NCC-ACHMM May 2003 Newsletter
The next Overview
Course and Exam dates have been set for November 4-7, 2003. This year we are offering opportunities to
sponsor part of the course and be recognized in Course mailings, booklets,
and other promotional activities. Please
see the attached “Save the Dates” announcement for more information. Sponsors who commit before May 23, 2003 will
be included in the initial outreach mailing that goes to over 500 people. Contact John Wolf at (925) 422-0425 or wolf2@llnl.gov for more information.
A Note
from the President...
Although you
may have received information already regarding the ACHMM National Conference,
I want to encourage everyone to visit the conference web site (http://www.kuce.org/achmm/)
and see some of the great things planned this year for Dallas.
Homeland security and terrorism issues will be prominently featured
along with many other interesting and timely topics.
The conference will run from September 14 to 17, with additional pre-conference
events on September 12 and 13. Don't
miss the closing session by former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt on "Reflection
on the Environment and National Policy."
One of the pre-conference events will
be a leadership workshop, similar to one recently offered by ACHMM in North
Carolina. If you have ever wondered
why certain groups work well, while others don't, this course is for you.
I was fortunate enough to attend the North Carolina workshop and gained
many useful insights into the "art of leadership" that have applicability
to professional and other relationships.
The focus of the training is to help people understand their abilities
and preferences, and how the behavior of others can be understood and addressed
as a leader. The workshop facilitator, Dave Morrison, was
great and will also be leading the Dallas workshop.
At a national level, ACHMM is working
hard to make membership even more valuable to CHMMs.
Based on the survey distributed last year to all ACHMM members, the
organization is in the process of identifying new services that will meet
member needs. Look to hear about the first of these new benefits in the coming
months. Related to an ongoing initiative
of the ACHMM, the RCRA Burden Reduction Act is working its way through the
legislative process. The ACHMM reports
that they expect some news this summer and are hopeful that CHMMs will gain
authority for certain RCRA certifications.
We have not
set a final date yet, but we expect to have our next Chapter meeting in the
North Bay in late June. Please stay
tuned!
Our
last two general membership meetings have been successful and timely. In February, we enjoyed an excellent presentation
from Linda Wyner, of Archer Norris, about recent trends in litigation of mold
cases. After dinner at Tied House
Brewery in Palo Alto, she outlined how several disciplines including legal,
industrial hygiene, insurance, and medical / toxicology are used by plaintiffs
and defendants to litigate a mold case. To illustrate the point, five cases in particular were discussed,
including the landmark Ballard v. Fire Insurance Exchange and the Santa Clara
County Courthouse (San Martin, CA), which she was involved with.
In April, a tour of Scharffen Berger chocolate maker in Berkeley was our pre-meeting
activity. A handful of CHMMs enjoyed
sampling their very dark chocolate and seeing how their premium chocolate
is made. The tour is open to the public
and anyone who enjoys dark chocolate would enjoy this tour. The evening event included a dinner at Trader
Vic’s in Emeryville and a regulatory update given by John Elliott, of Touchstone
Environmental. John prepared a summary
of relevant new regulations regarding hazardous materials for the group.
The presentation was informative and spanned several regulatory areas
including hazardous waste, underground storage tanks, new SPCC requirements,
new transportation requirements for hazardous materials and other areas.
President,
Neill Morgan-Butcher, Neill_Morgan-Butcher@urscorp.com
Vice
President, John Wolf, wolfco1@attbi.com
Treasurer,
Georgina Dannatt, gdannatt@juno.com
Secretary,
Chris Dembiczak, cdembiczak@msn.com
Programs
Chair, Robin Spencer, rspencer@schn.com
Regulatory
Liaison, David Price, price16@llnl.gov
Membership,
Troy Christensen, christensent@eorm.com
Website, John Barnard, nexusenv@attbi.com
Distributed by Chris Dembiczak, Secretary, NCC-ACHMM 2003