TRANSFORMING LIVES AND
ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY:
EPA'S ENVIRONMENTAL WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT AND JOB TRAINING PROGRAM
PREPARING UNEMPLOYED AND UNDEREMPLOYED RESIDENTS OF WASTE-
IMPACTED COMMUNITIES FOR FULL-TIME ENVIRONMENTAL CAREERS
&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
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Introduction 1
Superfund Site Cleanup 5
St. Louis Community College, Missouri 5
Cypress Mandela Training Center, California 8
Solid Waste Management 13
Zender Environmental Health and Research Group, Alaska 13
Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board, Connecticut...16
Wastewater Management 20
Rose State College, Oklahoma 20
OAI, Inc. Greencorps Chicago, Illinois 22
Emergency Planning and Response 27
Florida State College at Jacksonville, Florida 27
The Fortune Society, New York 30
Renewable Energy I installation 34
City of Richmond, California 34
New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection, New Jersey 36
Enhanced Environmental Health and Chemical Safety 39
Santa Fe Community College, New Mexico 39
Northern Arizona University's Institute for
Tribal Environmental Professionals, Arizona 43
Brownfields Remediation 48
Civic Works Baltimore Center for Green Careers, Maryland 48
City of Tacoma, Washington 50
Acknowledgments 54
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INTRODUCTION
Having a job means more than just generating income
to pay bills and put food on the table. It is a means
of establishing self-identity, self-worth and a sense of
personal accomplishment. A career provides a sense
of belongingof being a contributor and a valued
member of society.
"EPA's job training program advances
economic development by training
people to take advantage of job
opportunities in their own communities.
Many graduatesincluding formerly
incarcerated individuals and veterans-
secure meaningful employment that
protects the environment and promotes
economic development in some of our
neediest communities."
Mathy Stanislaus
Assistant Administrator
EPA's Office of Land and Emergency Management
Over nearly two decades, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA) Environmental Workforce
Development and Job Training program (hereafter
referred to as EPA's environmental job training
program) has helped put people to work by building
a skilled environmental workforce across the country.
The program awards competitive grants to nonprofit
organizations and other eligible entities to recruit,
train and place unemployed and underemployed
individuals, including low-income and minority
residents of solid and hazardous waste-impacted
communities, in a wide range of environmental
careers. By doing so, EPA is helping unemployed
individuals develop skills they can use to find
sustainable careers that advance social, economic
and environmental betterment and make a living wage.
EPA's environmental job training program was created
to help build a skilled workforce in communities where
EPA brownfields assessment and cleanup activities
were taking place. Rather than seeing local jobs filled by
contractors from distant cities, EPA's environmental job
training program was designed to offer the opportunity
for unemployed residents historically affected by
environmental pollution, economic disinvestment and
brownfields to gain the skills and certifications
needed to secure cleanup work in their communities.
The program was also developed as a result of
recommendations raised by local residents and
environmental justice activists to support workforce
development as part of the EPA's Brownfields
Redevelopment Initiative, and as referenced in the
National Environmental Justice Advisory Council
report, "Environmental Justice, Urban Revitalization
and Brownfields: The Search for Authentic Signs of
Hope." Coordinating brownfields revitalization with
broader strategies of job creation, training and career
development produces demonstrable benefits for
communities facing environmental justice issues.
EPA funded its first round of Brownfields Job Training
Pilots in 1998. These initial pilots were a success:
The first program graduates quickly found jobs, and
individual stories of lives being transformed through
environmental job training emerged. As a result,
25 additional Brownfields Job Training Pilots were
awarded in 2000. Through 2010, EPA awarded nearly
146 Brownfields Job Training grants to environmentally
impacted communities across the country.
Broadening Training and
Expanding Opportunities
In 2010, EPA's Office of Brownfields and Land
Revitalization led an effort to more closely collaborate
with other programs within the Agency on workforce
development and job training by broadening the
Brownfields Job Training program to include other EPA
program areas. Program offices participating in the
workforce development and job training have included:
Office of Superfund Remediation
and Technology Innovation
Office of Emergency Management
Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery
Office of Underground Storage Tanks
Office of Wastewater Management
Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics
Office of Environmental Justice
Center for Program Analysis
EPA Pesticide Program
EPA Urban Waters Program
EPA Lead Program
Innovation, Partnerships and Communication Office
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
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Through the broader program, participants receive
comprehensive, multifaceted, and cross-disciplinary
training in a variety of environmental media. Program
graduates develop a wider skill set that improves their
ability to secure full-time, sustainable employment
in various aspects of hazardous and solid waste
management and within the larger environmental
field, including water quality improvement, chemical
safety, renewable energy and disaster response.
This program also gives communities more flexibility
to provide different types of environmental training
based on local labor market assessments and
employers' hiring needs.
In addition, program participants build skills to
deal effectively with the demands and challenges
of everyday life, including effective communication
and decision-making, interpersonal relationships,
stress management, sexual harassment awareness,
proper dress, personal financial management and
other life skills training leveraged through non-EPA
funding sources.
Measuring Success: 10,000+
Environmental Jobs and Counting
Since the program's inception in 1998, and
as of December 2015, EPA has funded 256 job
training grants exceeding $54 million; more than
14,100 individuals have completed training; and of
those, more than 10,200 have secured employment in
the environmental field, with an average starting hourly
wage of $14.29. This equates to a cumulative job
placement rate of 72 percent.
Whether cleaning up contaminated properties in
their own neighborhoods, working at wastewater
treatment facilities, installing renewable energy
infrastructure or responding to oil spills, graduates
of EPA's environmental job training programs
are gaining the know-how to solve today's most
challenging environmental problems. They have
also secured employment in response and cleanup
at events of national significance. Graduates of
EPA's environmental job training were among the
first responders on the scene after the attacks at the
World Trade Center in New York City and helped with
the cleanup effort. They also responded to multiple
anthrax threats in the city. When an explosion on the
Deepwater Horizon rig released millions of gallons
of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, graduates participated
in the cleanup. And they were there in the wakes of
Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Sandy.
EPA is investing in America's future by advancing
economic opportunities, strengthening communities
and helping a diverse array of formerly unemployed
individuals to thrive and succeed.
What follows are just a few of the many examples of
successful EPA environmental job training programs
nationwide. Insights from grantees, graduates and
the employers who hired them reveal the true benefits
of these programs: cleaner communities, a healthier
environment and a locally trained and green workforce
made up of individuals whose lives have transformed
for the better through sustained careers with livable
wages and opportunities for upward advancement.
St. Nicks job training graduates supporting first responders at Ground
Zero after the attacks at the World Trade Center in New York City.
"A key aspect of the success of the
program is the partnership between
grantees and the private sector to
design curricula based on local
markets with an eye toward hiring
graduates, which is why there is a
72 percent job placement rate."
Gina McCarthy
U.S. EPA Administrator
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ERA'S ENVIRONMENTAL WORKFORCE
DEVELOPMENT AND JOB TRAINING PROGRAM
EPA supports a wide range of training to prepare unemployed
and underemployed local residents from waste-impacted communities
for a variety of environmental careers.
«
Superfund Site
Cleanup Training
Superfund site-specific
cleanup methods;
innovative and alternative
treatment technologies,
such as phytoremediation,
bioremediation, compost and
soil amendments; operation
of advanced sampling
instruments and design
considerations; and reuse of
biosolids and other industry
residuals associated with
remediation of contaminated
lands or sites for urban
agriculture and horticulture
and other end uses.
Renewable Energy
Installation Training
Alternative fuels;
installation of solar, wind
and other renewable
energy technologies; and
preparation of formerly
contaminated sites and
landfills for renewable
energy installation.
;
Integrated Pest
Management Training
Pesticide prevention and
the safe application of
pesticides for
public housing and
project-based rental
assistance properties.
Enhanced
Environmental Health
and Chemical Safety
Training
Environmental health
and safety; promoting
chemical safety and
stewardship; engineering
controls; universal hazard
communication; green
chemistry; medical waste
handling and disposal;
and chemical-specific
worker training and
certification programs.
Solid Waste
Management Training
Integrated solid waste
management and waste
minimization, including
household and industrial
recycling; operation of
material recovery facilities
and recycling centers;
collection and recycling of
electronics and household
hazardous waste and
construction and
demolition material; and
training associated with
solid and hazardous
waste facility corrective
action, landfill closures and
capping activities.
Brownfields
Remediation Training
Inventory, assessment and
cleanup methods of sites
contaminated, or perceived
to be contaminated, with
hazardous substances
or petroleum, including
abandoned gas stations,
mine-scarred land,
meth labs and former
manufacturing facilities.
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Wastewater
Management Training
Wastewater treatment
facility operations, including
treatment, collection,
storage and disposal;
stormwater management,
including low-impact
development, green
infrastructure design,
installation, operation
and maintenance;
and maintenance of
decentralized wastewater
treatment systems.
Emergency Planning and
Response Training
Hazard analyses on
chemical facility risks in the
community; development of
local emergency response
plans; organization
and implementation of
exercises; outreach to the
public; spill response and
cleanup, including industrial
and environmental
emergencies; first
response; disaster site
worker certification;
and National Incident
Management System.
Other Training
Lead abatement; lead
renovation, repair and
painting; and mold
remediation.
Confined space entry.
First-aid and
cardiopulmonary
resuscitation, and
bloodborne pathogens.
Chemistry, toxicology
and geology to inventory,
assess and clean up
contaminated sites.
All Appropriate
Inquiries Final Rule and
due diligence.
Radiation safety, including
training in the cleanup
of uranium contaminated
mine tailings.
Hazardous materials
transportation, commercial
driver's license, forklift and
machine operations.
Freon removal or the
removal of hazardous
substances from
white goods.
Weatherization, energy
efficiency retrofitting
and energy auditing.
Ecological restoration,
including wetland and
coastal restoration.
Green building design
and Leadership in
Energy and Environmental
Design certifications.
Construction trades related
to caps, synthetic barriers
and pumping facilities to
remediate contamination.
National historic
preservation and tribal
historic preservation
regulations.
Vapor intrusion testing and
mitigation and radon testing.
Site surveying, mapping,
blueprint reading,
computer-aided design and
drafting, and geographic
information systems.
Wildlife hazing and
climate adaptation.
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SUPERFUND SITE CLEANUP
St. Louis Community
College Readies
Local Workforce for
Superfund Cleanups
Abandoned hazardous waste sites pose a serious
health and safety problem for many communities.
St. Louis, Missouri, for example, has a large stock
of dilapidated properties, including a number of
Superfund sites that contain hazardous materials
left behind from years of manufacturing activities.
"Over time, the city has acquired over 10,000 vacant
properties due to tax foreclosure," says Rene Dulle,
a Project Manager with St. Louis Community College's
Workforce Solutions Group. "Some owners simply
abandon properties when they realize there may be
a contaminant issue that costs more to clean up than
the property is worth."
To address the problem, St. Louis Community College
is leading the charge to train the local workforce for
critical careers in the cleanup of Superfund sites and
other contaminated properties. In partnership with
Saint Louis University's Center for Environmental
Education and Training, the college offers a free
six-week training program for residents interested in
careers in the remediation of contaminated properties.
The economic recovery in St. Louis has been slow.
With unemployment at 11.8 percent in East St. Louis,
where nearly 98 percent of residents are minorities and
47 percent are living below the poverty level, job training
and placement is desperately needed in this community.
Laying the Foundation for Careers
St. Louis Community College's environmental job
training program prepares residents in the St. Louis
metropolitan area for careers in the assessment,
cleanup and revitalization of Superfund sites,
brownfields and other contaminated properties and
structures. A unique feature of the program is that
participants walk away with bi-state licensing in lead
and asbestos abatement, so they're able to work as
technicians in both Illinois and Missouri.
"I don't think the extended training that you get
in the program is offered anywhere else," says
Core Training:
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration 40-Hour Hazardous
Waste Operations and Emergency
Response (OSHA 40-Hour
HAZWOPER)
First Aid and Cardiopulmonary
Resuscitation (CPR)
Introduction to Environmental
Technology
OSHA 10-Hour Construction Safety
OSHA 7205 Health Hazards
OSHA 7200 Bloodborne Pathogens
Radiation Worker I
Lead Abatement Worker
Mold Remediation
Lead Renovation, Repair, Painting
Asbestos Abatement Worker
Leaking Underground Storage
Tank Removal
Environmental Sampling and
Monitoring
Superfund Site Cleanup and
Innovative and Alternative Treatment
Technologies
Stormwater Management
OSHA 7405 Fall Protection
OSHA 7410 Excavation and Trenching
OSHA 7300 Permit Required Confined
Spaces
Ecosystem Restoration
Graduates Trained: 310 since 2000
Graduates Employed: 233
Average Starting Hourly Wage: $15.70
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
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training participant Donald Partee, who worked on
the Chemetco Superfund Site in nearby Chouteau
Township, Illinois. "It makes you more employable."
