When does it pay to do more than the minimum? In a previous blog, I discussed the importance of doing more than the minimum requirements stated in regulatory documents. From an environmental standpoint, it always pays off to go the extra mile. Financially, applying additional safeguards can be expensive. Additionally, the current regulatory framework does [...]
Project Costs Matter. It is hard to believe that the massive push for CCR Environmental Management reform is all about the mighty dollar, but it is. Current arguments of this almost 12-year stakeholder battle have transcended to cost recovery, and who will pay for the CCR deposition methods. Like this wasn’t in the [...]
It is usually around 4th Grade when kids start to notice the grades sent home on report cards. These written in ink letters share a performance level on daily lessons, homework, and tests. It takes half a second to learn that the lower the grade, the more work a kid needs to do to [...]
While a ship captain may want to get past the waves to smooth sail down the coast, a leader in environmental management needs to be aware of changes in the industry. Whether it is regulatory forces, budgeting, the effects of the pandemic, or adapting to new technologies and innovation, there is rarely a time [...]
Over the past several years, increased pressure from communities, environmental groups, politicians, and regulators has changed the environmental service game. In most cases, it is no longer good enough to deal with environmental challenges by applying traditional approaches – Forcing project owners to look for alternatives, like a collaborative approach. Albert Einstein is widely [...]
“Airspace” is generally defined as the number of cubic yards a landfill has available for waste. The amount of remaining airspace can be used to estimate a landfill’s remaining lifespan in years. Since the United States covers vast, largely unpopulated areas, particularly in the Midwest, it would seem we have limitless capacity for [...]
When a landfill nears the end of its useful life, all the people it affects — its owners, government officials, nearby residents, and developers — need to come together to develop a plan for the future. No homeowner ever chooses to have a landfill in their backyard, and many fight hard to prevent it. [...]
It is all about STORAGE. A simple analogy, coal ash storage is like trying to organize your closet in an endless battle to fit ever more stuff into little space. However, unlike your closet problem utility companies cannot get rid of those unneeded belongings (coal ash), or sign on the dotted line for [...]
The CEO in the corner office of any large organization has a lonely existence. CEOs of utilities may feel even more isolated – but it’s not mandatory. The energy industry is steadily evolving beyond fossil fuels and shifting to more renewable and sustainable sources. This is fantastic news for the planet, but before this transformation [...]
NIMBY, SEBY? Let’s face it: nobody likes landfills. They’re ugly. They smell. They attract seagulls. But until we can devise methods to recycle or eliminate all residential and construction waste and coal ash, landfills have to be a fixture on our landscape for the foreseeable future. According to the EPA, as of 2009 [...]
