We are excited to announce that East-West Engineering, PLLC has been certified as a MBE & WBE (Minority and Woman Business Enterprise) and VBE (Veteran Business Enterprise) by the Massachusetts Supplier Diversity Office for our work as civil and environmental engineering consultants. This is an exciting opportunity for us to expand our work and serve our Clients in Massachusetts in this capacity.
Owners and developers looking to renovate and redevelop their commercial sites should be aware of how the type and environmental quality of soil and fill on site may affect their project. Not evaluating the presence of polluted soil and fill in the planning and design phase can lead to significant construction cost overruns related to off-site disposal of any encountered polluted material. Additionally, belated characterization of excavated materials (and other waste materials), and lead times for a suitable disposal facility (if polluted materials are to be taken off-site) and regulatory approvals (if polluted soils are to be disposed of off-site and/or if they are to remain on-site), can add months to a construction schedule. If polluted materials are to remain on-site, then land use restrictions and/or notifications to the State or local authorities may be required.
In Connecticut, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CTDEEP) Remediation Standard Regulations (RSR) is the governing document that specifies the standards for environmental pollution in soil and groundwater. Part 1 in this series of articles lists the types of soil and fill defined in Connecticut and describes typical steps to evaluate these materials on-site with the assistance of a qualified environmental professional.
The defined list of site materials includes soil and non-soil items, soil effected by releases or spills that occurred at the site, or soil that was brought onto the site polluted from an outside source. To evaluate which category your site material falls into and what soil/fill handling methods are allowable, some due diligence should be performed during the planning process and before site design.
If the site use or operations history is unknown for a property, a Phase I environmental site assessment (ESA) is a good place to start. The site development and regulatory history of the site is researched as part of a Phase I ESA to identify environmental areas of concern (AOCs). Potential releases from the identified AOCs can be confirmed by soil and groundwater testing. In addition to historical mapping and aerial photographs reviewed in a Phase I ESA, test pits and soil borings can be used to identify areas of fill and soil testing can be conducted to evaluate whether the fill is polluted. During this phase, the soil and fill should also be tested for geotechnical parameters for the reasons described below.
There are several reasons why soil testing is a prudent decision. First, if site soil or fill is found to be geotechnically unsuitable (which can happen for a variety of reasons), a decision can be made whether to reuse the material on-site or dispose of the material off-site. This is also true if there is excess ‘cut’ material on a project.
For material disposed off-site, permitted disposal and reuse facilities require testing and certification before accepting shipments, and most landowners looking for fill also require testing before accepting. For on-site reuse, local health and land use regulations, in addition to State guidelines, require burial (typically with a notice of land use limitation) or mixing to reduce its toxicity and minimize the contaminant’s exposure to people using the site.
Additionally, if the soil or fill appears polluted or suspicious, many contractors will conduct tests of the soil for the health and safety of their employees. Costs for the excavation, loading and proper disposal of previously unidentified polluted soil and fill are a popular source of change orders on a site development project.
Part 2 in this series of articles will discuss how the presence of polluted soil, fill, or other material on a site can be properly addressed and costs minimized when included in the planning process.
Robert J. Carr, P.E., LEP is Vice President and Principal Environmental Engineer at East-West Engineering, Inc.
He can be reached at bob.carr@east‑westengineering.com, or by phone at 860.709.9253.
1Definition in R.C.S.A.22a-209-1
2Definition in R.C.S.A 22a-209-1
3Definition in RCSA 22a-133k-1
With the rising demand for self-storage, due to expanding urbanism and a move towards residential, consumer, and business downsizing, the target locations for new facilities or expanding existing facilities are properties that have high visibility and are easily accessible by customers, whether close to their homes or close to their businesses. There are challenges associated with developing in these premium locations that require thoughtful consideration in the early planning stages to green light your project and throughout the design and permitting process to best position your project for success. Below are some questions to consider.
Historically, self-storage has been relegated to areas zoned for industrial and warehouse uses, whereas these zones are not typically located near or adjacent to residential areas or urban centers. Furthermore, zoning regulations often do not clearly define self-storage as a primary use, so applying the local regulations may be difficult and misalign with the use and operations associated with self-storage. A clear and thorough understanding of the regulations, requirements, and restrictions is the first step in identifying if the site is a good fit and determining the pathway for approval. A zone change, special permit, and/or variances may be required, all of which require extra time (when compared to a typical site plan) and all of which typically require public hearings. A zone change, for example, can take upwards of six months to pursue and obtain, requiring review by local staff and the Planning and Zoning Board before finally going before the local governing body for a vote.
