ACEC Members Present Innovative Hazardous Waste Approaches To EPA ACEC members briefed officials at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week on current methodologies being used to remediate hazardous waste sites. In the third of a series of meetings between the organizations, three ACEC members—Paul Favara, CH2M HILL; Charles Holbert, URS Corporation; and Andrew Vitolins, Malcolm Pirnie, Inc.—presented approaches currently used by ACEC member firms to remediate dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs), a prevalent form of contamination that is often difficult to locate and remediate. More than 30 ACEC members and EPA officials met at the EPA Office of Technology Innovation, the "engineering division" of EPA's Superfund program. "These meetings provide EPA with an understanding of how consultants are dealing with practical issues in the field that they can incorporate in developing future remediation policies," said ACEC's Environmental Business Committee Public Markets Chairperson, Mary Atkinson. The EPA Office of Technology Innovation provides policy leadership at EPA and facilitates use of innovative site characterization and remediation technologies in the clean-up of abandoned waste sites under the Superfund program. The joint meetings with ACEC will continue on a regular basis, with each meeting focusing on a specific remediation issue.

ACEC's Online Professional Liability Survey Of Member Firms Enters Final Week ACEC member firms have only one more week to take part in ACEC's online Professional Liability Survey for fiscal year 2004. The deadline for survey responses is the close of business on Friday, April 15. An email with a link to the survey has been sent to the key contacts at member firms. This annual survey collects information on member firms' professional liability insurance, their claims experience, and the impact of the threat of litigation. "This information is crucial to determining the professional liability insurance landscape which our members must deal with. It also provides important information for our tort reform efforts in Congress," said Chuck Kopplin, chairman of the ACEC Risk Management Committee. "I strongly encourage each member firm's headquarters office to participate in the Survey." The results of the Survey will be compiled and a summary published in Last Word, with a more detailed article to follow in the July/August issue of Engineering Inc.

Annual Member Firm Certification Due In April Each year in April, primary contacts (or their designees) at ACEC member firms are asked to "certify" their information in our database. Since much of this information will be displayed on the ACEC website and available to prospective clients and employees, it is important that the information is correct. We encourage primary contacts to complete updates by April 30. All primary contacts received a notice last week about the certification process. If you are a primary contact who still needs to update your record, just click here to be taken directly to the member log-in page. In the slot marked "email address," enter your business email address. In the slot marked "password," fill in your password. If you don't remember your password, click on the "I forgot my password" button and a password will be immediately emailed to you. After you are logged in, you can start updating company information. If you have any questions regarding the online certification function, contact Linh Nguyen at lnguyen@acec.org or call 202-347-7474.

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