By Judith W. McInerney
Corporate Health and Safety Director

However, even with these control measures in place, there is still a possibility - albeit slim - that a fall could occur.  Therefore, for those instances, a method of rescue must be in place.  Although the local fire department could be called, no individual wants to be suspended for the 10 -15 minutes or more that it would take for the local fire department to arrive.  Also work involving use of aerial lifts doesn’t always take place outdoors so in some instances the fire truck wouldn’t be able to gain access to the location where the person is suspended in mid-air. To provide NTH employees a means of rescue when working in aerial lifts and suspended scaffolding, NTH recently purchased a DBI Sala rescue descent device and rescue pole.  The rescue descent device provides controlled descent upon release of a cord attached to the employee’s body harness.  The rescue pole was purchased to release the cord remotely in case an employee was unable to activate the cord (i.e. if they were unconscious).  ​

​On March 21, 2017, representatives from DBI Sala and Airgas offered NTH employees a brown bag presentation on how this piece of equipment worked.  Mary Koeger volunteered to demonstrate how the rescue descent device works.  If interested click here to watch how Mary was raised to new heights and was able to lower herself to the ground with a controlled descent.  The device that NTH purchased is rated up to 310 pounds and has 50 feet of rope.  We hope that the device will never have to be used but should its use be required, it then must be taken out of service.   
 
Ongoing efforts are taking place to ensure that “state of the art” equipment is provided to employees that effectively achieves its goal and yet is practical to use.   ​

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) recently released guidance to regional administrators on the subject of remediating contaminated sediment sites.  The memorandum provides clarification on several Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS) and risk management recommendations.  The memorandum also includes updated Contaminated Sediment Technical Advisory Group (CSTAG) operating procedures.
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As indicated by US EPA, the purpose of the memorandum is to continue to facilitate cleanups at contaminated sediment sites subject to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the National Contingency Plan (NCP).  The memorandum discusses lessons learned in the course of overseeing and conducting cleanups at various sites. 

​The guidance recommends:

1. Taking early action at high-risk sites during the RI/FS study phase, even when the site has not been properly characterized.
2. Collecting adequate data to develop and refine the conceptual site model (CSM) in support of the evaluation of alternatives. 
3. Evaluating the risk associated with exposure to contaminated sediments, including submerged sediment.
4. Designing site-specific sediment toxicity tests to generate data that support the risk assessment and remedy selection.
5. Developing a monitoring strategy that clearly defines risk reduction expectations and monitoring endpoints.
6. Incorporating an adaptive management strategy to the implementation of response action at complex sites.  The guidance also provides an example of the steps to follow when incorporating an adaptive management approach.
7. Exercising caution when using computational models and suggests taking into consideration the limitations of models to accurately predict quantitative endpoints.
8. Collecting adequate pre-remedial and cleanup data to interpret post-remediation data to effectively evaluate remedial measures.
9. Developing achievable risk reduction expectations and remediation goals.  The Agency recognizes that “because of site conditions, background contamination, and limitations of available remedial technologies, achieving protective fish tissue or sediment concentration, may take many years to achieve.”
10. Continuing collaboration with the Clean Water Act (CWA) to achieve water quality goals and the protection of public health and the environment.  It proposes that sharing of data collected at a superfund site, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits, impaired water designation and Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) development, or RI/FS and long-term monitoring data, can leverage the authorities of each program.  
11. Considering the future of the waterbody in developing alternatives for remediation, and evaluating whether the selected remedy may create an obstruction to navigation channels. 

Note that although this memorandum appears to be a new guidance, it is not significantly different from other guidance documents, and serves mostly to provide clarification to previously issued guidance documents, while addressing the recommendation of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released in October 2016: GAO-16-777,   Superfund Sediment Sites – EPA Considers Risk Management but Could Clarify Certain Procedures.

