Future Environment Designs Training Center's Blog

Friday, March 25, 2011

Engineering News Record of New York Interviews William Rapetti

Engineering News Record (ENR) of New York interviewed William Rapetti after his acquittal of manslaughter charges stemming from the deadly collapse of a 200-foot tower crane in Manhattan in 2008. The interview was well done and provides the reader with a glimpse of the tenacity and perserverance it takes to defend yourself against unfair charges. In addition, it gives you a look at the process of when you are charged with manslaughter, and what a person and his family goes through when you become the target. An very good read and the reporting was done very fairly.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Successful PACNY Conference Gets Even Better The Second Day - Part 2

Roundtable Participants - Mr. Alonge, Mr. Yehl, Mr. Garcia, & Mr. Hart

The exhibit hall, which was open both days and the first day reception was in, was alot of fun with over 25 vendors represented including Aramsco, DiVal, Grayling, Fiberlock, United Rentals, NY State Laborers Cooperation & Education Trust, Ashtead Tecchnology Rentals, and Cornerstone Training Institute, to name a few. One of the interesting items in the exhibit hall was the Liftpod by JLG that DiVal was displaying (Provides over a 360 degree range of motion, ability to work with both hands up to 14 feet, easily transports in common vehicles). DiVal has a PACNY show special on this product for $1,999. See photos from the conference and the exhibit hall, at our Picasa web album.
Unfortunately, due to the need to check-out of the hotel before 11 AM, we missed Paul Watson's, of ATC Associates, "A Discussion about Mercury." That brought the conference to the main event, Christopher Alonge, PE, of New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) discussing "Code Rule 56 Update." As in previous presentations, Mr. Alonge was nice enough to provide his presentation to the attendees at this link: http://www.pacny.org/docs/2011-ICR-56-Changes.pdf. The attached presentation includes changes made by NY Department of State regarding the Fire/Life Safety proposed changes we have seen in Mr. Alonge's previous presentations. Examples include changing the requirement of a code compliance technician to a code compliance officer for notification/variance sign-off, requirements for required exists, emergency lighting, and portable fire extinguishers. NYSDOL will also be creating a code compliance course for code enforcement officials that will be 4-hours of in-service training. Mr. Alonge is anticipating a schedule of June 2011 for publishing and October 2011 for finalizing. Still not sure if there will be a adoption period. The biggest uproar and most questions during the Q&A period was regarding the proposed NYSDOL change that all asbestos has to be removed before any demolition, renovation, or remodel. This change brought about the most questions and concerns from the audience. After Mr Alonge's presentation an industry roundtable Q&A was moderated by Mr. Sean Hart, of AECOM Environment, and consisted of Mr. Alonge; Mr. Joe Cantone, of Colden Corporation; Mr. Peter DeLucia, of AAC Contracting; Mr. Darren Yehl, of LeChase Construction Services; and Angelo Garcia, III, of FED.
I was honored to be selected on the panel again this year. I enjoyed meeting people that I've met year after year and unfortunately only get to meet at this conference. It seems to me the PACNY organization seems to be getting better and better each year, and I look forward to seeing it continue its growth well into the future.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

A Record Turnout Makes For A Successful PACNY Conference - Part 1

Linda Reinstein of ADAO, Keynote Speaker

On March 10-11, 2011, we went to the Professional Abatement Contractors of New York's (PACNY) 15th Annual Environmental Conference at Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York. The event this year was well attended with over 220 attendees. Future Environment Designs (FED) increased our participation this year, by deciding to become one of the Conference Sponsors and joined the other vendors in the Exhibit Hall. We enjoyed our placement next to Ciotti Enterprises and enjoyed several discussions with Jeff Cooper the operations manager. Ciotti Enterprises is a Central New York waste hauler handling demolition debris, municipal solid waste, and are Part 364 permitted by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), enabling them to handle asbestos and contaminated soil hauling.
The conference began with the usual introductions by this year's conference chair person Deb Johnson, of Aramsco, and the current President of PACNY Kevin Canaan, of AAC Contracting Inc. Mr. Canaan then introduced the keynote speaker Ms. Linda Reinstein, the President/CEO/Co-founder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO). We first met Ms. Reinstein when she did our radio program "Keeping Your Family Safe from Asbestos". She started her presentation announcing the Senate passage of the seventh annual resolution that establishes “National Asbestos Awareness Week". Her presentation included these facts regarding global occupational exposure to asbestos: greater than 107,000 workers die annually; 1,523,000 years lost due to premature mortality and disability; construction workers are 11 times more likely to contract mesothelioma, and 1.3 million workers exposed to asbestos. These are some sobering numbers regarding asbestos, in addition the fact that mesothelioma treatment can exceed $1 million without a guarantee of success, should be a rememberance of why the asbestos abatement industry is important.
Ron Williams, the Assistant Syracuse Area Director for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), was the next speaker and discussed emerging safety and health issues and current remediation enforcement actions. Regarding emerging issues he discussed falls in residential construction, crowd management, distracted driving, workplace violence, and residential construction (effective 6/16/11). Mr. Williams also discussed 27 fatalities in OSHA Region 2 last year (10/1/09 - 9/30/10); 38% of fatalities were Hispanic/Latino (2nd highest in the country); Syracuse area conducted 527 inspections (33% were in construction) resulting 1,348 serious violations averaging $979 per serious violation. OSHA's new penalty structure went into effect on 10/1/2010 increasing serious violation from $1,100 to $3,000 and repeat violations will now look back 5 years versus 3 years, previously.
Bob Krell of IAQ Technologies discussed "Practical Approaches to An Energy Efficient Indoor Environment" visit http://www.iaq.net/ for a copy of his presentation, Victoria Pretti of New York State Department of Health Environmental Laboratory discussed "An Overview of ELAP, PCM, and PLM Analysis", and Richard Washburn of New York State Commission on Public Integrity discussed "Ethics and the Construction Industry". All three were excellant presenters, though I would give the award to best presenter to Mr. Washburn for keeping a topic that could be very boring and scary, very interesting, entertaining and led to alot of discussions afterwards regarding construction industry practices that probably need to change. Ms. Pretti discussion on the Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ELAP) was informative, visit their website at http://www.wadsworth.org/labcert/elap/asbestos.html regularly to ensure your laboratory is approved to analyze samples. Delisted labs are updated on the website within 24-hours. The 7402 method for analysis of asbestos air samples is approved by ELAP. Other important information is ELAP is currently reworking the asbestos bulk sample methods to require labs to reduce friable asbestos samples if they have matrix interference, this will lead to an increase in costs for lab analysis for certain samples. The reception after the last speaker, Mr. Washburn, was excellent and the pass around food was excellant and Saranac Brewing Company's Pomegranate Wheat Beer was very good and went well with the snacks and the hors d'ourves. Day one ended with the anticipation of the next day with Mr. Chris Alonge and the roundtable discussion.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Long Island OSHA Rep Speaks to the Association of Facilities Engineers

