California 2013 UST CLEANUP FUND PAYMENT PROCESSING IMPROVEMENT PLAN March 1, 2013

Latest update on payment processing by the California Leaking Underground Storage Tank Fund

CA UST- Payment_Processing_Improvement_Plan_02-28-13 - payment_processing_plan.pdf

Solleco Environmental Equipment Manuals

I used to work for Solleco. If you have any equipment needs (SVE, DPE, Oxidizers, etc) please feel free to give me a call. I would be happy to sell or rent you a remediation system or related equipment and services.

You can find links to old Solleco manuals on this internet archive site I found a while back.  Check them out here:

Solleco Equipment Manuals

Cities with the Best Tap Water

Educate yourself on how well your local utility is meeting drinking water standards.
Even my libertarian friends would have a hard time arguing against the idea that if local or municipal tax dollars are going to spent on infrastructure that they should be spent on ensuring a safe drinking water supply.
Interested in how your water provider is currently ranked? Check out how 100 major US cities are ranked in terms of water quality:

http://www.ewg.org/tap-water/rating-big-city-water

EWG's Drinking Water Quality Analysis and Tap Water Database | Environmental Working Group

Best yet, look at how well your local utility is meeting water quality standards by typing in your zip code into the widget at the bottom of this page.

Surprise...Safe Drinking Water Act Does Not Mean Your Water Is Safe!

Interesting interview on drinking water quality and standards. The podcast embedded below from NPR is from an interview between Terry Gross and a reporter from the New York Times, CHARLES DUHIGG, about his article that appeared in today's newspaper.

While it might be easy to dismiss this reporter's story as alarmist, my natural skepticism was tempered after listening.

The take-away point here: our drinking water standards that our municipalities may meet are not strict enough to ensure healthy, non-cancer causing drinking water. The 24:00 mark is where the interview hits the "high water" mark for me. Have a listen...




The original article is here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/us/17water.html

Fixed Blade Cutting Instruments and Health & Safety (Based on a True Story)

From the whatever it is worth department, I have looked high and low for tricks on how to open a cd ROM drive that will not open.
I used the eject disc feature with the OS, I tried looking for processes in the ctrl-alt-del screen. I even tried to poke the paper clip into the little hole in the front of the tray that is used to pop out the cd drive drawer. Nothing worked.
A lot of PC sites say it might be time to open up the tower and start unscrewing screws and disconnecting things. Yet I saw one anonymous poster on one of the tech-forums say, "use a butternife".
So, I got my safety glasses on and some steel-mesh gloves, donned my hard hat and set up saftey cones around my PC so as to create a zone exclusion around the work area. My kids and dog are very curious about these things and they had a lot of questions and quizzical looks. Following procedure, I sent them to the information officer (their mom) so I could concentrate on the job at hand.
My safety training videos play through my head like so many eight track tapes. All the training, all the way back to college at San Jose State's Aeronautics Department, went through my mind... "Use the right tool for the right job". "To be a professional, you have to act like a professional". "Do not used fixed blade instruments"... "Safety stand-down". "You are not allowed to have fixed bladed instruments (including butter knives) in your toolbox".
At this point, the supervisor of this establishment's mess hall (my wife, AKA the information officer) was now asking me what I was doing in her living room with all the cones and safety tape. I told her I was preparing to service and repair the CD ROM drive on our desktop computer and that the HASP called for a zone of exclusion. "Just following the procedures, ma'am," and quickly followed with a "can you take the kids outside?" were my exact words. But then, I added in a slightly higher pitched voice, "Honey, can you please get me a butter knife so I do not have to get up and you are walking over there anyway?"
I admit I asked for and took the butterknife. I was breaking all the rules by taking this butterknife in my hand on this job.
In the interest of fair and honest blogging, it was the only option I had. I did not want to shut down the computer, remove power, remove all the cords and cables, clear off a work area on my desk, etc. I did not want to mess anything up on the inside of the PC (the Job Safety Analysis (JSA) for PC repair called out this and electrocution as particular dangers).
All I really wanted was to rip a cd for the IPOD, because Wheezer is getting really overplayed and I need some new tunes on there or I will go crazy.
So, now to the present. It is just me, the butter knife and my PC's CD ROM Drive that will not open. I happen to notice I do not call it "my butterknife", because somehow this makes it seem less of an infraction.
I get down on my hands and knees and open the access door so I can see the sliding tray. I take the cool, steel blade handle of the butter knife into my hands and start pushing the end of the knife into the seam made between the part that is supposed to slide open and it's fixed housing. I try one side and then the other, but my blade is a little too thick to get inside. I push a little harder on the seam and the plastic gives a little bit and the knife slides in about a half centimeter. I leverage this half centimeter against the side bezel and notice that the sliding tray part moves a little. I take this as a good sign. I follow the same procedure on the right side of the CDROM drawer. Again I notice movement here as well. In fact, the drawer opens about an eighth of an inch, just enough to stick the fingernail of my index finger into the opening. I stick my finger in and with a slight tug, the tray slides all the way out! Glorious success!
Inside the tray, I find two CD's, one of which I have seen way too, too, TOO many times before, "Clifford THE BIG RED DOG, Reading", and one I have never seen before "Motorola Wirless Notbook adapter Instlallation Wizard" CD. Clifford, the family favorite, was on top with the Motorola CD buried below it. (literary personification, while appropriate here, is not intended and will not be referenced further in this post so please disregard). However, the fact that the Clifford CD is on top of the other leads me to conclude that one or two of my precious children were not following proper PC operational procedures! I want to write them up, but their supervisor has already put them to bed.
I remove the obstructions, push the drawer back in. It slides in very easily as it did the first time I used it. But now for the moment of truth. Will the CDROM properly open when I press the eject CD button on the PC? Will it work now?
I reach up to press the button, knowing this point is the moment of truth. I press it, gently, feeling for the click in my index finger. There it was! A tiny "click". At that instant.... nothing happened. My moment of truth turns to a moment of anguish and I envision a trip to Fry's Electronics and a whole lot of tado over one simple CD ROM tray. But my moment of anguish is short-lived! I feel the vibration of a small motor inside, a barely decipherable 'snap' and then see the tray sliding out towards me. VICTORY! It works, it works, it works!
I rise to my feet and place the butterknife and two CD's on the desk and write up the job.
The thing I learned? A butterknife can and will be used to open a cd rom drive that is stuck closed.
But I did not follow proper safety procedures and since my last blog was on Health and Safety, I must save fellow colleagues from my torment. Therefore I am officially asking all PC and CD ROM Manufactureres to add the following to their official troubleshooting, operation and maintenace manuals: "As last resort, and following all appropriate safety procedures, use a butter knife to gently pry open a jammed CD Rom Drive". This should solve it for future generations. No more angst and agony.
So it is written, so it shall be done.

