Environmental Scientist Ben Morrow, Senior Environmental Scientist Gerry Hammel, and Application Developer Billy Meredith, all of McCormick Taylor’s Baltimore, MD office, presented at the 2016 Northeastern Transportation and Wildlife Conference (NETWC). Held on September 11–14 in Lake Placid, New York at the High Peaks Hotel, NETWC presented an opportunity to exchange ideas and solutions on transportation, wildlife, and sustainability with experts from across the region. This year’s theme was Mile Markers of Road Ecology: Paved Ways and New Paths.
McCormick Taylor’s representatives presented on “Application of the Environmental Monitoring Toolkit on Transportation Projects to Ensure Permit Compliance, Environmental Management and Ecological Stewardship.”
Their presentation provided an overview of a successful “Environmental Compliance Program.” The Environmental Construction Oversight Program was created to initiate compliance assurance mechanisms and provide on-site environmental monitoring to relay the myriad of environmental issues that can arise during construction.
The presentation went step-by-step through the process that was developed to integrate environmental monitoring and compliance into a construction program. It described: roles and responsibilities, required knowledge, skills and experience for the environmental monitors, communication tools, issue resolution, and interaction with regulatory agencies. The presentation also discussed the benefits and the challenges of a successful Environmental Compliance Program, and how the environmental monitors have been successful in complementing the construction management staff to evolve into essential team members.
Lastly, the presentation demonstrated the tools that were developed to maintain the required project documentation and compliance reporting. The ever increasing reporting requirements take significant time and present challenges for maintaining complete and organized records. A key component to the development of a successful Compliance Program is the development and utilization of a web-based multi-user Environmental Monitoring Toolkit that is the central location of all environmental documentation, including inspection reports.
