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My firm has subcontracted HSA Golden for Phase II Environmental Site Assessment services on multiple occasions over the past several years. Their staff is highly competent, diligent, and professional, and their work product is consistently thorough. I look forward to many more years of collaboration with HSA Golden.
Laura Vedral, LEP
Environmental Scientist / Managing Member
Precision Environmental Assessments, LLC
We have used HSA Golden as our primary engineering firm for our business for more than seven years. In that time, they have helped us with environmental studies to support the acquisition of three landfills and the development of a C&D recycling center. Their support and expert advice has been instrumental in expansions, routine engineering, new site evaluations, compliance issues, as well as a host other environmental services. Choosing HSA Golden as our engineer of record has been a solid choice for our business.
Tony Wibbeler
President
Orange County Environmental, LLC
Earth Guard Recycling
Your pragmatic approach to the environmental challenges that I have been confronted with in my brokerage business, and the timely professional way your environmental reporting has been accomplished for my personal properties, has kept me as a very satisfied customer for the past 20 years.
J. Wallace (Wally) Henderson
Owner/Developer – Lessor of Industrial/Commercial Properties
Tenant Representative – General Contractor
J. Wallace & Associates, Inc.
Dear Pete,
Since contracting with your services for many years, I am pleased to say the HSA has been a very responsive organization. I am especially impressed with the high quality work under very tight deadlines.
Sincerely,
Rob Kodsi
Vice President
Tricon Development of Brevard
I engaged Pete Barts and HSA Golden as an expert witness in a very large and complex case involving arsenic contamination in the soil and groundwater of a 100-acre subdivision. Thanks to the compelling expert report prepared by Pete Barts and the continuous invaluable support of the HSA Golden team during the course of the case, we were able to settle the claim on the eve of trial for a very significant amount. Pete’s expertise and insights were critical to the successful resolution of the case.
Michael R. Gibbons
Shareholder
Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor & Reed, P.A.
From the Desk of Jim Golden, V.P., HSA Golden
Another legislative session has passed. With it, another piece of solid waste and recycling legislation was passed which will impact those of us in the business of waste management. The legislation to which I’m referring is Senator Lee Constantine’s original Senate Bill 570, which passed as House Bill 7243 during the last week of the legislative session (i.e., the last week of April 2010). If the Governor signs this legislation, it takes effect July 1, 2010.
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Here are the highlights (in my opinion) of what is contained in this legislation:
1. Sets a VOLUNTARY 75% recycling goal for Florida to be achieved by 2020.
2. Allows previously banned yard waste to be landfilled in Class I (lined) landfills, IF the landfill is equipped to recover gas AND arranges for the reuse of the gas.
3. Requires liners at all new Construction & Demolition Debris (C&D) landfills (currently permitted cells are exempt). New expansions may be exempt if it can be demonstrated that groundwater will not be impacted.
4. All non-source separated C&D materials must be processed before being disposed (where economically feasible); this can be done at a permitted C&D facility.
5. Creates a Recycling Business Assistance Center (RBAC) within Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP).
6. Eliminates the Innovative Recycling Grants program.
7. Allows energy production from Waste to Energy plants to be counted as part of the 75% recycling goal, as long as the county/city in which the plant(s) are located has a program designed to recycle at least 40% of its municipal solid waste by means other than combustion or gasification.
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#3 (above) states that the bill “requires liners at all C&D landfills.” This is NOT accurate; in the last few days of the legislative session, the strict liner requirement was amended. Language about this issue was apparently stripped from HB 7243, amended, and then inserted in Senate Bill (SB) 550. The following is the specific language about C&D liners now found in SB 550 (Section 47, Paragraph (b) of subsection (9) of section 403.707, Florida Statutes), which is amended to read:
“The department shall require liners and leachate collection systems at individual disposal units and lateral expansions of existing disposal units that have not received a department permit authorizing construction or operation prior to July 1, 2010, unless the owner or operator demonstrates, based upon the types of waste received, the methods for controlling types of waste disposed of, the proximity of the groundwater and surface water, and the results of the hydrogeological and geotechnical investigations, that the facility is not expected to result in violations of the groundwater standards and criteria if built without a liner.”
With regard to Waste to Energy (WTE) Recycling Credits (refer to #7 above), the FDEP would determine the methodology(ies) to be used for determining how much recycling credit would be awarded for burning municipal solid waste. However, language was inserted into the bill during the last few days of the legislative session that already provides such a methodology. The following is that language:
“In order to promote the production of renewable energy from solid waste, each megawatt-hour produced by a renewable energy facility using solid waste as a fuel shall count as one ton of recycled material and shall be applied toward meeting the recycling goals set forth in this section. If a county creating renewable energy from solid waste implements and maintains a program to recycle at least 50 percent of municipal solid waste by a means other than creating renewable energy, that county shall count two tons of recycled material for each megawatt-hour produced. If waste originates from a county other than the county in which the renewable energy facility resides, the originating county shall receive such recycling credit. Any county that has a debt service payment related to its waste-to-energy facility shall receive one ton of recycled materials credit for each ton of solid waste processed at the facility. Any byproduct resulting from the creation of renewable energy does not count as waste.”