Partee, an ex-offender, says he had never had steady
employment. But, after graduating from St. Louis
Community College's environmental job training
program, he says, "I found my career in this field."
The Chemetco site, a former secondary copper
smelting facility that produced cathodes and anodes
for electrical and electronic manufacturing, was closed
in 2001, leaving behind contamination, including
cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc. After graduating,
Partee took a job with Environmental Resources, Inc.,
supervising a 10-person crew cleaning out an old
storage facility at the Chemetco site.
Since then, Partee has earned an Associate Degree
in environmental science and a Bachelor's Degree in
public health. Today, he's established a successful
career as a Project Manager with Spray Services, Inc.
Plus, he's hired six other program graduates to work
on his team.
"We focus our recruitment where
we know people are living in areas
with Superfund sites and other
contaminated properties, where
the buildings are crumbling. The
intent is to train people, not only
to get a job, but also to enable
them to better themselves and
their own community."
Rene Dulle
Project Manager
St. Louis Community College's
Workforce Solutions Group
Finding Success in Superfund Cleanup
St. Louis is home to the Carter Carburetor Superfund
site. From the 1920s to the 1980s, the plant
manufactured carburetors for gasoline- and diesel-
powered engines. The 480,000-square-foot facility,
spanning a six-block radius, consists of several
multi-story buildings used for manufacturing, testing,
warehousing and offices. When the plant closed in
1984, the owner dismantled much of the equipment,
but the buildings remained idle, with fencing and
signs warning of contamination. In 2014, efforts got
underway to clean up the site, including removal
The Carter Carburetor Superfund site, shown here, is one of
thousands of contaminated properties in and around St. Louis.
Photo: Gene Watson, HRP.
of asbestos-containing materials, polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs) and trichloroethylene.
Greg Lomax, a 46-year-old graduate of St. Louis
Community College's environmental job training
program, is one of the crew members working at
the Carter Carburetor site. Before taking the training,
he was working two jobsas a prep cook and
setting up for banquets. When a friend told him
about the college's job training program, his ears
perked up. "Going green was all over the news," he
says. "I wanted to get the training and see what the
environmental field had to offerand what I have to
offer the environmental field."
Greg Lomax, a graduate of St. Louis Community College's
environmental remediation program, is a Senior Site Technician at
the Carter Carburetor site.
Married with two children, Lomax knew he needed a
more stable job to support his family. "It wasn't about me
anymore," Lomax says. "I wanted to build a foundation
for my kids, so they could witness through my actions
the benefits of working hard to succeed in life."
Shortly after completing the training, Lomax found
himself with two job opportunities the same week.
His first job was with a St. Louis-based environmental
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 6
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contractor specializing in asbestos, lead and mold
abatement, where he made $13.50 an hour. Later,
he helped monitor air quality for crews cleaning out
boilers. Eventually, he landed a salaried position with
HRP Associates, where he now serves as a Senior Site
Technician at the Carter Carburetor site. He supervises
workers removing lead-based paint and asbestos-
containing materials. His responsibilities include
routine site inspections for environmental, health and
safety compliance. He also performs environmental
oversight, contractor management, environmental
multimedia sampling, and coordination with EPA.
Lomax ensures that workers like these who are removing asbestos-
containing materials from the Carter Carburetor site do so safely.
Photo: Gene Watson, HRP.
"Once you get a foot in the door, prove that you can be
depended upon and show that you are receptive to
learning, you can be as successful as you want to be,"
Lomax says.
Eugene Watson, Regional Office Manager at HRP
Associates, Inc., applauds the work Lomax is doing
and the efforts of the training team at St. Louis
Community College. "Mr. Lomax is one of the best
employees I have had the opportunity to work with
in my 29 years," Watson says. "Not only have I
experienced the quality of training and preparedness
of the graduates as provided by the team at St. Louis
"Just because you are raised in a
particular environment, doesn't mean
you have to remain a product of that
environment. You can succeed in life
if you apply yourself."
Greg Lomax
Program Graduate
Community College, but I also have witnessed the
difference that the team can make in individuals' lives."
Increasing Impact Through Partnerships
To maximize opportunities for mutual benefits, the
college's training program collaborates with other
service providers in the community, such as Fathers'
Support Center, which works to address the problem
of absentee and non-involved fathers. Marcel Scaife,
Transitional Case Manager at Fathers' Support Center,
says the college "has helped many of our men obtain
and retain employment. Just recently, four of our
clients went through the program, and three of them
received employment within the first month. This
program is essential, because it allows individuals
to acquire the skills necessary to gain employment."
Another training program graduate, who was a referral
from Fathers' Support Center, is Carl Baldes. He came
to St. Louis Community College at a difficult point in
his life. Having been formerly incarcerated, he had
struggled to find steady work. "His morale was low
when I met him," Dulle says, "but after he completed
the training, he found work in lead abatement." With
some experience under his belt, he landed a job
with Miller Construction, doing asbestos abatement
in an old school in Jefferson City, Missouri. Later, he
took a job with Clean Harbors, a large environmental
services company, traveling across the country to
clean up asbestos and other hazardous materials at
manufacturing plants and in rail cars.
"The college's environmental job
training program helped me get
back on my feet and gave me the
confidence to go out and apply for
these jobs. It opened so many doors
for me."
Carl Baldes
Program Graduate
Diverse Careers and Second Chances
Many hiring managers now call Dulle directly
when they have a need for asbestos, lead or mold
abatement and confined space management. "For
example, we have a good relationship with Spray
Services, Inc.," Dulle says. "Over the years, the
company has hired several graduates of our
program, primarily for asbestos and lead abatement."
Examples of other employers hiring graduates include
Cardinal Environmental, Cenpro Services, Inc., Code
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
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Red Safety, Making America Better, and Midwest
Service Group. Environmental Resources, Inc., offered
all 10 graduates who completed the training in May
2015 jobs responding to the avian flu outbreak in
Iowa. Six accepted those jobs, while three others are
doing asbestos abatement in St. Louis with All in 1
Environmental Services, a woman-owned business
established by Nina Algee, a 2010 program graduate.
Algee, President and Chief Executive Officer of All in 1
Environmental Services, is eager to hire graduates
from St. Louis Community College's environmental
job training program. As a graduate herself, she
understands the challenges many participants face
when trying to enter the job market, especially those
who've been previously incarcerated. "I've got seven
graduates working for me, and six of them had spent
time in jail," Algee says. But, you know what? Not
one of them has missed a day on the job. They are
fantastic employees."
"This program gives people a second
chance, especially those who've been
previously incarcerated."
Nina Algee
President and Chief Executive Officer
All in 1 Environmental Services
Evolving With the Times
Since 2000, St. Louis Community College has
received four rounds of funding from EPA to support
the college's environmental job training program and
was selected to receive a fifth award in September
2015. Over those years, the college placed more than
75 percent of its graduates in the local job market in
specialized, in-demand positions. "Our graduates are
well suited for multiple roles," Dulle says. "We see our
graduates finding themselves headed into supervisory
roles pretty quickly, and the comprehensiveness of the
training is a big reason for that."
Over time, Dulle and her team have adapted the
college's job training program to meet the evolving
demands of employers and local needs. For example,
the St. Louis Development Corporation is leading an
initiative to clean up abandoned gas stations at the
neighborhood level. In response, Dulle says, "We've
added underground storage tank training to our
program, based on this initiative and the possibility
for future job opportunities for graduates."
But finding a job isn't the only end benefit. Graduates
walk away with greater confidence and self-esteem.
"It's been a great ride," Lomax says. "I'm living the
highest of the highs, but I've visited the lowest of
the low. I'm thankful and appreciative that I can
contribute to a team. It feels good knowing that you
are appreciated and can be relied upon to complete
whatever the task is."
His next task? Giving a commencement speech at
graduation for the next class of job training participants.
Cypress Mandela Trains
Oakland's Unemployed to
Clean Up Superfund Sites
Oakland, California, is a city of approximately 400,000,
with one of the most ethnically diverse populations
in the country. Fifty-eight percent of residents are
African American, and 40 percent are Hispanic. The
neighborhood of West Oakland, in the northwest corner
of the city and across the bay from San Francisco, has
one of the highest crime rates in the state.
Several former military bases in Oakland and the Port
of Oakland have hazardous materials and waste sites
on them. The area is also home to several high-profile
Superfund sites.
"Contamination seems to thrive in areas with minorities
and people with low incomes and low education," says
Art Shanks, Executive Director of Cypress Mandela
Training Center, a community-based organization
working with unemployed and underemployed
Bay area men and women. "The basic challenge
in this community is that it's been devastated by
unemployment, with a jobless rate near 29 percent.
Rampant drug use and substandard education are
problems as well."
But Shanks' organization has come up with a proven
formula for preparing its training participants to
succeed in life and in environmental careers.
A Recipe for Success
Cypress Mandela was one of the first organizations
in the country to receive funding from EPA for its
job training pilot program in 1998. Since then, the
nonprofit has been a repeat grant recipient for its
job training program, which targets economically
disadvantaged residents of Oakland and surrounding
East Bay communities. The focus is on minorities,
veterans, formerly incarcerated individuals and
at-risk youth.
Cypress's boot camp-style approach involves physical
training, drug testing and a variety of life skills, including
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 8
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time management, budgeting, nutrition, chemical
dependency education, sexual harassment awareness,
job survival skills, mentoring and team building.
"My first day there, I knew Cypress would be good
for me," says Jarell Davis, a 2011 Cypress graduate
who supported cleanup efforts at the West Oakland
Residential Lead investigation area, which is adjacent
to the former AMCO Chemical Facility Superfund site.
"I was coming off some hard times. I was incarcerated,
and when I came home, I was looking to turn my life
around. All the instructors have a strict way of going
about things. They care and want you to do better.
There's no horsing around. I've never been in the
military, but I'm sure Cypress isn't too far off in
terms of guidelines and handling business."
Jerry Wade, the Response Manager at Environmental
Quality Management who hired Davis and several
other Cypress graduates to work on Superfund
cleanups in the area, spent four years in the Marine
Corps, and the disciplined approach he witnessed
at Cypress really caught his attention. "How the
program's run, the expectations and the demands
put upon the students can be compared to the
military," Wade says.
Core Training:
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration 40-Hour Hazardous
Waste Operations and Emergency
Response (OSHA 40-Hour
HAZWOPER)
Mold Remediation
OSHA 10-Hour Construction Safety
First Aid and Cardiopulmonary
Resuscitation (CPR)
Labor Occupational Health Program
Training 24-Hour
Heavy Equipment Operation Safety
Training
Supplemental Training:
Solar Panel Installation
Orientation to the Construction
Industry and the Apprentice Structure*
Applied Math for Construction
Purposes*
Job Safety*
Tool and Material Identification*
Introduction to Structural Steel and
Ironwork*
Introduction to Framing, Form and
Foundation Work*
Introduction to Cement Work*
Site Surveying
Blueprint Reading
Electrical Fundamentals*
Plumbing Fundamentals*
Introduction to Operating Engineers*
Graduates Trained: 1,548 since 1998
Graduates Employed: 1,238
Average Starting Hourly Wage: $13.00
*EPA does not fund this component of the program.
Two Cypress Mandela participants are suited up for the 40-hour
HAZWOPER training module.
9 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
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Experts from all over California serve as guest
instructors alongside in-house staff. The 16-week
training includes 77 hours of instruction in everything
from handling hazardous materials and confined
space entry to EPA and OSHA requirements and injury
and illness prevention. A combination of classroom
and hands-on learning prepares participants for
skilled trade jobs and stable employment in the
environmental field. In addition to receiving six state
and federal certifications, participants can earn up to
seven college credits from the University of California
(UC), Berkeley; UC Davis; or Laney College.
