Innovative & Award Winners Section, Web-Based EIM Solves Data Management Chaos

ENR Magazine

23 December 2002 — When the Lucchini Group of Italy embarked on acquisition strategy to become the largest long-steel products company in Europe, it acquired the environmental liabilities of steel plants across Europe.

Lucchini’s acquisition of France’s Ascometal in 1999 was a centerpiece in its growth strategy. However, the company also gained ownership of a number of sites – some originating from the time of Napoleon – that had been the subjects of many environmental investigations. Lucchini needed to quickly digest and organize the data from these studies to ensure compliance with emerging European Union environmental laws and regulations.

 

Enter Locus and the Internet
Lucchini recognized the benefits of the Internet for managing their burgeoning amounts of environmental data. To meet their need, Lucchini turned to Locus Technologies who was building the first Web-based, enterprise-level environmental information management system (EIM) to server companies such as FMC, Union Pacific Railroad, Philips Semiconductor, Waste Management, and Schlumberger, and its alliance partner, Alstom Power.

Instead of leaving data and reports buried in offices across Europe, Locus’ EIM system and LocusFocus provided Lucchini with a central repository that can be accessed via the Internet any time, from anywhere. “Lucchini cut its environmental costs and standardized its information management processes by deploying LocusFocus,” said Dr. Francesco Caforio, director of Lucchini’s environmental programs in Paris, France. “The system has also provided us with due diligence cost reduction on the M&A front.”

EIM has the capabilities engineers, scientists, and managers require: access to lists of methods and chemicals, a planning module, forms for entering field data, a utility to upload electronic data deliverables (EDDs), and an extensive reporting and plotting module. However, it also has less common components, such as a calendar module for viewing information on sampling events and uploaded EDDs, emailing capabilities, an electronic data verification and validation module, a customizable EDD loader, and a flexible cross-tab report writer.

The system also include eGIS-SVG, a new way to view site maps and data, based on scalable vector graphics, the emerging standard developed by the World Wide Web Consortium for viewing graphical information over the Internet.

 

Electronic Glue
Communications technologies, such as XML and Web Services, can knit the different parts of fragmented environmental business into a more coherent whole. “The key,” said Mr. Chris French of Honeywell, a company that recently entered into Beta testing of Locus’ EIM system, and itself a leader in applying digitization to all its business processes, “is to standardize, automate and centralize the fragmented array of company-wide and outside consultants information systems, utilizing metrics to quantify the business case. Our six sigma examination shows substantial variability in the quality, efficiency, and cost of current “silo” data management systems. Pilot testing has shown the potential for substantial downstream cost savings by digitizing and standardizing the process through the adoption of systems such as LocusFocus.

Locus and STP Specialty Technical Publishers team up to provide PDA auditing tool

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, 13 September 2002 — Locus Technologies (Locus), a global leader in environmental information management, announced today that it has entered into a marketing partnership with STP Specialty Technical Publishers. The two companies will develop application software focusing on compliance, auditing, and data and information gathering and management for the environmental, waste management, and due diligence industries.

Locus initially intends to add checklists, guidelines, and other content developed by STP Specialty Technical Publishers to eSurvey, Locus’s integrated environmental health and safety (EH&S) auditing software tool used by auditors in the field to record deficiencies as they are noted, either directly into a Palm OS™- or Pocket PC™-based personal digital assistant (PDA) or a Symbol Technologies™ unit equipped with a bar code reader. eSurvey
is a module of LocusFocusSM, Locus Technologies’ award-winning, comprehensive environmental web portal.

The functionality of eSurvey is provided through three separate interfaces: the PDA interface, a web-based user interface, and a web-based management interface. After an audit or inspection is completed, results are uploaded into a holding table on a networked database. Through the user interface, auditors can review and, as necessary, modify their findings before final logging into the system. Managers can track deficiencies in their various areas and monitor progress in resolving issues, as well as comment and schedule re-audits through the web-based management interface. eSurvey also includes e-mailing and customized reporting capabilities. Through the web-based user interface, EH&S staff can also print customized reports and presentations.

“We are very pleased that, through this partnership, STP Specialty Technical Publishers content will be made available to our customers via eSurvey. Auditors will be able to access familiar STP Specialty Technical Publishers auditing checklists and guidance in the field, directly through eSurvey, thus significantly reducing the time to perform the audits, reducing errors, and eliminating double-input of audit information,” said Mr. Neno Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus. “STP Specialty Technical Publishers content on eSurvey will be of particular interest to large industrial companies with numerous, complex industrial sites and those performing due diligence audits for Merger and Acquisition (M&A) industries,” added Duplancic.