In some cases, Towns and Cities concerned with overbuilding or inconsistencies with their Plans of Conservation and Development (POCD) have issued moratoriums preventing self-storage development as they reconsider and rewrite their zoning regulations. Several Towns in Connecticut, including Milford and Wethersfield, issued moratoriums in 2019 to place restrictions on self-storage applications. The City of Hartford amended their regulations to limit new storage facilities to industrial zones. In late 2020, the Town of West Hartford joined the trend by instituting a 9-month moratorium on applications, to include self-storage facilities, in an area presently zoned as industrial or business, to allow time to update their zoning for transit-oriented projects to align with their POCD.
To prevent potential delays to your self-storage development project, early engagement with municipal staff to clarify the regulations and determine the most streamlined path towards approval is a must. Public opinion can also be a significant obstacle in the approval process; therefore, community outreach to gage and garner support should be implemented early and carried through the design and permitting process.
To overcome the added level of municipal and public scrutiny, we see that approved projects contain added investment in a thoughtful design that integrates architectural elements, landscaping, and site features that are attractive and blend well with or enhance the character of the surrounding neighborhood. Elements beyond those minimally required, such as additional screening and plantings, ornamental fencing, site lighting, and security features, may go a long way to appeal to the public and community stakeholders and are generally better received by municipalities with a separate Design Review Board. Additionally, from a site development perspective, educating the public on the relative low impact the project will have on the surrounding community when compared to other potential uses, such as with noise, traffic generation, hours of operation, or environmental impacts, while meeting the needs of residents and local business owners, should also be emphasized.
In addition to zoning requirements, site characteristics may also limit your ability to build on a property, including wetlands, water resources, flood zones, easements, land use restrictions, and/or other protected natural resources. These elements should be evaluated in your site selection process as they may not only limit your buildable area, but also require additional permitting (i.e., Conservation/Wetlands Commission) or Federal/State agency review (i.e., EPA/DEEP) and extend your timeline for approvals.
Understanding the physical site characteristics as well as the land use permitting process is important when considering a new build or expansion of your self-storage facility. Gathering this information early on and working with a design team knowledgeable and experienced in local land use regulations is essential for making informed decisions for your project, developing a realistic budget and schedule, and increasing your chances for permitting success.
The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving recently announced that Nutmeg Senior Rides was a recipient of a grant from Phase II of their COVID-19 Response Fund. The grant will be used to prepare a monitoring and cleaning plan and provide periodic COVID-19 surface sampling and testing of their vehicle fleet. The scope of the grant is the first of its kind issued as part of the COVID-19 Response Fund, and the plan preparation and vehicle sampling and testing is being provided by East-West Engineering, PLLC.
Nutmeg Senior Rides is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit that uses a mix of staff and volunteer drivers to provide “door-to-door” rides 365 days a year for seniors and the visually impaired in ten towns in North Central Connecticut. See the links below for more info on Nutmeg Senior Rides and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving COVID-19 Response Fund.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, most building owners and property managers have instituted improved air handling and filtration systems and stepped up disinfection procedures from their cleaning and maintenance companies in accordance with CDC recommendations. Along with social distancing and mask wearing requirements, improvements to indoor air handling systems, and the ramped up cleaning serves to give building tenants a sense of security and peace of mind that they will not be subject to the COVID-19 virus. This “building trust” between building owners and managers, and their tenants is critical for people to be willing to go back to their buildings for work or school.
COVID-19 spreads through airborne particles that carry the virus, including very small “micro” particles and aerosols that are less than 5 microns in size (a fraction of a width of a human hair). For indoor locations, air circulation and filtration are key to controlling the spread of the virus. The introduction of outside air to indoor air improves a building’s ventilation.
One way to measure ventilation is to figure out how often the air in a space is completely replaced, typically measured as Air Changes per Hour (ACH). For example, for a 30-foot by 30-foot classroom that has 25 students in it, the air should be replaced at least every 15 minutes, which equals an ACH of 4. if the air is replaced at least every 10 minutes, there is an ACH of 6, which is a better air exchange rate. Although there currently is no standard for ACH for indoor air, a higher ACH lowers the risk of disease spreading through the air.
The use of indoor air filtration systems is also important. A filter’s Minimum Efficiency Reporting Values (MERV) rating describes how well it removes different sized particles in the air. A MERV rating of 13 or higher (MERV 13+) means that the filter removes at least 90% of the particles the size of virus-containing aerosols. High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters are designed to exceed the highest MERV rating. A HEPA filter removes at least 99.97% of particles that are even smaller than aerosols.
