NOAA Selects Freestone for Scientific, Technical and Programmatic Consulting Support Services Contract
April 2013
Richland WA- The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded Freestone Environmental Services, Inc. a five-year contract to provide Scientific, Technical and Programmatic Consulting Support Services to the National Ocean Service’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R). OR&R is a center of expertise in preparing for, evaluating, and responding to threats to coastal environments, including oil and chemical spills, releases from hazardous waste sites, and marine debris. Freestone will serve as a prime contractor to OR&R with I.M. Systems Group, Inc. as their team subcontractor. Under this contract Freestone will support the OR&R divisions for Emergency Response, Assessment and Restoration, and Marine Debris; and perform related research and development, and business systems support.
OR&R's Emergency Response Division supports emergency response and restoration activities in coastal areas for oil and hazardous chemical spills, provides preparedness aids for response communities, and offers training on the scientific aspects of oil and chemical spill response. They provide scientific support and 24-hour, seven-day-a-week response to spill events.
The Assessment and Restoration Division is responsible for evaluating and restoring coastal habitats damaged by hazardous waste releases, oil spills, and vessel groundings. The division manages this with other federal partners in the Damage Assessment, Remediation and Restoration Program.
The Marine Debris Division undertakes national and international efforts focused on researching, reducing, and preventing debris in the marine environment. It serves to centralize and coordinate supporting activities within NOAA and other federal agencies, as well as using partnerships to support projects carried out by state and local agencies, tribes, non-governmental organizations, academia, and industry.
OR&R has geographically and technically diverse responsibilities such as preparing for potential oil spills in the arctic, and responding to events like Hurricane Sandy, the Deepwater Horizon/BP, and the arrival of Japanese Tsunami debris on the West Coast. The Freestone/IMSG team will employ over 28 scientists, engineers, economists, communication specialists and business administrators primarily in Silver Spring MD and Seattle WA. Staff will also be based at other NOAA locations including Charleston SC, St. Petersburg FL, Baton Rouge LA, Ann Arbor MI, Oak Harbor OH, Honolulu HI, and Anchorage AK.
Posted April 23, 2013
Phase I Small Business Innovation Research Grant Award for Hexavalent Chromium Sensor
March 2012
Richland, WA. - The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science awarded Freestone Environmental Services, Inc. a Phase I - Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant to demonstrate the technical feasibility of a sensor capable of making direct measurement of hexavalent chromium in groundwater and streams. Hexavalent chromium is a human carcinogen and harmful to young salmon at very low concentrations. Phase I explores the feasibility of innovative concepts with awards up to $150,000 over 9 months.
A number of Department of Energy sites have groundwater with large plumes of hexavalent chromium contamination. At the Hanford Site north of Richland, WA over 5 square miles of the aquifer adjacent to the Columbia River are contaminated at levels above 10 μg/L which is a cleanup criterion for protecting salmon. Of the Hanford Site plumes, nearly one square mile is contaminated at concentrations above the drinking water standard of 100 μg/L. Currently available hexavalent chromium analysis methods are time consuming, labor-intensive, and not conducive to obtaining more frequent measurements when rapidly changing environmental conditions must be evaluated.
Freestone has supported their geochemist and Principal Investigator, Steve Hall in creation of a bench top proof-of-principle device for testing and patenting. The infusion of Phase I funding will be used to advance the preliminary proof-of-principle results, and show that the technology can be configured for submersion in monitoring wells. It is envisioned that this new sensor technology will allow automated, real-time measurements to be made from remote locations, and is expected to reduce the considerable costs for monitoring and remediation of hexavalent chromium contaminated sites.
Under the SBIR program, the Department of Energy supports scientific excellence and technological innovation through the investment of Federal research funds in critical American priorities to build a strong national economy. The Department of Energy’s SBIR program identifies specific technology development needs and invites proposals from small businesses to address those needs. The competition for a Phase I SBIR Grant is rigorous with a proposal to award ratio of 10-to-1. Small businesses that win awards in these programs keep the rights to any technology developed and are encouraged to commercialize the technology.
Posted April 12, 2013
Freestone Environmental Services, Inc. wins US Army Corps of Engineers contract
RICHLAND, WA. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, USACE District, Walla Walla, has awarded Freestone Environmental Services, Inc., of Richland, Washington, a 5-year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to provide Environmental Services. Under the contract, Freestone will offer a range of services in support of Corps projects involving environmental actions. The agency announced the master contract award on October 5. “We are honored to be selected by the Corps to receive this competitively awarded contract,” said Dan Tyler, President of Freestone Environmental Services. “The contract provides us an opportunity to perform environmental services for the Corps’ Walla Walla District, which includes the McNary lock and dam on the Columbia River, and the Snake River watershed in southeast Washington, eastern Oregon, Idaho, and portions of Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada. The Corps has extensive environmental stewardship responsibilities for that region and we are excited to be a part of this important work.”