While the memorandum provides updated guidance for documenting the evaluation process for larger sediment contamination sites (>10,000 yds3 or 5 acres), it does not advance the issue of trying to determine actual cleanup criteria for contaminated sediments.

A PDF copy of the memorandum can be accessed at https://semspub.epa.gov/work/HQ/196834.pdf

By Karen Okonta, NTH Project Professional

On February 28, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order that asks new EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to begin the process of repealing and replacing the “Waters of the United States” rule.  The Clean Water Rule, published in June 2015 as a technical rule, was an effort by the US EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers to clarify which streams and wetlands fall under federal clean water protection and avoid case-by-case determinations.

The rule, as explained by US EPA, protects navigable waterways and their tributaries that are, or show signs of, flowing water such as a bed, bank, or high water mark, and headwaters that have connection to downstream water.  The rule also protects waters that are next to rivers and lakes and their tributaries and protects the nation's regional water features when they impact downstream waters.  In addition, the rule limits protection to ditches that are constructed out of streams or function like streams and can carry pollution downstream, and maintains the status of waters within municipal separate storm sewer systems.  

The rule excludes manmade bodies of water, prior converted cropland, and ditches with ephemeral flow or do not flow, either directly or through another water, into a waters of the United States.  Artificially irrigated areas, constructed lakes and ponds, reflecting pools, groundwater, including groundwater drained through subsurface drainage systems, and stormwater control features constructed to convey, treat, or store stormwater are also excluded. 

There have been many challenges to the rule since it was published in 2015.  Opponents of the rule, which include the U.S Chamber of Commerce, manufacturers, farmers, real estate developers, and golf course owners, among others, have stated that the rule is over reaching by defining ditches and intermittent streams as “waters of the U.S.” and stated that the rule would cause undue burden on businesses and industry.  The main complaint is that the rule would require property owners to permit every ditch or puddle on their land, and significantly hinder economic development.

In his executive order, President Trump asked Scott Pruitt to consider the late justice Scalia’s opinion issued in 2006 on the subject, which provided protection to wetlands only if they had a continuous connection to navigable waterways and extended protection only to permanent streams. 

The rule, however, cannot be repealed through executive order.  It will have to go through the federal rule making process to replace it with a proposed rule.  The rule has been, and is currently, on hold after a stay issued on October 9, 2015, by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

For more information on water resources, please visit our Water Resources Market page.

The primary purpose of this project was to replace the existing community water supply wells with an intake on the Ohio River.  The wells were located in the footprint of a multi-BILLION dollar industrial project and needed to move and were also in need of an update since they were almost 70 years old.  The Center Township Water Authority needed to go from  a groundwater source to the river, and additional treatment was also needed.  As part of this design-build project, NTH worked with Trumbull Corp., the contractor, to come up with a design for a 3 million gallons per day (MGD) temporary water intake which was to come online during the construction of the 5 MGD permanent intake.  The site is very small, and only has room for a 10-foot wide truck lane . 

In addition, it was in the middle of an active slope failure, and had no utilities or existing access.  One idea was to float some pumps on a barge in the river.  The barge sunk when a large ice flow ripped a hole in the side.  The new solution for the temporary intake was to construct a circular sheet pile shaft  with the pumps all housed in a heated enclosure. 

Once this was done, the team set to getting the permanent intake completed.  The permanent intake was constructed using secant pile shaft with two intake pipes that were tunneled into the river. There is still plenty of work to happen on the permeant intake.  Trumbull hasn’t bottomed out the shaft yet, but they are close, and the concrete shaft still needs to be poured.  Then the mechanical equipment comes in.  The river bank elevation is more than 300 feet lower than the water treatment plant, so really big pumps are needed to move the water up the hill for treatment and supply.  

AWARD WINNING WORK!
This project has received two awards and its not even yet complete!

• 2016 Industrial Project of the Year from the Engineering Society of Western Pennsylvania 
• 2016 ASCE Pittsburgh Award of Merit

​Some pictures from the project are included below: