of Perc have occurred. Many times, naturally occurring conditions in the groundwater must be enhanced to take away the oxygen and we may even need to inject more of the right kind of bugs to speed up the reductive dechlorination process.

FACT: THE PERC DECHLORINATION PROCESSES ADDS SIGNIFICANT COST AND TIME TO REMEDIATION PROJECTS, AS COMPARED TO THE SIMPLE MONITORED NATURAL ATTENUATION OF A PETROLEUM PLUME.

3. PCE VAPORS ARE PERSISTENT AND MOBILE

Not only is Perc resistant to natural degradation, it also can remain in the soil as a vapor for a long period of time without breaking down. As all dry cleaners know, the volatile nature of Perc means that it will evaporate from a liquid to a vapor easily, which is one of the characteristics that make it such a good cleaning solvent. However, once PCE is released to the subsurface it also volatilizes as it disperses through the soil. If the vapors reached an occupied structure, like a house, and migrate into the indoor living space, vapor intrusion (VI) has occurred.

VI concerns are at the top of most regulator’s list of concerns since Perc is considered a probable carcinogen. Just like we discussed above, the special kind of bugs needed to break down Perc don’t like oxygen, and the soil where the Perc vapors are is full of oxygen. Perc vapors don’t breakdown, and they can cause VI concerns for a long time. Since PCE vapors do not readily breakdown, they have been known to travel great distances  even from minor solvent spills. Many dry cleaners are located close to their customers in highly populated areas, and as a result the risk of VI occurring from a subsurface release is compounded.

FACT: THE VI EXPOSURE PATHWAY IS AN EXTREMELY COMPLICATED PROCESS, WHICH REQUIRES A SOPHISTICATED AND KNOWLEDGEABLE ENVIRONMENTAL PROFESSIONAL TO ADEQUATELY INVESTIGATE AND ADDRESS THE PATHWAY. BECAUSE OF THIS, COSTLY VI INVESTIGATIONS AND MITIGATION SYSTEMS COME WITH NEARLY EVERY DRY CLEANER SITE WHERE A RELEASE OF PERC HAS OCCURRED.

On the flip-side, VI issues occasionally happen with gas station sites, but it’s not all that common. The petroleum hydrocarbon compound Benzene is a major component of gasoline spills. It is also very volatile and is a known carcinogen, like Perc. The difference is that benzene vapors have been shown to naturally degrade in soils. As a result, the occurrence of VI concerns resulting from releases of petroleum products is limited, and the associated costs are not necessary at gas station sites as often as at dry cleaner sites.

These are only a few of the reasons that releases of PCE from neighborhood dry cleaners are commonly so much more expensive to address than those from the typical corner gas station.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

It’s crucial that owners and operators of dry cleaning operations that have historically used or presently use Perc be aware of all potential funding sources available to them, such as:

• Historical insurance policies
• Redevelopment cleanup grants
• State Trust Funds

In those states that have dry cleaner remediation trust funds available for cleaning up dry cleaner sites, they are commonly stretched thin due to lack of funding, if eligibility is still available.

Historical insurance policies have proven to be the most powerful funding sources for dry cleaners across the country. Dry cleaner sites contaminated with Perc are complicated, expensive, and risky. Your best plan of action is to actually have a plan of action.

Contact us to get your action plan started.

As seen as Cleaner & Launderer

---

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.

HOW TO MAKE FINANCIALLY SOUND ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANUP DECISIONS

BY: JEFF CARNAHAN

Many years ago, when I was a younger man just waiting for life to teach me the lessons I’d need, I had a brown, four-door 1976 Ford Maverick. This thing wasn’t pretty, and it certainly wasn’t cool, but it got me to school and to work, and occasionally it would deliver a brave girl and I to the movies on a Saturday night. I spent the time needed to change the oil and replace the filters, but for the most part I took for granted how important it was to me. One day on my way to somewhere, I heard an awful clunk and it just died. The first thought through my head was, “Oh no! How much is this going to cost me?” After a $50 tow to the shop and following several hours of waiting, the mechanic asked me this question, “Well son, do you want it to run, or do you want it fixed?”

I’m sure you can figure out the rest of the story. Since I was counting pennies at the time, I chose to have the minimum amount of work done to get my car running and back on the road immediately for the cheapest amount possible, rather than investing the time and money into getting it fixed correctly. I won’t bore you with the details but be assured that when that old Maverick died for good soon after, I was left high and dry with no transportation and wishing I’d have made a different decision a few months prior. That was an important lesson for me, and one that I keep with me.

TIP: FIX THINGS RIGHT, AND THE INVESTMENT WILL MORE THAN PAY FOR ITSELF.

I’d love to say that it only took that one incident for me to learn this lesson. It’s funny how life keeps giving you opportunities to learn.

Most of us have an example of how we’ve experienced this situation in the past, but when these types of decisions must be made in business it’s even trickier. In your experience, was it during a dry cleaning machine repair job or when fixing a leaky roof, or even as you tried to put yet another quick fix on that temperamental boiler? Environmental cleanups probably don’t come to mind for most folks, but the exact same thing applies for them. There are three components to dealing with an environmental contamination problem:

1. Immediately halting any human exposure to chemicals that may be occurring;
2. Cleaning up the contamination on-site and off-site; and
3. Getting a Closure, or No Further Action, Letter from the state regulatory agency.