Health and Safety Requirements? Yes! But To What Degree?

A woman is pulled from near the Center Street dam by construction worker Jason Oglesbee on Tuesday. A man who was with the unidentified woman died in the Des Moines River. A rescue team from the Des Moines Fire Department tried several times to rescue the woman but could not get close enough to her. (Andrea Melendez/The Register)

Is it always true that if a job cannot be done safely it is not worth doing? After viewing the photo above, what do you think?

With Health and Safety increasingly being pushed to the forefront in the Environmental field and other industries, this photo brings to mind a question I have heard many times from front line workers. These workers can regularly be seen donning hard hats, safety vests, safety glasses, etc. and can be seen working in all types of environments as part of their everyday jobs.

Where does Health and Safety become too burdensome? Where does strict adherence to mandated Health and Safety requirements cross the line between protecting workers and over-indulgence?

I do not have all the facts, but consider this inspiring rescue as a case in point:

Woman Pulled from Des Moines River

Firefighters were not able to get close enough to effect a rescue of this 60 year old lady who is stuck in turbulent waters at the bottom of a dam. Yet, they stand by as a construction worker (with a harness and preserver, but in clear disregard for most other PPE and procedures) gets hoisted by a crane over to the lady who is constantly getting pulled under the rushing water. The worker pulls the woman to safety.

The guy is a hero and his courage inspiring, wouldn't we all agree?

Yet, I wonder why firefighters were not the ones that were put out on the crane? Most likely it violated their established procedures. When that happens they can be sued, lose their jobs and be subject to any number of other consequences.

This logic leads me to conclude that it is worse for rescue workers to violate safety procedures than to try an emergency rescue via use of the crane.

Now, I believe there were likely a number of rescue personnel who would have volunteered to do what this construction worker did. But for whatever reason, they didn't. I can only surmise they did not effect the rescue because they did not have the method approved, the job safety analysis complete, the equipment inspected or the city insurance rider in place for the crane company.

Most of us are not in the rescue business, but we are encouraged to act safely at home as we do on the job. We make it a lifestyle so we are always thinking safety first. This reduces our risk.

If this construction worker acted the way we are all taught, the lady would likely have drowned with highly trained rescue personnel watching helplessly at a safe distance away.

Off the record, what do you think? As they can be mutually exclusive (as evidenced by the above situation), is strict adherence to Health and Safety about saving lives or saving something else?

Stimulus and Energy Policy Directed to Environmental and Green Issues

Like it or not, there is a lot of spending going on under the guise of "getting the economy going, once again". As environmental professionals, there are probably a number of reasons we should support the notion that if money is going to be spent, it might as well be spent in areas that support our personal and professional goals.

Yes, our kids may be paying for it well into their adult lives (if you believe in that argument), but at least they may be living longer, breathing more healthy air and consuming healthier food and water. They may also see cleaner energy and less dependence on a foreign oil supply.

There may be far reaching implications of the energy policy being crafted in Washington, DC:

Congress to pass energy bill this year: White House

By now, we should all have our views on environmental and green stimulus money. How does that support your professional and personal agenda? These are questions that may not have easy answers, but at least there is likelihood that there will be more projects with which we may become involved.