I'm starting my trip back from Louisville, KY (I have to fly through Chicago and St. Louis to get to Little Rock - go figure!) where I've been attending the annual Coal-Gen industry group conference. This was my first trip to Coal-Gen, and it will probably be my last. Despite a heavy focus in the agenda on environmental issues, especially CO2 issues, it was not the right place for an environmental consultant. The conference is just overrun by mechanical contractors, pipe fitters, industrial painters, etc. I did gather some good information about pending controls for CO2, but it really wasn't anything I couldn't have learned without spending three days out of the office. On top of the relatively ineffective conference, I had a terrible tooth ache the whole time. At least I got to watch some of the Olympics at night in the hotel.
I went to a public hearing today where people could comment on some proposed regulations changes. Compared to other public hearings I've been to, it was very uneventful. Only one person gave comments - the Executive Director of the Arkansas Environmental Federation, which is an advocacy group for industry in Arkansas (see www.environmentark.org) - and he just read the AEF's written comments (to be submitted later). It was good to be there however. Two part-time (they also use others) clients were there, and I think we solidified the fact that we stay on top of what's going on in the air permitting world (in Arkansas at least).
Yesterday, my entire office (at least those of us who were not out of town) went to an all-day seminar called "Get Motivated." It was well done and included some big-time speakers such as the founder of Monster.com, Jeff Taylor, and the former major of NYC and former republican presidential primary candidate, Rudolph Giuliani. There was a little too much sales pitching going on for my taste, but I guess they have to pay for the seminar somehow (the tickets were cheap). One thing that surprised me was the amount of faith/spirituality (specifically Christian) that was presented. One of many commonalities among the many extremely successful speakers was a Christian life and a trust in biblical principles regarding finances. This probably did not sit well with all of the several thousand people in (though perhaps they reconsidered upon hearing the presentations). I enjoyed it; it was a perspective you don't often hear anywhere outside of church, i.e., from our very secular print, TV, and radio media. Anyway, to get back to the point, in hindsight, I'm not sure the seminar was worth it to Trinity (30+ hours total of unbilled time), but it is nice to know that we are willing to take a chance on something like this.
An earlier post discussed my recent, grueling experience as an expert witness. Getting asked yes/no questions that you can't answer with a simple yes or no - like "have you stopped beating your spouse?" - is no fun. But now I get to be on the other side. I am working with an attorney to think of tough questions for an opposing expert witness. So basically I'm breaking down his analyses and pointing out anything that could/should be conducted differently, or anything that is questionable whatsoever. This is fun!
I love my job, but sometimes are better than others. Today is one of those times. Right now I am riding to Memphis (actually Collierville), TN with my office manager and another consultant to play golf in a charity golf tournament put on by the Valero refinery in Memphis. That refinery, which has been owned by four different companies since the Trinity-Little Rock office opened (Jan. '96), has been a great, long-term client so the expense (tourney fee and lost time/revenue) of this sales effort is worth it. Unless our fourth (we don't know who it is yet) is a pro, I don't think we have any chance of winning, but I'll let you know.
For the most part, we at Trinity are very much white-collar workers (we don't get dirty on the job) because we generally don't do stack testing or "field" work. Getting out of the office usually means going to a meeting, conference, or training course. We do occasionally get to tour plant sites, especially those for which we are preparing air dispersion modeling analyses (it's good to know what a site actually looks like when you are trying to build it in a model). It is these times when we get to break out the few tools (excluding software) we have. I'm sure the stack testers who tote equipment to the top of smoke stacks would scoff at me, but try carrying and using a camera, GPS, and two stop watches while also trying to make notes on a D-size plot plan drawing and multiple aerial photographs in 20 mph wind 150 feet off the ground. This is what I recently attempted (except for the stop watches - you only need those when doing visible emissions observations, which are typically conducted from ground level). I even got dirty! Of course, it was just from using the handrail while walking back down the *who knows how many* flights of stairs because the man lift broke while we were on top of the super structure.
I just passed the last exam of the Institute of Certified Professional Manager’s (ICPM’s) twelve-month Certified Manager (CM) course. The CM course is something Trinity sponsors – a couple sessions per year with just a handful of the more senior employees per session. This is one of the myriad of professional designations you can pursue. Common in our field are Professional Engineer (PE), Qualified Environmental Professional (QEP), Certified Environmental Manager (CEM), Certified Environmental Professional (CEP), and Certified Consulting Meteorologist (CCM); there may be others that I have forgotten. At this point I’m doubtful that CM carries the same weight as these others, which are more specific to our industry, but at least it shows dedication to managing business activities the right way. Whether the CM designation – technically I’m now Jeremy Jewell, CM – makes any difference or not doesn’t matter as much as the training has helped me understand some of our more intricate business activities like dealing with employee complaints (hey – no company is perfect) and analyzing our financial statements.
