PACNY's 4th Annual Pro-Am Fishing Tournament, Quantity over Quality!

The theme for this year's annual fishing derby was definitely quantity.  On July 12, 2017 we attended the Professional Abatement Contractors of New York's (PACNY's) 4th Annual Pro-Am Fishing Tournament (Derby).  This year, Future Environment Designs had its own boat called "Catchin Hell" piloted by Captain Tom and First Mate Mike.  There were 10 boats that went out of Point Breeze at Oak Orchard Creek to fish Lake Ontario.  A big THANK YOU to PACNY and Darrin Yehl for again sponsoring this Tournament (Derby), giving us more opportunities to get together and network.  Here was this year's lineup of PACNY members and the boats they were on:

Sunrise at Point Breeze

Dival Safety on the Reel Excitement

Dival Safety #2 on the (Just 11) Get Hooked
Aramsco on the Runnin Rebel

Abscope on the Reflection

Future Environment Designs on the Catch'N'Hell
Rochester Environmental on the Irish Thunder

Cornerstone Training Institute on the Sunrise II

Paradigm Environmental on the Free Spirit
NRC on the Intimidator

Sessler on the Rusty Lure

Catch'N'Hell T-shirt on First Mate Mike

As usual, the day started out beautifully with a nice sunrise over Lake Ontario.  We started loading the boats around 5:50 in the morning.  PACNY's Darren Yehl organized the event and did a fantastic job.  Everybody was ready for the shotgun start at or about 6:30.  We stay out on the lake till around noon.  Then come to shore for the weigh-in, a catered buffet lunch at the Black North Inn (which is always fantastic), and awarding of the trophies/prizes. As many of you know, we are a beer enthusiast and the Scotch Ale, by Rohrbach Brewing Company, available at the Black North Inn is fantastic.  Definitely one of the pleasures of the catered buffet lunch (see our reviews of this beer on Untappd).  This year's winners were:

Dival for the Box & Big Fish

We had a great time and was entertained by social media's busting on us for the size of our catch compared with our wife's catch.  But all in all, we caught 8 King Salmon and 2 Rainbow Trout which was the most fish we've caught over the 4 years.  Though we were in last place for the box (3 largest fish) and the biggest fish, we came home with a lot of fish for curing and eating, so it was a successful and fun trip, again!  It was great having our own boat and we plan on hosting our own boat next year.  If you think you would be interested send us an email so we can start making plans.  The Tournament (derby) is always on a Wednesday and usually the second or third one in July.  We're already looking forward to next year's fishing!

Related articles

• 32-pound king caught during tournament highlights hot salmon fishing(mlive.com)

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• PACNY's Second Annual ProAm Fishing Derby, is Bigger & Better!(futureenv.blogspot.com)

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• PACNY Fishing Derby Was An Adventure(futureenv.blogspot.com)

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NYC Building Department Changes Go Into Effect in 2009

New York City Building Department (NYC DOB) is making many changes in the way building sites are run in 2009. The changes are designed to increase safety and affect how business is done with the NYC DOB. Examples of these changes include:

• A concrete safety manager must be designated on all "major buildings" during the concrete portion of the project to promote safer concrete operations.


• All high-rise construction sites, will require a licensed site safety manager to peform inspections to ensure construction sites are properly maintained. The site safey manager shall maintain two new site safety logs (maintenance and permit logs) documenting the inspections.


• The new training requirements under Local Law 41 of 2008 requiring all workers, at "major buildings," to complete a 10 Hour course in construction safety approved by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was extended to July 1, 2009. (The class must have been taken within the past 5 years).

Click on the title for the link to the NYC DOB website for more information.

220-H Requirements Posted

New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) has issued the requirements for statue 220-H compliance (see the link above). Statue 220-H requires that every worker working on public work of $250,000 or more shall have taken the ten hour Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) construction safety training course. NYSDOL will enforce this statue by requiring all contractors and subcontractors to submit copies of the OSHA ten hour card or training roster with the first certified payroll submitted to the contracting agency and on each succeeding payroll where any new or additional employee is first listed. This should clarify who needs to take the OSHA ten hour course. All workers who will be listed on the certified payroll have to take the OSHA ten hour course.

We have several courses on the schedule. We also can set-up a class At Your Convenience with 4 or more workers, so give us a call.

Operating Engineers Need Asbestos Handler Certificates

Future Environment Designs was recently working with a construction company that needed training to operate machinery (such as backhoes and excavators) inside an asbestos work area. These machines would be used to demolish a building that has asbestos containing roofing materials in place during the demolition.

