Meet Rachel Cornwell, Sam Adlington, and Jay Pietraszek

Aspect recently welcomed Rachel Cornwell, Sam Addlington, and Jay Pietraszek to our Seattle office. Here are Five Questions we asked to get to know them better…

Rachel Cornwell, Staff Scientist

Rachel on a January walk at Gross Reservoir in Boulder, CO

1. Where are you from? If you’re not from the Pacific Northwest, what brought you here?

I was born and raised in Bellingham, WA. I went to school in Colorado but making the decision to return to the Pacific Northwest was an easy one (despite the rain). There is something about the nature and the people here that makes it feel like home. Although I grew up just a couple of hours north of Seattle, living in the city now feels like an entirely new place that I am excited to explore!

2. What inspired you to pursue environmental engineering? What made you curious about it?

In high school, I got the opportunity to travel to Honduras with Living Waters for the World. I worked on the engineering team to install a water purification system in a rural town called Las Bodegas. Working with mentors and community members showed me that engineering was not only about efficient, cost-effective design, but also about how that design impacts a community’s health, business opportunities, and ability to live a better life. This experience opened my eyes to the kind of impact I could make and inspired me to pursue an environmental engineering degree.

Through my time in the environmental engineering program at Colorado University, my focus shifted from water treatment to remediation of contaminated sites, and I realized that my connection with environmental remediation work began as a kid; I grew up spending most summers at Holden Village, a small retreat center in the mountains near Lake Chelan. The village was historically a mining town for the Holden Mine, which became a Superfund site in the 1980s. I remember seeing the tailing piles and remnants of the mine on hikes around the area. The orange coating of streambeds and the eerie, abandoned structures surrounding the village always left me curious. As I learn more about remediation processes, I constantly connect it back to these images that stuck in my mind as a kid.

3. What do you like best about your area of expertise? What excites you and keeps you motivated?

I love that remediation work allows you to both zoom into the tiny details and zoom out to a bigger picture. I think shifting between those perspectives keeps things interesting and creates complex problems that require innovative solutions. Hitting specific cleanup levels requires precise design and detailed understanding of remediation mechanisms, but also requires an overarching understanding of stakeholders and their priorities, as well as why the remediation is important. Right now, I am excited to learn more about remediation mechanisms and to see first-hand how a remediation system impacts sites in different ways given unique sets of soil and groundwater conditions.

4. What do you like to do when you aren’t working?

I love to get out and hike on the weekends! I find hiking to be the best way to get to know a new area – it’s how I came to feel at home in Colorado, and how I am rediscovering the PNW now. I also love to write songs. I’ve been re-learning how to play guitar recently and enjoy writing songs with piano and voice.

5. Where in the world would you like to travel next?

Last summer, I spent a few weeks traveling down the eastern coast of South Africa after a two-month bridge construction project in eSwatini. I would go back there in a heartbeat! That area was so diverse in culture, natural features, and things to see and do! In the time I was there I learned a lot from locals about the different ethnic groups and how their languages and experiences differ. I would love to return to that area and continue exploring other parts of southern Africa, like Zimbabwe and Mozambique, as well as more of South Africa.

Sam Adlington, Project Engineer

This is from my last trip to Bali Indonesia in 2018. With the heat and not being acclimated to the climate I was taking every opportunity to get some shade and coconut water.

1. Where are you from? If you’re not from the Pacific Northwest, what brought you here?

I am a greater Seattle area native. I grew up on the north end of Ballard before my family moved to Shoreline when I was 10. Since I finished college I’ve lived in Bellevue, Redmond, and Lynnwood. Frankly I never really wanted to live anywhere else.

2. What inspired you to pursue remediation engineering? What made you curious about it?

Technically most of the engineering work I’m involved in is for the solid waste industry or general environmental engineering/consulting. Within solid waste engineering there are a lot of the concepts of remediation engineering that are similar, just applied differently or with alterations to timelines, capacities, and project scale.