Just a note to any who may become an employee at Trinity - consider yourself fortunate to have never known Avenue.
We just implemented a new software that keeps track of our client/project information, time/billings/invoices, expenses, etc., and while the transition is likely to have some hitches, I can already tell that the new systems is going to be so much better than the old system.
I know this is probably a pretty boring post for you guys, but believe me it is exciting for the current folks.
We are working on several innovative and exciting projects. One is turning vegetable oil (mostly from soybeans) into biodiesel (this technology has actually been around for some time, but there are still not too many facilities doing it). Another is using wood scraps and waste water treatment plant sludge to make bio/synthetic gas (mostly methane) and then burning that gas to make electric power. A third project I am working on right now is proposing to extract/squeeze "natural" gas out of coal, and process it to the extent that it can be sold as standard natural gas. Lastly, we are about to submit an application for a coal-fired power plant (pretty standard design) that will be equipped with a carbon dioxide (CO2) recovery plant. If built, it will mostly likely be the first of its kind on a large scale. Most of the readers of this blog are probably unaware that CO2, the primary "pollutant" of concern in regards to the alleged global warming, is not yet a regulated air pollutant under EPA rules. The laws/regulations are being discussed on capital hill and are probably not far away. But that is why such a plant is a big deal. It's not very often that our clients are so far ahead of the rules.
Today (Wed, 1/2) is my first day back from the holidays - I essentially took a week and a half off. I got almost everything on my plate wrapped up before leaving so we are a little light on work now. We are still working on the coal-fired power plant project I mentioned last time, but we are waiting on some information from the client before we can proceed much further. Waiting on the client for information is a frequent occurrence that we just have to get used to. The "free time" has allowed me to write a couple proposals: one for about $50k for a major permitting effort at a paper mill and another for about $5k for some "minor" air modeling assistance for a local power plant. As has been a running theme in my posts, I love the variety we experience.
On a personal note, I am still trying to recover from our New Years celebration. Not how you might think however. I chaperoned an all-night (9 pm to 7 am), no-sleep allowed youth lock-in at my church. I think I am getting too old for loud rock concerts and running blow-up obstacle courses against teenagers at 3 am in 20-degree weather.
I just got back from a tire manufacturing plant. I'm going to a plywood mill on Thursday, and next Monday I'll be at a combustion turbine power plant. In the meantime, I'm working on a coal-fired power plant, a batch chemical plant, and a telephone service company. It seems the mix changes everyday.
I just got back from a 10-day vacation - two weekends, two holiday days (Thanksgiving day and the following day), and four PTO days. I spent the first half hunting and the last half just hanging out with my family. I turned 30 during my time off. My wife threw a surprise party and Chuck, my boss, the Little Rock office's manager, came with his family. That really means a lot to me. This, along with others little things lately, have revealed to me my importance to Chuck and to Trinity. Everyone is so important because, as I have said before, we are what we sale (our time and intelligence).
Early autumn/fall (whichever you like) has to be the most chaotic time of year around here. It seems that all colleges want to have their career fairs and on-campus interviews during the same two week period, all clients are looking at their yearly budgets and making sure they spend every last penny (this is good for us), and everyone is trying to squeeze in one more golf tournament before winter hits. It's fun, but exhausting. Actually, from a project standpoint, we (Little Rock) have been a little slow lately. We have two fairly new consultants and sometimes there is just not enough work to go around. While training is good, I really hate to have them train (i.e., read) too much and get bored. We have been importing work from other offices in an attempt to keep everyone busy. We'll probably be busting at the seams with work a month from now. Thus is the cyclical nature of our business.
It has been almost a month since my last post. The hearing took much longer than anyone anticipated, and then I had a large pile of mail, e-mail, etc. to go through when I got back to the office. I was on the stand for about eight hours total over two days. The first day I did not do very well. According to the attorney on my side, I let the other attorney push me around and control the back-and-forth too much. I did much better at setting my own pace and getting my ideas out the second day. Again, dealing with attorney, especially in front of a commission, is a very different and difficult task. Think twice before accepting the responsibility. I think I would do it again however. Through the process, I believe that I really strengthened my and Trinity's relationship with the client.
I am now in the middle of the hearing I mentioned last time. I have not been called to the stand yet, but I can already see from watching the other witnesses that it's certainly going to be a brand new experience. Watching lawyers operate/think is really quite amazing. We engineers typically get the luxury of time between a question, the answer, and the next question. Although as a consultant we are required to "think on our feet" significantly more than a typical process/manufacturing engineer. This is because eventually we need to be able to answer general questions about regulations, permitting, etc. on the spot. Learning the regs, etc. to such an extent that it is second-nature is one of the steepest learning curves when beginning your career at Trinity.
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