Discussions with the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) determined that the operating engineers operating the machinery would require asbestos handler training (32 hours of training with a full day refresher annually thereafter) and certificates ($50 fee to NYSDOL; http://www.labor.state.ny.us/formsdocs/wp/sh440.pdf). Our discussion with NYSDOL determined that it is there (NYSDOL) view that though operating engineers are not disturbing asbestos with their hands, they are disturbing asbestos with the machinery. Anyone that disturbs asbestos (by hand or machinery) are required to have an asbestos handler certificate. Operating engineers operating machinery inside an asbestos work area are required to have asbestos handler certificates. NYSDOL will enforce this position even though a separate asbestos contractor was hired to handle the asbestos at the site.

Realize this position means that the construction company employing these operating engineers needs to have an Asbestos Company License ($500 for an initial, $300 for a renewal; http://www.labor.state.ny.us/formsdocs/wp/SH430.pdf). In addition, to getting the company license, the company needs an individual with an asbestos supervisor certificate to be the designated supervisor on the company license. This means someone from the construction company has to be trained at the 40 hour level.

In summary, all of this means any equipment being used in an asbestos work area must be operated by an operating engineer who has an asbestos handler certificate and works for a construction company that is licensed to abate asbestos containing materials. In addition, that asbestos construction company needs a designated supervisor who will be the competent person for the asbestos construction company and be responsible for any infractions at the worksite. If that sounds complicated to you now, imagine if there are violations at the worksite. Which asbestos contractor will be responsible? The asbestos abatement contractor (handling the asbestos) or the asbestos construction contractor (operating engineers)? This will be interesting to see!

NYS Labor Law 220-H

New York State passed Labor Law 220-H this past summer. This law will go into effect on July 18, 2008 and require all laborers, workers, and mechanics on a public work site show certification that they took a minimum of a 10-hour OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) Construction Safety Course. OSHA issues the certification cards after successfully completing the course. Future Environment Designs offers the OSHA 10-hour Construction Safety Course in Syosset or at your convenience and then applies to OSHA for the certification cards. The 10-hour course is actually a two-day course, because 10 hours is the total contact time for the course. That means breaks are not included in the 10 hours. Once you add appropriate breaks (lunch, coffee, etc.) into the time that brings the class to approximately 12 hours which is two days of training 6 hours each day.
The regulation applies to all contracts for state or municipality work totaling $250,000 or more for construction, reconstruction, repair or maintenance. It covers all workers on the job, employed either by the contractor, sub-contractor or other person(s) doing or contracting to do the whole or a part of the work contemplated by the contract. The training must be completed before the workers arrive at the job site. The regulation will be enforced by the New York State Department of Labor.
Future Environment Designs will add this class to our schedule to meet the anticipated demand for the class.

Con Edison Steam Explosion exposes Respirator Errors

Even after 9/11, we still have not learned the proper use for respirators. Police officers at the site are wearing the appropriate respirator but are they wearing it incorrectly? From the photo above what is wrong with the picture? The workers have their masks on but I bet they didn't perform a user seal check to make sure it was on correctly and working properly. As you can see from the photo the bottom straps have not been attached. The straps not being connected allows the bottom of the respirator to remain open. Since air will take the path of least resistance, it means everytime these officers breathe, the contaminants that they are to be protected from will enter the respirator from the bottom without filtering. The fact that several officers were seen wearing their respirators in this manner indicates that officers need further training on properly wearing a respirator.

The second photo shows people traveling through the area of the steam explosion. It was also noted in the Newday article "Little Risk From Asbestos" (Friday, July 20, 2007) that the Red Cross reported distributing 1,200 dust masks to city workers and commuters since Wednesday night. The problem here is that dust masks do not filter for asbestos. Another problem is that dust masks unless properly fit tested and adjusted to the face, will not ensure all the air passes through the mask instead of going around the mask. The best these masks are doing is providing the individual with a false sense of security that if there is any exposure that they are protected.

My final concern is the manner of the clean-up. I already saw several photos/videos of workers using dry sweeping clean-up the debris. This work procedure unless used together with amended water (dust suppression agent) will cause any asbestos dust in the debris to become airborne, again. Exposing workers and the public to asbestos, hence it is important to continue to monitor the clean-up of the explosion area. This will ensure that work procedures that cause the asbestos dust to become airborne are prevented.