Archived Webinars

Original Date: April 6, 2011
Speaker: Barry D. Taggart, CHMM
Response Coordinator/Waste Management Regulatory Specialist
Shaw E&I
781-789-9947
Email: barry.taggart@shawgrp.com

On January 11th, 2010, the US DOT issued proposed new regulations (NPRM) on the transport of lithium metal and lithium ion batteries. The new regulations will also extend to equipment containing lithium batteries when shipped by air. The final rule could take effect as quickly as September 24th of this year.

The NPRM to enforce stringent guidelines on the air shipment of lithium batteries arises from safety concerns on behalf of the USDOT and FAA. As stated in the Federal register/vol. 75, No. 6, over the past 19 years, the agencies have responded to 44 HAZMAT incidents involving lithium batteries including a February 2006 incident at the Philadelphia International Airport in which a fire—suspected to have been caused by lithium batteries—destroyed an aircraft and most of its cargo.

According to the federal register, the DOT estimates 3.3 billion lithium cells and batteries were transported worldwide in 2008 by all modes of transportation. Although the total number of incidents is small in comparison, the DOT recognizes the increased potential for accidents as the number of items containing lithium batteries continues to proliferate.

Because the process of shipping lithium batteries as consumer commodities poses such risks - and yet remains largely unregulated through various exceptions – regulatory compliance remains difficult to enforce. We will review how the NPRM will end the current system of exceptions by mandating specific compliance requirements including HAZCOM, packaging, and training specifications in order mitigate risks associated with lithium batteries during transport.

Most corporations are now incorporating sustainability efforts into their annual goals and extended business plans to improve their corporate citizenship. But how do they maintain their responsibilities to the stakeholders?

This session will address how to satisfy stakeholders through the development of a strong site team and how the team will incorporate/implement future capital projects that will help the company achieve its sustainability goals.

There are many approaches but this is what I have personally experienced and utilized….Be a Catalyst! Examine the strengths & weaknesses for each team member then build your action plan based upon these attributes.

Original Date: Feb 16, 2010

Original Date: March 30, 2010
Speaker: Carol Brozosky, CHMM, CET
President
PTP, Inc.
856-467-5400
Email: carol@ehsprogress.com

We’ve heard the jokes, but contrary to popular opinion, industrial hemp is NOT a drug. Actually, industrial hemp is a viable, sustainable alternative for textiles, cosmetics, fuel, building materials and paper. Our American forefathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were hemp farmers. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp. Our first American flag sewn by Betsy Ross was hemp cloth. All over the world, even in neighboring Canada, farmers are finding that industrial hemp is a winner, and consumer demand for this sustainable crop continues to rise.

Although hemp has been grown for at least the last 12,000 years for fiber (textiles and paper) and food, it has been effectively prohibited in the United States since the 1950s. How did it move from being promoted by the US Army and US Department of Agriculture under the banner "Hemp for Victory" during WWII to the paranoia it causes in the USA today? Why should hazmat professionals that care about sustainable development care about this topic?

In her light hearted, no nonsense approach - the speaker of this session will share with you the facts about hemp – why lifting the ban of growing hemp could be a huge makeover for our environment and our national economy. And why it needs the backing of an accredited, national scientific organization.

Original Date: February 8, 2011
Speaker: Laureen A. McMurray, CHMM, CPEA
Client Program Manager
Shaw Environmental & Infrastructure
585-451-4816
Email: laureen.mcmurray@shawgrp.com

Compliance auditing is a commonly used, highly relied upon practice within the EHS management world. The outcome is a list of noncompliance observations that management can learn from and address. Clearly, standard compliance audits assist management in assessing compliance, allocating resources, and decision-making. However, the audit report does not identify why compliance did or did not occur. Plant management is left to make this determination or face the likelihood of repeated compliance failures during future EHS audits.

A risk-based, process audit is a better approach. It includes a compliance component, but does not end with the list of noncompliance observations. Auditors provide a prioritization of findings based upon the associated risks. In addition, auditors become more involved in root-cause and program gap analysis providing plant management with a valuable tool - the ability to apply long-term corrective actions to address the root causes for the compliance failures identified. This results in increasingly more compliant facilities, and systematic and sustainable compliance programs.

