ETG NEWS & EVENTS

MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT

STORMWATER AND FLOOD MANAGEMENT SEMINAR
Presented by the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) and Co-sponsored by the Environmental Technology Group, Inc. (ETG)

Saturday, October 17, 2009 at the NYIT Campus in Old Westbury, N.Y. or Saturday, October 24, 2009 at NYIT in Manhattan (60th Street and Broadway) (9 am to 5 pm)

(Professional Engineers will earn seven Professional Development Hours (PDHs) upon completion of this seminar).

Changing weather patterns have led to increasing flooding and drainage problems in the New York City Metropolitan Area. For example, the high intensity rainfalls that have occurred in the last few years have resulted in record high groundwater levels and unusually severe flash floods.

This has caused excessive water damage to residential and commercial property, as well as sewage backups into buildings resulting in a number of legal actions. This seminar will cover the flooding problems resulting from extreme storm water runoff and elevated groundwater occurrences. It is designed to serve the needs of public officials, attorneys, engineers, and homeowners. The topics that will be covered are property protection, community security, litigation support, system design, property remediation, corrective design, and flood insurance.

The seminar will address the following questions:
  • What is the nature of the problem?
  •  What are the principal impacts?
  • How do you conduct investigations?
  •  Where do you find the data?
  •  Who regulates flooding issues and what do they do?
  •  What is flood insurance and who is required to have it?
  •  How do you reduce the cost of flood insurance?
  •  What do you need to know to design a storm water drainage system?
  •  How do you maintain a drainage system?
  •  What are the measures available for preventing or minimizing storm impacts?
  •  How do you recover losses from flooding?
The Principal Participants will be:

William Seevers, Environmental Hydrologist - on the hydrology of flooding, and conducting cause and origin studies at the site of flooding events.

Albert Machlin, P.E., Environmental Engineer - on the design of flood control systems including the technology for analyzing drainage catchment area conditions.

Dr. James Brower - on the conduct of All Hazard Mitigation Planning and the Formulation of Floodplain Management Plans.

Michael De Cillis, Environmental Hydrogeologist – groundwater problems.

Valerie Rifkin - on what municipalities need to know about flood insurance and the Community Rating System to secure reductions in flood insurance premiums.

There will a panel in the afternoon whose participants will discuss their experiences in managing everyday problems. The panel will include speakers, regulators, public officials, and contractors. The seminar will give attendees the opportunity to meet other professionals and learn how they are dealing with drainage and flood damage projects.

The cost for the course is $225. For registration information, please call ETG at 631-232-1987

PREPA SIGNS $1 MILLION CONTRACT WITH UPR GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH TO MONITOR COMPLIANCE WITH EPA CONSENT DECREE

San Juan, Puerto Rico – Communities near Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) power plants can breathe a little easier today. PREPA has hired a contractor, selected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and representatives from the Salinas, Guayanillas, Cataño and Guaynabo communities, to monitor its compliance with federal environmental laws. PREPA is required by a 1999 Consent Decree with EPA to spend at least one million dollars to hire a contractor to track its compliance with the requirements in the decree for a period of least five years. The contract was awarded to the University of Puerto Rico. The University’s involvement will compliment EPA’s concentrated efforts to inspect PREPA’s plants and enforce the requirements of the Consent Decree. Though the University of Puerto Rico will be paid using PREPA funds, it will report directly to the EPA’s Caribbean Environmental Protection Division in San Juan.

"EPA has been frequently inspecting PREPA facilities, and we continue to seek compliance and payment of penalties where we find problems," said William J. Muszynski, P.E., Acting EPA Regional Administrator. "The University of Puerto Rico will enhance these efforts by helping us keep the community informed and giving us even more information about the status of PREPA’s effort to comply."

In March 1999, a Consent Decree between PREPA and the United States was entered in federal court, settling a lawsuit that had been filed against PREPA in 1993. The Decree requires PREPA to take both long and short-term actions to comply with all federal environmental laws. In addition, PREPA is required to undertake a number of environmental projects at a total cost of more than $3.5 million. Among these projects is the hiring of an Environmental Review Contractor (ERC).

The ERC contract will be managed by José A. Norat Ramírez, Ph.D., J.D., a Professor in the Environmental Health Department of the University’s Graduate School of Public Health. Dr. Norat will be assisted by Environmental Technology Group, Inc, a consulting firm that provides services to clients in the U.S. and Latin America, in science, engineering and all sectors of environmental engineering. Dr. Norat has assembled a distinguished team of university professors, researchers, engineers, environmental managers and consultants, and graduate students who will perform the functions required under the Consent Decree.

As the ERC, the University of Puerto Rico will work with communities near PREPA plants to assist them in maintaining up-to-date information about PREPA's compliance with the terms of the Consent Decree agreed to by PREPA and EPA. The University will carry out research of PREPA documents, data and reports; conduct on-site inspections of PREPA facilities; bring EPA, PREPA and citizens together at least once every two months to discuss PREPA’s compliance with the Consent Decree; and convey community concerns to PREPA and EPA relating to PREPA’s compliance.

EPA continues to rigorously enforce the terms of the Consent Decree, approved by the Federal Court more than two years ago. EPA inspectors have conducted hundreds of inspections at the PREPA plants. PREPA continues to report and EPA continues to document serious violations. Since the Consent Decree became final two years ago, PREPA has paid more than $650,000 in stipulated penalties for violating various provisions of the settlement.

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McGraw Hill publishes Handbook of Complex Environmental Remediation Problems, co-authored by William J. Seevers, cofounder and president of the Environmental Technology Group, Inc.