List of references to Long Island places in po...

Image via WikipediaOn Tuesday, March 8, 2011, Mr. Anthony Ciuffo, CSP, the Long Island Area Director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) gave an overview of OSHA's function in the workplace and what OSHA currently doing in the area. His presentation was to the Long Island Chapter of the Association of Facilities Engineers (AFE) which held this meeting at the Hofstra University Club. The event was sponsored by Hofstra University Continuing Education.
The presentation covered the typical taglines we've come to hear from other OSHA representatives - strong enforcement; partnering for a purpose; emergency preparedness; rule making in requiring an injury illness prevention program (I2P2); and safety and health management systems. Top ten inspection targets for the Long Island area are:

Fall hazards in construction
Heavy highway and bridge construction
Gut rehab and demolition
Amputations
Warehousing
Construction
Landscaping & Horticultural
High Hazard 50
Isocyanate
Lead

For OSHA's calendar year, last year saw 343 inspections (on Long Island). Average serious violation before October 2010 was $1,200, after October 2010 the average serious violation has increased to $2,400.
Dinner was included in the meeting and the organization several future meetings and a golf outing planed in the future. For more information on AFE visit their website at: http://www.afechapter4.org/

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

EPA's Local Coordinator for the Lead Paint Rule at Hofstra University

On Friday, April 1, 2011 (that's right on April Fool's day), Jeanette Dadusc, MS, MPA the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Region 2 Coordinator for the Lead Based Paint - Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RRP) rule will be the guest speaker at a free information session at Breslin Hall at Hofstra University. To register or for more information, visit ce.hofstra.edu/EPAinfo or call 516-463-7200.

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

NYC Title 15 Revisions Took Effect February 3, 2011

We recently received an email from Steven A. Camaiore, P.E., the Deputy Director of the New York City Environmental Protection - Environmental Compliance Asbestos Control Program. In the email he advised that Title 15, Chapter 1 RCNY Asbestos Control Program Rules & Regulations were revised and the new Rules took effect February 3, 2011. Find the revised rule at: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/asbestos/asbestos.shtml.

In addition, he also advised that the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP) will be strictly enforcing the following provisions of Title 15, Chapter 1 RCNY Asbestos Control Program Rules & Regulations effective May 1, 2011:

“§ 1-01 (j) (3) DEP may deny any application for an asbestos abatement permit pursuant to section 1-26 of these rules, or a variance application pursuant to section 1-03 of these rules, where any party to the asbestos project, including but not limited to the abatement contractor, building owner, and air monitoring company, has docketed, unpaid civil penalties imposed by the Environmental Control Board for violations of these rules, sections 24-146.1 and 24-146.3 of the Administrative Code, or NYSDOL ICR 56.”

Companies with outstanding penalties can pay their outstanding penalties in any of the following ways:

• On-line at http://nycserv.nyc.gov/NYCServWeb/NYCSERVMain

• By phone at (212) 504-4041

• By mail:
New York City Department of Finance,
345 Adams, 3rd Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Attention: Timeko Hunte

• In person at any Finance Business Center. For location and hours of operation, visit: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/contact/contact_visit.shtml.

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Tuesday, March 08, 2011

15th Annual PACNY Environmental Conference

Turning Stone Resort & Casino does a great job of clearing snow when it occurs.

Getting ready for my annual pilgrimage to the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, New York for the 15th annual Professional Abatement Contractors of New York (PACNY) Environmental Conference. The conference agenda is posted on their website at http://www.pacny.org/conferences.asp. It should be alot of fun as past conferences have been. Keynote Speaker Linda Reinstein, President of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), should be very interesting. In addition, looking forward to the presentations from Ron Williams from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Victoria Pretti from New York State Department of Health (NYS DOH) discussing the Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ELAP), and Chris Alonge from New York State Department of Labor (NYS DOL) discussing the 2011 changes to Industrial Code Rule 56 (ICR56). In addition, the vendor area is a great place to see new equipment being used in the industry and to netwrok and meet clients, (friendly) competitors, and vendors. The Turning Stone Resort and Casino as always is a really fun place to gamble and enjoy a show or dancing. In addition, it is our understanding that the Casino is no longer a dry one (they now serve alcohol). All in all it should be an informative and fun time, if you get a chance come visit me at our booth this year in the vendor area, we look forward to meeting you.