Cox-Colvin Employee Honored by AIPG

Martin (Mort) Schmidt, my colleague at Cox-Colvin & Associates, recently was honored for his distinguished service to the Ohio Section of the American Institute of Professional Geologists (AIPG). Mort received the Outstanding Service to the Institute Award for his outstanding contribution of time and effort to the Ohio Section. Details were provided in the May/June 2010 issue of AIPG's The Professional Geologist magazine, as follows: "As editor of the Ohio Section newsletter from 1992 through 2009, Martin (Mort) A. Schmidt, has greatly contributed to the Ohio Section's effort of promoting the geologic profession in the State of Ohio. In fulfilling his duties throughout these many years, Mort has devoted countless hours to compiling information, designing and distributing the Ohio Section newsletter (even before email), and sending special announcements, as warranted. Through his exceptional dedication and perseverance, Mort Schmidt has shown an outstanding level of devotion and service to the Ohio Section".

Mort received his BS and MS degrees in Geology and Mineralogy from The Ohio State University, and has been a Cox-Colvin & Associates employee since 1997. His areas of expertise include vapor intrusion and contaminant investigation and analysis, and he currently serves as Cox-Colvin's Health & Safety Officer. Mort is a Certified Professional Geologist with AIPG (CPG-08432), and is a registered Geologist in Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.

Congratulations, Mort!

ODNR Core Lab Workshop

On April 20th, I assisted with the Ohio Department of natural Resource's (ODNR) Ohio Geological Survey's (OGS) first core workshop. As a board member on OGS's Collins Core Repository, we decided that we could provide the public with a better understanding of how rock cores are collected, analyzed, and used, and that we could teach them how to recognize Ohio's various rock formations when they examine cores.

The morning consisted of presentations on Paleozoic bedrock from Ohio's Chief Geologist, Larry Wickstrom, Assistant Chief Mac Swinford, and Greg Schumacher and Mike Angle of the OGS. Brian Mott of DLZ and I discussed the collection and interpretation of the younger Ice Age sediments. In the afternoon, students did hands-on exercises with the cores. We had a turnout of 30 people of various backgrounds and experience levels. The results were very positive, and we plan to repeat the exercise later in 2010. We assembled a workbook for the exercise that includes fact sheets for the Glacial Sand and Gravel, Ohio Shale, Berea Sandstone, and other formations that are encountered in Central Ohio. Over time, the workshop will be expanded to cover other parts of Ohio. When the workbook is put on ODNR's website, we'll add a link to it from the Cox-Colvin website.

ITRC's Green and Sustainable Remediation Team

I recently became a member of the Interstate Technical and Regulatory Council (ITRC) Green and Sustainable Remediation (GSR) Team. The team's purpose is to facilitate discussion, information exchange, and technology transfer about GSR among regulatory agencies and other interested parties. As a team member, I'm looking forward to contributing to the evolution of the GSR initiative, including the development of a technical guidance document. Check out the team's webpage, and let me know if you have any input.

EPA Region 5 Greener Cleanups Workshop

I recently attended EPA Region 5's Greener Cleanup Workshop, which provided an overview of Region 5's progress and future direction associated with green and sustainable remediation. I summarized the information presented at the Workshop for the benefit of those interested in green and sustainable remediation who could not attend. My summary was incorporated into Cox-Colvin's first Green & Sustainable Remediation Bulletin.

LIDAR - A great resource for Ohio Environmental Scientists

Did you know that Ohio is one of only 5 states to have complete LIDAR coverage? Did you also know that it is available for free?

LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a technology used to create detailed topographic maps known as digital elevation models (DEMs). In Ohio, these data were collected during the creation of detailed, orthographically-corrected aerial photography. The DEMs, aerial photography, and LIDAR raw data files are available through Ohio's OGRIP and OSIP sites. A simple google search will get you there.

I commonly download DEMs for the 7.5 minute quads associated with my environmental sites. I then use the TatukGIS viewer (see my March 2009 blog) to do color renderings or shading. The renderings show an amazing amount of detail and can be easily draped over the associated topographic map revealing buried valleys, geomorphic features, etc. It is really a powerful tool for environmental scientists and the great part is that it's all there for free.

Finally, GIS for Everyone!

GIS is an important tool for many of us in the environmental field. In general, its use has been limited to a few within an environmental organization - largely due to cost. There is, however, a free GIS Viewer on the market that is extremely powerful and easy to use. The TatukGIS Viewer is free to download and use. With TatukGIS you can import just about any spatial data format including your own data in comma delinited format. You can render complex surfaces, produce maps, just about anything...all for free!

TatukGIS was constructed using Delphi, the same programming environment that Cox-Colvin uses to produce Data Inspector. In fact, you can expect to see a full fledge GIS system built in Data Inspector soon using TatukGIS' powerful GIS tools. Stay tuned...in the mean time download the Viewer, or the Editor ($350) at www.TatukGIS.com and learn how easy and affordable GIS can be.

Outlining President Obama's Agenda for the Environment

On January 23, 2009, Lisa P. Jackson, US EPA Administrator-designate, sent a memo to US EPA employees introducing herself and outlining the President's agenda for the environment. According to the memo, President Obama has articulated three values that he expects EPA to uphold. These include 1) science must be the backbone for EPA programs, 2) EPA must follow the rule of law and 3) EPA’s actions must be transparent. Both the regulated community and environmental groups alike should be satisfied with these values. As Ms. Jackson states in the memo, "When scientific judgments are suppressed, misrepresented or distorted by political agendas, Americans can lose faith in their government to provide strong public health and environmental protection."

According to the memo, the administration's priorities for the environment include: 1) reducing greenhouse gas emissions, 2) improving air quality, 3) managing chemical risks, 4) cleaning up hazardous-waste sites and 5) protecting America’s water.

Cox-Colvin is very involved in the cleanup of hazardous waste sites, with many of these sites on the EPA's 2020 universe of sites to be cleaned up by the year 2020. The driving force for the cleanup of the hazardous waste sites falls under two general categories, real estate development driven cleanups and agency driven cleanups. Real estate development driven cleanups are entered into more or less voluntarily by developers that are looking to profit from the redevelopment and re-use of the property. Over the past ten years, real estate market forces have resulted in the cleanup and the productive re-use of many former hazardous waste sites. However, in today's economy, few developers are willing to take on the risks associated with former hazardous waste sites. We should, therefore, expect to see an increase in agency driven cleanups, through orders and permits, as EPA struggles to meet its priorities addressed by the new Director and identified in the RCRA Corrective Action 2020 Initiative. For assistance in cleanup of hazardous waste sites, look to the leader in agency driven RCRA Corrective Action: Cox-Colvin & Associates, Inc.

You can view the full memo at http://www.epa.gov/administrator/memotoemployees.html .