Locus Team Awarded U.S. Navy Approval for Perchlorate and Petroleum Cleanups

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 1 September 2004 — Locus Technologies, a leader in environmental remedial solutions, remedial automation, and environmental information technology, and its teaming partner, Tierra Technologies, today announced that the US Navy has accepted the Closed-Loop Bioreactor Technology under the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center (NFESC) Environmental Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) program for use on perchlorate clean-ups.

The Closed-Loop Bioreactor Technology was previously accepted by the NAVY NFESC program for use on petroleum sites. The Locus and Tierra team has gone through extensive bench testing and evaluation of field data to demonstrate the effectiveness of the ClosedLoop Bioreactor Technology for degradation of Perchlorate source areas and soils.

The Closed-Loop Bioreactor Technology is unique in that it affords clients a rapid and effective remedial alternative to address perchlorate source and soil contamination without the risk of flushing perchlorate to groundwater. The Closed-Loop Bioreactor Technology is also highly proven in petroleum clean-up applications, with recovery of phase-separated product within 30 to 90 days and the attainment of aquifer quality standards typically within 9 to 12 months.

“We are pleased to expand our support to the Navy and other DOD entities with the availability of this innovative and rapid cleanup technology for perchlorate and petroleum problems,” said Mark Bittner Director of Locus Technologies’ Sacramento and Arizona Regions.

Locus Technologies is involved with several high-profile perchlorate investigation and treatment projects and has established a reputation as an industry leader in emerging contaminates, such as perchlorate and NDMA. Locus often teams with quality firms, such as Tierra Technologies, to provide innovative solutions and unbiased approach to technology selection to its clients.

1-4 Dioxane Treatment in Mountain View, Calif.

Pollution Engineering, Casebook

Mountain View, Calif. 1 July 2004 — As the consultant for a Fortune 500 semiconductor company at the San Francisco Bay Area Superfund site, Locus Technologies was facing a number of challenges. In 2003, the California Regional Water Quality Control Board requested that the effluent of all treatment facilities within the Superfund site be sampled for 1,4-dioxane. Data obtained during these tests indicated that 1,4-dioxane was present in the effluent at levels of 15 ppb, whereas the statutory discharge limit for 1,4-dioxane was 5 ppb. Additionally, local residents had raised concerns that airborne volatile organic compounds (VOCs) should not be discharged into the atmosphere. Based on these issues, Locus’s client desire to replace its existing air stripping/vapor carbon/aqueous carbon polishing treatmrnt technolgy with an innovative treatment technology that would:

  • Remove or destroy VOCs and 1,4-dioxane
  • Provide cost-efficient treatment
  • Be easily expandable in the future
  • Be able to meet projected EPA discharge requirements

The design flow rate for the treatment system was 50 gpm. Influent groundwater concentrations had a significant bearing on both the capital and the operation and maintenance (O&M) costs for the required treatment technology. The design influent concentrations are shown in Table 1.

During the early stages of the design process, Locus personnel brought a mobile advanced ozone/peroxide pilot treatment facility known as ozone peroxide, to the site. The engineers also ran a series of performance tests on the actual groundwater. Meanwhile, groundwater samples were sent to various UV/peroxide manufacturers and equipment suppliers so as to obtain process design requirements, capital price quotations and O&M cost for each of the various process treatment systems being considered.

Based on data from pilot studies, treatability studies and evaluations using carbon isotherms, each of the equipment suppliers was able to provide lump sum capital and guaranteed O&M costs for the influent groundwater specified (see Table 1). The scope of services specified for this treatment project were quite specific and required forfeiture of equipment costs should the treatment process not meet the discharge requirements and/or the O&M costs exceed those values provided. Plugging the design groundwater specified into its equations the manufacturers provided equipment capital cost pricing and annual O&M cost. Locus presented its findings in a Basis of Design Report that determined the construction cost and 15-year total present value for each system. Based on the strength of both pilot study results and guaranteed capital and O&M costs, the client chose to proceed with the ozone perioxide system.

Locus proceeded to order the specified equipment and begin construction. Following installation of the equipment, the manufacturers started and operated the treatment system for a period of one week. During that time, the company’s personnel carried out a detailed performance test to verify the destruction efficiency of the process and calculate the actual cost to operate the system. After completing the test phase, the manufacturer provided filed training for the Locus O&M staff.