I seemingly fell into this line of work, but it works with the way that my brain is wired and I haven’t wanted to stop since I got started. It all started in college — like most students I could not make up my mind on a major. I started out really looking at either mechanical or chemical engineering. Through engineering clubs that I participated in, I had a few friends that were getting environmental engineering degrees through the civil engineering department. I started taking classes out of curiosity since it sounded like an interesting combination of the elements that got me started with engineering. I found it really worked well with what I liked to do and where I wanted to move my career.

Fresh out of college I wound up getting a job as a groundwater sampler/field tech for a firm that specialized in civil and environmental engineering for the solid waste industry. Since then I’ve sought out projects that have elements that I’m interested in, leveraging experience and trust built to get where I’m at now.

3. What do you like best about your area of expertise? What excites you and keeps you motivated?

I should preface this by saying that I really like problem-solving. I’m not the type that will sit and do Sudoku or crossword puzzles because I get a lot of satisfaction out of what I get to do daily. A big driver is that no two projects are ever identical. While there are similarities, there always seems to be some complication, technicality, or nuance that needs to be managed and accounted for which keeps the work fresh and interesting.

4. What do you like to do when you aren’t working?

I always seem to have a few half-completed projects that I’m tinkering with in my spare time. Recently I’ve gotten into brewing and I’ve got a few tech/electronics projects on my workbench. The shortlist of longer-term interests includes:

• Snowboarding (when the weather is cold)

• Bicycling (when the weather is nicer)

• Playing soccer (goalkeeper), generally I lean to indoor but the occasional full field game when the weather cooperates

In addition, I bought a house right at the start of the pandemic. So all the new chores and other tasks that come with that have been keeping me busy during the pandemic.

5. Where in the world would you like to travel next?

Europe is on my shortlist when we can safely travel again. Still haven’t made up my mind on whether or not to go with the UK or EU, but we’ve got time to think about it. Places like Finland, Norway, or Sweden really seem interesting to me, but my partner is originally from a tropical country and she will likely not want to go anywhere cold for vacation.

Jay Pietraszek, Senior Hydrogeologist

Beautiful 12 pound Silver Salmon caught on the Akwe River, southeast Alaska, September 2020

1. Where are you from? If you’re not from the Pacific Northwest, what brought you here?

I spent the majority of my childhood in the Chicago area. I came to Seattle initially after graduating from the University of Montana. But I’ve been in the Pacific Northwest for over 15 years, so it’s home now.

2. What inspired you to pursue hydrogeology? What made you curious about it?

I always loved being on or near the water, both as a kid on the Great Lakes and then during college on the rivers of Montana and Wyoming. My interest in the field grew from those experiences and memories. I became curious about the profession and industry as a student and the curiosity continues!

3. What do you like best about your area of expertise? What excites you and keeps you motivated?

I enjoy the creativity and problem solving that is required, and the complexity and diverse nature of the questions that we try to answer for our clients. I believe in the growth potential of the industry, particularly over the long term, and I am excited to keep pushing forward and helping those coming up in the profession.

4. What do you like to do when you aren’t working?

I enjoy spending time with my family, first and foremost. A Saturday evening with a couple of The Mandalorian episodes on the docket is about as good as it gets for me these days. I like tinkering around the house and learning something new. And of course, I still love being outside on the water or somewhere up in mountains, off the beaten track.

5. Where in the world would you like to travel next?

Tasmania, with a fly rod in hand!

Major Milestone at Complex Pasco Landfill Cleanup to Remove 35,000 Drums of Waste

The Pasco Landfill Site reached a recent milestone from the State Department of Ecology. Ecology announced plans to remove over 35,000 drums from an industrial waste cell and haul away the worst contaminants for disposal. While the landfill received municipal solid waste from 1958 to 1993, industrial waste was received only during the early 1970s. Since 1992, over 32 entities have investigated and grappled with how to cleanup the Site. In 2014, cleanup planning for the latent industrial waste took a turn with the development of a subsurface fire and product observed at the water table. Aspect's landfill engineering team has been working on cleanup design engineering and strategies at this Site for over 12 years.

