Blog & Recent Projects

 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.

We hope you enjoyed our last blog post, The 7 Myths of Direct Sensing (Part I) outlining the three basic assumptions or principles we have in mind when deploying high resolution direct sensing tools, defining high resolution and direct sensing tools, and disclosing the first three myths related to site characterization projects.

Below are four additional myths related to detection levels, remediation programs, cost of direct sensing, and the need for real time data with the corresponding truths.

Myth 4: The detection levels of direct sensing tools like the Membrane Interface Probe (MIP) are not low enough

If you’re going off the basis that the contaminant levels at your site are too low for direct sensing tools, you’re probably should ask yourself do I really only have 10 ppb and if so, why do I still have 10 ppb? Direct sensing tools for contaminant profiling are first and foremost source area characterization tools.

After 20 years in enviromental sampling and analysis we have come to believe in direct sensing as a means of providing the most rapid and comprehensive information about the distribution and composition of soil and groundwater contamination. Ever evolving, today’s direct sensing tools for remediation focused site characterization projects continue to add a greater range of high resolution information on subsurface conditions including hydrology, lithology and contaminant distribution to support environmental liability decision.

Although direct sensing approaches are used throughout the environmental industry supporting cleanup and closure efforts, there are still several myths associated in applying these methods to site investigation and remediation projects.

There are three basic assumptions or principles we have in mind when deploying high resolution direct sensing tools with as near real time decision-making information:

COLUMBIA Technologies recently supported the Sixth International Seminar on Environmental Characterization and Remediation of Sites Impacted by Hydrocarbons - 2012 in Mexico City, Mexico. The seminar was hosted by Rede Latino Americana de Prevenção e Gestão de Sítios (ReLASC) in partnership with PEMEX Refinery and Ecoterra Servicios Ambientales.

On Friday, September 14, COLUMBIA presented Rapid High Resolution Site Characterization Using Direct Sensing Technologies. With local teaming partner, International Products and Organic Solutions (IPOS) on Saturday, September 15, COLUMBIA provided a hands-on demonstration displaying how these advanced tools can be applied to a wide range of contaminated sites.

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Article originally featured on Tradeology, the official blog of ITA (International Trade Administration)

Doug Barry is a Senior International Trade Specialist in the Trade Information Center, U.S. Commercial Service within the International Trade Administration. 

John H. Sohl III is founder of Columbia Technologies, a Maryland company that maps underground pollution from large manufacturing facilities, oil terminals, pipelines and military bases. The company is a client of the Baltimore Export Assistance Center.

Barry:  How do you map underground pollution?

Sohl:  Mapping involves deployment of sensor technologies that track leakage and migration of pollutants.  Following analysis by our technicians, customers can make decisions on risk assessment, disposition of the property and proper cleanup actions.

Sohl:  I started the company about 15 years ago after doing similar work in the U.S. Navy.  I was always intrigued with the application of sensors and three-dimensional mapping of components, and that’s the approach we brought to the industry.  The world really is getting flat and many of our clients are global industries that have footprints both in the U.S. and North America as well as the globe.  So once we’ve established a good working relationship and reputation with those firms, they sought to bring us into other parts of the globe.

Barry:  So your initial market entry strategy was to piggyback on clients here in the U.S. and ride them into new markets.

One of the most critical points to remember when developing a site closure work plan is that it simply costs too much to assess, remediate, and make decisions on information that is incomplete, inaccurate, and too late. Traditional approaches to characterizing subsurface conditions by drilling, soil sampling, and monitoring wells screened over large intervals are too incomplete to accurately deal with site heteregoneity.

Therefore, a high resolution site characterization approach is a more attractive option as it enables projects to move forward with remediation focused activities such as corrective action, free product recovery efforts, and site closure.

Let’s face it, the heterogeneity geology of a site is going to impact the migration of subsurface contamination opposed to the age old myth that it always follows the direction of groundwater. Introduction of the Hydraulic Profiling Tool (HPT) for site investigation and remediation efforts supports contaminant mapping activities to provide a greater understanding of subsurface conditions. By measuring direct pressure response, HPT develops weighted lines of evidence indicating the tight (or loose) grains and low (or high) flow zones in order to determine the migration pathways, remediation injection regions, and placements for monitoring wells. With an integrated Soil Electrical Conductivity (EC) array this tool also defines zones of lower conductivity which allows for the movement of contaminants into the subsurface.