“We are delighted to be able to offer our tried-and-tested compliance and auditing content in such an exciting new medium, and we look forward to working in partnership with Locus Technologies. While still producing our guides in the more traditional mediums we need to be at the cutting edge of technology in order to meet the needs of the entire compliance community,” says Chris Heming, president of STP Specialty Technical Publishers.

 

ABOUT STP SPECIALTY TECHNICAL PUBLISHERS
STP Specialty Technical Publishers, one of North America’s leading publishers of reference and interpretive materials, publishes environmental, health & safety, transportation, business management, and accounting guides, including International Standard Organization (ISO) guides. STP Specialty Technical Publishers publications are authored by experts in their respective fields who monitor changing laws and regulations to provide meaningful and practical updates. More information about the company can be obtained at www.stpub.com or by telephone at (604) 983-3434 or (800) 251-0381.

Locus Wins Baldwin Park Operable Unit Superfund Site Professional Consulting and Engineering Services

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, 31 May 2002 — Locus Technologies (Locus), a leader in groundwater consulting and engineering services, announced today that it has been selected by certain settling Cooperating Respondents to provide professional consulting and engineering services at the Baldwin Park Operable Unit (BPOU), a part of the San Gabriel Valley Superfund site. The San Gabriel Valley Superfund site consists of plumes of groundwater contamination in an area more than a mile wide and 7 miles long. The groundwater in this area is utilized for multiple purposes, including public water supply. Traditionally, local water companies simply shut down water supply wells to avoid service of impacted groundwater. Groundwater contamination extends from the water table to more than 1,000 feet below ground surface. The primary contaminants in groundwater are chlorinated volatile organic compounds (VOCs), perchlorate, N nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), and 1,4-dioxane. Contaminant concentrations measured in groundwater in the BPOU area range up to several tens of parts per million.

In March 1994, EPA issued a Record of Decision (ROD) and selected a cleanup plan for VOCs in the BPOU and, in 1999, subsequently issued an explanation of significant differences to the ROD requiring additional treatment systems as a result of the discovery of perchlorate, NDMA, and 1,4-dioxane in groundwater. EPA then issued a Unilateral Administrative Order on 30 June 2000, directing 19 potential responsible parties (PRPs) to complete the remedial design and make arrangements for the construction and operation of the BPOU groundwater extraction wells, treatment systems, and related cleanup facilities. The selected remedy, now in the design and construction stage, calls for large groundwater pump-and-treat systems capable of extracting and treating approximately 21,000 gallons per minute. Current plans approved by EPA call for the remedy to be built as four sub-projects, ranging in capacity from 2,500 gallons per minute to 7,800 gallons per minute. Each subproject will have two or more groundwater extraction wells and a series of treatment processes expected to include air-stripping, ion exchange, and UV oxidation. Clean, treated water will be distributed by local water purveyors for use in the public water supply system.

Locus’s contract is with several of the Cooperating Respondents that include companies such as Oil & Solvent Process Company, Reichhold, Inc., Azusa Land Reclamation Co., Inc., Fairchild Holding Company, Hartwell Corporation, Huffy Corporation, and Wynn Oil Company. “We are very pleased to be selected as consultants to one of the largest groundwater cleanup projects in the United States. This further demonstrates Locus’s ability to provide technical and strategic representation to its clients on complex, multidisciplinary groundwater sites. We will be working closely with the Cooperating Respondents to implement the groundwater remedy and restore the public drinking water supply” said Mr. Gregory Murphy, Vice President of Locus Technologies in charge of the program.

Locus and Symbol team up to help the environment

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 20 February 2002 — Locus Technologies (Locus), a global leader in environmental information management, announced today that the company has entered into a joint application development and marketing partnership with Symbol Technologies, Inc. (Symbol). Locus and Symbol plan to develop and provide application software and business solutions focusing on data and information gathering and management in the environmental and waste management industries.

Data acquisition, storage, and management have been the Achilles Heel of the environmental industry for years. The investigations and cleanups of contaminated waste sites produce enormous amounts of data on the nature and extent of contamination at a site. At larger, more complex sites, it is not uncommon to drill several thousand boreholes and wells, collect tens of thousands of samples, and then analyze each of these for several hundred contaminants. Long-term monitoring of conditions at such sites, even after the initial cleanup is complete, can last for decades and cost thousands to several million dollars per year per site. Given that there are an estimated 300,000-400,000 contaminated sites in the United States alone, it is clear that both industry and government face significant “stewardship” costs for decades to come, and that much of these costs will be charges related to data collection and information management.