One way to confirm the efficacy of these measures is to conduct periodic testing of surfaces or air for the virus. Optimal testing locations would be surfaces directly beneath air vents that could be sampled and results tracked over a period of time. If the test results are positive, improvements in air handling and disinfection procedures should be made in addition to tracking asymptomatic carriers using the building. Negative test results would prove equally useful and can be kept on file to share with tenants on request or better yet, proactively reported to tenants or publicly displayed (similar to how restaurant health department ‘ratings’ are displayed). In this way, trust can be maintained between building occupants and the owners and operators.
1Rhode Island Department of Health - Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 By Circulating Air in Schools and Other Buildings, 2020
In the recently concluded September Special Session, bill Public Act 20-9 - An Act Revising Provisions to the Transfer Act and Authorizing Development and Implementation of a Release Based Program was passed by the CT Legislature and signed by Governor Lamont. The bill creates a release-based clean-up program to replace the existing Transfer Act. This would bring Connecticut in line with 48 other States (New Jersey currently is the only other State with a ‘transfer’ based property remediation program). When I read the bill and related testimony from various stakeholder groups, I had a vague sense of deja-vu. Indeed, a similar proposal was recommended in 2012 after a culmination of many meetings between regulatory, industry, and environmental stakeholder task groups.
In 2012, the various task groups recommended the replacement of the Transfer Act with a released-based remediation program. However, several sticking points involving the details of such a programmatic change soon arose that stalled progress toward a consensus bill. These issues included but were not limited to addressing historical releases, changes necessary to other overlapping and related statutes and environmental regulations, reconciling the State’s non-degradation groundwater policy, and the sunset schedule of the Transfer Act.
Some of these issues, such as the sunset date of the Transfer Act (the adoption date of the release-based remediation regulations) and liability protection for owners of historical releases (as long as they were not party to the release), are addressed in the passed legislation; however, in the eight years that have passed, most of these issues still remain and will need to be addressed to the reasonable satisfaction of a diverse group of stakeholders. In fact, these same issues were specifically mentioned in some of the testimony presented by groups including CBIA, EPOC, and the CT Association of Realtors. To that end, the bill does establish a broad working group to meet monthly and advise the CTDEEP Commissioner on the development of the release-based remediation regulations.
Now that there seems be a broad political and stakeholder consensus on a release-based program (regulation details aside), is this finally the time that the Transfer Act gets replaced? Stay tuned.
Should air sampling and testing be part of a business’s COVID-19 risk assessment strategy? A growing body of evidence says yes.
Despite initial guidelines from the CDC to the contrary, airborne transmission of COVID-19 is now considered to be a major factor in the spread of infection. A recent study published by PNAS (Zhang et al. May 2020) strongly implicates airborne transmission as a major route of the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. The study looked at what effect various infection reduction measures had on the spread of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, northern Italy, and New York City. The study concluded that only the use of face coverings was successful in significantly reducing the amount of new cases, indicating that stopping the airborne spread of COVID-19 had the greatest impact in reducing the number of cases of COVID-19.
This study adds to the following reported airborne related cases:
Given this latest information, what is a business owner to do? Below are some tips on reducing airborne transmission of COVID-191.
In addition to the above-listed steps, an environmental monitoring plan should be implemented to include periodic air and surface testing to evaluate the adequacy of indoor cleaning and control measures. Any positive testing results should require immediate revision of cleaning methods and control procedures.
1 https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/office-buildings.html
I remember growing up that my mother always kept a very clean house; so clean in fact that friends and neighbors used to say that you could “eat off the floor”. I don’t know if that was really true, and I never tried to eat my dinner off the linoleum, but it has caused me to think of it lately with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. How can you tell if something is "truly" clean?
There are a couple of tests available that can help gauge the cleanliness of a surface. One test measures the bioluminescence of an energy molecule that is in all living things, called adenosine triphosphate or ATP. In the ATP test, a luminometer is used to measure the amount of light created when ATP reacts with luciferase, a natural firefly enzyme. The brighter the light, the more actively growing microorganisms are present in the sample (typically a swab sample from a surface). Because it is quick and relatively easy to use, the ATP test is universally used where clean surfaces are important, such as in food preparation and health care. The ATP test cannot, however, specify which microorganism(s) may be present on a surface, and the ATP test cannot detect viruses such as the SARS-COV2 virus, the virus responsible for COVID-19.
One test that can detect the SARS-COV2 virus is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. The PCR test uses DNA or RNA to identify specific pathogenic organisms, including viruses. PCR analysis is required to be performed at accredited, fixed biolaboratories, so samples have to be submitted to an off-site lab. Therefore, the analytical results are not immediately known and can take days to complete. However, if you need to know specifically if COVID-19 is present in your facility, PCR testing is the far better and most viable option available.
