Prepared by CHMMs - Chris Dembiczak and Robin Spencer
NCC-ACHMM issues a bi-monthly newsletter that announces meetings, provides articles of interest to CHMMs and keeps CHMMS abreast of ACHMM activities both locally and nationally. The newsletter is available only as an electronic E-mail. To subscribe, contact us at ncc_achmm@yahoo.com.
US EPA Proposes to Allow CHMM Certifications at RCRA Facilities
US EPA has proposed several reporting and recordkeeping changes to RCRA in the Federal Register (January 17, 2002). One very positive development is that EPA is proposing to allow CHMMs to make certain certifications at hazardous waste facilities. These are certifications that were previously done by only registered, professional engineers. A few specific certifications CHMMs could make under this proposal include; (1) Certification of Post-Closure Care at hazardous waste facilities, (2) Assessment of New and/or Existing Tank Systems Integrity, (3) Certification of Drip Pads and Containment Buildings. Please refer to the Federal Register if you would like more detail on the specific proposed rule. This is an excellent step toward gaining additional national recognition for CHMMs.
President's Message
Your Northern California Chapter of the Academy of Certified Hazardous Materials Managers represents about 450 CHMMs out of the 11,000 CHMMs nationally certified. We have many on our mailing list and invite you to contact Barney Popkin (bpopkin@yahoo.com) if you know of others who would enjoy hearing about chapter activities. New this year is the bimonthly mini-newsletters with notices of the past and upcoming bimonthly meetings, along with local and national ACHMM news. I am delighted to announce to you all that all vacancies on the Board have been filled. Neill Morgan-Butcher, P.E, CHMM, is our chapter vice-president. Neill is a senior environmental engineer with URS Corporation in San Francisco. The vice-president is the president-elect and the chapter delegate for the national conference. John Wolf, CHMM, is our Overview Course Publicist. John works at Weiss Associates in Emeryville. This publicist position was newly created to explore new venues for offering the Overview Course, one of the tools we use for promoting the credential. John Barnard, CHMM, is our Webmaster. John is the Principal of Nexus Environmental in Livermore, specializing in EHS compliance. Our Webmaster has greatly re-vamped the WWW.NCC-ACHMM.ORG website to something that we can all use and be proud of. Check it out and please provide John with feedback.
Warm regards,
Robin Spencer, CHMM,
2002 NCC-ACHMM President
Next Dinner Meeting Announcement
NCC-ACHMM Dinner Meeting: February 26, 2002
Time: 5:00 p.m. Social Hour/Networking, 6:00 p.m.
Dinner & Presentation
Place: Maestro's Restaurant, 5100 Hopyard Avenue, Pleasanton, 925-463-8773
Topic: "Real World Inputs To Hypothetical Airborne
Release Scenario Source Terms"
Speaker: David E. Price SRO (US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Senior
Reactor Operator), Pending CHMM Certification, Senior Safety Analyst, Johnson
Controls Inc., Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Abstract: Emergency Preparedness good practices dictate that preplanning be done for a broad range of accidental release events. These events must range from anticipated accidents to unexpected beyond-credible catastrophes. Real world experiments and accidents give us insights into the physical processes at work during hazardous material releases. Consideration of the effects of these real-world processes in pre-planning can help bound the possible events, thereby minimizing gross over-estimation of releases. The defining principle is that hazardous material releases are driven by available energy and hazardous material properties. From simple releases of compressed gases to high explosives driven releases of solids, these techniques can help better define the airborne release source term. These methods can even help in improved estimation of releases and exposures to biological materials such as anthrax.
Recap of December 2001 NCC-ACHMM Meeting On December 5, 2001
The NCC-ACHMM met in Oakland at the Oakland Grill for dinner, wine tasting, and to hear John Harrison, the official taster from Dreyer's Ice Cream speak. The group enjoyed tasting six wines during the evening and was also served a steak, salmon, or vegetarian dinner. After dinner, John Harrison spoke about the history of Dreyer's and his extensive experience as the official taster for Dreyer's Ice Cream. John entertained us all while educating us about the ice cream industry. Along with learning the particulars of ice cream tasting, some interesting facts he covered include: (1) vanilla is the number 1 ice cream flavor, with a 30% market share of the market, (2) East of Nebraska, Dreyer's Ice Cream is sold as Edie's, (3) Dreyer's/Edie's has the largest market share of the ice cream industry, (4) the ice cream industry has $15 billion in sales each year. And best of all, everyone got a bowl of vanilla ice cream.
A list of wines tasted during the evening included: Geyser Peak, Sauvignon Blanc (2001) - California Chateau Ste Michelle, Chardonnay (2000) - Columbia Valley Joseph Drouhin, Beaujolais Nouveau (2001) - France Ravenswood, Zinfandel (1999) - California Bogel, "Petite Sirah" (1999) - California Covey Run, Late Harvest Reisling (1998) - Washington
Your 2002 NCC-ACHMM Officers:
President: Robin Spencer rspencerchmm@home.com
Vice President: Neill Morgan-Butcher neill_morgan-butcher@urscorp.com
Treasurer: Georgina Dannatt gdannatt@juno.com
Secretary: Chris Dembiczak CDembiczak@msn.com
Programs: Jennifer Coats JCoats@presidiotrust.gov
Web Site Manager: John Barnard nexusenv@attbi.com