November 2006 - PUBLIC EDITION
November 2006 - PUBLIC EDITION
| PLEASE NOTE: Some newsletter content is only available to members in good standing of NMSHMM. |
| Our Mission |
| To provide environmental professionals in the Southwest a forum for professional development, education, and networking opportunities; and to offer our community environmental, health, and safety expertise |
NMSHMM Hosts Successful Field Trip and Plans for ACHMM Leadership Conference
Brian Salem, CHMM
New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) Hazardous Waste Bureau
Fall is here and the temperatures are dropping. Albuquerque had its first freeze October 18, about two weeks early. Get your snow equipment ready.
Two items were in the news this week of that should be of great interest to our members. The US population reached 300 million at 5:46 am our time on October 18. As our population increases there will be more opportunities for Certified Hazardous Materials Managers (CHMMs) to manage the hazardous materials produced by the growing population. CHMMs are the largest certification group able to manage the full spectrum of hazardous materials produced by our society. As another example of the evolution of hazardous materials, Lawrence Livermore National Lab announced on October 17 that they had produced three atoms of the newest and heaviest element, number 118. There is hope that its discovery will lead to longer lasting elements. It only lasted 1/1000 of a second before decaying into another element. As new elements and chemicals are added to the world, CHMMs will be among the best trained to manage them.
Our October meeting was held at Eclipse Aviation. A field trip led by their Environmental Health and Safety Manager Charlie Steele was attended by over 45 NMSHMM members and guests (see article below). The tour included stops at four facilities and provided opportunities to view the friction weld assembly station and the paint booth. Both stops are part of the reason Eclipse is able to produce the lowest cost small jet. Final Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification is due any day and Eclipse plans double its workforce in the future.
Planning for the April 2007 Academy of Certified Hazardous Materials Managers (ACHMM) Leadership Workshop is underway. The workshop will be free and will provide excellent training acceptable for re-certification points. This will increase our chapter's profile with ACHMM and provide some quality training. An e-blast should be going out to the ACHMM membership shortly advertising the Workshop.
Field Trip Report
NMSHMM Visits Eclipse Aviation
Mike Sanders, CPG, CHMM
NMSHMM Secretary, GRAM, Inc.
On our October 18 field trip, NMSHMM members and guests had a fascinating tour of New Mexico's own Eclipse Aviation facility. Eclipse Aviation is the Albuquerque-based visionary designer and manufacturer of the Eclipse 500, a small, six seat business jet aircraft slated to be the first of a new class of business jets known as Very Light Jets or VLJs. Our field trip occurred less than a week after Eclipse achieved a major milestone - the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Type Certification for the Eclipse 500 jet. Charlie Steele, the Eclipse Environmental Health and Safety Manager, conducted the tour, with assistance from Eclipse employees Penny Avery and Martin Crespin.
Approximately 48 NMSHMM members and guests from NMED, Sandia National Laboratories, and other private companies and public institutions attended this event. Charlie and his staff took us through four of the Eclipse jet assembly buildings, including a materials storage and stir weld facility, pre-assembly and final aircraft assembly buildings, and a state-of-the art paint shop. The inner workings of the paint shop were explained by the paint shop manager Larry Bates, and I think most of us were amazed at the involved process to paint an Eclipse 500 jet!
Larry described the computerized controls for paint booth environmental conditions, paint mixing and electrostatic painting equipment operations. Even though the target production rate is 1000 or more Eclipse jets annually, the low volatiles paint used and the careful, high-tech methods employed should keep emissions very low for a facility of this size. We were not able to see a fully completed, painted aircraft, as all of the operational test aircraft were at a large air show.
Charlie explained that Eclipse currently has orders for approximately 2500 jets, and will be delivering completed aircraft to customers soon. Eclipse currently employs approximately 900 people, and expects to ultimately grow to about 2000, depending on demand for their aircraft. The Eclipse facilities are very new and clean, and are designed to generate relatively small quantities of hazardous waste (the company is currently classified as a Resources Conservation and Recovery Act RCRA [RCRA] Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity Generator).