Laureen McMurray will focus on key considerations when designing, implementing, and executing risk-based EHS audits including tried-and-tested tools, tricks and lessons-learned.

Original Date: March 2, 2010
Speaker: Rodney Grieve
Branta Worldwide, Inc.
916-487-1919
Email: Rodney@branta.com

When we hear the words “hazard assessment”, we often think of physical and chemical hazards. These are the risks to our employees we can see with our eyes and feel with our hands. But what if the biggest hazard in your organization is the culture? Culture, defined as “the way we do things around here”, is created by the people working in the environment. If you can’t see culture with your eyes or feel it with your hands, how can you determine if you have a good culture or a bad one? This program looks at some clues that your culture may be contributing to the safety failures. For each clue, we will examine what could be behind it and what you can do to effectively change your current culture into a culture of success.

Original Date: February 2, 2010
Speaker: Dan Hannan, CSP, CHMM
Safety Director
Associated General Contractors of Minnesota
651-796-2192
Email: dhannan@agcmn.org

Game-based learning is quickly be recognized as an effective means of delivering training content including the EH&S principles of HAZWOPER, OSHA 10/30 hour Outreach, industrial hygeine and others. The success of games in training is due primarily to the tendencies of younger generations now entering the workforce. I-pods, cell phones, text messaging, Xbox, etc. are responsible for creating individuals that learn differently than those of even 10 years ago.

The effectiveness of games to train adults is well documented in many white papers and to further this understanding a prominent collegiate consortium has recently been formed with grant money to study which style of games allow young people to learn best. Games, whether one-on-one or in a group classroom setting, reach young and old, engage them and provide entertainment along the way.

Games provide instructors a powerful tool to deliver critical training material. Learning in a fun environment yields knowledge with staying power and speaks to many of the key elements of adult learning. Attendees of this session will gain an understanding of “why games work” and which styles and formats are most effective in delivering training content. Several games will be demonstrated.

Original Date: March 16, 2010
Speaker: Jennifer Schuch, CPEA, CHMM
Project Environmental Scientist
URS Corporation
(312) 697-7209
Email: Jennifer_Schuch@URSCorp.com

This presentation will benefit the regulated community in that it will hopefully provide some ideas to both cut costs and reduce environmental footprint. This presentation will 1) summarize the recent regulatory changes; 2) discuss opportunities to reduce the regulatory burden of complying with these programs or avoid them altogether; and 3) discuss the pros and cons of combining SPCCs and SWPPPs into one integrated plan. The SPCC summary will address oil-filled operating equipment, changes to definitions and integrity testing, qualifies facilities, and the new streamlined template. The SWPPP summary will address the new MSGP and tools developed by the USEPA. Opportunities to reduce the burden of these programs such as using the streamlined template, reducing container size, and self-certification will be discussed, in addition to easy changes industries subject to the general stormwater permit can make to avoid having to obtain an industrial stormwater permit. Finally, the presentation will discuss how and when it is appropriate to combine the SPCC and SWPP plans to simplify reporting and inspection schedules.

Original Date: April 13, 2010
Speaker: David L. Galt
Legal Editor
Business & Legal Resources, Inc.
860-510-0100 x 2378
Email: dgalt@blr.com

To survive this economy, environmental and safety professionals must transform EHS training into a business value. The webinar will identify the barriers to EHS as a business value, look at business investments and the benefits of EHS functions, link EHS to the drivers of business value, demonstrate tools to improve business performance, and speak the language of business managers.

Original Date: February 23, 2011
Speaker: James M. Harless, PhD, CHMM
Vice President/Principal
Soil and Materials Engineers, Inc.
734-454-9900
Email: harless@sme-usa.com

1786 – French settlers leave British-controlled Detroit and establish the settlement of Frenchtown 35 miles to the south

January 22, 1813 – British soldiers defeat the Americans at the Battle of the River Raisin at Frenchtown, and Native American allies massacre 50 wounded American soldiers. The combined casualties are the largest loss of American soldiers in the War of 1812. “Remember the Raisin” becomes a battle cry for the remainder of the successful western campaign.