I have been informed from several sources that utilizing the accounting system set up by the above language may result in recycling numbers that exceed a 100% recycling rate. I’m sure that this issue will receive more attention after July 1 when the legislation takes effect (again, assuming that the Governor signs the bill into law).
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I’m certain that all of us will learn more about the potential and real impacts of this legislation in the following months. We need to closely watch FDEP’s subsequent rulemaking hearings – they must take place within six months of this legislation – to make sure that our interests are voiced, and that the rules accurately reflect these bills.
Construction & Demolition Recycling
Brian Taylor
March/April 2010
In the few years that he has owned Orange County Environmental LLC, Apopka, Fla., founder Tony Wibbeler has introduced a variety of services designed to capture market share. Services provided include: acceptance of mixed C&D materials for a tipping fee to be either landfilled or sorted and processed; waste hauling to serve a customer base of contractors and industrial locations; site work services such as grading; and environmental services such as designing and preparing stormwater treatment systems and placement and pick-up of portable toilets.
Mixed C&D recycling services recently offered by Orange County Environmental include menus of programs designed to provide LEED – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – oriented options to the Central Florida market. These programs include: (1) a basic recycling package that provides a letter of recycling verification; (2) a gold package for those requiring a 75 percent recycling rate and a level of documentation with times and dates and specific materials tracking; and (3) a platinum package that can include source-separation, on-site labor, and documentation including photos for each container as it leaves the job site.
OCE also has a very unique way of handling gypsum that no one else does. In addition, the sorting and processing system creates an alternative landfill cover product that can be used by OCE. “The dirt ‘unders’ byproduct from our system is ideal as C&D landfill cover, reducing our need to extract natural dirt products from the ground unnecessarily,” says Wibbeler.
HSA Golden is proud to work closely with OCE in providing engineering design, permitting, monitoring, and other environmental services and have worked closely with Tony Wibbeler and his staff since 2007. See the complete article, and find out more about Tony and OCE, HERE.
Since 2007, HSA Golden has been working with Benge Development Corporation to redevelop the former Vigoro fertilizer plant along U.S. Highway 17 in Winter Haven, Florida. HSA Golden performed extensive reviews of historical and recent environmental data and facilitated the Brownfield Area designation process for the site. Upcoming tasks include detailed soil and groundwater assessment work.
Details of the Brownfields designation can be found HERE.
The infamous Fresh Kills Landfill, a 150-foot-high mountain of waste material in Staten Island, New York, is getting a makeover. That makeover is Freshkills Park, a 2,200-acre park complete with meadows and wetlands. The project is expected to take decades, but a small part may be open within the next few years.
Projects like this aren’t new; in fact, landfill redevelopment as parks and recreational areas has been around for a long time. Locally, HSA Golden professionals have been involved in similar landfill projects, including the Evans Street Landfill in Oviedo and the Lake Destiny Soccer Field in Maitland. Such reuse isn’t only smart, it’s incented at both the federal and state level through initiatives such as the Brownfields Program.
Read more about the Fresh Kills Landfill at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/nyregion/26bird.html?th&emc=th
Pete,
Thank you and the staff at HSA Golden for your work on our UST site investigation project. You have been very accommodating to our schedule and demands, and your work on the project has been instrumental in helping us move this project through the local environmental agency and helping us to achieve the desired outcome with that agency. Our previous consultant was not able to accomplish this. Thanks to your work, we have reduced our groundwater monitoring from quarterly to semi-annually and are thus saving money. It is my pleasure to recommend you and HSA Golden for any project for which you are technically qualified.
Russell Strader
Environmental Manager
Boise Cascade, L.L.C.
HSA Golden has been retained by Green Gas International to perform carbon credit feasibility studies for up to eight palm oil mills within the Fedepalma Sectoral CDM Umbrella Project in Colombia, South America.
The project involves evaluations of mill operational conditions, review of palm oil mill effluent (POME) data, and interviews with mill operators. The objective of the studies is to rank the sites based on: (1) accessibility to existing anaerobic lagoons; (2) site operation readiness; (3) POME effluent specifications; and (4) digester retention time.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Mufson and David A. Fahrenthold – Washington Post
December 8, 2009
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration yesterday moved closer to issuing regulations on greenhouse gases, a step that would enable it to limit emissions across the economy even if Congress failed to enact climate legislation.
The move, which coincided with the first day of the international climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, seemed timed to reassure delegates there that the United States was committed to reducing its emissions even if domestic legislation remained bogged down . . .
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20091208_EPA_takes_step_on_greenhouse_gases.html
Orlando Business Journal
Anjali Fluker
November 27-December 3, 2009
Settlement with environmental groups irk local developers, DEP
. . . the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing new stormwater runoff rules that could make doing business more expensive for Florida land developers . . . At issue: Stormwater runoff — when excess water from rain or irrigation flows from land into ponds, lakes, rivers, streams and coastal waters — generally contains pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorus from pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer and animal manure. These nutrients can render water unfit for drinking, as well as kill wildlife and cause toxic algae blooms.
