Environmental Planning, Management, and Regulatory Compliance

Under the Oil Pollution Prevention regulation (40 CFR part 112), certain facilities are required to develop and maintain Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) plans to protect against adverse effects of oil spills. Depending on the volume of oil or location in regard to navigable waters, a site will be required to maintain an SPCC. Facilities fall under the rule if there is aboveground oil storage capacity greater than 1,320 gallons or underground storage greater than 42,000 gallons. Applicable oils covered in an SPCC plan include oils and greases of petroleum-related activities; fats, oils or greases of animal, fish, and marine mammal origin; and vegetable oils, including oils from seeds, nuts, fruits, or kernels. An SPCC establishes procedures, methods, and equipment that mitigate spill risks.

Once an SPCC is in place, it is important to train personnel on its contents and perform periodic inspections, plan reviews, and updates to keep the document in alignment with operations. Companies may be subject to regulatory penalties if an investigator determines a plan is no longer reflective of a site's conditions or personnel are unaware of how to properly respond to a spill.

Trihydro has experience supporting small and large facilities with SPCCs. We review existing SPCC plans and conduct site visits to collect information on tanks, secondary containment structures, and security measures to generate fit-for-purpose plans. Our experience allows us to help clients maintain compliance while reducing the impacts of possible spills.

Under the Oil Pollution Prevention regulation (40 CFR part 112), "substantial harm" facilities that store or use oil are required to develop and maintain a Facility Response Plan (FRP). An FRP provides documentation that a facility is prepared to respond to a "worst case" oil spill as well as small and medium discharges. A substantial harm facility is a facility that, due to its location, could cause environmental risk if a discharge were to occur.

Trihydro is familiar with environmental programs at terminals, pipelines, and marine locations. We assist owners and operators in understanding if and how FRP requirements apply to their facilities, as well as determining overlap between FRPs and SPCC plans. Trihydro routinely prepares and certifies FRPs for facilities of various sizes. To help owners and operators confirm existing FRPs are current, Trihydro also performs FRP audits and often trains client staff on the procedures noted in FRPs.

Industrial facilities generate and/or manage a variety of wastes subject to a large network of stringent regulations. For example, regulations developed under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) are designed to provide “cradle to grave” hazardous waste management, while numerous other federal laws interface with RCRA, such as the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Emergency Preparedness and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), and the Hazard Communication Standard enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Trihydro helps clients navigate a variety of complex federal and state environmental regulations that are central to effective hazardous waste and materials management.

Hazardous waste and materials management covers the proper management and disposal of several types of waste, including hazardous waste, regulated non-hazardous waste, and universal waste. Trihydro’s experienced personnel are effective and innovative in managing hazardous materials and remediating hazardous waste sites.

We recognize the importance of developing proactive programs that address compliance, liability, public perception, pollution prevention, and profitability. Our experience ranges from efficient characterization and management of remediation derived wastes (both nonhazardous and hazardous) to preparing permits for RCRA Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facilities (TSDF). We have completed many site investigations, feasibility studies, conceptual and detailed designs, and cleanups.

We also develop innovative approaches to handling waste streams and assist clients in identifying beneficial uses for materials otherwise considered wastes. In other cases, we help derive cost savings by identifying ways to treat or partially process materials on-site prior to off-site shipment or identifying applicable hazardous waste exemptions for generated waste. In each case, the environmental benefits and savings realized are the direct result of our staff’s knowledge of the regulations and the array of available treatment and disposal alternatives.

Many industries face uncertainties created by unforeseen or underestimated environmental concerns and liabilities, which can impact a company's bottom line. Trihydro helps guide commercial and industrial clients in identifying and managing environmental risk associated with operations, acquisitions, and divestitures.

Trihydro works with environmental managers, legal representatives, asset managers, insurance underwriters, and claims managers to assess, quantify, and manage environmental risk. Whether we are helping clients purchase additional facilities, combine assets through mergers and acquisitions, obtain loans/funding, prepare insurance policies for facilities, or evaluating permits and operations, we know how important it is to recognize and manage the potential environmental risk at each site.

Our technical, regulatory, insurance, and business experts have previously worked for industry, academia, regulatory agencies, and insurance companies and provide clients with a variety of risk management services, including due diligence and site assessments; ASTM-compliant Phase I (E1527-21) and II (E1903-19) Environmental Site Assessments (ESA); regulatory permitting, compliance support, and auditing; insurance claims forensics and management; and insurance risk control.

We help a variety of clients, including commercial and industrial companies, insurance underwriters and claims managers, utility providers, energy companies, oil and gas companies, attorneys, capital/real estate investors, and accounting firms, with understanding, evaluating, and managing risks associated with real or perceived environmental issues at thousands of sites.

An important component of risk management is understanding the meaning behind site assessment results and developing a path forward that considers potential regulatory impact and land use goals. Trihydro’s services do not end at simply identifying risks or obtaining chemical analyses of samples. We help clients understand the implications of sampling results, including whether the results must be reported to a regulatory agency and whether or not any chemicals identified in the soil, groundwater, or soil gas must be remediated. Trihydro guides clients through decisions that must be made to comply with regulations, as well as to minimize the short-term and long-term risk associated with environmental conditions.

When performing due diligence, Trihydro understands the importance of complying with the standards specified by ASTM to satisfy the requirements for conducting "All Appropriate Inquiries" under 40 CFR § 312, not only to establish a landowner liability defense but also to understand continuing obligations with respect to a contaminated property. Trihydro's due diligence resume covers a range of project sizes and complexities, from single-site property transactions involving a few soil and groundwater samples to complex, full-scale environmental site investigations involving human health and ecological risk assessments.

As environmental regulations continue to evolve, many companies find it difficult to keep pace with the numerous requirements enforced by federal, state, and local agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under environmental laws like the Clean Air Act (CAA, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)). Trihydro's team provides environmental compliance services such as permitting, employee training, recordkeeping, reporting, and auditing.

Trihydro takes a proactive approach to regulatory management, building cooperative relationships with regulators and gaining a nuanced understanding of the regulatory process. We also develop custom-tailored technology solutions for clients' operating facilities to support proactive compliance. Our industrial clients have demonstrated their trust in our technical experts by placing them at their operational facilities as interim on-site environmental managers.

Trihydro tracks new and emerging regulations through trade association participation as well as direct contacts with key federal and state regulators. We evaluate and improve processes to communicate new regulatory developments to our clients, and we support our professional and technical staff in participating in conferences, workshops, and technical meetings. This allows us to provide top-tier technical expertise and rule interpretation to our clients in their respective industry sectors.

Trihydro has experience working with a variety of regulations and understands that compliance requirements can vary between local, state, and federal jurisdictions. We support a variety of industries with regulatory management, from small sites requiring minimal permitting, to large industrial sites with complex compliance programs.