"What our program does is educate
participants on the contaminants,
how they affect the environment
and our community, and what
steps they can take to clean up the
contamination. In doing so, they
earn a living wage and clean up their
communities at the same time."
Art Shanks
Executive Director
Cypress Mandela Training Center
At Work on Superfund Sites
Cypress also assists with job placement. That's how
Davis landed his Superfund job at the West Oakland
Residential Lead investigation area, adjacent to the
former AMCO Chemical Facility. With a history of uses,
including bulk chemical storage, a scrap metal yard
and cable storage, the AMCO property was on EPA's
Superfund National Priorities List (NPL). Previous
activities there had left high concentrations of lead in
the soil spanning six nearby residential blocks.
To address the contamination, EPA undertook an
innovative and alternative cleanup approach to reduce
the bioavailability of the lead and covered the treated
soil with sod and organic material. This solution
promised far less of an impact on the neighborhood
than a traditional dig-and-haul removal would have,
because treating the contaminants onsite significantly
reduced the amount of truck traffic. Not only did the
project use a small, disadvantaged business for the
contractor, but it also employed Davis and nine other
Cypress graduates.
Davis was recruited by SFS Chemical to work as an
Environmental Technician on the Superfund cleanup,
with starting pay at $23 an hour. After eight months
on the job, Jerry Wade at Environmental Quality
Management recruited Davis to join his company,
also working at the Superfund site. Davis was
promoted to Site Supervisor, at a rate of $45
an hour, and was responsible for homeowner
engagement on the project.
Davis worked on that Superfund job for nearly two
years, and he attributes his success and personal
growth to Cypress's job training program. "Cypress
changed my work ethic," he says. "It humbled me.
They taught me self-discipline and changed my whole
attitude toward working with other people. I wouldn't
have made it this far without them."
Workers, including Cypress graduate Jarell Davis (third from left), are
gathered at the West Oakland Residential Lead investigation area.
Clarence Andrews is another graduate who worked at
the West Oakland Residential Lead investigation area.
He had been incarcerated for five years before signing
up for Cypress's environmental job training program.
After graduating, he too joined SFS Chemical, working
on the remediation crew at the Superfund site and
making $18.24 an hour.
"[Cypress] started with some guys
who felt like they were shut out from
the system, and over time, these guys
evolved into believing that they are
part of the systemand that it can
work for them. They also learned that
when they change their own lives,
they can change the lives of those
around themgirlfriends, children,
friends and parents."
Jerry Wade
Manager
Environmental Quality Management
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 10
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Cypress graduates have also worked on other
Superfund sites in the area, including the Oakland
Army Base and Alameda Naval Station. Current
participants will have an opportunity to work on an
upcoming removal action at the AMCO Chemical
Superfund site, scheduled to begin in late 2015.
Graduates Employed in Other Fields
In addition to Superfund projects, Cypress has placed
graduates in jobs across the spectrum of construction
and environmental work. Shanks underscores the
importance of the breadth of skills for which his
organization conveys thanks to EPA's environmental
job training program. "We're in a heavily union area,"
he says. "When you open it up like EPA has done, you
maximize the potential of the training and employment
opportunities in the community. Now, you can place
graduates in so many other positions."
Shanks says that about a dozen graduates a year
find work on brownfield sites and cleaning up old gas
stations. Two graduates are employed at a wastewater
treatment plant a few blocks from the training center.
Others have gone on to work as safety inspectors and
engineers, equipment operators, solar installers and
workers in green construction.
Some are employed in emergency response. Cypress
graduates participated in the responses to Hurricanes
Katrina and Sandy, for example. "We are certified
West Coast responders," Shanks says. "We train like
police and firefighters, and most of our participants
are supervisor level when they graduate."
Global Diving & Salvage, Inc., a large diving contractor
on the West Coast, employs three Cypress graduates
and plans to hire more to support its emergency
response work. "We've been bringing on residents
in an effort to utilize local labor and keep the money
in the community," says Kyle Watson, the company's
Operations Manager. "I was blown away by the
intensity of the [Cypress] program. It's an almost
military atmosphere, with high expectations of success.
That matches our work ethic. We take safety seriously."
Eighteen graduates went to work with Black & Veatch
Construction, Inc., building a 3.5-mile underground
transmission line beneath Oakland's busy streets.
Also, through a partnership with Pacific Gas and
Electric, graduates can receive pre-apprentice
training designed to prepare them for jobs as linemen
with the utility. Carl Artis, Shante Hooker and Jeffrey
Hendrickson are among the recent graduates who
entered the utility's PowerPathway program, designed
to develop workers for careers in gas and electric
operations. Combining environmental training with
training in utilities can help utilities deploy sustainable
approaches such as energy efficiency, a cost effective
way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat
global climate change.
EPA Region 9 representative Nova Blazej addresses Cypress
graduates who are now participating in PG&E's PowerPathway
program for utility workers.
Benefits Extend Beyond Better Jobs
In addition to the environmental knowledge and
hands-on skills at the heart of Cypress's program,
Hendrickson says that one of the most important things
he learned was how to be a leader. "We were often
put together in different groups, forcing us to work with
different people, identifying each other's strengths and
demonstrating leadership in each different situation," he
says. "I was impressed with the success we were able
to achieve working together. We will take this teamwork
and sense of being a leader into the workplace."
Another important benefit of job training programs
like this one is the ability to fight crime, poverty and
pollution at the same time. "Participants don't need
to steal or commit crimes now because they've
learned skills to earn a living," Shanks says. "We're
taking a person who was underemployed, educating
him and placing him in an apprenticeship program,
with starting pay from $18 to $25 an hour. EPA's
environmental job training program is one of the best
things the Agency has ever doneto clean up the
environment and challenge individuals to make better
lives for themselves and their communities."
Participants are preparing to set up a mock emergency response
decontamination area in the training center.
11 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
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Superfund Site
Cleanup Snapshots
Florida State College at
Jacksonville, Florida
More than 100 graduates of Florida State College at
Jacksonville's environmental job training program
have found positions supporting cleanup efforts at
the various Superfund ash sites in Jacksonville. One
such graduate is Alonzo Terrell, who completed the
job training program in 2011 and began working as
a driver with ENTACT, removing contaminated ash
from the Lonnie C. Miller Sr. Regional Park Superfund
site. He's been with the company now for three years
and, in between phases of the ash project work, has
traveled to Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas to lend a
hand on other Superfund projects.
City of Richmond, California
Scottie Ifft was living in a homeless shelter before he
enrolled in the City of Richmond's environmental job
training program. After graduating, he and four other
graduates were hired by Pacific States Environmental
to conduct mold and asbestos abatement work at the
Point Molate Naval Fuel Depot Superfund site.
Northwest Regional Workforce
Investment Board, Connecticut
Graduates Katherine Brown and Jessie Rivera worked
with seven other graduates of Northwest Regional
Workforce Investment Board's environmental job
training program at the Nova Dye & Print Corporation
factory Superfund site in Waterbury, Connecticut.
There they earned approximately $40 an hour
performing deconstruction and site remediation
work on the property.
Other EPA Environmental Job
Training Programs Delivering Superfund
Site Cleanup Training:
Alaska Forum, Inc., Alaska
Arkansas Construction Education
Foundation, Arkansas
City of Camden, Arkansas
City of Glens Falls, New York
City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
City of Tacoma, Washington
City of Texarkana, Texas
City of Toledo, Ohio
Groundwork Providence, Rhode Island
Iowa Western Community College,
Missouri
Lewis and Clark County, Montana
Limitless Vistas, Inc., Louisiana
Los Angeles Conservation Corps,
California
Memphis Bioworks Foundation, Tennessee
Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment
Board, Massachusetts
Metropolitan Energy Center, Missouri
New Jersey Department of Environmental
Protection, New Jersey
Nye County, Nevada
OAI, Inc. - Greencorps Chicago, Illinois
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc., Oregon
Saint Paul Port Authority, Minnesota
Santa Fe Community College, New Mexico
Sitting Bull College, North Dakota
Southeast Neighborhood Development,
Inc., Indiana
St. Nicks Alliance, New York
The Center for Working Families, Inc.,
Georgia
The Enterprise Center, Inc., Tennessee
The Fortune Society, New York
Zender Environmental Health and
Research Group, Alaska
Program graduate Jessie Rivera worked at the Nova Dye & Print
Corporation factory Superfund site, performing deconstruction and site
remediation work on the property.
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 12
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SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
Zender Environmental
Health and Research
Group Trains Workforce
to Clean Up Landfills in
Their Own Communities
Many rural communities in Alaska face health
and environmental risks due to poor solid waste
management at local dumpsites or landfills. Dumpsites
are generally unlined, unfenced, uncovered and
unsegregated, and many communities do not
have a landfill operator or adequate equipment for
consolidation or landfill grading. Nearly three-quarters
of these dumpsites are within a mile of the towns
they serve.
The U.S. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
governs the disposal of solid and hazardous waste to
protect human health and the environment. Alaska is
the only state that has three classifications of landfills
under the act. Class 1 applies to large city landfills,
which are subject to the same regulations as all
other landfills in the United States. Class 2 applies
to communities with populations of about 1,500 to
10,000. Class 3 applies to the communities Zender
serves, which generally have populations of less than
1,000. Class 3 communities have significantly different
standards they must abide in the disposal of solid
waste. Generally, these communities are not required
to line their landfills, they are permitted to openly burn
waste in a container, and they are required to cover
their waste only twice a year.
"Managing solid waste in these remote villages means
you're much more responsible for the community's
health than elsewhere," says Lynn Zender, Executive
Director of the Zender Environmental Health and
Research Group. "If there is no one to properly
manage and dispose of the waste, the public health
risk and environmental damage can be substantial."
Unlined sites often are adjacent to bodies of water, over
half of which experience yearly flooding from spring
snowmelt, as well as from fall and summer storms.
Smoke and ash from openly burned, unsegregated,
solid and hazardous waste settles in towns and
surrounding areas. The proximity of these uncovered
waste sites to local communities, together with
Core Train ing:
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration 40-Hour Hazardous
Waste Operations and Emergency
Response (OSHA 40-Hour
HAZWOPER)
Leaking Underground and
Aboveground Storage Tank Removal
Supplemental Training:
Solid Waste Management and
Recycling
Home Fuel Tank Inspection
Confined Space Entry
OSHA 10-Hour Construction Safety
Rural Alaska Landfill Operation
Freon RecoveryEPA Section 608
Universal Technician Certification
Forklift OperationOSHA Standard 29
CFR 1910.178
First Aid and Cardiopulmonary
Resuscitation (CPR)
Water, Soil and Air Quality Sampling
Climate Change and Emergency
Response
Oil Spill ResponseState of Alaska
Response Team
Federal Emergency Management
Agency 100- and 200-level National
Incident Management System Courses
Graduates Trained: 61 since 2011
Graduates Employed: 57
Average Starting Hourly Wage: $18.55
13 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
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generally free access and absence of management,
places residents at serious risk of exposure to
contaminants and pathogens on- and offsite.
RACEJT Program Serves Remote
Alaskan Communities
Zender's Rural Alaska Community Environmental
Job Training (RACEJT) program serves remote
communities with populations typically numbering less
than 1,000 and more than 30 percent Alaska Native.
These communities face significant environmental
and economic challenges. For example, they are
off the state road system and can be reached only
by plane or chartered boat. The unemployment rate
in some villages can be as high as 19 percent, and
approximately 22 percent of residents live in poverty.
Zender trains local residents on how to properly manage solid waste
in remote communities like Napakiak, Alaska.
Zender educates unemployed and severely
underemployed Alaska Native training participants
on the adverse health and welfare effects of poorly
managed solid waste in their communities and trains
participants in the methods needed to eliminate such
effects. "Our graduates return home to start a waste
management program," Zender says, "which leads
not only to improved health but also to an improved
economy because they have jobs in their communities."
The Mayor of New Stuyahok, Randy Hastings, wrote
of the program, "It is very helpful to have knowledge
about landfill issues and other hazardous and
potentially dangerous issues, and about prevention
measures to avoid them." RACEJT graduate Philip
Christopher worked as a Landfill Operator for the City
of New Stuyahok, following his graduation from the
program in 2013.
Graduates receive course certifications qualifying
them for positions as waste collectors, landfill
operators, contaminated site workers, tank inspectors
"When our graduates return to their
communities, they have the skills
necessary to help limit the health
risks posed by mismanaged landfills."