See Ecology's video to learn more about this project as well as the current public comment period, now open through October 3.

Air Quality Rule Change Means Lower Hurdle for Washington State Landfill Owners

The Washington State Department of Ecology is revising the air quality thresholds for toxic air pollutants (TAPs; WAC 173-460), based on best available science. These proposed changes have some significant effects for landfill owners looking to keep air quality good, protective of human health and the environment, and doing so cost effectively. The key proposed changes are:

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The last flare this landfill in Port Angeles will ever need. When the gas is no longer combustible, reliable treatment will be provided by biofilter technology – made easier by recent updates in air quality criteria.

• Two of the most conservative constituents commonly found in landfill gas, benzene and vinyl chloride, will have higher thresholds (by factors of 3.7 and 8.9, respectively).

• The threshold for hydrogen sulfide – a common driver for odor control in landfill gas – did not change. However, biofilter technology is showing promise as an economic and reliable method for polishing treatment.

• The threshold for trichloroethene went down by a factor of 0.4. This constituent has also been commonly found in landfill gas, and the new threshold may or may not change our clients’ treatment obligations.

What this means for landfill owners is that air quality compliance should be easier to demonstrate. This means:

• Downscaling treatment at older landfills can focus on odor control instead of destruction efficiency for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as TAPs.

• The costs associated with flaring landfill gas can be re-directed to biofilter technology for polishing treatment for odor control.

• The schedule for ending or minimizing post-closure obligations associated with landfill gas treatment can be accelerated.

Next Steps

This rule-making process is on-going, and details of the process are provided at Ecology’s website: https://ecology.wa.gov/460rulemaking.

A hearing on the re-calculated air quality thresholds is planned for July 16, 2019, and comments are due be July 23, 2019.

Barring delays, the new rule on air quality thresholds becomes effective in late October 2019.

For more information on what the implication of these changes for landfill owners and managers, contact Associate Engineer Peter Bannister at (206) 780-7728 and pbannister@aspectconsulting.com.

Inspiring Burgeoning Environmental Consultants

For an interdisciplinary WWU course led by Dr. Ruth Sofield and focused on the Science and Management of Contaminated Sites (SMoCS), Aspect’s Steve Germiat and Kirsi Longley gave budding environmental consultants a look at what life and work is really like for professional environmental consultants.

To complement the students’ landfill RI/FS case study, Kirsi presented Aspect’s recent RI/FS work at a landfill in western Washington. The presentation focused on the scope of the investigation, the findings, including how volatile contaminants can transfer between landfill gas and groundwater, and how the findings were developed into recommendations for remedial alternatives.  In addition to the scientific and technological challenges of environmental remediation, Steve and Kirsi addressed the nuts and bolts of a consultant’s role in the MTCA cleanup process, and the skills and attributes that enable a consultant to excel. Looking back on the presentation, Dr. Sofield said “Students benefit so much from interactions with Steve and Kirsi.  To actually learn from a practitioner and see that classroom material has real application changes how students think about and participate in their education.  It changes a lot for the students, including their intended career path.”

About SMoCS

In collaboration with Washington State Department of Ecology Toxics Cleanup Program, WWU’s Huxley College of the Environment (Huxley) offers undergraduate students a course series in the Science and Management of Contaminated sites (SMoCS). The SMoCS series includes three courses that build knowledge of the contaminated site cleanup process in Washington State with an emphasis on how scientific investigations are conducted, use of the technical documents associated with cleanups, the roles of different parties in cleanup decisions, and enhanced professional skills.  For more information on the program visit http://faculty.wwu.edu/harperr3/SMoCS.shtml.