Freestone Environmental Services, Inc. is a multi-disciplinary environmental and water resources consulting firm founded in Richland in 1997. Its major service areas are 1) Environmental Compliance and Regulatory Support, 2) Environmental Investigation, 3) Ecological and Environmental Studies, 4) Risk Assessment, 5) Remediation, and 6) Water Resources. The company has a staff of 35 professionals and a project history of demonstrated success in serving federal contractors, subcontractors, municipalities, school districts, industrial clients, and commercial enterprises throughout the Pacific Northwest.
For more information call Chris Luke at 509-943-5222 or visit our website at www.gofreestone.com.
Posted December 14, 2011
Web-Based Platform for Automated Real Time Environmental Monitoring Demonstrated
June 2011
Dan Tyler and Steve Airhart of Freestone Environmental Services, Inc., collaborated with Groundswell Technologies, Inc. in authoring an article published in the Summer 2011 issue of Remediation Journal. The article describes an innovative, web-based, data management platform named Waiora, and its applicability to environmental remediation projects. Freestone has worked with Groundswell (http://www.groundswelltech.com), the developer of the Waiora platform to add new features and demonstrate its performance in acquiring and processing real-time and historical data at a large groundwater remediation project.
Environmental monitoring, data processing, and reporting methods are expensive, labor and resource-intensive, time-consuming, and often inaccurate. The Waiora platform integrates environmental monitoring sensors, telemetry, complex databases, geographical information systems, models, and geostatistical algorithms to provide easy point and click access to real-time data and apply powerful data analysis and visualization tools. Waiora automatically generates contour maps and time-stamped renderings of sensor attributes and multivariate analyses. Algorithms converting sensor-derived head and solute concentration values allow for automated monitoring of mass flux and discharge to evaluate groundwater remediation system performance and contaminant discharges from aquifers to surface-water receptors. The platform provides an opportunity to reduce remediation project life-cycle costs and carbon footprints by minimizing the energy and labor expenditures associated with transportation, data collection, laboratory efforts, report generation, and information dissemination.
New Publication: Kram, M., S. Airhart, D. Tyler, A. Dindal, A. Barton, J. McKernan, and G. Gustafson, 2011. Web-Based Automated Remediation Performance Monitoring and Visualization of Contaminant Mass Flux and Discharge, in Remediation Journal, Volume 21, Number 3, Summer 2011.
Posted June 24, 2011
Pat Cabbage Receives Washington State Licensed Geologist Certification
May 2011
Pat Cabbage recently attained his Washington State Licensed Geologist Certification. Among the requirements are: possessing an accredited degree in geology; passing the National Association of State Boards of Geology (ASBOG) examination in fundamentals of geology; five years of professional experience as a Geologist-In-Training under the supervision of a licensed professional geologist; possessing good character, and then passing the ASBOG practice of geology examination. Pat performs environmental investigations, and groundwater resource evaluations. He is an expert in the use of HydroGeo Analyst (HGA) software for geodata management and graphical output. He holds two degrees in geology and a minor in physics, including a Master of Science from Washington State University and a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Washington University.
Posted June 24, 2011
Freestone Advances Client Practices in Geologic Data Management
2010
Freestone Environmental Services arranged and hosted a one-day data management workshop consisting of presentations given by experts from Schlumberger Water Services, the developers of Hydro GeoAnalyst (also called HGA) and our own staff. Hydro GeoAnalyst is an all-in-one groundwater and environmental data management software that integrates a complete range of easy-to-use analysis and reporting tools, with a powerful yet flexible SQL Server database technology. Freestone has used Hydro GeoAnalyst to manage data for over 2000 wells including their spatial coordinates, construction details, lithology, geophysics and chemistry. These databases are easily queried, used for input to groundwater flow and contaminant transport models, create conceptual site models, and for graphical output such as cross-sections, fence diagrams, and 3-D solid earth models. Two prime contractors to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hanford Site have subsequently made the decision to standardize their technical working groups on Hydro GeoAnalyst.
Posted June 24, 2011
Freestone nominated for 2009 Mid-Columbia Small Business of the Year Award
Freestone Environmental Services, Inc. was honored to be nominated for the 2009 Mid-Columbia Small Business of the Year Award by one of our major clients, CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company. The red-carpet event was hosted by the Three Rivers Alliance of Chambers.
Posted February 2, 2010
Freestone Attends Environmental Field Conference
Steve Airhart, Erika Garcia and Kim Schuyler attended the 2010 North American Environmental Field Conference and Exposition held January 12-15, 2010 in Tampa, FL. The three attendees returned to Freestone re-energized with new and updated information pertaining to site characterization, monitoring, sampling and remediation technology. “We’re excited to use the information to improve our existing services and to leverage development of new environmental services.”
Posted January 31, 2010
Welcome to our new website!
Freestone Environmental Services is excited to announce the completion of our new website, designed and developed by &yet Web Design of Kennewick, Washington.
&yet worked with us to establish a look and feel that captures the uniqueness and personality of our company, including a number of very personal touches from the Freestone team.
Thanks again for visiting our new site. Don't hesitate to let us know if you have any comments or questions about our services or this site.
Posted January 7, 2010