Locus personnel discovered satisfactorily that the ozone peroxide system completely destroyed 1,4-dioxane without producing measurable air emissions. The fully automated system utilized multiple ozone injection points that increased treatment efficiency. Ozone was injected at high pressure to improve its solubility and thus reduce operational costs. The system could be easily expanded to accommodate changes in flow rates or contaminant concentration. costs to operate the system were very definable and reliable.

The ozone peroxide system has operated flawlessly since it was commissioned in December 2003 and maintained consistent effluent results. Furthermore, the O&M costs have remained below those values that were guaranteed in the original equipment proposal.

For more information about the remediation of 1,4-dioxane and the use of the treatment system at the San Francisco Bay Area Superfund Site, visit www.locustec.com.

Locus awarded multi-phase Superfund project with ADEQ

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 10 May 2004  — Locus Technologies has been awarded a multi-phase project to support the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) at the West Central Phoenix, North Canal State Superfund site. The project, which is valued at nearly $300,000, will allow Locus to provide consulting support to the ADEQ for both a Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS) and Early Response Action (ERA) services.

Locus is pleased to build on its established and in-depth experience at Superfund sites in the west and its extensive resume with chlorinated hydrocarbon investigation and remediation programs.

“Locus staff in Phoenix have extensive prior experience with ADEQ WQARF projects. That experience, coupled with Locus’ outstanding reputation at EPA Region 9 sites, makes for a powerful combination in supporting the ADEQ with this valued public service project,” says Mark Bittner, Locus Regional Director and WCP Project Manager.

Neno Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus, adds “Locus is also providing ADEQ with database management services as an integral part of our RI/FS program. We are excited to provide ADEQ with hands-on exposure to our Environmental Information Management (EIM™) web-based data management software. EIM will allow ADEQ to easily track current and historic groundwater data trends, increasing department efficiency and saving costs.”

Locus to help Companies Comply with Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 for Environmental Liability Management

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 13 April 2004 — Locus Technologies (Locus), a leading provider of web-based environmental information management systems, today announced that their new release of LocusFocus portal, scheduled for release in summer 2004, will help public companies comply with the corporate governance requirements in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act which congress passed in 2002 in the law in response to a series of corporate financial crises. LocusFocus already addresses many aspects of management of company’s environmental liability such as analytical data management, auditing, and document management. Additional functionality will include Environmental, Health, and Safety (EH&S) reporting and financial management of environmental liability, which companies are developing in response to governance requirements. As a part of Balance Sheet reporting, publicly traded companies must report their environmental liabilities and reserve.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act mandates more rigorous corporate governance practices for all aspects of a company’s business including recognition, measurement, display and disclosure of environmental liabilities. Given the increased emphasis on corporate accountability and the penalties and personal liability to CEOs and CFOs for non-compliance, companies are evaluating ways to increase the accuracy of assessing and quantifying environmental liabilities. Locus’s new updated portal is designed to meet this growing need and to provide a tool to help companies organize, manage, and document their environmental liabilities.

“In order to minimize the possibility of erroneous or misleading disclosure, companies increasingly rely on consultants to assist in evaluating internal controls and disclosure procedures, conduct due diligence, analyze and document environmental liabilities, and review existing environmental liability disclosures for compliance with applicable securities laws. Now the companies, their consultants, and legal staff have a tool to document and manage all aspects of environmental liability in a way that was not possible before. By keeping all information about contaminated sites in a single, centralized, secure, web-based system, companies can aggregate information in real time, check the cleanup status of every site, monitor financial performance of consultants and contractors, and most importantly have real time corporate environmental reserve and liability information at their fingertips”, said Neno Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus.

Companies that subscribe to use LocusFocus will make better use of resources and find it easier to comply with US and international environmental requirements, while at the same time lowering their operating costs associated with environmental information management.

By providing a systematic structure for planning, internal auditing and reviewing environmental information, LocusFocus enables companies to meet and exceed environmental requirements as well as enhance their credibility with customers, stakeholders and the public.

Water Disposal May be Avoided at GI Dump

Middletown Times Star

Read the Press Release Here

Locus presents paper on EPA SEDD format at PITTCON 2004

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 31 March 2004 — Locus Technologies (Locus), a leader in environmental information management, presented a paper on the use of the EPA SEDD format with web-based environmental data systems at the 2004 Pittsburgh Conference (Pittcon) in Chicago, IL. Dr. Todd Pierce of Locus authored the paper entitled “A Web-based Solution for Analytical Data Interchange Using EPA XML-Based SEDD Format and Locus’s EIM System.” The paper was presented on March 7 during the “New Developments in Analytical Instrumentation and Software” session.