Lynn Zender
Executive Director
Zender Environmental Health and Research Group
and recycling center managers. Employers include
tribal and city governments, as well as EPA's tribal
general assistance programs, which provide
part-time jobs for graduates. Commercial projects
that come into town when the summer season permits
also provide jobs, including employment in road
construction and housing projects managed by the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Graduate Shares Environmental
Lessons at Home
Joshua Melton graduated with the RACEJT class
of 2014. Melton is President of the Tribal Council
in Noorvik, Alaska, a village in the Northwest Arctic
Borough, whose population of around 668 are
90 percent Ihupiatan Inuit, Alaska Native people.
Active in Tribal Council since 2005, his work keeps
him mostly in town, and he does not want to leave
the village to find work elsewhere. Although he gets a
stipend for his work on the Tribal Council and in other
local organizations, he mostly volunteers his time.
He signed up for the Zender's job training program
because he recognized his community's environmental
health challenges and wanted to help.
Upon graduation from the RACEJT program,
Melton became the Lead Landfill Operator in Noorvik,
supervising a summer crew of 10 and earning $19 per
hour. Throughout the season, under Melton's leadership,
the team was able to safely gather, separate and stage
materials for backhaul or recycling. Using his refrigerant
recovery certification, Melton removed Freon from
discarded freezers and refrigerators. They inspected for
water seepage and leakage, and cleaned the fencing
around the landfill. They also collected trash in town
for the site and ensured that the material was properly
covered. In short, Melton and his team helped make
their community a safer, healthier place to live.
Paul Anderson, a Geoinformation Manager with NANA
Regional Corporation, Inc., assisted in inspecting
the landfill during a routine visit that summer. "When
I inspected the Noorvik landfill in August 2014, it
was well managed and orderly," Anderson says.
"Joshua leveraged his training well. Noorvik has a
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 14
-------
Joshua Melton (left) and Charles Clayton III (center) participate in a spill
response exercise with John Brown, the lead instructor from the Alaska
Western Spill Response Team. The RACEJT program offers supplemental
training on responding to oil spills and hazardous waste emergencies.
very organized, controlled system of waste collection,
recycling and disposal, with clear, delineated
boundaries around the site."
Melton is educating his fellow citizens to be more
aware of the impact climate change is having on their
environment. Global warming is causing permafrost
erosion, particularly along the edges of water bodies,
causing villages to lose land infrastructure into the
river. Warmer temperatures are also affecting the
ice roads residents need for transportation during
the winter, making travel less dependable and
jeopardizing the flow of goods and services to remote
villages. Because of increasing and sustained warmer
temperatures throughout the Arctic, unlined landfills
in Alaska Native villages that contain hazardous waste
are more prone to leaching, and the offsite migration
of contaminants into water bodies threatens local
subsistence for rural Alaska Native residents, as well
as the fish and wildlife in these fragile ecosystems.
Through Zender's training, graduates are also learning
about climate adaptation, including methods for
deterring wildlife from urbanized areas when food
sources have been depleted. In Alaska, the loss of
sea ice often drives animals, such as polar bears,
into urban areas in search of food.
"We all have a responsibility to keep
our environment clean and properly
dispose of waste."
Joshua Melton
Program Graduate
Placing Graduates in Local Jobs
Another graduate of the program, Basil Lake, is from
Hooper Bay, a Yup'ik Eskimo town of 1,200 on Alaska's
west coast. When he graduated in 2014, council and
town leaders were so impressed with Lake's new
skills, they increased the wage they offered him to be
a part-time landfill operator. That summer, he was able
to increase his work hours by leading a hazardous
materials backhaul effortthe largest effort of its kind
from a remote Alaska Native village. Using the skills
he learned in RACEJT, Lake and his crew, including
two other RACEJT graduates, safely prepared and
packaged electronic waste and lead-acid batteries, and
sawed and consolidated bulky scrap metal to fill eight
shipping vans. They also removed Freon from discarded
freezers and refrigerators. Lake's training also prepared
him for coordinating and managing recycling services
between Noorvik and Seattle, Washington.
Basil Lake uses the required specialized equipment to remove Freon
from a refrigerator at a dumpsite in Hooper Bay.
Both Melton and Lake, like other graduates of the
program, benefited from the opportunity to train for
work they could conduct in their own villages, without
having to leave to find work in urban centers.
Graduates are able to continue the practice of
their subsistence lifestyles, while also participating
in training under Zender's environmental training
program. Subsistence is critical and it is a key
component of Alaska Natives' lives. By remaining
in their communities and securing employment with
their Alaska Native villages, graduates are also able
15 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
-------
to preserve their unique and fragile cultures, while
furthering self-determination and village sovereignty by
managing their own environmental waste and landfills
and enforcing environmental regulations. Under EPA's
environmental job training program, Zender has been
able to customize its training so that participants can
fill jobs available in the villages where they live. "Our
goal has been to place graduates in a local job that
facilitates their community's environmental health,"
Zender says. "Graduates who want to stay and work in
their own communities now have a better opportunity
to do so. That makes all the difference in their lives."
Northwest Regional
Workforce Investment
Board Grads Build Careers
Through Deconstruction
Once considered the "Brass Capital of the World"
for its numerous brassware plants, Waterbury,
Connecticut, saw its industrial base erode in the 1960s
and 1970s, when local factories that had concentrated
on the production of war materials began to shut their
doors. The 25,000 brass industry jobs available at the
peak of World War II fell to one-fifth of that number by
the late 1970s. Today, the city is addressing poverty
and unemployment rates of 8 to 9 percent. The
revitalization of abandoned industrial sites is improving
the situation.
Addressing Industrial Contamination
in Waterbury
Industry had a significant environmental impact on the
city: Brass, copper and metal hydroxide sludge; PCBs;
asbestos; lead; and other contaminants remain among
the deserted facilities. Although the city has made
great progress in cleaning up contaminated sites,
there is much more work to do.
"We were our own worst enemy, and now we're
cleaning it up," says Ray Sullivan, Manager of
Workforce Programs at the Northwest Regional
Workforce Investment Board (NRWIB). "But brownfields
are magnets for employers, and they want to see job
candidates with environmental certifications."
NRWIB's job training program results in sustainable
employment opportunities in construction and
demolition (C&D) recycling and deconstruction at
brownfields and other contaminated sites.
Producing a Talented Workforce
NRWIB recruits, trains and places predominantly
low-income minorities who are unemployed or
"I am incredibly proud of our
Northwest Regional Workforce
Investment Board, EPA's environmental
job training program and their
impact to provide the workforce to
help clean up our community while
providing job opportunities. We are
a large city with one of the highest
unemployment rates in Connecticut,
yet our Workforce Investment Board
has done an incredible job of turning
that around and delivering results."
- Neil M. O'Leary
Mayor
City of Waterbury, Connecticut
underemployed residents of Waterbury. About
85 percent of its graduates were formerly incarcerated.
The program has referred numerous graduates to
jobs at the Waterbury Industrial Commons, a mile-
long former brass foundry undergoing environmental
remediation and revitalization. Last operated by the
Chase Brass and Copper Company, the foundry
employed 1,500 people before shutting down in 1975.
A property management company rented office space
at the facility until 2010 without investing much in
revitalization. The Waterbury Development Corporation
purchased the site in 2010 and has been collaborating
with EPA, the U.S. Department of Defense, the
Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental
Protection and the City of Waterbury to transform the
property into a new, major industrial site to attract
more manufacturing companies to Waterbury.
NRWIB graduates have helped salvage structural steel and concrete from
abandoned buildings like this one at the Waterbury Industrial Commons.
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 16
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Standard Demolition Services, Inc., has assisted
in the revitalization. "We've employed numerous
graduates of the NRWIB training program for years,"
says Stephen Goldblum, Owner and CEO of Standard
Demolition Services, Inc.
"The environmental job training
program produces the qualified
workforce we need."
Stephen Goldblum
Owner and CEO
Standard Demolition Services, Inc.
Deconstruction Clears the Way for Growth
Katherine Brown is one of many NRWIB graduates
who has worked at the Waterbury Industrial Commons,
earning about $27 per hour to assist with C&D
recycling and deconstruction by salvaging structural
steel and concrete. One hundred percent of the
concrete at the site was broken up, remediated where
necessary and used as backfill and landfill on the
existing property. Brown and other NRWIB graduates
worked to collect, crush and haul the concrete for use
around the site. The steel beams were recycled offsite.
"That experience taught me so much," Brown says,
"about work sites, about machines and the way that
buildings are constructed and deconstructed, about
the materials buildings are made of. It was tedious
work; that crusher was operating all the time. But in the
end, I was satisfied because I knew something better
would be built in its place."
Graduate Katherine Brown setting up a barrier between a work
site and the Mad River to protect the river from emissions related
to demolition work at the Nova Dye & Print Corporation factory, a
Superfund site in Waterbury.
Core Training:
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration 40-Hour Hazardous
Waste Operations and Emergency
Response (OSHA 40-Hour
HAZWOPER)
OSHA 30-Hour Construction Safety
Lead Renovation, Repair, Painting
Leaking Underground Storage Tank
Removal
OSHA 7200 Bloodborne Pathogens
Protection
OSHA Hazard Communication
Confined Space Entry
Personal Protective Equipment and
Respirators
Lead Abatement Worker
Asbestos Abatement Worker
Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act and Department of
Transportation Hazardous and
Non-Hazardous Waste Generation
Supplemental Training:
Solar Panel Installation
OSHA 10-Hour Construction Safety
Environmental Engineering and
Design/Phytoremediation
Wastewater Treatment
Building Analyst Training
Graduates Trained: 110 since 2009
Graduates Employed: 108
Average Starting Hourly Wage: $17.50
"I'm so grateful I had the opportunity
to participate in the program. It
changed my life."
Katherine Brown
Program Graduate
17 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
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Brown had been unemployed for two years prior to
her training at NRWIB. She had worked for Echo
Manufacturing for about 16 years as a Material
Handler and a Supervisor before the company
downsized in 2009 and she lost her job.
Now in her early 50s, Brown didn't hesitate to sign up
when she heard about NRWIB's job training program.
She had cared for her elderly mother and autistic
brother for years and needed to find work.
Making Use of Dismantled Buildings
NRWIB also has placed graduates at a deconstruction
project at the Cherry Street Industrial Park, a
brownfield site with vacant buildings that is part of
a larger facility that was developed in 1857 by the
Waterbury Clock Company. C&D Services, LLC,
a small company based in Wolcott, Connecticut,
deconstructed the existing factory buildings,
dismantled the building materials and recycled
or reused them. More than 80 percent of the non-
hazardous building materials were recycled, including
granite, bluestone, timber and brick. Four NRWIB
graduates earned between $13 and $15 an hour to
collect and clean the brick, 100 trailer loads of which
went to Waterbury contractors for sale in local markets.
Developers are planning to build a local plumbing
supply warehouse on the site, once it is completely
cleared and remediated.
More than 80 percent of the non-hazardous building materials were
recycled during a deconstruction project at the Cherry Street Industrial
Park in Waterbury.
Under EPA's environmental job training program,
NRWIB has expanded its course offerings to include
deconstruction and solid waste management,
renewable energy installation, spill response,
environmental engineering and design, and
wastewater treatment.
A Graduate Working in the Field
David Goodman graduated from both EPA's
environmental job training program and solar panel
installation training and is now an apprentice for the
David Goodman stands in a lift at a worksite near New Haven. The high
number of brownfield sites in Connecticut has kept him busy with work
since graduating from the training program in 2010.
Local 611 laborers union, making $45 per hour in
prevailing wages. Goodman grew up in Waterbury and
lives there today with his girlfriend and their daughter.
The training has helped him support his family.
After graduating from the environmental training, he
spent three years working in C&D recycling, making
about $20 per hour. When he heard that NRWIB was
offering solar installation training, he was curious.
"Solar-generated power is the wave of the future,"
Goodman says. "I want to be a part of that."
He was also interested in furthering his education.
"Now, I've got the solar installation skills on top of
my other environmental training," he says. "The
combination is helping me build a career in the union."
"NRWIB's training has made my life 1,000-percent
better," he continues. "There's a lot of poverty in
Waterbury, and a lot of people without a job. For me,
these trainings have led to higher wages and more
fulfilling work."
