On March 16, 2011, SFS Chemical Safety Inc. entered into a contract with the EPA to manage and complete a residential cleanup project in the South Prescott are of West Oakland. The project, which is anticipated to be completed in two years or less, involves setting up a Field Office in the area, and conducting remediation services at approximately one hundred and fifty South Prescott area homes.
The project is being split into three phases. The initial phase involves establishing an EPA Field Office. A medium capacity solar system was installed at the newly created facility and connected to the PG&E grid through PG&E’s Net Metering Program. Not only is it powering the offices, but it is also used to power the fleet of plug-in electric vehicles that are being used for the remediation project. The project has been designed to not only take no energy from the grid, but to give excess energy to the grid that it can use later, for neighboring projects.
Remediation of several demonstration backyards is beginning in late June 2011 and continuing through the summer. Targeted completion of the demonstration lots is end-of-summer 2011.
The second and third phases will immediately follow the first phase and involve the remediation of approximately one hundred and forty-five backyards in the area.
The EPA has designed an innovative approach to the remediation of this neighborhood. Unlike similar projects in the past where contractors were hired to dig and haul lead contaminated soil away and replace with clean soil, the EPA has directed Chemical Safety to hire crews that will rototill the soil and mix it with a natural fish bone product that will reduce the levels of lead in the soil.
The project will be performed using green technologies, local labor and local contractors. In addition to running almost entirely on solar power, the field office and all related operation will be carbon neutral, there will be no chemicals used in this work, and materials and supplies will be transported by Biodiesel and electric vehicles.