The data overload is not just limited to contaminated waste sites. The operation of water/wastewater treatment plants and various emission and process monitoring systems at industrial plants also generate enormous quantities of data.

The Locus and Symbol partnership will enable the collection of environmental data which can be facilitated using Symbol Technologies hand-held devices equipped with bar code readers feeding information directly into LocusFocus (SM), Locus’s award winning environmental web-portal and environmental information management (EIM) system. Locus’s existing Palm Pilot and PocketPC applications for Environmental, Health and Safety audits (eSurvey) and water level readings (eWell) will be ported to Symbol devices. Possibilities for expansion of these applications into other areas are limitless.

“A substantial reward awaits those companies with the vision and the will to take advantage of new technologies. Those companies that adopt hand-held wireless applications and web-based systems for data acquisition and storage, that bring greater automation to their environmental information management processes, and that otherwise eliminate inefficiencies stand to gain a substantial return on their investment, “ said Mr. Neno Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus.

“We are very pleased to join forces with Locus to bring the next generation of wireless and mobile computing products and solutions from Symbol to the growing environmental market.

Locus is in a leading role to improve field data collection. By automating field data acquisition, companies dealing with environmental problems stand to lower their operating cost, while helping to improve the environment at the same time,” said Mr. Stanley P. Jaworski, Vice President of Worldwide Channels and Alliances.

 

ABOUT SYMBOL TECHNOLOGIES
Symbol Technologies, Inc., winner of the National Medal of Technology, is a global leader in mobile data transaction systems, providing innovative customer solutions based on wireless local area networking for data and voice, application-specific mobile computing and bar code data capture. Symbol’s wireless information appliances connect the physical world of people on the move, packages, paper and shipping pallets, to information systems and the Internet. Today, some 10 million Symbol bar code scanners, mobile computers and wireless LANs are utilized worldwide in markets ranging from retailing to transportation and distribution logistics, manufacturing, parcel and postal delivery, government, healthcare and education. Symbol’s systems and products are used to increase productivity from the factory floor to the retail store, to the enterprise and out to the home. Information about
Symbol is available at www.symbol.com, or by telephone at (631) 738-2400 or (800) 722-6234.

Alstom and Locus announce strategic alliance agreement

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, AND STUTTGART, GERMANY, 31 January 2002 — Locus Technologies (Locus) and ALSTOM Power Environmental Consult, GmbH (ALSTOM Consult) announced today that the two companies will enter into a Strategic Alliance Agreement (SAA). Locus provides comprehensive consulting, engineering, Internet-based remote control, automation, and information management services for the environmental market. ALSTOM Consult is a leading provider of services in the areas of compliance audits; permitting; storage tank management; environmental, health, and safety (EH&S) management; and all aspects of the investigation, assessment, and cleanup of contaminated sites.

The SAA primarily covers the area of advanced information technology in the environmental industry and will provide increased value to Locus’s and ALSTOM Consult’s industrial clients by formalizing and expanding the companies’ collaborative efforts on numerous environmental projects in Europe. Under the agreement, ALSTOM Consult will become a distributor and an operator of Locus’s award-winning, web-based suite of applications, LocusFocus(SM). This suite includes modules for: (1) automating, operating, and controlling process and treatment systems for water, groundwater, wastewater, air, and soil; (2) managing environmental data; (3) conducting site audits; (4) storing and retrieving documents; and (5) collaborating on-line. In addition to innovations in technology, Locus and ALSTOM Consult will also benefit from teaming on professional and technical environmental projects in Europe and North America.

“We are very pleased to formalize our existing and long-standing relationship with ALSTOM Consult. This agreement will help Locus better serve our European-based clients and will facilitate deployment of our web-based technologies in Europe. With ALSTOM Consult’s distributed network of offices throughout Europe, we can now extend our services to an important market for our company,” said Dr. Neno Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus.

“ALSTOM Consult is very happy to start using and bringing Locus’s web technologies to the European market. We are also excited to expand our current relationship to provide value added technologies to existing and new markets in Europe and North America,” said Dr. Peter Rissing, Managing Director of ALSTOM’s environmental consulting business.