Support from NRWIB doesn't end the day of
graduation. Sullivan and others stay in touch with
graduates, notifying them when they should update
certifications and take follow-up courses. "They don't
just call you about jobs," Goodman says. "They call
you to ask how you're doingto see if you're all right.
This is so much more than a job-placement program.
It changes lives for the better."
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 18
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Solid Waste Management
Snapshots
Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment
Board, Massachusetts
Jose Ayala and Richard Theberge were unemployed
before completing the environmental job training
program offered by the Merrimack Valley Workforce
Investment Board in 2014. Shortly after graduating,
Ayala was hired at $13 an hour by Mainstream
Global, an electronics recycling company. Ayala
is an integral member of the reverse or "green"
logistics team, which collects materials and channels
them to the appropriate aftermarket entity for reuse,
resale, remanufacturing or recycling. Theberge took
a job making $13 an hour as an Engineering
Technician for Separation Technologists, where
he repairs filtration systems and assists in
maintaining and operating the wastewater
treatment and chemical treatment equipment.
City of Oxnard, California
When the City of Oxnard recently took back control
of its Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), it began
providing solid waste management training through
its EPA-funded environmental job training program
to address the need for new support staff at the
facility. Multiple trainees were employed by City
Corps to conduct a waste characterization study at
the MRF. Two of the graduates are now employed full
time by MRF. Both of these graduates were formerly
incarcerated, and one of them had participated in
the California Gang Reduction, Intervention, and
Prevention Aftercare program. This program provides
reentry aftercare case management services,
connecting youth to needed services and resources
upon release from prison.
Other EPA Environmental Job Training
Programs Delivering Solid Waste
Management Training:
Alaska Forum, Inc., Alaska
Arc of Greater New Orleans, Louisiana
Arkansas Construction Education
Foundation, Arkansas
City of Camden, Arkansas
City of Durham, North Carolina
City of Glens Falls, New York
City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
City of Richmond, California
City of Texarkana, Texas
City of Toledo, Ohio
Corporation to Develop Communities
of Tampa, Inc., Florida
Cypress Mandela Training Center,
Inc., California
Energy Coordinating Agency, Pennsylvania
Florida State College at Jacksonville,
Florida
Groundwork Providence, Rhode Island
Iowa Western Community College, Iowa
Limitless Vistas, Inc., Louisiana
Los Angeles Conservation Corps, California
Memphis Bioworks Foundation, Tennessee
Metropolitan Energy Center, Missouri
New Jersey Department of Environmental
Protection, New Jersey
North Star Center for Human Development,
Inc., Connecticut
Nye County, Nevada
OAI, Inc. - Greencorps Chicago, Illinois
Pathways-VA, Inc., Virginia
Saint Paul Port Authority, Minnesota
Sitting Bull College, North Dakota
Southeast Neighborhood Development,
Inc., Indiana
The Enterprise Center, Inc., Tennessee
The Fortune Society, New York
The Hunters Point Family, California
The Workplace, Inc., Connecticut
Oxnard job trainees employed by City Corps to conduct a waste
characterization study at the MRF.
19 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
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WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT
Rose State College
Creates a Pipeline for
Careers in Wastewater
Treatment Facility
Operations
It takes rigorously trained, licensed operators on
the job 24 hours a day, seven days a week to keep
the country's 155,000 public water systems running
smoothly and our drinking water safe. But that pool of
experienced water treatment professionals is drying up.
"There's a severe shortage of operators at wastewater
facilities," says Bill Clark, Environmental Coordinator at
Rose State College in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. "Plus,
a lot of workers are aging and will be retiring soon."
Clark is referring to the baby boomers who constitute
one-third of the water workforce. In retirement, they
will take with them a vast amount of institutional
knowledge. It poses a real challenge for water
treatment employers in both the public and private
sectors to find or train new workers to replace those
who are leaving.
"Still, the high demand for these environmental jobs
provides a tremendous opportunity for those looking
for employment or a career change," Clark says.
Rose State College wastewater trainees during chlorine tank
management training.
Core Training:
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration 40-Hour Hazardous
Waste Operations and Emergency
Response (OSHA 40-Hour
HAZWOPER)
Leaking Underground Storage Tank
Removal
Supplemental Training:
Water and Wastewater Operator
Confined Space Entry
OSHA Hazard Communication
OSHA 7410 Excavation Hazards
Graduates Trained: 78 since 2011
Graduates Employed: 37
Average Starting Hourly Wage: $17.22
Training Leads to Environmental Careers
The outlook is especially promising for those who
take advantage of the new environmental job training
program at the Oklahoma Environmental Training
Center at Rose State College. With support from EPA's
environmental job training grant program, the center
is offering unemployed and underemployed local
residents free training that leads to environmental
careers in water and wastewater system operations,
managing hazardous chemical supplies and
hazardous waste cleanup. The program is helping
employers across the state meet that demand, making
it a win-win for participants and employers.
"Our graduates are highly sought after," Clark says.
"One employer wants us to call his cell phone to set up
interviews with participants as soon as they graduate!"
Many graduates are moving from unemployment or
low-paying jobs in retail and fast food service without
benefits to higher paying jobs with benefits, paid
vacations and retirement investment plans.
"We brought in specialized instructors, additional
equipment for more hands-on training, and new text
books and videos to enhance the training experience,"
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 20
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Clark says. "With the additional funding from EPA,
we were able to make the training more interesting."
The expanded three-week program is delivering
big rewards for its students too. Graduates of the
programmen, women, single parents and
veteransare landing jobs with local employers like
Veolia North America, Tinker Air Force Base and
various municipalities, including Edmond, Bethany,
Shawnee, Norman and Midwest City.
Kami Witt, a recent graduate who now works at the
City of Bethany Water Treatment Plant, had been
dissatisfied by her previous, low-paying jobs at a
donut shop, a grocery store and a pizza parlor. "I
wasn't at all happy in food service or retail," she says,
"and having come from a very poor family growing up,
I felt like I was trapped in an underemployment cycle I
couldn't get out of."
Kami Witt making water line repairs for the City of Bethany Water
Treatment Plant.
She wanted to build a career in a challenging,
rewarding field of work but didn't know where to start.
Her father-in-law, a Wastewater Facility Operator,
introduced her to the idea of an environmental career
in water treatment.
So, at age 35, Witt enrolled in the environmental job
training program at Rose State College, became
certified in water and wastewater operation and
discovered a newfound confidence in her ability
to tackle math and science courses. Because she
scored so high on her water and wastewater operation
certification exam during the EPA-funded job training
program, after graduation she was eligible to apply
for a wastewater lab license on her own.
"The environmental job training
program opened up a door to a
fulfilling career."
- Kami Witt
Program Graduate
Witt was recently promoted to a full-time Water
Treatment Operator by the City of Bethany, earning
an extra $250 per month over her initial entry-level
pay. She monitors and adjusts the treatment plant's
chemicals, assists with well tests and keeps records
for the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality,
among other activities.
"I am so glad I had an opportunity to take those
classes," she says. "I'm performing a vitally important
service to the community, and I'm also helping to
protect the environment. I feel like I've found my niche
and that wouldn't have happened if those classes
hadn't been available to me."
Graduate Thrives in New Water
Treatment Career
Sheena Zahler, one of the first graduates of the
program, echoes Witt's proud sentiments: "The
environmental job training courses at Rose State
College gave me a sense of pride and confidence
to operate in a job that I now see is a great and
respected career choice."
Zahler grew up near Guthrie, Oklahoma. After
graduating from high school, she briefly attended the
University of Central Oklahoma but felt she needed
to take some time to develop a career plan. Over the
next eight years, she worked a number of warehouse
jobs but none that she wanted to develop into a long-
term career. During one of her longer stints, Zahler
worked at a warehouse operated by a beer distributor,
but when new owners began changing procedures,
she felt it was time to move on.
Graduate Sheena Zahler adjusts a variable frequency drive to ramp up
rotations per minute on a water pump at Edmond Public Works.
21 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
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Zahler remained unemployed for a little over a year,
until her mother referred her to a custodial position
at Edmond Public Works. She worked the night shift
for nine months. "It was a tough job," she says. "For
the most part, I still wasn't satisfied and knew I was
capable of making a bigger impact in my employment
for my community."
She wanted to transition to a different, more
challenging position to increase her pay and work
during the day. A job opened up in the Water
Resources Department, but it required a water and
wastewater operation certification. That's when she
heard about Rose State's environmental training
program and enrolled.
Two years later, Zahler is on the fast track in her new
career. After completing the program, she landed a
job as a Water Well Technician, earning an additional
20 percent per hour. She was recently promoted to a
Water Well Operator and received a 25-percent raise.
Meeting the Requirements of
Local Employers
The Rose State program is creating a new pool of
highly qualified water and wastewater professionals
who meet the requirements of employers. "Our
employees who went through EPA's environmental job
training program came equipped with more knowledge
than we could have hoped for," says Kris Neifing,
Superintendent of Water Resources in Edmond.
"Rose State College's environmental
job training gave me valuable skills
for my trade. I feel fully capable of
my daily duties and problem solving.
And I have a better understanding of
the big picture in producing clean,
potable water."
Sheena Zahler
Program Graduate
William Roach, who heads up operations at Veolia
North America, agrees that the program has been a
valuable resource for his company. "Those we have
hired have all been far better prepared to enter the
environmental field than previous new hires coming
from a job placement service or off the street," he says.
"This helps ensure that these individuals are a good
fit with Veolia and greatly increases their chances of
advancement and longevity with our company."
Roach sums up the value of the expanded job training
program: "Rose State has done an excellent job of
teaming with state, federal, nonprofit and private
resources to develop a blend of opportunities for
participants and employers alike."
Graduates Larry Forsyth and James Whalen measure sludge
depth in a water clarifier on the job at the Edmond Coffee Creek
Wastewater Treatment Plant.
OAI, Inc., Partners
With Greencorps to
Manage Stormwater
in the Windy City
The City of Chicago launched Greencorps Chicago in
1994 as a small community gardening program. Since
then, Greencorps has grown to be a dynamic job
training and city conservation program, enrolling more
than 30 Chicago residents each year who earn a wage
for their work on ecological improvement projects
throughout the city and Cook County.
WRD Environmental, an ecological consulting firm, has
been functioning as the City of Chicago's managing
partner for the Greencorps program since 2001. In
2006, OAI, Inc., a nonprofit workforce development
organization, joined the partnership and has effectively
used its EPA environmental job training program
grants to expand its environmental training to fit the
broader Greencorps program design.
Although the program is open to all Chicagoans,
Greencorps recruits primarily from underserved
populations, including formerly incarcerated
individuals, minorities and veterans living in the west
and south sides of the city. Candidates from these
areas face chronic unemployment; have limited
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 22
-------
work history, training and skills; and often have had
involvement with the criminal justice system. The
unemployment rate in these areas is more than 28
percent, and the poverty rate is nearly 35 percent.
Minority residents there are also disproportionately
affected by exposure to hazardous wastes, a residual
effect of past industrial pollution and the recent
increase in landfill waste. In fact, Chicago's South Side
has the largest concentration of garbage landfills in
the U.S. Midwest. An estimated 120 brownfield sites
are in and around the program's target communities.
Stormwater Management
The management of stormwater is another critical
issue in and around Chicago, which has seen an
increase in urban flooding, and throughout Illinois.
Urban communities growing to accommodate an
increasing population are building more impervious
surfaces, such as roads, roofs, parking lots, sidewalks
and patios, which leads to increased stormwater
runoff. The sewer and stormwater infrastructure built
to manage runoff is aging and undersized in many
cities, including Chicago. As a result, stormwater can
overflow even after modest rainfall, flooding homes
and neighborhoods, and polluting rivers and streams
with contaminated runoff.
To address these issues, the Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency launched the Illinois Clean Water
Initiative in the fall of 2012. The initiative allocates
$2 billion for stormwater management and treatment
projects and has created several thousand jobs in
communities across Illinois. In addition, Chicago has
launched a $50 million green stormwater infrastructure
strategy that is one of the largest voluntary investments
in green infrastructure by a U.S. city.
Training That Meets Local
Employment Demand
Both of these large-scale regional investments
have significant employment growth projections for
stormwater management, ecological restoration and
green infrastructure installation and maintenance.
