Blog & Recent Projects

COLLABORATIVE TEAM EFFORT HELPS MONETIZE THE COST OF LNAPL CLEANUP FOR TDEC

COLUMBIA Technologies was selected by PM Environmental to support a high-resolution assessment of a former retail gas station with persistent LNAPL contamination.  The goal of the assessment was to evaluate for the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation the impact of better information on monetizing the cost of long-term correctives action at these types of sites.  The site is one of 246 remaining "difficult to resolve" sites in Tennessee and is typical of the many of over 16,000 remaining Leaking Underground Storage Tank sites in the U.S.  The project involved a careful review of historical documents, cleanup activities, and extended field activities after hours and at night.   

Detailed information gained through this effort delineated an extensive amount of residual gasoline within difficult soil conditions highlighting the need for careful consideration of remedial alternatives.  The team employed the guidelines of the ITRC Technical and Regulatory Guidance for Evaluating LNAPL Remedial Technologies for Achieving Project Goals.  

 It is safe to say that 99% of all site assessments are either conducted through traditional sampling, groundwater monitoring wells, or direct sensing methods. As a leading site investigation partner to environmental consultants throughout North America and Hawaii, COLUMBIA Technologies specializes in soil and groundwater contamination assessments.

Since 1999, we have completed over 750 site assessments for some of the most discriminating clients including oil companies, government agencies, commercial real estate owners, developers, as well as architectural and engineering firms. Throughout all of our testing and experiences to date, we believe that using a comprehensive High Resolution Vertical Profiling approach seems to be the most cost-effective and accurate method to assess a contaminated site. This consists of direct sensing technologies to delineate the vertical and horizontal extent of the contamination to pinpoint the location. Once this information is known, following up with confirmation soil and groundwater samples would take place to validate the contaminant of concern.

The direct sensing technologies may cost more up front, however they assure that accurate information is being collected to move forward with designing remediation plans. In addition, our patented real-time data services platform, SmartData Solutions®, is able to produce high resolution visualizations through a secured website for online review of project data.

With 30-years of experience in strategic planning, technical management, and laboratory supervision with the U.S. Navy,  Gayle Goff, joins the COLUMBIA Technologies team in the role of Quality Assurance Manager. As our Quality Assurance Manager, Gayle is responsible for conducting self-assessments, analyzing quality performance metrics, and the execution of improvements of quality programs. During her time overseeing Safety and Occupational Health programs for hospitals, clinics, research laboratories and educational facilities worldwide, Gayle led key initiatives to streamline self-assessments, set performance metrics, and improve quality of programs in a well-focused, consistent, systematic and quantifiable manner.

 John Sohl, COLUMBIA Technologies' CEO, attended the 8th Symposium on the Design and Construction of Hazardous Waste Sites hosted by the Philadelphia Post of the Society of Military Engineers (www.samephildelphiapost.org). The focus of the symposium was how to incorporate performance based contracting into the environmental restoration of complex sites covered by the nation's Superfund Program.

John's key take-a-ways from the symposium were:

• The remaining Superfund sites are extremely complex. Successful restoration will be driven by detailed characterization built upon multiple lines of evidence and the best available science and technologies.
• Successful participants in future cleanups will be characterized by highly collaborative teams with aligned goals, risk, and reward.
• Information will drive clarity and successful communication with all stakeholders involved in the restoration efforts. Even after restoration efforts begin, there will be a continuing need for adaptive management using data-driven performance metrics.

The PBC contracts will be procured across multiple EPA regions in three major groups: Design Environmental Services (DES), Remediation Environmental Services (RES), and Environmental Services and Operations (ESO). Procurements will be open to both large and small businesses. The new contracting acquisition framework is being handled through EPA's Office of Superfund Remediation Technology and Innovation (OSRTI) (http://www.epa.gov/superfund/partners/osrti/) and FedBizOpps (www.fbo.gov).

 24th National Tanks Conference & Expo organized by 
NEIWPCC, EPA, ASTSWMO, and CDLE in Denver, CO on September 16-18, 2013

COLUMBIA Technologies is pleased to announce our support for the upcoming 24th National Tanks Conference in Denver, CO with two presentations and an exhibit booth.

On Sunday, September 15, 2013, our CEO, John Sohl and Vista GeoScience's President, John Fontana, will present a pre-conference workshop Improved In-Situ Remediation using Advanced High Resolution Site Characterization Tools for Remedial Design Characterization and Advanced Injection Technologies from 1:00 - 5:00 PM.

On Monday, September 16, 2013, our CEO, John Sohl, will present Improving LUST Management through High Resolution Data on LNAPL and Permeability to Close Those Pesky Sites during the Advanced LNAPL Assessment I session from 1:30 - 3:00 PM.

COLUMBIA staff will be present at the 24th National Tanks Conference & Expo and will be pleased to meet you at Booth 219. If you would like to organize a meeting in advance, please contact Dov Hoffman at (888) 344-2704 ext. 207 or dhoffman@columbiatechnologies.com.

 On Wednesday, June 12, 2013, our CEO, John Sohl will present Leveraging Advanced High-Resolution Site Characterization Best Practices to Plan, Target, and Enhance Bioremediation Efforts during the Innovative and Developing Processes and Protocols platform session of the Methodologies for Planning and Evaluating Bioremediation track. This year, the Second International Symposium on Bioremediation and Sustainable Environmental Technologies will be conducted June 10-13, at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront Hotel in Jacksonville, FL. The Symposium is organized and presented by Battelle, and conference sponsors are other organizations active in site investigation and remediation.