The European market for environmental goods and services is currently $149 billion and is expanding at the rate of approximately $4 billion dollars per year (California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency, 2001). With Locus’s strong presence in North America and ALSTOM Consult’s high profile in Europe, the SAA is expected to bring significant benefits to both companies and their respective clients.
ABOUT ALSTOM
ALSTOM Power Environmental Consult is a recognized expert in environmental management services with an emphasis on contaminated land management, due diligence service in mergers and acquisitions, implementation of EH&S management systems, and ISO 14001, as well as occupational EH&S services. ALSTOM Power Environmental Consult is part of ALSTOM Power, which offers a range of boilers, energy recovery, and environmental equipment. ALSTOM has annual sales in excess of 22 billion euros and employs approximately 120,000 people in over 70 countries. The Company is listed on the Paris,London and New York stock exchanges. More information on ALSTOM can be found at www.alsto.com.

Locus Technologies Announces Pocket PC Application for Environmental Health and Safety Audits and Inspection

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 16 April 2001 — Locus Technologies (Locus), a global leader in environmental information management, announced today that it has completed work on an electronic system for conducting and managing Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S) audits and inspections. This system, named eSurvey, was developed for Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) using the Pocket PC operating system. Information recorded on the PDAs can be transferred to a company’s Intranet or to LocusFocus™, Locus’s award-winning environmental web portal. eSurvey brings Locus one step closer to its long-term goal of offering LocusFocus™ to clients, providing them with the tools and information they need to manage all EH&S aspects of their businesses over the Internet.

The use of Pocket PCs allows audits to be performed in facilities without Internet or Intranet connectivity, and in secure areas where a wireless device would not be allowed. The application consists of a set of screens, each with pull-down menus, data entry fields, and hyperlinks to other screens and information. After an inspection or audit is complete, all data that an auditor has entered into a Pocket PC can be uploaded to the main database. eSurvey has already been rigorously tested and successfully deployed and used by a major aerospace manufacturer in Southern California.

“eSurvey puts a valuable and cost-effective tool into the hands of EH&S inspectors,” said Neno Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus Technologies. “It provides access to inspection lists and pre-audit questionnaires that traditionally could not be hauled onto the audit floor. No longer do inspectors have to record findings once in the field and, again, enter these same findings into a database or spreadsheet back in the office. Moreover, with a local copy of their EH&S database on their Pocket PCs, auditors have access to historical information they may need when entering a finding. As a result, eSurvey streamlines the compliance process, decreases audit time, reduces resources and dramatically minimizes errors.”

The LocusFocus™ portal—Locus’s Environmental Information Management (EIM™) system, eWell (a wireless application for recording field data using hand-held Palm® Pilots), and automation and document management and collaboration capabilities—also includes tools to remotely control and monitor treatment systems. Locus’s web portal is hosted by Intel Online Services (IOS), which uses integrated technologies and proven processes to deliver optimal reliability, scalability, and performance at the highest levels of security to LocusFocus™ subscribers.

Mobile Computing Improving EH&S Management

EH&S Software Online

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 1 January 2001 — Mobile computing has been around for a long time, but EH&S professionals are just beginning to realize its potential. Judging by the recent increase in the number and variety of applications, the EH&S software industry has embraced mobile tools as an integral component of the future of EH&S automation. But the market still seems to be a few years behind the technology.

Most of us think of mobile computing in terms of laptops or notebooks, or those Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) that are nothing more than a battery-operated Rolodex and appointment calendar. Despite the computer industry’s continuing efforts to make lighter, more portable, and more powerful tools, most people continue to view these devices as an extension of the desktop with limited potential for hardcore field work. We listen to the rhetoric about new capabilities for data entry and retrieval using a variety of handheld devices, but remain skeptical that these promises can actually be realized.

Meanwhile, many analysts are predicting an increase in the use of mobile computing, especially in the business sector. According to IDC, the market for smart handheld devices will grow from 12.9 million units in 2000 to over 63.4 million by 2004. These include devices like PDAs, smartphones, keypad handhelds, and pen-based notepads. Some offer wireless access to the Internet or to a local area network (LAN), while others can be used in the field to collect data, then transported back to the office to upload the data to a PC.

According to an article in PDA News, companies that incorporate handheld computing devices into their daily business operations have experienced “greater efficiency and faster fulfillment of client requests due to: reduced double handling of information; greater interaction with ordering systems; and a reduction in the number of mistakes made due to keying errors.”.