Under EPA's environmental job training grant,
Greencorps has been able to adjust its program
to meet this demand. Greencorps participants
receive training in environmental health and safety;
environmental remediation, ecological restoration,
horticulture, landscaping and wastewater treatment;
and green infrastructure installation.
WRD Environmental employs Greencorps trainees
through a staffing agency while they participate in
the program. This entry-level employment allows
the trainees to build their work history while they
train for positions in the industry. Upon completion
of the program, graduates can apply their learning
Core Train ing:
Occupational Safety and Health 40-
Hour Hazardous Waste Operations
and Emergency Response (OSHA 40-
Hour HAZWOPER)
OSHA 10-Hour Construction Safety
Leaking Underground Storage Tank
Removal
Confined Space Entry
Green Infrastructure Installation
Low-Impact Development (LID)
Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
Pesticide Application
Ecosystem Restoration
First Aid and Cardiopulmonary
Resuscitation (CPR)
Plant Identification
Landscape Installation/Maintenance
Hardscapes Installation
Compost and Soil Sampling
Urban Agriculture
Chicago Wilderness Burn Certifications
Introduction to Wildland Fires
Urban Forestry
Graduates Trained: 283 since 2002
Graduates Employed: 251
Average Starting Hourly Wage: $10.00
to complete landscaping, ecological restoration,
environmental cleanup and community projects
throughout Chicago.
Greencorps and its partners also help graduates
secure jobs that offer higher wages and more
responsibility, placing 80 to 85 percent of its
graduates in these jobs over the last three years.
Graduates have gone on to work for contractors
involved in environmental remediation, mixed industrial
and commercial corridor revitalization, new residential
projects and green space and wetland restoration.
23 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
-------
"Our training has historically focused
on brownfield remediation, but now
we can customize the program to
better suit the local job market."
Mollie Dowling
Executive Director
OAI, Inc.
Wetland Restoration and
Stormwater Projects
Greencorps graduates have conducted wetland
restoration work for the Chicago Park District in
Hegewisch Marsh and Big Marsh, both part of the
Millennium Reserve. There, they identified and
removed invasive species that choke waterways
and can displace native wildlife, and installed native
wetland plantings, including trees, shrubs and
perennials. Greencorps prepares its trainees for this
type of work, not only by teaching them how to identify
invasive and native plants but also by introducing
them to work sites in fairly remote places with
challenging conditions like standing water. Trainees
even learn what to pack for the day, like food, water
and a change of clothes for the ride home.
Greencorps graduates helping restore the Hegewisch Marsh, a
130-acre wetland on the far Southeast Side of Chicago. The marsh
is an ecologically valuable wetland, but it was also a dumping
ground for big industry. This marsh contains four ecosystemsWet
Savannah, Wet Prairie, Forested Wetland and a Hemi Marsh. It is a
critical coastal wetland, hydrologically connected to Lake Michigan.
Twelve state-endangered bird species use the marsh. It is a nesting
site for the endangered common moorhen. The marsh has good
water quality capable of supporting aquatic life, and through this
project, the quality of a vital watershed will be enhanced.
In the city, Greencorps graduates have installed
rain gardens and permeable pavers at schools
to help manage stormwater runoff. To prepare its
trainees for work like this, the program teaches how
to prepare, excavate and grade a site; install proper
drainage; and select the right plants for the local soil.
It also teaches techniques for installing hardscapes,
including permeable paving.
In addition to the increasing number of stormwater
projects, Greencorps has seen an upsurge in
ecological restoration work in and around Chicago. In
particular, the Forest Preserve District of Cook County,
which is celebrating its centennial in 2015, is providing
more work to its contractors to restore 30,000 acres of
forest preserves to good ecological health and expand
the preserves to 90,000 acres from the current 69,000.
"Companies are looking for qualified individuals for
those restoration and expansion projects, and they
are coming to Greencorps to find them," says Andy
Johnson, Greencorps Program Manager at WRD
Environmental.
Greencorps participants learn to operate chainsaws, chippers and
brush cutters as part of their ecological restoration and natural
resources training.
Graduates at Work in the Field
Greencorps graduate Rogers Christal works for a
contractor that performs work on the Chicago Park
District and Forest Preserve District of Cook County
properties, where green infrastructure practices using
vegetation, soil and natural processes are the preferred
stormwater management strategy. Hired as a full-time
foreman for an ecological restoration company in 2014,
Christal loves working at park sites in Chicago and
throughout Illinois. "Just seeing how people take interest
in the parks and nature is very inspiring," he says.
Before Greencorps, Christal worked intermittently as
a laborer for a demolition company in Aurora, Illinois,
from 2006 to 2008, gaining skills using power tools
and heavy machinery for remediation and excavation.
He then took some courses at Coyne College but did
not graduate. He was unemployed when his mother's
friend told him about the Greencorps training program;
he enrolled in 2010 and graduated in 2011.
A year later, he began to work for WRD Environmental,
which later connected him to his current job with Pizzo
& Associates, Ltd. Christal helps create, restore and
steward natural areas and manage native, sustainable
landscapes to enhance green spaces while retaining
and treating rainwater on site.
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 24
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"Through the Greencorps training, I've
begun to fully realize my interest in
the environment."
Rogers Christal
Program Graduate
Graduate Rogers Christal at the site of a prescribed burn.
Prescribed burning is one of many land management methods used
to facilitate the healthy plant cover that reduces stormwater runoff.
"I'm steadily gaining experience on bigger, more
important ecological restoration projects," Christal
says. "Greencorps has motivated me to build a career
in this industry. What I do allows other people to come
out and enjoy nature."
His work on prescribed burns every spring and fall
also helps manage stormwater by facilitating the
growth of healthy native plant cover. During their
training, Greencorps participants learn how to safely
maintain a prescribed fire, and most graduates earn a
regionally recognized Burn Crew Member Certification
from a partnering nonprofit, Chicago Wilderness.
Another Greencorps graduate, Abraham Harris,
says the program helped him change his life. Soon
after he graduated from the program in 2012, he
began working for ENCAP, Inc., an ecological
restoration company.
A native of the South Side of Chicago, Harris was
looking for steady, full-time employment when his
probation officer told him about the Greencorps
program in 2011. "Before the training, it was a bad
time for me," Harris says. "I was unemployed, and
having been incarcerated in the past, I was having
trouble finding a job."
When Harris came to Greencorps, he had minimal
technical skills and limited work experience, and he
lacked the confidence needed to become gainfully
employed. But he made a commitment to make
positive changes in his life. He attended training every
day and worked hard to develop his technical and
interpersonal skills and to earn various environmental
certifications offered through the program. His hard
work and dedication paid off.
Harris has been working for ENCAP for more than
two years and performs ecological restoration work
across four counties in Illinois and five states. He
now has an Illinois Pesticide Applicator License that
enables him to supervise others. Harris also serves
as a motivational speaker for current Greencorps
participants. Additionally, he has reached his personal
goals of getting married and buying a home.
Graduate Abraham Harris at the site of a controlled burn.
25 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
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Wastewater Management
Snapshots
Limitless Vistas, Inc., Louisiana
Granville Guillory is one of more than 400 at-risk
young adults that Limitless Vistas, Inc., has trained
through its environmental job training program since
the organization's inception in 2006. Guillory was just
20 years old when, after several personal hardships
and dropping out of college, his aunt told him about
Limitless Vistas. After completing the environmental
job training program there and passing Louisiana's
certification for wastewater operators, Guillory went to
work full time for Veolia North America's wastewater
facility in New Orleans, earning a starting wage of
$14.95 per hour. Guillory's duties include ensuring
that furnaces are operating properly. "If things go
wrong," he says, "it is my responsibility to help
make them right before any serious damage to the
furnace or an emission violation occurs." Thanks to
his excellent performance as a State of Louisiana
Class III Wastewater Plant Operator, Guillory will be
traveling to Tokyo for six months to learn about a more
efficient furnace that Veolia plans to incorporate into
the company's U.S. operations. He's also giving back
to the community by mentoring new Limitless Vistas
participants, who stand to learn from his experiences.
"They are able to see the bigger picture," Guillory says,
"and strive harder to develop environmental careers."
City of Oxnard, California
The City of Oxnard tailored its EPA-funded
environmental job training program to meet the
increasing local demand for careers in wastewater
management, water conservation and stormwater
management in Low Impact Development (LID) areas.
This has included installation of "Ocean-Friendly
Gardens" that capture stormwater runoff. Training
in these environmental fields is providing Oxnard
graduates affected by environmental, economic and
social challenges, including gang violence, with
careers that offer upward mobility. Program graduate
Miguel Sanchez was a troubled youth who had never
held a steady job prior to the program and was looking
for a new direction when he enrolled in Oxnard's
environmental job training program. After graduating,
Sanchez was hired by the City of Santa Barbara as a
Water Distribution Operator, making $19 per hour. For
the first time in his life, Sanchez is hopeful and excited
about his future.
Other EPA Environmental Job Training
Programs Delivering Wastewater
Management Training:
Alaska Forum, Inc., Alaska
City of Camden, Arkansas
City of Durham, North Carolina
City of Glens Falls, New York
City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
City of Richmond, California
City of Tacoma, Washington
City of Texarkana, Texas
City of Toledo, Ohio
Civic Works Baltimore Center for Green
Careers, Maryland
Corporation to Develop Communities of
Tampa, Inc., Florida
Cypress Mandela Training Center, Inc.,
California
Energy Coordinating Agency, Pennsylvania
Florida State College at Jacksonville,
Florida
Groundwork Providence, Rhode Island
Iowa Western Community College, Iowa
Los Angeles Conservation Corps,
California
Memphis Bioworks Foundation, Tennessee
Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment
Board, Massachusetts
Mo-Kan Regional Council, Missouri
Mott Community College, Michigan
North Star Center for Human Development,
Inc., Connecticut
Northwest Regional Workforce Investment
Board, Connecticut
Nye County, Nevada
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc., Oregon
Saint Paul Port Authority, Minnesota
St. Nicks Alliance, New York
The Enterprise Center, Inc., Tennessee
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 26
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EMERGENCY PLANNING AND RESPONSE
Florida State College
at Jacksonville Trains
Responders for the Next
Big Disaster
Hurricanes, tropical storms, tornadoes, flooding,
oil spills: Florida is no stranger to natural and
manmade disasters. That is why, at Florida State
College at Jacksonville, the educators' goal is to
train more people to be certified responders for the
next environmental emergency. "You just can't have
enough people trained for emergency response when
lives and livelihoods are threatened by the release
of hazardous substances, or because of significant
damage to the ecosystem," says Pamela M. Scherer,
Program Manager at the college's Institute of
Occupational Safety and Health.
Since 2009, Florida State College at Jacksonville has
offered eligible participants, primarily unemployed
and underemployed individuals in North Florida, free
environmental job training. The program is designed
to lead graduates to careers in emergency response,
Superfund cleanup and brownfield site remediation,
as well as other environmental and green industry
jobs. By completing the 11-week program, graduates
earn certifications in National Incident Management
System (NIMS), disaster site worker and hazardous
waste emergency response (40-hour HAZWOPER).
Other training covers everything from environmental
sampling to handling of lead and asbestos-
containing materials to stormwater, erosion and
sedimentation control.
"For employers," Scherer says, "the HAZWOPER and
safety certifications seal the deal. One contractor told
me that if he had one job candidate come in with a
Master's Degree and another with our portfolio of
certifications, he would hire our person, because by
law, employees are required to have the certifications
to work on contaminated sites."
Preparing for Disaster Response
A particularly successful part of the program, Scherer
says, has been the disaster site worker and spill
response training. Florida State College at Jacksonville
has trained hundreds of workers who were deployed
to the Gulf Coast to respond and clean up following
the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in April
2010, many of whom advanced rapidly to site
safety monitors and supervisors due to the level of
knowledge gained from their training at Florida State
College at Jacksonville.