1917 – Monroe Paper Company builds a large paper mill complex on the battlefield site

1981 – The paper mill becomes a RCRA Interim Status Permit facility

1995 – Jefferson-Smurfit Paper Company closes and abandons the mill complex

March 30, 2009 – The River Raisin National Battlefield Park becomes the first reclaimed brownfield to be incorporated into the National Park Service

How did this happen? This presentation will describe the ten-year journey from abandoned paper mill to preserved historic jewel. Many obstacles, including acquiring the land, finding over $3 million dollars in brownfield financing to demolish buildings and conduct environmental assessment and remediation activities, addressing RCRA Corrective Action liabilities, and restoring the site, were encountered and overcome by an impressive team comprised of consultants; the City of Monroe, MI; U.S. EPA; Michigan Department of Environmental Quality; Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries; and Congressman John Dingell (D-MI).

Original Date: March 9, 2011
Speaker: Deborah B. Gray, CHMM
Project Manager
Waste Management Upstream
864-200-5205
Email: dgray4@wm.com

An increasing number of companies are engaging in reverse logistics. The decision to institute a reverse logistics program is often customer driven, some customers are simply seeking to better manage inventories or upgrade the consumer, while others demand a sustainable approach to managing product lifecycle. Sales managers will agree to do whatever it takes to make the customer happy. But when they agree to take back merchandise and give the customer credit, do they really understand the implications of their actions? Reverse logistics operations must comply with EPA, DOT, and other federal, state, and local regulations. This webinar gives an overview of the issues that should be considered and the members of the organization that need to be involved to ensure that customer service doesn’t cause your company’s reverse logistics program to collide with the regulations

Original Date: March 23, 2011
Speaker: Kevin Cobb
Senior Safety Specialist
SafeStart-SafeTrack, A Division of Electrolab Ltd.
214-642-2352
Email: kevinc0930@sbcglobal.net

Can you identify the monsters that are terrorizing your organization? What beasts are holding back not only your safety, but production and quality performance as well?

Surprisingly for most, the Monsters are quite common and really simple once you understand them. What is troubling is the fact that all of us unknowingly keep the Monsters well fed and alive.

In this thought provoking webinar, we will identify four simple monsters that are terrorizing your safety performance on and off the job. We’ll also look at some efficient technology you can deploy as you develop your team of Monster slayers.

Policies, procedures, engineering controls are all essential elements of a solid safety management system, but we will never achieve world class safety performance until we stop feeding those monsters

Original Date: August 17, 2010
Speaker: Robert Christie
CEO & President
3E Company
619-980-4205
Email: jenny@binghampr.com

More and more companies are increasing their focus on EH&S regulatory compliance as they evaluate their own sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. This session will address this trend, as well as other trends in EH&S regulatory compliance and their impact on sustainability and CSR.

Original Date: May 11, 2010

Original Date: May 25, 2010
Speaker: Dave Waddell
Lead Environmental Investigator & President; NAHMMA Board of Directors
King County Hazardous Waste Mgmt Program; NAHMMA
206-263-3069
Email: dave.waddell@kingcounty.gov

This is the first of three trainings addressing chemical assessment and management in laboratory settings. High-hazard chemicals are routinely found in analytical, research, teaching and medical laboratories. Learn common classes of hazardous chemicals found in these labs, their hazards, tips for identifying degraded materials and techniques for their proper management.

Original Date: June 8, 2010
Speaker: Dave Waddell
Lead Environmental Investigator & President; NAHMMA Board of Directors
King County Hazardous Waste Mgmt Program; NAHMMA
206-263-3069
Email: dave.waddell@kingcounty.gov

This is the second of three trainings addressing chemical assessment and management in laboratory settings. A bewildering variety of hazardous chemicals are routinely found in analytical, research, teaching and medical laboratories. This training will provide techniques are have proven successful for assessing chemical management practices, interviewing lab personnel and providing useful recommendations for proper chemical management to lab managers.