Despite these advantages and recent advances in technology, EH&S applications for mobile computing have evolved more slowly than the industry as a whole and have yet to achieve broad acceptance in the market. But that’s all about to change. If you’ve been following the EH&S Software News over the past few issues, you may have noticed that the number and variety of information systems that include applications for handheld computers or PDAs is on the rise. With the right combination of software and hardware, you can now track hazardous materials, record sampling data, audit EHS compliance, or retrieve material safety data sheets (MSDSs) whenever and wherever they are needed, anywhere within your facility or out in the field. Following are some examples.

Hazardous Material/Waste Tracking
Handheld computers/PDAs are helping Penn State Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) personnel enhance field operations and automate government-mandated record keeping [www.psu.edu]. Harold L. Brungard III, a member of Penn State’s hazardous waste (HazWaste) management staff, has been participating in the field tests of the new paperless system. He estimates that the PDAs are saving 5 to 10 hours a week of data entry time as well as improving data management accuracy. Brungard explains that the HazWaste staff respond to between 75 and 150 requests to collect and manage hazardous waste each month. The materials include flammable solvents, corrosives, toxic materials, and other hazardous wastes. On average, the team picks up about 500 containers and more than 15,000 pounds of waste each month.

With the new system, University personnel who want to dispose of waste material, visit the University’s EH&S website where they complete an online form to send information about the waste electronically to the EH&S department. The information from a completed form is then loaded into a database. The HazWaste staff uses the database to generate an itinerary for their daily collection rounds. They can also download information from the database into their 3-Com Palm III computers and edit this information while en-route.

The Rockwell Science Center developed a prototype, called EnvInv, for inventorying hazardous materials using a PDA.  According to Corinne Clinton Ruokangas, a member of the technical staff, “PDAs serve as low-cost information collectors – providing a level of accuracy and feedback not available with paper forms – and support the automatic transfer of data to workstations and central databases. She suggests that “PDAs can also be used as handheld manuals” to display diagrams, suggest scheduling and routing locations, and provide maintenance or diagnostic information to a user in environments where laptops may not be feasible.
They can provide “remote access to reference materials which may be hyperlinked.”

Data Collection in the Field
PDAs are particularly helpful for recording data in the field. Several software developers are now offering products to meet these needs. For example, EarthSoft recently announced the development of Pocket EQuIS, for collecting and managing data at the point of generation [www.earthsoft.com]. Similarly, FieldWorker Products Limited offers FieldWorker Pro, which allows relational data collection projects to be developed on the desktop or on a mobile device. Field workers can refer to images stored on the device’s desktop, or link data to a specific image, then connect to a GPS receiver to create point, line, and polygon geographic information. The company claims the product can be used with a variety of mobile devices, from laptops to palm tops to smart phones [www.fieldworker.com].

Potential data collection applications extend to just about any EH&S-related activity, such as natural resources inventories, water testing, and air emissions monitoring. For example, Two Dog Forest Inventory Software, by Foresters Incorporated, is a software suite with data collection, processing, and inventory capabilities. The product is used on handheld and desktop computers to inventory forests and to collect data on flora, fauna, and other site attributes in support of multi-resource inventories and certification.

DataPort, a hand-held data entry unit by AllMax Professional Solutions Inc. targets the field data collection needs of municipal and industrial wastewater and water treatment facilities. These devices include built-in scanners and fit in your pocket. Users can download data (e.g., material inventories or meters/gauges that must be monitored) from a PC to the DataPort device, then use the device to print barcode labels, scan barcodes,
enter field data, and upload the information back to the PC.

LEADERS™ LDRS by Environmental Monitoring Service is fugitive emissions software based
on a relational database. Features include LEADERS FieldSmart™ handheld software and DeskSmart™ desktop software.

Locus Technologies Discusses Brownfields’ Allure, The Business Journal

What’s a little contamination when land prices are surging?

Ted Cuzzillo — Contributing Writer
Contaminated land is a scourge in many urban areas, but in the booming South Bay it’s often more than worth the trouble of cleaning it up.

“Demand is so huge,” said real estate broker John Troughten of Cushman Wakefield, “the contamination doesn’t even matter.”

These aren’t the highly contaminated Superfund sites but rather their less dangerous and more easily reused relatives called brownfields. While there are certain technical standards for a city or other government entity to declare a site a brownfield, the term also has wide informal use for any land with contamination that temporarily limits its usability.

Because they can more easily be put back into productive use, brownfields have prompted several state and federal programs to subsidize remediation and help define liability.