Core Train ing:
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration 40-Hour Hazardous
Waste Operations and Emergency
Response (OSHA 40-Hour
HAZWOPER)
Florida Department of Environmental
Protection's Stormwater, Erosion and
Sedimentation Control Inspector
OSHA Disaster Site Worker
Environmental Sampling and Analysis
OSHA 10-Hour Construction Safety
OSHA 10-Hour Outreach Training
Program for General Industry
OSHA 10-Hour Outreach Training
Program for Maritime Industry
Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) National Incident
Management System IS-700.A
Certificate
FEMA Introduction to Incident
Command System IS-100 Certificate
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) 24-Hour Hazardous Material
Technician
Collections and Wastewater Training
Asbestos Abatement Worker
Lead Renovation, Repair, Painting
First Aid and Cardiopulmonary
Resuscitation (CPR)
OSHA 7200 Bloodborne Pathogens
Protection
continued on next page
27 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
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Environmental Justice Overview
Solid Waste Management and
Recycling
Superfund Site Cleanup and
Innovative and Alternative Treatment
Technologies
Environmental Math and Chemical
Safety
Confined Space Entry
Urban Agriculture
Leaking Underground Storage
Tank Removal
Graduates Trained: 325 since 2009
Graduates Employed: 302
Average Starting Hourly Wage: $13.00
Shortly after the spill, Scherer noticed an advertisement
posted by disaster response staffing agency
Ameri-Force, which was looking for 20 people with
HAZWOPER experience. "We had almost one whole
class go," she says. "A van showed up, collected our
students and transported them to the Gulf coastline.
The BP spill was a huge opportunity for our first,
second and third classes."
Lonnie Jones, an unemployed, former restaurant
worker, was one of those graduates deployed to the
Gulf Coast. When she signed up for the training, she
was supporting herself and her two daughters on
unemployment. After graduation, she was recruited
by a staffing agency and later hired by Applied
Environmental Health & Safety, Inc., as a Site Safety
Inspector deployed to Panama City, Florida.
"My responsibilities were to watch over and maintain
safety guidelines laid out by [OSHA] and BP," Jones
says. "I conducted job safety analyses and worked
alongside the crew, cleaning up the beaches and in
the warehouses. In essence, my job was to keep 50 to
150 men and women safe seven days a week for 12 to
14 hours a day."
In addition to opening up new employment
opportunities for her, the job training program helped
her meet several financial goals, including paying off
her vehicle and buying a home.
Have Certifications, Will Travel
During the training program's intake process, Scherer
and her colleagues ask if participants are willing to
relocate or travel, which is a typical requirement in
emergency response work. "The majority look forward
to going elsewhere to work," she says.
Ruben Rodriguez, a 2012 program graduate, is one
of those willing road-trippers. Before signing up for
the training, Rodriguez was an unemployed retail
manager. After graduating, he quickly found work
with SouthernCAT, Inc., a Florida-based emergency
response contractor, supporting response to the
2010 Enbridge Oil Spill near Marshall, Michigan. The
spill released an estimated 843,000 gallons of oil that
flowed 35 miles downstream on the Kalamazoo River.
At the scene of a diesel spill on a highway in Jacksonville, Florida,
Ruben Rodriguez is testing a soil sample, using a glass jar and a
photoionization detector.
Rodriguez joined the crew as a deckhand but, within
a few months, had become a boat captain himself,
overseeing a crew of four, transporting cleanup
materials, testing water and soil for contamination and
ferrying scientists to and from the spill area.
After Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on the
New Jersey and New York coastlines in October
2012, Rodriguez, now a full-time employee with
SouthernCAT, Inc., packed his bags and flew to
Ocean City, New Jersey, to support the Federal
Emergency Management Agency's response efforts
in the region. There he visited homes and businesses
affected by the storm. "We would cut out and remove
moisture-damaged plywood, sheetrockand insulation,"
he says. "In hotels, we removed carpets and tore
down walls. In movie theaters, we removed seats
impacted by water. It was a heck of a storm. What I
took from that experience was the courage people had
after the storm to help each other out."
More recently, Rodriguez, now with SWS Environmental,
was dispatched to Iowa to work with U.S. Food and
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 28
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While responding to an oil spill on the Kalamazoo River in Michigan
in 2013, Ruben Rodriguez transported scientists to and from the
impacted area. He also learned how to measure the water depth
and turbidity of the river.
Drug Administration officials, responding to the avian flu
outbreak. "I was with a group of 30 people in a chicken
house with about 200,000 chickens, disposing of birds
that died and monitoring those still alive to see how the
disease was affecting them," he says.
Rodriguez, a Jacksonville native, admits that life on the
road and away from his family can be challenging, but
the 50-year-old is passionate about his opportunities
in the environmental field. "It's amazing what these
certifications can do," he says. "They broaden what
employers can use you for. The best thing is getting
to know other companies and working with all these
government agencies. You're always meeting new
people along the way." And, taking advantage of
these networking opportunities has paid off. Big time.
Case in point: Rodriguez has watched his wages more
than double from $25,000 a year after graduating
from the environmental job training program in 2012
to $65,000 in 2015. And he just received an offer for
a new position with SWAT Consulting Inc., where he'll
head up his own emergency response team and make
$100,000 a year, with the potential to earn $125,000 or
more with overtime.
"You get this training and knowledge,
and it only gets better. The possibilities
are endless!"
Ruben Rodriguez
Program Graduate
Expanding Opportunities for Success
Dennis Thomas, who was an underemployed Army
veteran working just two days a week when he
signed up for the training, also found work in the
field of emergency response after completing the
training. Thomas found contract work with Moran
Environmental, where he was deployed to clean up
fuel spills in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. His
experience included responding to spills from train
derailments and highway incidents, as well as spills
and tank overflows at refineries, industrial businesses
and the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville. Today, he's
employed full time as an Environmental Technician,
overseeing the safe cleaning and maintenance of
fuel storage tanks.
Thomas expresses a debt of gratitude to the college's
environmental job training program, which, he says,
"expanded my opportunities in the environmental
industry and helped me jump the ladder. Now, I'm
making $50,000-plus a year."
Ruben Rodriguez (left) and another employee are preparing to
unload heavy equipment at the job site while responding to an oil
spill on the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.
According to Scherer, EPA's environmental job
training program helps prepare local residents for a
broad spectrum of environmental employment. "The
bottom line is that we have more options as far as
getting students jobs," she says. Her program places
many of the graduates interested in emergency
response work with national and local employment
agencies, including Aerotek, Environmental Staffing,
and Environmental & Labor Solutions. In addition to
emergency response and remediation work, graduates
are securing career pathways as recycling technicians,
industrial hygienists, and environmental health and
safety inspectors.
"This is my chance to give my kids a better life,"
Rodriguez says. "And, I owe it all to the staff at Florida
State College at Jacksonville. It's been a remarkable
journey for me."
29 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
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The Fortune Society Preps
Formerly Incarcerated
Individuals for Careers
in Disaster Site Cleanup
The United States leads the world in the number of
people in jail or prison, with nearly 2.3 million men
and women incarcerated as of 2013. In New York
City, the nonprofit The Fortune Society is working to
ensure that formerly incarcerated individuals have
the skills and opportunities to become positive,
contributing members of society. Today, thanks to The
Fortune Society's efforts, many formerly incarcerated
individuals are busy helping local communities rebuild
in the wake of the devastation left behind by Hurricane
Sandy in 2012 or are employed in other environmental
jobs in and around the five boroughs.
Based in Long Island City, New York, The Fortune
Society has a mission to support successful
reentry from prison and to promote alternatives to
incarceration. Focusing primarily on high-poverty
neighborhoods, the organization serves approximately
4,500 men and women every year. Offering everything
from temporary housing and substance abuse
treatment to employment services and job training,
The Fortune Society is a one-stop shop to assist clients
in getting from the jail cell into the job market.
These Fortune Society participants, the first cohort in 2012,
just completed the coursework necessary for receiving their
HAZWOPER certifications.
Core Training:
Overview of Environmental Science,
Environmental Health and Safety
Preparing Formerly Contaminated
Sites for Urban Agriculture
Superfund Site Cleanup and
Innovative and Alternative Treatment
Technologies
Leaking Underground Storage Tank
Removal
Solid Waste Management Assessment
and Cleanup
Supplemental Training:
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration 40-Hour Hazardous
Waste Operations and Emergency
Response (OSHA 40-Hour
HAZWOPER)
Global Hazard Communication
OSHA 10-Hour Construction Safety
Lead Renovation, Repair, Painting
Confined Space Entry
Disaster Site Worker
Mold Remediation
Bloodborne Pathogens Protection
New York State Asbestos Handler
Graduates Trained: 154 since 2012
Graduates Employed: 119
Average Starting Hourly Wage: $13.85
Laying a Foundation for
Long-Term Employment
With support from EPA's environmental job training
program, The Fortune Society created an intensive
six-week, full-time program to prepare its participants
for careers as community-oriented environmental
technicians. "It's comprehensive," says Laura
Senkevitch, Fortune's Manager of Training and
Transitional Programs. "We screen people to align
them with their interests. At the end, we get you a job."
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 30
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The training includes 280 hours of instruction in
40-hour HAZWOPER, urban agriculture, lead
abatement, asbestos abatement, innovative
and alternative treatment technologies, leaking
underground storage tank removal, solid waste
management, brownfield remediation and disaster
site worker. A total of one state and five federal
certifications are offered through the program.
At the graduation ceremony in June 2014, Fortune's Laura
Senkevitch congratulates Dexter Carter for successfully completing
all of his certifications. Today, Carter is working as an Environmental
Technician at Environmental Business Consultants.
"People opting for jobs in the
environmental field can become
invested with companies and work a
long time there."
Laura Senkevitch
Manager of Training and Transitional Programs
The Fortune Society
"This type of training is ideal because it doesn't
require years of education," Senkevitch says. "A
GED [General Educational Development credential]
is all you need, so there's not a big barrier to entry,
regardless of your background."
Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Storm
That's what Kareem Murphy, a 35-year-old graduate
of the training program, hopes to do. After years in
the restaurant industry, periods of unemployment, and
incarceration for possession of a controlled substance,
he's eager to start something new. "I like cooking,"
Murphy says. "But there's not a lot of money for all the
stress placed upon you in that field."
On October 29, 2012, the night Hurricane Sandy
made landfall in New York City, Murphy and his
roommate returned to their rental home in the
Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn to discover
that their basement and first floor were flooded. "The
bedrooms were on the second floor, so my clothes,
my TV and my bed weren't damaged," he says.
"Everything else was lost. The shock of having a place
to live one day and not the next was a very emotional
thing for me to deal with."
Murphy eventually found a new apartment, and after
completing Fortune's training program in December
2014, he landed a three-month position with
Rebuilding Together NYC, a nonprofit that provides
home rehabilitation and modification services to
low-income homeowners, including disaster site
cleanup and recovery. After Hurricane Sandy, the
organization was overwhelmed with requests from
families with mold problems caused by the storm.
As an Onsite Technician, Murphy does demolition
work and coordinates volunteers and companies that
donate time and money to the program. He also works
with inspectors when they visit the job sites and takes
photographs before and after disaster site cleanup jobs.
"Most of my jobs are in Brooklyn and Rockaway,"
Murphy says. "On my first day, the lady cried. Her
home had been damaged during Hurricane Sandy.
Her grandfather had built the house, and she was so
happy that we did such a nice job for her. It's good to
see that we're helping these people."
Murphy already is looking ahead to what's next when
his current position ends. "My ultimate goal is to get an
undergraduate degree in environmental science," he
says. "I recently attended an orientation at the Mayor's
Office of Environmental Remediation, meeting with
project managers from different consulting companies.
I'm hopeful to land a job that will help me take care of
myself and my future family."
Gaining Skills and Perspective
Jamel Dower, a 37-year-old father of three, is another
graduate working on Hurricane Sandy recovery sites
who's seen doors open for him after completing
Fortune's training program. Previously, he was
unemployed and "addicted to the street life," he says.
He completed his training in early 2015 and quickly
landed a job as a laborer in concrete demolition
for SNS Construction, where he's been working in
Brooklyn and Sheepshead Bay on disaster site cleanup
projects. In addition to the core training, Dower says he
benefited from the additional certifications he received
in parenting and healthy relationships.
31 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
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Jamel Dower completed Fortune's training program in 2015 and now works
for SNS Construction, cleaning up sites impacted by Hurricane Sandy.
But it's not just the certifications that graduates walk
away with, says The Fortune Society's Senkevitch.
"Graduates fully understand how their role fits into the
bigger picture. They'll know how to spot mold and
asbestos and how to remove it properly. And they'll
also understand why we need to remove it and what
happens when it's not removed.
Graduates go back to their neighborhoods with a
more invested perspective, thinking, 'Maybe there's
something I can do to help.'"