The Staged Electronic Data Deliverable (SEDD) is an inter-agency effort spearheaded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to create a generic format for electronic delivery of analytical data for environmental programs. A major advantage for analytical laboratories is that SEDD can be implemented in stages. This fact allows laboratories to meet EDD requirements for multiple programs without having to overhaul their EDD-producing systems as agency or program needs change. The SEDD is based on Extensible Markup Language (XML), which has quickly become the de facto standard for information exchange over the Internet. XML provides data integration and communication backbone for Locus’s EIM system.

Dr. Pierce’s paper showed how Locus’s award-winning, web-based Environmental Information Management™ (EIM™) system, a part of their LocusFocusSM environmental web portal, can import EDDs in the SEDD format. EIM accepts SEDD files in Stage 2a format, which contains the basic analytical results (including the sample ID, analyte, result, and qualifier) plus method quality control data. The EIM import module includes data verification and consistency checks outlined in the Document Type Definition (DTD) for Stage 2a, as well as forms for viewing the data in the imported SEDD file. EIM then lets users create reports, build graphs, query selected results, and download selected datasets into Microsoft Excel, ESRI’s ArcView, or other third-party packages.

Locus announces completion of US EPA Region 5 environmental protection reporting requirements

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 5 February 2004 — Locus Technologies (Locus), a leader in environmental information management, announced today that it has expanded its award winning, web-based Environmental Information Management™ (EIM™) system to include the capability of exporting data in compliance with the US EPA Region V Geographic Information System and Field Environmental Decision support system.

The Region V FIELDS software forms the foundation for an EPA system that provides data analysis and interpretation for environmental decision-making. The results allow EPA project managers to evaluate the extent of contamination and hot spot sizes, estimate health risks, prioritize site goals, and weigh potential actions. Users include US EPA Regions, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s coastal restoration scientists, state and tribal agencies, as well as the private and academic community.

EIM™’s compatibility with Region V’s requirements will open a whole region to the EIM™ data management system. Now, companies and agencies with projects located in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin, and the 35 Tribal Nations in those areas can feel confident when selecting EIM™ to manage their environmental data.

“We are very pleased that EIM™ now provides export ability consistent with US EPA Region V requirements. By bringing EIM™ technology to its customers in the upper Midwest, Locus has provided the first web-based tool to upload and transmit vast amounts of sampling data to EPA Region V from a centralized web system. The EIM™ system links laboratories, clients, and their consultants to EPA Region V through a seamless web-based interface. By leveraging Web Services and XML technologies, Locus continues to provide its customers with a cost-competitive, centralized analytical information management system that is superior to any client-server system available in the marketplace today,” said Dr. Neno Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus Technologies.

“As our client base continues to grow throughout the nation, Locus is committed to meeting all federal and state electronic data deliverables for the environmental industry, including the XML-based, federal SEDD, once it has been approved,” added Dr. Duplancic.

SLAC to implement LocusFocus environmental data system

System to Help SLAC Uphold a Commitment to Environmental Stewardship

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 14 January 2004 — Locus Technologies (Locus), a global leader in environmental information management, today announced that Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) selected its web-based Environmental Information Management System (EIM[TM]) and LocusFocus(SM) environmental portal for management of important environmental data and information at their 430-acre Stanford campus located in Menlo
Park, California. EIM™ and the LocusFocus(SM) environmental portal are award-winning web-based tools for enterprise environmental information management.

Locus’s environmental data management system will be used by SLAC as a key part of their commitment to environmental stewardship. LocusFocus(SM) will be used to support SLAC’s environmental management needs, including data consolidation, multimedia evaluations, environmental restoration data analysis and reporting (including reporting California GeoTracker EDF format), document management, graphical analysis, statistical analysis, and spatial analysis and mapping.

“We are very pleased to have been selected by SLAC to provide solutions and support to the complex world of environmental data management,” said Dr. Neno Duplancic, president and CEO of Locus Technologies. “What is especially gratifying is that LocusFocus(SM) was selected after an exhaustive analysis of competing systems and approaches. We are proud to be the solution that will help SLAC achieve a more focused, streamlined, and quality focused data management process that will help them achieve their long-term goals in environmental stewardship,” added Dr. Duplancic.