But in the booming Silicon Valley, simple economics usually obviate slow-moving government programs.

 

Changing Economics
The rule-of-thumb discount on land with a contamination stigma–whether formally designated or not–is 30 percent. That’s generally plenty to pay for remediation.

Perhaps more important, said Mr. Troughton, are rapidly appreciating values on land and the value of any development on it. While the cost of remediation and building remains almost the same, values are soaring. “The monstrous amount of profit that’s happening is because of super demand,” he said.

The growing scarcity of commercial land has forced sites that were once not even considered for development out onto the market, said Mr. Troughton. “It used to be that you could pick between two or three pieces of property, but now you’re lucky if you get one.”

Preparing a site for reuse is called remediation, not cleanup, since few sites are ever cleaned to their original states. Factors determining how clean “clean” is include pressure on site owners from their attorneys, technical consultants, regulatory agencies, the general public and their representatives, according to Michael Lane, a principal at Greenbrae Environmental in Marin County.

 

How it got that way
Brownfield remediation in the South Bay is generally easier than in San Francisco,
Emeryville or other areas around the bay with more varied industrial histories.

The bulk of Silicon Valley contamination can be traced to the 1950s and ’60s manufacture of semiconductors by such companies as Raytheon, Fairchild Semiconductor and GTE. They used a solvent known as trichloroethylene, commonly known as TCE and at the time believed to be nontoxic.

Toxic or not, it wasn’t supposed to escape the underground fiberglass vaults used to store it. Fortunately, TCE readily dissipates when exposed to air. Also, land can be used even as remediation continues — usually with the lowest possible profile.

“Brownfield in Silicon Valley is probably the best kept secret,” said Neno Duplancic, president and CEO of Locus Technologies.

And while they may not be as bad as Superfund sites, brownfields aren’t innocuous. Mr. Duplancic cites an article published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine (www.nejm.org) that says 80 to 90 percent of cancers are due to environmental exposure, not genetics (Unfortunately, this article has been removed).

“Yet in the past 15 years, the explosion of molecular genetics has overshadowed environmental explanations by revealing genetic mechanisms underlying cancer,” the article says. Mr. Duplancic called the research “a significant boost for environmental industry.”

 

Pump, scrub, or let it be
The Netscape Communications campus in Mountain View, cited by many as an example of successful reuse, employs ongoing remediation.

Machines continuously pump groundwater up and over activated charcoal within structures resembling 1950s-style science-fiction rockets. These “air scrubbers” reduce what are already unmeasurable levels of concentration with no evidence of risk to health, Mr. Duplancic said.

The process is analogous to rinsing detergent from a sponge. After many rinses, it still seems to have more in it.

Old gas stations were another source of contamination in the form of petroleum distillates. Like TCE, gasoline dissipates easily in the air. Another, newer technique is to use petroleum-eating microbes.

Builders can also help avoid the effects of remaining underground contamination. For example, instead of disturbing contaminants by hammering piles, some builders use a “spread” foundation — a concrete pad underneath the entire building — and vapor barriers to stop gases from leaking upward into the building, perhaps concentrating in a closet that’s opened only once or twice a year.

The new Microsoft campus on Torre Avenue in Cupertino used both techniques to remediate dangers from effects of leaks from an old paving company’s 20,000-gallon underground diesel tank.

A controversial new trend is “monitored natural attenuation,” said Mr. Lane. Contaminants are left in place and monitored at regular intervals.

The legal environment has evolved over the last few years. Historically, prospective land buyers feared being held liable even if they had no involvement in polluting.

“The liability hasn’t changed,” said Jim Hanson, the Region 9 brownfields coordinator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in San Francisco. “but now there’s a lot of new policy and enforcement discretion.”

A new lender liability policy clarifies that unless a lender had some involvement in management of site, the EPA won’t consider it potentially liable. Also, when property sits above a contaminated aquifer but was not the source of pollution, the land owner will not be held responsible.

Other new tools include insurance that kicks in if property is remediated and then more contamination is found.

Are there more brownfields in the making? It’s a lot less likely today. In Mountain View, for example, pharmaceuticals is the only manufacturing industry now, said Michael Percy, principal planner for the city. And the controls are “a thousand times more strict” than in the past.

Ted Cuzzillo is a freelance writer based in Point Richmond. Contact him at
theodore@cannolo.com.

Copyright 2000 American City Business Journals Inc.
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Locus Technologies Turns to the Internet

680 Business Journal

Read the Press Release Here