As we discussed in our previous post, the Professional Abatement Contractors of New York’s  (PACNY’s) 20th Annual Environmental Conference was witty, intelligent, & had a magnetic personality.  Held at the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, New York for all three days was magnetic with excitement.  Wednesday night included the first annual PACNY Poker Tournament won by Mr. Chuck Kirch of Environmental Compliance Management Corp.  However, we digress, the Technical Session on Thursday continued after lunch with presentations from Dr. Bryan Bandli, PhD of RJ Lee Group on the “Quantification of Amphibole Asbestos in Loose Fill Vermiculite – A validation case study” written with an eye to New York State approving it for bulk vermiculite analysis.  Then Ed Cahill of EMSL presented on “Identifying and Dealing with Naturally Occurring Asbestos in Surveys”.  Exhibit Hall break followed and the issuing of the wrist bands for the Vendor reception after the last presentation.

Deb Sanscrainte of Aramsco, Lisa Brown of Summit Environmental the PACNY Adinistrator, & Lynn Burlingham of Cornerstone Training Institute

The final presentation of the Thursday Technical Session was Mr. Tom Laubenthal of The Environmental Institute (A division of ATC Group Services).  Mr. Laubenthal’s presentation was on the “American Society of Testing Materials (ASTM) E2356-14 Standard Practice for Comprehensive Building Asbestos Surveys” which included a letter from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding the ASTM standard and its relevance in performing asbestos surveys for compliance with the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants‘ (NESHAP’s) “thorough inspection” requirement.  The letter and the standard are extremely helpful information for performing a proper inspection in order to comply with the NESHAP regulations, which we will add to our asbestos inspector courses (a copy of the letter can be found at our Resource Page on our website, Click on the link to the Dropbox Folder.  The letter is in the EPA folder).  The day ended with the vendor reception in the Vendor Hall.  One of the interesting vendors was qub9 Environmental which is creating portable decontamination units from shipping containers.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have a container at the conference to see how it would work.  We thank everyone who stopped by our booth to say hello and enter there card for the drawing on Friday.

There were 27 vendors in the vendor hall and the reception was a perfect way to end the Technical Session first day.

It was an honor for me to present on Friday with Mr. Bob Krell of IAQ Tech on the New York State (NYS) Mold Law Article 32.  A big Thank You! to everyone who encouraged me with my first presentation at PACNY.  Our presentation was very well-balanced between technical and overview, in my humble opinion.  The usual highlight of the last day of the conference is the panel from NYS Department of Labor (NYSDOL) led by Dr. Eileen Franko, Director of the Division of Safety and Health; which included Mr. James Meachum, P.E., manager of the Asbestos Control Program; Mr. Ed Smith, P.E. of the Engineering Services Unit; and “Mean” Mr. Kirk Fisher, manager of the License and Certification Unit.  Some of the highlights of the presentations by the panel included changes to Industrial Code Rule 56; additional inspections of school districts regarding compliance with the AHERA (Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act) regulation (Long Island School Districts can expect to see NYSDOL this spring); there will be a public comment period for rules and regulations under the new mold law (Article 32) and an expectation that mold supervisors may need to be present at mold projects; code officials must provide condemnation letters for demolition projects; emergency projects are handled on a case-by-case basis and the information should be forthright and accurate; and what consists of a contamination assessment.  Some of the changes to Code Rule 56 are removing the 1974 cut off date and adding responsibilities and teeth to the project monitor.  The conference ended with lunch and a final networking among attendees.

FED Team (Kimberly Granmoe, Sheryl Esposito, Veronica & Angelo Garcia III) at the Vendor Reception

Overall the conference was an excellent source of information, the presentations have helped to improve our classes, and was an excellent networking event in meeting regulators, suppliers, trainers, consultants and contractors.  If you missed the conference and you want to get some additional highlights, you can head over to Twitter and search for our tweets during the conference under the hastag #FEDTCPACNY.  We look forward to attending next year’s event (scheduled for March 1-3, 2017, so save the dates) and hope to see you there!