Ancient Greeks and Romans used grease-absorbent earths and sands on clothing; the term “dry-cleaning” was likely coined as a result. Interestingly, this is where the term “fuller’s earth” originated. A fuller was a textile worker who, among other things, kneaded
The Dirt on Dry Cleaners
Or…Removing a Stain on the Environment For decades tetrachloroethylene (a.k.a. perchloroethylene, PCE or perc) was favoured as a dry cleaning fluid due to its strong degreasing power, relatively gentle action on fabrics, and non-flammable nature. In time, scientists came to
The Manganese Menace: Real (Not Phantom)
The Grief It’s Causing For Toronto Developers, And What To Do About It Back in February of this year, the City of Toronto implemented some important changes to its Sewer Use Bylaw. What’s causing grief for developers and building owners
New High Resolution Site Characterization Tool
Detect VOCs In-Situ at Levels up to 20x Lower Than Previously Possible We’re very excited to announce that the Low Level MIP is now available in Canada! Since 2010, environmental professionals have benefited from using the Membrane Interface Probe (MIP) to
How To Remediate Contamination In Your Sleep
Find Out How to Best Manage Your Site By Asking Yourself One Simple Question The Industrial Revolution began over 250 years ago. In the Information Age the advantages and efficiencies of deploying equipment and automation to replace labour are affecting
The Value of Bench-Scale Testing
A Few Hundred Dollars Can Save Thousands of Dollars in the Field Has this ever happened to you? Your budget and schedule is nearing the end, but you’re not close to the end. No one in our industry wants to
Albert Einstein, Led Zeppelin and Environmental Remediation
Part II of our Newsletter on the Increasing Uses for High-Resolution Site Characterization “If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” ― Albert Einstein “Many
Have you Fallen Behind Your Competition?
Regulations Keep Getting Tougher: What You Can Do About It. If you experience indigestion when opening correspondence from a Regulator, you’re not alone. Environmental regulations are getting tougher and so are those enforcing them. The latest version of the Record
Why ISCO is More Useful in 2016 Than Ever
People have been aware of the process of oxidation for millennia: ever since we learned to fashion tools and weapons from copper, iron and other metals. Much later, once we started to understand the underlying chemistry, the word oxidation was used to
RemTech 2015 – Erin Brokovich Reminds Us Again Why We Do What We Do
Last year at the RemTech conference in Banff we were inspired by a presentation by Lois Gibbs who led the Love Canal Homeowners Association to fight for the rights of families affected by toxic waste (that article is here). This