30 Years and Beyond: Caring for Landfills Post Closure

For landfill owners and operators, an ounce of prevention can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars of cure. Read Chris Augistine’s DJC article about navigating the regulatory requirements and applying strategies to reduce monitoring requirements, save money, and successfully plan for post-closure care at closed landfills.

READ IT HERE

How Dirty is the Dirt: Ripple Effects of Proposed Solid Waste Handling Regulations

The difference between “clean” and “dirty” dirt may become a lot more complex if new solid waste handling regulations take effect in Washington state. The state’s Department of Ecology (Ecology) has proposed significant revisions to Washington Administrative Code (WAC) Chapter 173-350, which governs how solid waste is managed. The proposed changes, which will be formally proposed later this year, will affect a number of solid waste practices, but the key revisions with the most significant implications concern creation of a new section establishing and standardizing criteria for managing the movement, reuse and disposal of soil and sediment  that is considered “clean” under the state’s Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA) but may have trace levels of contaminants (draft WAC 173-350-995).

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Excavated soil from Seattle City Light’s new Denny Substation in South Lake Union. Under proposed new solid waste regulations, managing, hauling, and receiving this soil will likely be much more complicated for engineers, redevelopment teams, and landfill operators.

With the Puget Sound region by some counts leading the nation in development projects – which all generate dirt during construction excavation that must be reused or hauled away – establishing soil management protocols will likely have significant ripple effects in the business and regulated community. Consider just one urban skyrise, as this article on construction dirt does. A typical downtown Seattle building project could potentially generate 250,000 cubic yards of soil (equal to 25,000 dump truck loads) that must be removed from the site. The new soil and sediment criteria would potentially mean higher sampling costs, more complex soil management plans, additional reuse constraints, and greater soil volumes filling up limited landfill space.

How managing “Dirty” Dirt would change

Contaminated sites are regulated under MTCA, which provides screening criteria for defining impacted soil. Soil with contaminants below MTCA screening levels is considered “clean”. Currently, the end use of “clean” excavated soil is largely determined by criteria set by individual receiving facilities—gravel mine, landfill, reuse site, etc. These facilities may all have different standards for what level of impacted soil they will accept. The new proposed regulation would change that, formulating the screening process for “clean” soil and creating formal soil reuse and disposal acceptance criteria. This means that “clean” soil (albeit with low levels of contaminants at concentrations protective of human health and the environment) would now need to go through rigorous sampling, laboratory analysis, evaluation, and jurisdictional health department permitting just to be hauled away. This would be a big change from the current process, where this same “clean” soil can be reused as fill because it is deemed “protective” of human health and the environment, per MTCA.

Implications of new regulations

At the heart of the update is the intent to formally regulate soils that are not perfectly clean. Ecology hopes the rule update will streamline management, decrease delays in soil movement, reduce the potential for creating new cleanup sites, and reduce environmental damage. Practitioners see the implications of these proposed rule updates as increasing the cost of development projects, slowing development schedules, creating a regulatory quagmire, and causing landfills to fill with soil that could be put to use elsewhere.  

Too Much Flare, Not Enough Gas

Aspect’s Peter Bannister, along with King County’s Dan Swope, will co-present at the 2016 Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) Northwest Regional Symposium in Vancouver, BC on Friday April 8th.

As landfills age and landfill gas generation inevitably declines, landfill operators face the problem of using legacy collection and control systems that weren’t designed to harvest dwindling amounts of landfill gas. Simply continuing operation of these oversized systems is often not practical or financially prudent.

Peter and Dan will present the Enumclaw Landfill case-study and focus on how landfill gas forensics has proven to be an innovative solution to coaxing better performance out of existing landfill gas collection and control systems, and designing downscaled systems, at closed landfills in King County, Washington State.

Peter and Dan will present Friday morning at 10:30AM in technical session 6B – Advances in Landfill Gas Management.  Learn more about the conference HERE and view the agenda HERE.

We look forward to seeing you there!