The tour lasted approximately three hours, and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Below are two pictures showing the tour group, with Charlie Steele in the gray shirt near the left edge of the bunch, and a photo of a model of an Eclipse 500 jet.
The NMSHMM Board, our members, and field trip participants would like to express our gratitude to Charlie, Pam, Martin, Larry, and to Eclipse Aviation for hosting such an informative and entertaining tour of the inside workings of this important local manufacturing operation. Best of luck to them as they gear up for full production of the Eclipse 500 VLJ!
The NMSHMM members and friends at the field trip and now ready for a test flight.
The Eclipse 500 VLJ could be the door prize at our next meeting. Don't bet on it.
Changes at WIPP
WIPP Approved to Receive RH-TRU Waste Shipments
Debbie Finfrock, PE, CHMM
NMSHMM Director-at-Large, Government Affairs Committee Chair, Finfrock Engineering
The NMED approved the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) Section 311 remote-handled (RH) hazardous waste permit. This permit allows WIPP to dispose of mixed remote-handled transuranic (RH-TRU) waste at the facility. The RH-TRU waste will be placed in disposal panels of the disposal room walls that currently store contact-handled transuranic waste (CH-TRU). Although RH-TRU is a small fraction of the waste designated for disposal at WIPP, the Department of Energy considered it necessary to place this waste in the disposal panels before more disposal rooms were sealed and disposal capacity was lost.
RH-TRU waste is defined as transuranic waste that has a surface dose rate of 200 millirems per hour or greater. WIPP is only permitted to dispose of RH-TRU that does not exceed 1000 rems per hour. Two new types of shipment casks have been approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for transport of the RH-TRU waste to WIPP. The permit includes a new waste analysis plan, increased container storage areas, increased capacity for disposal panels, room-based volatile organic compound (VOC) monitoring, a new dispute resolution process, and the requirements for emailing public notices. For more information, see www.wipp.energy.gov or www.nmenv.state.nm.us/wipp/index.html.
Local News Stories
Society luncheon meetings are held at Uptown Sports Bar and Grill, 6601 Uptown Blvd. NE, at 11:30 on the third Wednesday of the month (except Mar. and Dec.)
| NOVEMBER 2006 |
November 7, 11:30 am, New Mexico Chapter of the Air and Waste Management Association (AWMA) Furr's Family Dining (6100 Central Avenue SE, southwest of San Pedro) in Albuquerque.
November 14, 5:30 pm, NMSHMM board meeting at CDM offices, 6000 Uptown Blvd. NE, Suite 200. All members are welcome.
November 15, 11:30 am, NMSHMM Luncheon/General Meeting at Uptown Sports Bar and Grill, 6601 Uptown Boulevard NE, Albuquerque. David Henry, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, will discuss Military Munitions Response Action - Hazardous, Toxic, and Radiological Waste.
| DECEMBER 2006 |
December 5, 11:30 am, New Mexico Chapter of the Air and Waste Management Association (AWMA) Furr's Family Dining (6100 Central Avenue SE, southwest of San Pedro) in Albuquerque.
December 18, 5:30 pm (tentative), NMSHMM board meeting at CDM offices, 6000 Uptown Blvd. NE, Suite 200. All members are welcome.
December, NMSHMM Annual Holiday Social, date and location to be determined.
Did we miss something? To get your event added to the calendar please contact Eric Johnson at .
| Society business meetings are held at CDM's offices, 6000 Uptown NE, Suite 200, at 6:00 on the third Tuesday of the month (except Mar. and Dec.) |
Monthly Meeting Location
Our regular monthly meetings are held at Uptown Sports Bar and Grill (6601 Uptown Boulevard Northeast; click here for a map). Meetings are held the third Wednesday of the month (unless replaced by a special event as announced via this newsletter) from 11:30 am until 1:00 pm. If you have any ideas for speakers or field trips, please contact a NMSHMM board member.
For the latest job openings, please click here. Last Update: September 19, 2006 (MEMBERS ONLY).
Please send contributions for future newsletters to Eric Johnson at . Thanks!