So Oakland, Calif.-based law firm Earthjustice, which represented the Florida Wildlife Federation, Conservancy of Southwest Florida, Sierra Club, St. Johns Riverkeeper and Ecoswift, sued the EPA in mid-2008. The suit alleged the EPA wasn’t enforcing the federal Clean Water Act strongly enough in Florida, which resulted in some of the poorest water quality in the nation.
http://orlando.bizjournals.com/orlando/stories/2009/11/30/story7.html?b=1259557200^2501981
The Miami Herald
Nirvi Shah
November 24, 2009
The federal government has linked some Chinese drywall to corrosion found in homes in South Florida and across the country, but questions remain about what steps need to be taken in order to fix the problem . . . .
The Ledger / NYT Regional Media Group
Donna Kelly
August 3, 2009
WINTER HAVEN | The owner of the former Vigoro fertilizer plant property on U.S. 17 and Orlando-based Benge Development are working with Winter Haven officials to create a mixed-use development at the location near the Lulu-Shipp canal bridge. When completed, the location will offer an aesthetically pleasing blend of office and retail establishments and multi-family homes . . .
Mid-Florida Materials, a division of Hubbard Construction Company, owns and operates a 220-acre, C&D landfill in northwestern Orange County, Florida. HSA Golden has provided Mid-Florida Materials with environmental consulting services since 2004.
Specifically, the services that HSA Golden currently provides for us include: environmental compliance and permitting; landfill engineering and design services; groundwater and landfill gas quality testing; and odor control/gas collection services.
We are pleased to have them on our team and highly recommend them to others.
Sincerely,
Dennis Severance
Manager
Mid-Florida Materials
WasteAge.com
Michael Fickes
October 2009
WCA Waste is Tom Fatjo, Jr.’s fourth waste startup in 53 years. Five years after taking the firm public, he now has it poised to establish a national market presence.
http://wasteage.com/Collections_And_Transfer/wca-waste-tom-fatjo-200910/index.html
Orlando Sentinel / Associated Press
Bill Kaczor
November 17, 2009
TALLAHASSEE — The federal government will attempt to set Florida’s water pollution standards – the first time it will try that for any state – under an agreement approved [November 16, 2009] . . . .
epaper.orlandosentinel.com/OS/OS/2009/11/17/index.shtml?Search=Y&ArtId=111_003
Dear Pete,
As we prepare to close our site, you should know how much my family and I appreciate the peace of mind that we have had since HSA Golden actively directed the site assessment, remediaiton and subsequent monitoring. If any prospective clients would like to talk with me personally for a recommendation, please provide them my number and I will be happy to speak with them.
Kind personal regards,
Matt Blake
Former Vice-President
United Solvents of America
Orlando Business Journal
Mary Cristobal
July 24-30, 2009
HSA Golden expands into the carbon cap-and-trade international market
Peter Barts, a triathlete and president of HSA Golden — an Orlando-based environmental engineering consultancy — is used to enduring long runs.
This year, he’s celebrating another long run: HSA Golden’s 20th anniversary.
Founded by Philip Hilderbrand in 1989, then-named HSA Technical Services was bought by Barts in 2000. At that time, the company’s net revenue was about $900,000.
Three years later, Barts partnered with Jim Golden, changed the company’s name to HSA Golden and grew revenue to $1.2 million.
Despite its changes during the past 20 years, one thing that’s remained the same for HSA Golden is its key to success: building a good reputation clients trust and doing cost-effective work, Barts said.
“Our customers typically will come with a need or problem. If we fix the problem, then they refer us to someone else,” he said, noting about 80 percent of the firm’s work is from referrals.
HSA Golden offers a variety of services, including environmental resource permitting, foundation design, designing and permitting golf courses, designing and installation of industrial waste treatment systems, landfill investigations, air quality testing and permitting, remedial system design, and real estate and land development.
Barts’ most recently completed project was a 23-year-old cleanup job in Volusia County he started in 1988 when he first entered the field.
Looking forward, Barts wants to expand the firm’s consulting practice internationally through the carbon cap-and-trade market. HSA Golden will work with international clients in their facilities and also assist with project design documents and carbon credit calculations.
If the Obama administration successfully integrates the U.S. in the cap-and-trade market, then carbon credits will increase dramatically, said Barts, whose 2010 revenue goal is about $4.5 million — if things go according to plan with the international expansion.
HSA Golden also retained its consultancy with the Kennedy Space Center, and the company landed a $30 million brownfields redevelopment project in Winter Haven that involves assessment and cleanup of fertilization plants and other facilities.
Regardless of how much it expands its services, Barts sees the company remaining client-focused and small with 25 to 50 employees.
“We’re not looking to take over the world,” he said. “We want to do what we do very well and keep our reputation and quality of our work.”
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