For the remediation-focused site investigation professional, we believe that hydraulic permeability is no longer an option, but a requirement. As this post will outline, hydraulic permeability is key to identifying contaminant transport zones at LNAPL and DNAPL sites for remediation-focused site investigations. Hydraulic permeability data, which is collected with a Hydraulic Profiling Tool (HPT), enables decision makers to understand contaminant mobility and migration. Today, responsible parties and involved stakeholders are looking for more than just lab results from samples and screened well intervals, and are instead looking for data which enables them to minimize risk, reduce costs, and enhance remediation design efforts.

Below is an example of an HPT log from a site with multiple contaminants at concentrations up to and including NAPL. The combined Membrane Interface Probe-Hydraulic Profiling Tool (MiHpt) was used to delineate the horizontal and vertical extent of contamination and collect hydraulic permeability data simultaneously.

Key takeaways from the log included above:

COLUMBIA Technologies is pleased to sponsor the upcoming Environmental Industry Summit XI in San Diego, CA. The Environmental Industry Summit is a national three-day learning event bringing together professionals from the environmental industry. The Environmental Industry Summit offers a unique opportunity to gain valuable perspective on today’s environmental industry providing ample networking opportunities, presentations, and panel discussions from the industry’s lead executives and analysts.

Environmental Industry Summit XI is March 6-8, 2013 at the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego, CA. The 2012 EBJ awards will be presented at a special ceremony at the Environmental Industry Summit XI.

COLUMBIA Technologies CEO, John Sohl, will participate in the Executive Response Panel during the Environmental Industry Summit XI. During the Executive Response Panel, executives from 3-4 prominent firms will stress test the industry outlook and render opinions on how their companies will strategically and tactically address industry challenges. John will give perspective on how clean-up technologies are being used on different sites, and how they have evolved with the various challenges presented.

Environmental Business Journal® (EBJ), a business research publication which provides high value strategic business intelligence to the environmental industry, has honored 50 companies for revenue growth, acquisitions, innovative project designs, technology applications, new practice areas, social contributions and industry leadership in 2012.

COLUMBIA Technologies is pleased to announce that it was chosen to receive the EBJ award for International Expansion.

“In an industry that has just managed to out-perform the overall economy but still presents challenges in many segments, a number of companies have achieved double-digit growth, sustained high profitability, built solid backlog, made successful forays into new practice areas or geographic markets, or developed technologies that can build a more sustainable economy,” said Grant Ferrier, President of Environmental Business International Inc. (EBI, San Diego), Publisher of Environmental Business Journal. “Historically, EBJ has known COLUMBIA Technologies as an industry leader in site characterization, but it’s their recent expansion into Mexico and Brazil which has positioned them as a global expert in the field and the recipient of a 2012 EBJ Business Achievement Award.”

COLUMBIA was recognized for establishing operations and formal partnerships in both Mexico and Brazil, thereby expanding its business model into Latin America in 2012. Expanding into Mexico and Brazil extended COLUMBIA’s international portfolio to more than 1,000 global project opportunities throughout Canada, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and 45 out of the 50 United States, including Hawaii. In 2012, COLUMBIA successfully completed over 100 projects throughout North America including Hawaii, provinces in Canada, and in Brazil for 54 different clients, with 63% of those firms being repeat customers. Since 1999, COLUMBIA has contracted with 26 of 40 firms from the Environmental Business International’s top rated environmental consulting and engineering firms on a diverse range of commercial, federal, and military sites.

Article originally featured in the Environmental Business Journal (EBJ) Executive Review 2013 Issue, Volume XXVI, Number 1, 2013

 Columbia Technologies, LLC (Baltimore, MD), is a global provider of high-resolution direct sensing and mapping technologies, such as the membrane interface probe (MIP), laser-induced fluorescence (LIF), and the hydraulic profiling tool (HPT), for application in contaminated site characterization. Founded in 1999, the 17-employee company has successfully completed approximately 1,000 high-resolution site characterization surveys throughout Mexico, Canada, and 45 of the 50 states, including Hawaii, serving oil companies, government agencies, commercial real estate owners, developers, and architectural and engineering firms. John Sohl is the company’s CEO.

EBJ: What kind of year was 2012 in terms of revenue growth and profitability for your firm?

John Sohl: It was a good year. We had 20% revenue growth, and roughly 30% growth on the profit line. We had a good, solid set of projects that contributed to growth and profits.

EBJ: What client sectors and regions provided the best opportunities, and what factors were driving those opportunities? Any shifts in the sectors you’re serving?

J.S.: For what we do, the clients that are engaging in more complex projects, where the site characterization and remediation challenges are significant, that’s where we get our best match in terms of value proposition. They often tend to be petrochemical clients and manufacturers.

We did see a good amount of work in the Midwest, which has offered good growth through the resurgence in the economy. General Motors, Ford, and other manufacturers are trying to resolve issues with the assets on their books. I think we’ll see more and more positive impacts when cheap natural gas affects the petrochemical and manufacturers. These clients did do well.

There were no dramatic shifts in our client base. We maintain a fairly broad base, and we’re active in both the industrial sector and the Department of Defense (DOD) market. In the commercial market, if there has been any kind of shift, it’s been by reaching out beyond our traditional borders. In 2012, we’ve done a couple of projects in Hawaii. We have a partner in Mexico, and we’ve done some work in Canada, so we’re exporting our work on a regular basis.