DEMOLIT ION 
ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES  
WASTE & ASSET MANAGEMENT
EMERGENCY RESPONSE

SAFETY -  SERVICE  -  SOLUTIONS

October 2015 - In This Issue:


YOUR FIRST CHOICE IN SITE SERVICES
SAFETY - SERVICE -SOLUTIONS
These are the key ingredients to becoming the premier single-source provider of Demolition, Environmental Remediation and Emergency Response. Highground delivers personal service, quality assurance and cost-effective solutions to our customers. We bring core values of safety, reliability, and productivity every day to every job site.

Highground is committed to building solid relationships based on trust, integrity and performance.  We are always ready to service our client's needs. Our professional management team delivers personalized service to our clients, learning specific requirements and concerns to help ensure cost effective solutions.
HIGHGROUND INDUSTRIAL APPOINTED ON PHASE ONE DEMOLITION AT VASSAR BROTHERS MEDICAL CENTER 
HIGHGROUND INDUSTRIAL has been appointed by Health Quest Systems Inc. to demolish several free standing buildings at Vassar Brother's Medical Center, located on 45 Reade Place in Poughkeepsie, NY. 

Health Quest Systems Inc., has plans to modernize the facility. HIGHGROUND will perform Phase I demolition services to make way for the expansion.


Phase I of the project includes demolition of St. Joseph's Tower Building, a 47,000 square foot masonry and brick building, formerly used as administrative office space on the Medical Center's campus.

The hospital also owns 6 single family homes located at 14, 16, 18, 22, and 24 Livingston Street and 61 Lincoln Street in Poughkeepsie which also will be demolished. Interior demolition activities are already underway on the St. Joseph's Tower Building.


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TIRE FIRE GETS 
HELP FROM HIGHGROUND'S
 EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM



On Wednesday, August 26th, while HIGHGROUND INDUSTRIAL was working on the Scranton Community Power Plant, Sandone Tire Company just down the street had an emergency. The tire warehouse was in flames, and fire companies were responding to the multi-alarm fire.  The turn of the century warehouse was an eight story 120,000 square foot building which stored fifty thousand tires.  


Highground Industrial was called in to help the fire company open up walls and move debris so that the fire fighters could get to parts of the building that were not accessible. Apparently, the insulation of the building was a combination of cork and sawdust.
 


The fire continued for 3 days.  After it was put out, Highground was asked by the owner to continue the demolition as the building needed to be taken down as the area was unsafe. The building has been razed and the clean up phase will be finished in the next few months.




ROCKLAND
 LAKE STATE PARK POOL SITE GETS PCB 
CLEAN-UP
Highground was contacted by the NYS Department of Parks, Recreation and Historical Preservation. We are working with the owner's representative ARCADIS to execute remedial actions on the soil at the former North pool at the Rockland State Park in Valley Cottage, New York.  Polychlorinated bip henyls (PCB's) were identified during the pool modernization activities.

Highground's work includes excavation, transport and disposal of contaminated soil. Apparently, it was found that the pool  paint and caulking contained PCB's.  The objective is to meet the NSDEC Residential Use Soil Cleanup requirements. The project involves the removal of approximately 7000 tons of PCB impacted soil associated with the 24,000 square foot pool. Highground has mobilized to the site to begin clean up.  All soil will be disposed at a RCRA Subtitle C Landfill.
LINKS

Highground Industrial is proud to be associated with the following organizations

 








HIGHGROUND NEWS
HIGHGROUND TAKING DOWN SCRANTON POWER PLANT  - IMPLODES SMOKE STACK
Highground Industrial has been appointed to demolish the Community Central Energy Plant which sits on North Washington Street in Scranton PA.  The plant property will be converted to multi- family housing. The energy plant originally supplied steam to the buildings in downtown Scranton.

Over time, buildings converted to gas and the steam plant lost  client base.  It closed in 2012. 

With a crack that sent shockwaves rippling through the neighborhood, 26 pounds of dynamite ignited to topple what had been the tallest structure overlooking the neighborhood.

Over 1.8 million lbs of concrete came down. The Smoke Stack was approximately 250 feet tall with a diameter of 20 feet.  The job is expected to finish before the end of the year. 



Smoke Stack Implosion
Smoke Stack Implosion


UNDERGROUND GASOLINE STORAGE TANKS REMOVED AT FORMER NEW CITY, NY GETTY
New City, N.Y. - Highground removed three underground storage tanks (UST's)  as well as contaminated soil and water from the former Getty Gas station in New City for the management who owns the site as well as the retail strip next door.  ARKF was the environmental consulting company.

Highground completed the decommissioning of the entire underground tank system including the removal of pumps, islands, concrete pads, line and three fiberglass UST's with a  combined capacity of 24,000 gallons of gasoline.

  During the initial activities, contaminated soils were discovered. Highground worked with the consultant to adequately delineate the extent of the contamination through a series of test pits. Once waste classification sampling had been com
pleted by  the consultant, Highground returned to the site to excavate almost 1000  tons of petroleum impacted soil for proper off- site disposal.  Due to the high groundwater table , Highground also evacuated approximately 40,000 gallons of water from the tank graves and the entire excavation with the use of Vacuum Trucks and a Frac Tank. 
TRENDING 

T he U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed to add the former Kil-Tone Company also known as the LERCO site in Vineland, N.J. to its Superfund list of the country's most hazardous waste sites. 