Locus’s EIM™ and LocusFocus(SM) web-based environmental data management systems provide clients a streamlined, easy to use, easy to access, comprehensive package to manage the wealth of data and information collected and developed as part of environmental activities. As the first system developed for the web, LocusFocus(SM) gives clients instant and universal access to data previously stored in non-integrated diverse silo systems. As part of Locus’s services, their data migration experts will assist clients in efficiently resolving historical data issues and creating economical, useful, secure, and accessible web-based data for all team members to share, collaborate, report, and archive.

Locus expands Environmental Information Management (EIM) system with ability to export data directly into Arcview 8 GIS from ESRI

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 11 November 2003 — Locus Technologies (Locus), a leader in environmental information management, today announced that it has expanded its award winning, web-based Environmental Information Management™ (EIM™) system, a part of their LocusFocusSM web portal, to include the capability of exporting data directly to the ArcView 8 Geographical Information System (GIS) from Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). Based in Redlands California, ESRI is the industry leader in geospatial applications and technology. ArcView 8 GIS is rapidly becoming the standard for geographical analysis and is based on the highly successfully ArcView 3.x program, which has sold more than a million copies.

An EIM™ user now can connect to EIM™ by using a Locus toolbar in the ArcView 8 interface. The toolbar, built on Web Services and Microsoft’s .NET technology, lets the user query EIM™ for analytical, groundwater or field-reading data. Query results are automatically added to the ArcView 8 map as an ESRI shapefile. The new ArcView link to EIM™ reflects Locus’s commitment to building an enterprise system that allows national or multi-national companies to meet their diverse data management needs and reporting requirements across the U.S. and around the world. Other recent enhancements to the system give companies even more flexibility in exporting their data to a variety of formats, including Microsoft Excel and AutoCAD .dxf files, while still allowing all the company’s data to reside in a single repository.

“ArcView is the world’s most popular desktop GIS and mapping software, with more than 500,000 copies in use worldwide. It was critical that EIM™ support users who employ ArcView for their spatial analysis needs. The new Locus toolbar for ArcView 8 lets users seamlessly query their EIM™ data and put the results on a site map. Users who have invested time and money in ArcView 8 customizations and programming do not have to abandon that commitment to take advantage of EIM™’s rich suite of environmental management tools. By leveraging Microsoft’s .NET technology and XML as the underlying structure for the ArcView link, Locus remains on the leading edge of web-enabled environmental software integration.” said Dr. Neno Duplancic, president and CEO of Locus.

LocusFocus(SM) is a multi-channel, dynamic Web portal that provides for all aspects of environmental site management. LocusFocus(SM) has the potential of bringing the benefits of Internet technology to the environmental industry and, as such, eliminate the many inefficiencies and incompatible technologies that afflict the industry.

Locus Wins Geothermal, Inc. Facility Closure Project

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, 6 October 2003 — Locus Technologies (Locus), a leader in environmental consulting and construction services, announced today that it has been awarded a contract to provide design-build services for closure of the Geothermal Inc. (GI) Facility Closure Project. The contract will be performed over a three-year period.

The GI Facility is an inactive disposal facility located near Middletown, Lake County, California. The facility includes seven surface impoundments and two disposal trenches that accepted liquid and solid waste from the geothermal energy exploration and production fields. The non-hazardous waste is a mixture of geothermal well drilling fluids and other geothermal power plant wastes. The three-year facility closure will consist of completing the final engineering design and necessary closure documents, obtaining necessary permits, and performing closure construction activities. The waste will be solidified and capped with a low-permeability engineered closure cover system consisting of a geomembrane barrier layer, geocomposite drainage layer, and clean vegetated soil cover. Pond liquids will be treated using reverse-osmosis and thin-film solar evaporation technologies. In addition, phytoremediation will be used to lower groundwater to achieve the required separation from the waste. Disposal trenches will be excavated, solidified, and consolidated into the closure cells. When implemented, closure will assure the long-term protection of human health and environment.

GI’s owners and operators abandoned the site in 1986 and filed for bankruptcy before posting their required closure bond. Consequently, 17 companies that disposed of material at GI are financing the closure. A Site Management Committee with top environmental staff from five of the companies has been planning the closure. Under the contract, Locus will provide turnkey professional consulting, engineering, and construction services for remedial
construction.

“We are very pleased to be selected by the GI Site Management Committee to close the GI site. This further demonstrates Locus’s ability to provide turnkey consulting and construction services to our clients on complex, multidisciplinary soil and groundwater sites. We will be working closely with the Cooperating Entities, other specialty consultants, regulators, and the public to implement the remedy and restore the site,” said Dr. Neno
Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus Technologies.