The LSPA presented the following compliance tip at the April Membership Meeting held at the Holiday Inn in Taunton, MA on April 24, 2018. 

MassDEP’s internship application period is open now through April 30. MassDEP is seeking a student (or team of 2 or more students) that would be interested in developing articles or mini-video documentaries about the history, decline and rebirth of some of the region’s brownfields (‘Brownfield Success Stories”). This internship will expose students to researching the history of disposal sites, learning about site cleanup assessment and technologies, and understanding Massachusetts cleanup process and regulations. (This position requires the type of due diligence research and report writing that would be required of a young environmental consultant). 

This internship may be a good fit for liberal arts students with a background in history or communication/journalism, as well as students in environmental science or the earth sciences. The internship is unpaid, but the hours can be part-time and flexible. 

Over the past several months the LSP Association (LSPA) has been active at the Massachusetts State House in support of S.534 - An Act relative to the remediation of home heating oil releases. Currently, only 5% of homes in Massachusetts using oil heat have insurance coverage! This bill, sponsored by Senator Anne Gobi and proposed by the LSPA, would make insurance coverage for home heating oil releases mandatory, giving homeowners much needed relief if they should face the often intimidating financial challenges of remediating a spill.    

In February 2018, the Joint Committee on Financial Services voted to report our bill favorably, with no changes. The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Ways and Means where it is currently under review. Senator Karen E. Spilka (D-Middlesex/Norfolk) is the Chair of the Senate committee, and a list of committee members is here.

The LSPA presented the following compliance tip at the March Membership Meeting at the DoubleTree Hotel in Westborough, MA on March 15, 2018.  

It's that time of year again!

LSPA's March 2018 Member Newsletter has been published! Table of Contents is listed below. Please log in to your account and visit Member Materials to view the full newsletter.

In this Issue....

• President's Message
• LSPA Blog Highlights
• NOAFs and Enforcement at Vapor Intrusion Sites
• What the LSPA Learned From MassDEP Regional Audit and Enforcement Chiefs
• New Property Owners Must File DPS Documents to Keep Status
• Lessons on AULs from 2016 NOAFs
• Recorded Instruments on Properties with an AUL
• Window into MassDEP Enforcement: LPC's Review of “Uncategorized” NOAFS
• Why the Need for pH/ORP Data with HexChrome Analyses?

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection has updated its Method for the Determination of Volatile Petroleum Hydrocarbons by Gas Chromatography/Photoionization Detector/Flame Ionization Detector (VPH by GC/PID/FID) and the corresponding CAM protocol, WSC-CAM-IVA, Quality Control Requirements and Performance Standards for the Analysis of Volatile Petroleum Hydrocarbons (VPH) by Gas Chromatography/Photoionization Detector/Flame Ionization Detector in Support of Response Actions under the Massachusetts Contingency Plan. The updates include revised calibration requirements, changes to retention time windows for aliphatic hydrocarbons, required traps for the purge-and-trap process, new requirements for data deliverables, and a series of other minor revisions and clarifications. The revised method may be found here VPH Method by GC/PIC/FID. A complete list of the updates is provided in the preface of the revised method. 

Laboratories that are currently performing VPH by GC/PID/FID must make the necessary adjustments to implement the changes to the method on or before June 1, 2018 to comply with the method requirements and certify that the method is being performed in conformance with the CAM protocol, found here WSC-CAM-IVA. If you have questions about the revised method or CAM protocol, you may contact MassDEP at [email protected].

The LSPA presented the following compliance tip at the February Membership Meeting held at the Holiday Inn in Taunton, MA on February 13, 2018. 

Click here to view all published compliance tips. This document is also posted in the Members Only section of the website under Technical Resources.

LSPA’s Western Massachusetts Committee had a record-breaking number of attendees at its membership meeting on Monday, January 29. 

We would like to thank our speakers of the evening: Mr. Jason Barroso, Waste Management, Inc.; Mr. Hugo DelRosso, US Ecology and Ms. Eva Tor, Bureau of Waste Site Cleanup, MassDEP’s Western Regional Office. The speakers addressed the topic of Waste Management Considerations for MCP Projects to an audience of 60+.

The LSPA Emerging Professionals hosted its annual Trivia Night at Lowell Beerworks on January 18, 2018. About 35 emerging and "seasoned" professionals competed in general knowledge trivia for prizes. Congratulations to the winning teams of the third annual trivia night:

#1 “Upstate New York”
#2 “Team 1”
#3 “Last Place”  

The LSPA presented the following compliance tip at the January Membership Meeting at Doubletree Hotel in Westborough, MA on January 11, 2018. 

Click here to view all published compliance tips. This document is also posted in the Members Only section of the website under Technical Resources.

Rhode Island Flood Mitigation Association 2018 Conference - CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

April 5, 2018 | 8:00 am - 4:30 pm
Fidelity Investments, Smithfield, RI 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator, Scott Pruitt, announced the appointment of Alexandra Dapolito Dunn to become Regional Administrator for Region 1. With over two decades of experience in environmental law, legislation, policy, and regulatory affairs, Ms. Dunn will oversee federal environmental protection efforts in: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. 

Alexandra Dunn currently serves as executive director and general counsel for the Environmental Council of States (ECOS), a national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization committed to helping state agencies improve environment outcomes for Americans. Since 2014, Ms. Dunn has helped state governments improve water infrastructure, air pollution control, site cleanup, chemical management, and economic development. Prior to joining ECOS, Ms. Dunn served as executive director and general counsel for the Association of Clean Water Administrators.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), the state agency responsible for protecting the environment in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, recently honored long-time LSP Association member, James Soukup, with a Greener Cleanups Award at the LSPA’s September Membership Meeting in Newton, MA.

Soukup, a Licensed Site Professional (LSP) and Principal Hydrogeologist at Weston Solutions Inc., and his client, Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee, Massachusetts, received the Greener Cleanup Leadership Recognition Award for demonstrating professional stewardship in promoting Greener Cleanup principles and practices to reduce the overall net environmental footprint of hazardous waste site cleanup response actions implemented under the Massachusetts Contingency Plan (MCP).

The LSPA presented the following compliance tip at the November Membership Meeting at the DoubleTree Hotel in Westborough, MA on November 14, 2017.