The old facility manufactured pesticides and as a result contaminated the soil as well as nearby homes with arsenic and lead. Arsenic is a known carcinogen, and lead causes damage to children, including learning disabilities and behavioral problems as well as other health impacts for adults. New Jersey currently has more Superfund sites than any state in the USA
Fro m PolitickerNJ
Christie Administration awards 1.6 6 Million contract for dredging of Deal Lake Project and restore recreational opportunities for states largest coastal lake.


The Christie Administration has awarded a nearly $1.66 million contract to remove sand pushed by Superstorm Sandy into Deal Lake, the largest in a series of unique coastal lakes in Monmouth County that were severely impacted by the storm, Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin announced today.

The contract to dredge 12,000 cubic yards of material was awarded to Tri-State Dredging of Philadelphia. The project is being funded through a partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resource Conservation Service. The NRCS is providing more than $1.5 million through its Emergency Watershed Protection program. The DEP is providing a $154,600 match.

Environmental Bankers Conference will be held from January 17-20 at the Renaissance Hotel in Long Beach, California. 
BILLIONS OF DOLLARS NEEDED TO FIX NATION'S WATER PIPES    
          
Boston Globe
    
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The Environmental Protection Agency projects it will cost $384 billion over 20 years just to maintain the nation's existing drinking water infrastructure.

Replacing pipes, treatment plants, and other infrastructure, as well as expanding drinking water systems to handle population growth, could cost as much as $1 trillion.


Without that investment, industry groups warn of a future with more infrastructure failures that will disrupt service, transportation, and commerce.

In Massachusetts, where some water and sewer systems in older cities date to the 1800s, experts predict billions of dollars will be needed in the coming years to ensure that clean drinking water continues to flow.

"The idea that people will pay more per month for cellphone service than they pay for their water and sewer, and that they get more aggravated by the water and sewer costs is a mind-set we have to work to correct," says Steve McCurdy, director of municipal services for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

"People will think they can't live without a cellphone, but they definitely cannot live without clean water," he said.

For Massachusetts, the EPA estimated the cost of maintaining the water infrastructure at $7.7 billion, including $5.6 billion to maintain the transmission and distribution network.
NJ/PA NEWS
PENNEAST FILES WITH FERC TO MOVE AHEAD ON 118-MILE NATURAL-GAS PIPELINE
BY NJ ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS - TOM JOHNSON 

Opponents argue that proposed pipeline route crosses thousands of acres of open space and farmland, preserved with taxpayer dollars

The PennEast pipeline fight is heading to Washington, D.C.

PennEast Pipeline Company LLC yesterday filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a permit to build a 118-mile natural-gas line from Pennsylvania across the Delaware River and through parts of Hunterdon County before ending in Mercer County.

The $1 billion project is one of about a dozen new pipelines proposed to deliver cheap natural gas from Pennsylvania and neighboring states to customers in New Jersey, a trend that has dramatically lowered heating bills for consumers and stabilized electricity prices in the region.

The project, however, is perhaps the most contentious of the various pipeline proposals, in part because its intended route traverses thousands of acres of open space and farmland preserved with taxpayer dollars.

"The proposed PennEast pipeline would undermine and destroy decades of dedicated work to preserve land in this critical region of New Jersey,'' said Michele Beyers, executive director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation.

PennEast officials said the project will lower costs to consumers; it could have saved natural-gas customers nearly $900 million during the bitterly cold 2012-2013 winter, according to a study by a consultant hired by the project, while enhancing the reliability of the system.

The project has many backers from the business community since cheaper natural gas, a necessary commodity for many manufacturers, makes them more competitive with rivals in other states.
AVALON BAY TEST SHOWS HIGH LEVEL TOXINS 
CONSTRUCTION STOPS
REMEDIAL WORK STARTS

FROM NJ.COM - BY CHRISTINA ROJAS

Princeton - AvalonBay will have to follow a remedial action work plan after tests showed high levels of a toxin on the future site of its 280-unit housing project, Princeton officials announced Friday.

Construction was stopped earlier this month at the former University Medical Center site on Witherspoon Street after preliminary tests alerted them to the presence of polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCBs, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs.


Additional samples were then taken from the material piles and other ground locations. No detectable levels of PCBs were found, but the levels of PAHs and metals exceeded the residential standards set by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

PAHs, a form of pollution caused by burning gasoline, coal and garbage, have been shown to cause tumors in laboratory animals, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

AvalonBay's plan requires that the site be capped and that the cap is continually monitored and inspected twice a year.

The developer will also be required to file a deed notice indicating the existence of contaminants capped on the site.

Once construction resumes, staff will continue to monitor the site to ensure the required safeguards are in place including dust control measures and air monitoring, officials said.

The full report will be made available in the clerk's office and online.
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