Once the necessary work has been conducted to stop human exposure, the question then becomes, “Now, do you want it clean, or do you just want a regulatory closure?” This may be putting the cart before the horse a little bit, but let’s leave the discussion about why immediately halting human exposure is top priority and non-negotiable for a later edition, and let’s focus on the interplay between cleaning up and getting regulatory closure.

WHAT DOES “CLEAN” MEAN IN AN ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANUP?

When performing an environmental cleanup, there is very little basis to involve the word “clean”. True clean never really occurs. There are only various levels of not quite, and at some point, it’s “clean enough”. In the world of environmental contamination there are numerous people setting the standard for when a property can be called “clean enough”. Most regulators worry mainly about two things beyond the current human exposure component:

1. Ensuring that the contamination problem is getting better rather than worse
2. Ensuring that there is no threat of future human or ecological exposure

Believe it or not, your property doesn’t have to be very clean at all for these boxes to be checked. Other parties who will be deciding if your property is clean enough are future purchasers and their financial lenders. They will not only be looking at whether you have a regulatory closure, but they will also be using the general environmental health of the property to help determine its practical value. This is a component that often gets overlooked when deciding how clean is “clean enough”. If the money isn’t spent during the first crack at environmental remedy, it could cost a significant amount of money later in the form of a lower property value when it’s time to sell, or a requirement for additional environmental work to be performed to even attract qualified purchasers.

TIP: THE TRICK IS TO STRIKE JUST THE RIGHT BALANCE BETWEEN SPENDING MONEY ON ACTIVE ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANUP, AND THE FUTURE COSTS THAT COULD ARISE. THIS WILL BE A LITTLE DIFFERENT FOR MOST EVERYONE FACING THESE DECISIONS, BUT THE FUNDAMENTAL THOUGHT PROCESS REMAINS THE SAME.

WHAT DOES REGULATORY CLOSURE MEANS FOR DRY CLEANERS?

Some state environmental regulators have very prescribed cleanup standards that have been put in place for regulated chemicals and are based upon certain human exposure scenarios given various land uses. For example, the cleanup standard for tetrachloroethene (PCE, or Perc) is much less stringent for properties which are and will remain commercial or industrial in nature, as opposed to used for residential purposes. This is because commercial property users spend much less time at the property than a residential user would and are engaging in activities that are much less likely to put them in contact with subsurface contamination than the residential user. So even when regulators strictly apply cleanup standards, their definition of clean is different for commercial and residential properties.

Other states allow for the person or business entity responsible for the contamination (Responsible Party, or RP) to decide how clean is clean enough by giving them the option to determine ongoing land usage more specifically with deed restrictions that limit the type of activities property owners and users can perform. A classic example is turning a contaminated property into a parking lot, and then putting in place a deed restriction or covenant that states that the property must always remain a parking lot, and it must be maintained that way, so no one can come into contact with the contamination. In this scenario, there is no need to perform much contaminant removal beyond what is necessary to keep it from spreading to other properties beyond the owner’s control. The presence of the well-maintained parking lot surface and the accompanying deed restrictions essentially remove the “risk” of human exposure. This type of regulatory closure is called a “Risk-Based Closure”. Many RPs initially love to employ such Risk-Based Closures because they are much cheaper initially than those remedies where a substantial amount of cleanup occurs. But keep in mind the little story about my old Ford Maverick. “Do you want it fixed, or do you just want it to run?” Well, do you want it clean, which restores your property to fair market value and provides you with a more robust set of reuse options, or do you just want a regulatory closure, which doesn’t restore your property to fair market value and limits future reuse options?

Settling for a pure Risk-Based Closure in lieu of a significant active cleanup can negatively impact the value of your property. I’m not saying complete elimination of environmental impacts is wise, or even possible. In fact, most of the time, it’s not even realistic to assume that every molecule of contamination can be removed from the soil, groundwater and soil gas after an environmental release. As such, nearly every remedy contains some component of a Risk-Based Cleanup. As I mentioned a bit earlier, the trick is finding the right balance that incorporates not only your wants and needs regarding post-closure usage of your property, but also takes into consideration your ability to shoulder the significant cost of active remedy.

BUSINESS AND PROPERTY OWNERS SHOULD WANT BOTH THE REGULATORY CLOSURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANUP

Environmental cleanup is a very costly endeavor, and it can heavily burden a business. Depending on how your business is set up, the liability for contamination could actually lie with you personally. Before you make that decision about how clean is clean enough, carefully consider all that you can afford. If you can swing it, the investment in a cleaner site will pay off in the future. Be sure to consider all your financial assets that can be used to pay for environmental cleanup.

TIP: REMEMBER THAT PAST COMMERCIAL GENERAL LIABILITY INSURANCE POLICIES CAN BE TRIGGERED TO PAY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANUP. ESPECIALLY SINCE MOST ENVIRONMENTAL RELEASES ALSO OCCURRED IN THE PAST.

By levering as much cleanup power and by choosing the best cleanup option, you can add value back to your contaminated property for future reimbursement. I wish the decision I made back with my Ford Maverick had been, “I want it to run, and I want it fixed.” As is the case for many dry cleaners, you’ll be better off if you get a regulatory closure and a cleanup.

Contact us to discuss leveraging environmental cleanup to restore property value.

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 drycleaning industry for the past decade, and he’s a frequent contributor to the national drycleaning 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.