Original Date: June 22, 2010
Speaker: Dave Waddell
Lead Environmental Investigator & President; NAHMMA Board of Directors
King County Hazardous Waste Mgmt Program; NAHMMA
206-263-3069
Email: dave.waddell@kingcounty.gov

This is the third of three trainings addressing chemical assessment and management in laboratory settings. Public and private secondary schools across the United States have been found to contain hundreds of containers of highly hazardous chemicals, many of them legacies of the Cold War. Learn about the hazardous chemicals found in schools, unique risks they pose, techniques for organizing a school chemical cleanout project, and resources available to make that process easier.

Original Date: September 28, 2010
Speaker: Mike Sieczkowski
Technical Sales Director
JRW Bioremediation, L.L.C.
913-438-5544, ext 122
Email: msieczkowski@jrwbiorem.com

A recent chlorinated solvent site in California reported a reduction in the rate of degradation of contaminants about 8 months after a slowly soluble carbon substrate was introduced. This was evidenced by a drop in pH, an apparent leveling off of contaminant concentrations, and an appearance of acetone that suggested that an alternate fermentation pathway was being favored. In addition, total organic carbon (TOC) levels remained constant at over 1,200 milligrams per liter or declined slowly for over two years indicating that excess substrate was not being consumed. Since it appeared that the kinetics of the system were declining, possibly due to the low pH, a solution to raise the pH or increase the kinetics was sought. The options available included introducing a buffer, introducing a material that would increase general biological activity, and waiting until the system exhausted the carbon substrate until the TOC decreased to a more optimal level. A buffer was considered but not selected as distribution throughout the system would require substantial site work. Waiting for the carbon substrate to degrade was not selected as the time frame was unknown and could extend the project to an unacceptable duration. The introduction of a small quantity of a bioremediation nutrient was selected in a pilot test as this could be accomplished at minimal expense. This presentation reviews the selection process and the results of the nutrient addition

Original Date: July 20, 2010
Speaker: Wendy Phippen, CHMM
IS Sustainability Sr. Mgr
Philips Healthcare
(425) 218 5869
Email: wendy.phippen@philips.com

Migrating EHS&S into a Sustainability Program seems a natural fit. Sustainability includes most EHS&S activities plus a whole lot more. I moved from managing EHS programs to managing a corporate sustainability program at Philips Healthcare (PH). This was a monumental, but rewarding challenge. During this session, I will share with you: (1) How our team developed an exceptional global sustainability program, making sustainability a way of working, (a) Laying the foundation (b) Moving EHS&S programs for products and processes under sustainability and embedding ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 (c) Communication (training) (2) Monitoring and measuring sustainability, (2) Road blocks encountered, and (3) Our leanings/best practices as we continue to grow the PH sustainability program.

Description: The scope/objective of this presentation is to share strategies and techniques for maintaining environmental, transportation, and safety compliance programs during a poor economy. These strategies and techniques have been successfully utilized in the Environmental Management Systems in place at a large, nationwide environmental services company that operates facilities in the recycling, treatment, and disposal of hazardous wastes.

Methods/Developments/Results

The discussion will focus on six areas that are critical to compliance:

1. Self-Assessments and Internal Audits - Frequency of audits, utilization of personnel, reporting of results and correction of issues.
2. Auditing Tools
• Checklists - Tools for developing checklists and maintaining attorney/client privilege of audit.
• Tracking Compliance Issues - Tools for tracking issues to resolution and level of management involvement.
3. Compliance Management Systems
• aCompliance Calendar Systems - Tools for creating a compliance calendar, items included in a compliance calendar.
• ISO 14001 and 18001 - Corporate procedures. Internal auditors. Registration vs. self-certification.
4. Regulatory Changes - What tools are available for tracking and communicating regulatory changes.
5. Senior Management Support - The support of senior management is critical in maintaining compliance.

What you will take away:

Regulatory compliance can be maintained during a difficult economy without overloading facility EHS&T Managers. Tools are available to assist with compliance (e.g., web based checklists and issue tracking along with daily regulatory alerts). Senior Management support is critical in this effort.