As a business or property owner considering surface testing for COVID-19 to identify the presence of COVID-19 or to confirm site cleaning methods are effective for eliminating COVID-19, having a reliable and proven testing method is critical.
Since March, long-term care communities and nursing homes in the U.S. have faced an unprecedented challenge. COVID-19 has deeply impacted all aspects of American life, but no sector has been affected like long-term care. Over 45% of all domestic COVID-19 fatalities have taken place in long-term care setting. The response to the outbreak has been complicated by a lack of personal protective equipment and sufficient human testing resources. The high rate of asymptomatic spreaders of the disease makes screening programs ineffective. More than half of carriers shedding virus and infecting others have no symptoms whatsoever. Surface testing for virus has been used for over a decade, and has been brought to bear in the COVID-19 epidemic in acute care settings. This study used surface testing in 52 long-term care facilities over a 5-week period to determine if outbreaks can be detected earlier by monitoring the environment for the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and to understand how the virus is distributed on indoor surfaces. Over 2,600 individual samples were tested taken from over 600 surfaces. In the study, 18 facilities showed virus on a combined total of 55 surfaces. The overall rate of positive tests was 2.46%. Four outbreaks were detected, one a full week before any other method would have provided warning.
The State of Connecticut recently granted certification to East-West Engineering, PLLC as a Veteran-Owned Micro Business. Certified veteran-owned businesses are eligible for certain pricing preferences when competing for State contracts. Judy Schuler, President of East-West Engineering, served as a Captain and Civil Engineer in the United States Air Force. Her first assignment brought her to the Mojave Desert in California at Edwards Air Force Base where she managed design and construction projects for the Air Force Flight Test Center, ranging from military family housing, dormitories, and quality of life projects to F-16 facility renovations and the construction of a new explosive ordinance disposal facility. In her last assignment as the Director of Logistics and Engineering for the Headquarters Defense Courier Service (DCS) at Fort George G. Meade in Maryland, she logged thousands of airline miles to coordinate and oversee new construction, renovations and physical security projects for the 29 DCS facilities worldwide. She also was a Department of Defense Courier, qualified to transport the Nation’s most sensitive classified material.
The State of Connecticut recently granted certification to East-West Engineering, PLLC as a Small/Minority Business Enterprise through its Supplier Diversity Program. The certification is required for businesses and customers looking to fulfill their diversity goals on State funded projects. Judy Schuler, President of East-West Engineering, announced “This certification will not only help our clients meet their mandated woman and minority business enterprise goals, but illustrate their commitment to diversity on their project teams."
Back in the first week of March, a client of mine and I were discussing the cases of COVID-19 recently found in New York City. My client was a medical doctor and worked at a large hospital in the area so I was interested on his take on stopping the spread of the coronavirus. I had mentioned that I thought the steps similar to what airports in Turkey were taking to screen COVID-19 carriers would be enough to stop the spread, which was to thermally scan passengers before boarding and after their flights. If you had a fever, you were questioned and quarantined. Since having a fever was one of the first symptoms of the disease, it seemed like an effective solution. My client slowly shook his head and said “Thermal screening is not going to be effective. COVID-19 is being spread by people who show no symptoms, so there is no way to screen for these carriers”. I decided then that I was not going to be traveling anytime soon.
As it turns out, my client was prescient on COVID-19’s spread by asymptomatic carriers. After some initial skepticism from the medical community, recent studies have shown that up to 50% of COVID-19 cases have been spread through asymptomatic carriers. One obvious way to catch these carriers is through a continual testing program of all employees, but is there another feasible alternative to continually testing everybody?
A recently presented case study from the Washington Health Care Association (WHCA) and Enviral Tech suggests there is a COVID-19 tracking alternative. The study looked at over 50 long-term care facilities and whether COVID-19 testing of surfaces would be an effective tool at discovering and controlling COVID-19 outbreaks in those facilities. The study focused on the concept of ‘viral shedding’ and how the COVID-19 virus is spread from infected persons through either by droplets, or by aerosol onto environmental surfaces (counters, tables, chairs, door handles, etc.). The study included the collection and testing of hundreds of surface samples.
The results of the study indicated that not only was surface testing effective in showing whether COVID-19 was present at a facility, the surface testing results were used to prevent a widespread outbreak at two of the facilities in the study. In both cases, when there was a positive surface test result, the facilities conducted COVID-19 testing of all staff and were able to identify and isolate the asymptomatic carriers.
These study results indicate that environmental surface testing for COVID-19 is effective at identifying facilities with asymptomatic carriers and can be part of a feasible, effective strategy in tracking and stopping the spread of the virus within a facility.