Dower agrees. "Everything in construction and
demolition can have an impact on the environment
and the community," he says. "I work near the water,
and EPA comes by to check that no pollution is
getting into the bay."
"All the certifications put me in a
better position to be a better provider
and a better father."
Jamel Dower
Program Graduate
Opportunities Abound
In addition to emergency planning, preparedness
and response, Fortune's graduates land jobs as
environmental technicians and general laborers
working at local brownfield sites. Some, including
Khalil Harper, have even moved into Site Supervisor
and Project Manager positions with construction
companies and environmental consultants. Harper
was unemployed and formerly incarcerated before
signing up for The Fortune Society's environmental job
training program. After graduating, Harper started as
an on-the-job trainee at Langan, making $11 an hour,
working on the High Line brownfields revitalization
project, which converted an unused rail corridor
into an urban park. With a three-month probationary
period under his belt, during which he learned about
environmental site supervision, Harper was hired
full time through the project's general contractor
and promoted to Site Supervisor.
About 10 graduates have joined the Local 78 union,
which represents asbestos, lead and hazardous
waste handlers on Long Island, in New York City
and in New Jersey.
"The Fortune Society prepares you to make money and
makes you more employable," Murphy says. "And, it
gives you opportunities. I feel like I'm giving back to
my community."
Khalil Harper (right), a training program graduate, is mentoring with a
project manager at the Mayor's Office of Environmental Remediation,
which partners with Fortune through its BrownfieldWorks! program.
This program helped connect Harper to a full-time position as a Safety
Supervisor at Langan Engineering after graduation.
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 32
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Emergency Planning and
Response Snapshots
Pathways-VA, Inc., Virginia
Ishaan Mohmand was incarcerated at a regional
jail when he entered the environmental job training
program offered by Pathways. With two young
daughters, Mohmand says, "I wanted to make a
positive out of a negative, and Pathways helped me do
just that." After his release from jail in 2014, Mohmand
was hired full time by Cardno, a global infrastructure
and environmental services company, where he
made $14 an hour cleaning up a diesel spill caused
by a train derailment near Lynchburg, Virginia. "The
training was a life-changing experience," he says,
and it gave him a second chance to be the father his
daughters deserve. "I'm now able to save for their
college educations and cheer them on at their softball
games," Mohmand says. Now, he is on a pathway to a
sustained career with Cardno.
St. Nick Alliance graduates at Ground Zero decontaminating trucks
and hauling debris from the World Trade Center site.
St. Nicks Alliance, New York
Within 72 hours of the terrorist attacks at the World
Trade Center site on September 11, 2001, Jessenia
Rodriguez and more than 30 other St. Nicks Alliance
job training graduates quickly went to work to assist in
the response and cleanup efforts. Employed by Clean
Harbors Environmental Services, these graduates
began working 12 hours a day, seven days a week to
provide environmental protection to workers at the site
and to help extract the remains of those who lost their
lives. Graduates staffed the decontamination zone
for rescue workers, served as utility technicians and
drove the vehicles transporting human remains from
Ground Zero. For more than 10 months, Rodriguez
and her fellow graduates assisted with the removal of
more than 1.5 million tons of debris. They also worked
in conjunction with the U.S. Coast Guard to test for
anthrax contamination at the nation's largest federal
mail-sorting facility in New York.
Graduates of St. Nicks Alliance's EPA-funded
environmental job training program continue to help
restore hope and to breathe life back into disaster-
affected communities. More than a dozen recent
graduates, including Julian Green, secured jobs related
to the recovery from Hurricane Sandy. Green was
unemployed and living in a shelter when he applied to
St. Nicks' program. He graduated in 2013 and quickly
found work cleaning up homes damaged or destroyed
by Hurricane Sandy, including cleanup of the estimated
300,000 homes along the South Shore, the area hit
hardest by Sandy, and where the majority of homes
belong to low-income and working class families.
Northwest Regional Workforce Investment
Board, Connecticut
Anthony Hicks was among a team of Northwest
Regional Workforce Investment Board's environmental
job training graduates deployed to the Gulf Coast in the
wake of the BP oil spill. One day during Hicks' training,
representatives from Aerotek stopped by to recruit
workers to help respond to the oil spill. Hicks and his
fellow graduates traveled along the Gulf coasts of
Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi for roughly
two months, deploying oil blooms and teaching others
how to wear protective gear like respirators.
Other EPA Environmental Job Training
Programs Delivering Emergency Planning
and Response Training:
Alaska Forum, Inc., Alaska
City of Camden, Arkansas
City of Detroit, Michigan
City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
City of Oxnard, California
City of Richmond, California
City of Tacoma, Washington
Cypress Mandela Training Center, Inc.,
California
Lewis and Clark County, Montana
Limitless Vistas, Inc., Louisiana
North Star Center for Human Development,
Inc., Connecticut
Sitting Bull College, North Dakota
Zender Environmental Health and
Research Group, Alaska
33 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
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RENEWABLE ENERGY INSTALLATION
City of Richmond Trains
Renewable Energy
Workforce, Steers Grads
Away From Crime
Like many urban communities, the City of Richmond,
California, faces high unemployment, poverty and
crime. Violent crime has been a significant problem
since the mid-1980s. For more than 20 years,
Richmond was ranked as one of the most dangerous
cities in the nation, and the rates of violent crimes
were far higher than the national averages.
To meet these challenges, the city launched
RichmondBUILD as a violence-reduction program
in 2007. This public-private partnership trains local
residents, most of whom have been involved in or
exposed to violence, for careers in the fast-growing,
high-wage environmental and construction industries.
Providing a pathway to education and high-wage
career opportunities reduces crime, but it's a
challenging road. The "Heavenly Wall of Fame" that
hangs at the RichmondBUILD training facility to honor
graduates who have passed away, many due to gun
violence, reminds passersby that more work is needed
to build a safe, successful community.
Greening the Traditional
Construction Industry
By coupling training in the trades, like
carpentry, with environmental training,
RichmondBUILD prepares its participants
for a variety of careers and increases
their likelihood of finding sustainable,
long-term employment. Several other EPA
environmental job training programs blend
environmental training with training in the
trades, including Cypress Mandela Training
Center, Oregon Tradeswomen and Los
Angeles Conservation Corps.
Core Training:
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration 40-Hour Hazardous
Waste Operations and Emergency
Response (OSHA 40-Hour
HAZWOPER)
Wastewater Treatment
Solid Waste Management and
Recycling
Emergency Response
Lead Abatement Worker
Asbestos Abatement Worker
Confined Space Entry
Leaking Underground Storage Tank
Removal
Chemical Safety
OSHA 10-Hour Outreach Training
Program for General Industry
Supplemental Training:
Hazardous Waste Management
Solar Panel Installation
Energy EfficiencyHome
Performance and Weatherization
Pre-Apprenticeship Carpentry*
Forklift Logistics, Operation and
Warehouse Training
Extended Carpentry*
Electrical Wiring and Theory for Basic
Construction, Solar Installation and
Lighting Retrofit*
Graduates Trained: 264 since 2009
Graduates Employed: 198
Average Starting Hourly Wage: $16.00
"EPA does not fund this component of the program.
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 34
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More often, RichmondBUILD honors graduates
at work in the field. To prepare for the work,
participants first complete environmental health
and safety certifications along with a core carpentry
pre-apprenticeship track and then choose coursework
in subjects like hazardous waste removal, solar panel
installation and energy efficiency retrofitting.
Building a Renewable Energy Workforce
EPA's environmental job training program allows
RichmondBUILD to prepare participants for work in
the renewable energy field, as well as in the
assessment, cleanup and reuse of brownfields and
Superfund sites. Investments in renewable energy,
in particular, are on the rise. "Under EPA's training
grant," says Sal Vaca, Director of Employment and
Training at RichmondBUILD, "our program has been
able to support the solar investments that are a priority
in California."
A new emphasis on generating renewable energy locally
has created demand for workers who can help build
utility-scale solar farms in the area. For example, Marin
Clean Energy (MCE) is ramping up to begin its Solar
One project, which will convert a 60-acre brownfield
site within a petroleum refinery in Richmond into an
electricity-generating installation with 80,000 solar
panels. MCE has committed to hiring at least 50 percent
of its workforce from the RichmondBUILD program.
Approximately 30 graduates of the job training program
are scheduled to start work on the Solar One project
after it launches in February 2016.
"Together, we're reducing dependence on fossil
fuels, helping our residents play an active role in
environmental responsibility and setting a positive
example for other communities to follow," says
Greg Brehm, MCE Director of Power Resources.
Interest in renewable energy has also inspired
some local residents to install solar panels on their
homes. Three RichmondBUILD graduates were hired
by SolarCity to install panels on residential units in
the area. Since graduating as part of cohort 25 in
November 2014, Julius Guillebeau, Endy Varela and
Victor Naives have had steady work as installers,
earning $15 per hour and building their resumes as
skilled workers.
"Clean energy jobs are the future."
Sal Vaca
Director of Employment and Training
City of Richmond, California
Custom Training Meets Employers' Needs
To prepare the workforce for environmental careers,
RichmondBUILD works with local employers and trade
unions to develop custom training. For example, Stion
Corporation is developing custom training to prepare
RichmondBUILD participants for the Solar One project.
Stion, which manufactures solar panels, will train
participants to install the panels. The hands-on training
will use real equipment, including solar panels, solar
tracking systems, grounding posts and connecting
harnesses. After completing the training, the company
plans to hire the graduates to work on the project.
RichmondBUILD graduates helped install solar panels at the Baker Electric
solar farm. The facility will use 85,000 solar panels to generate electricity
that will feed directly into the Pacific Gas & Electric utility grid.
RichmondBUILD participants complete a solar installation project.
Similarly, the International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers union helped program participants land
jobs at Baker Electric's solar farm project in Pittsburg,
California. Baker Electric hired about 70 union workers,
including nine RichmondBUILD graduates, to build
a utility-scale generating facility. "The relationships
our graduates are building with local trade unions are
key," says Vaca. "Utility-scale projects typically hire
only union members. Getting graduates involved in the
union is helping them land jobs."
35 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
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Graduates Working in the Field
One graduate working on the Pittsburg project,
Hugo Perez, was just 19 when he entered the
RichmondBUILD program. Originally from Mexico,
Perez grew up in a neighborhood where violent
crime is prevalent among 18- to 25-year-olds. After
graduating from high school, Perez was dissatisfied
with his job at a local diner. He wanted to find work
that would not only pay more but also lead to a good
career. He discovered RichmondBUILD, and since
graduating and working on the Pittsburg project,
has nearly doubled the hourly wage he earned at
the diner. Even better, he now knows he wants to
pursue a career as an electrician and has applied
to join the local electrician's union as an apprentice.
"RichmondBUILD gave me more than just skills," says
Perez. "It gave me focus, a plan. It set me on a path
for achievement and gave me direction in life."
Graduates of RichmondBUILD report to work at a solar installation
project in Pittsburg. Hugo Perez is second from the right, and
Grace Obinyan is third from the left.
RichmondBUILD graduate Grace Obinyan also
installs panels at the Pittsburg site. Obinyan came
to the United States from Nigeria in 2013 and settled
in Richmond, where she lives with her husband
and four sons. Although she had studied business
administration in Nigeria, she had been unemployed
for nearly two years. Then she heard about
RichmondBUILD's job-training program.
"Before, I didn't know how to handle
a hammer. Now, I know how to use
all the tools needed to install solar
panels."
Grace Obinyan
Program Graduate
RichmondBUILD helped Obinyan secure her first job
in the United States as a solar installer with Baker
Electric. On the job, she uses the environmental skills
she learned in the program, including how to align
the solar panels and secure them into place. She is
mindful of environmental health and safety on the
job, a lesson impressed upon participants in the
RichmondBUILD program.
Revitalization of the Pittsburg site is almost completed,
but Obinyan is already working with professional
connections to secure her next job. She's looking
forward to the start of the Solar One project, and her
membership with the Local 302 electrician's union will
help her stay employed over the long term.
"I know I can tap my connections at RichmondBUILD
and the union to find more work," says Obinyan. "It's
really mind blowing how much my opportunities for
employment have changed since I graduated from the
job training program."
New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection:
Grads Shine in Solar Jobs
Camden, New Jersey, has experienced a long period
of economic disinvestment, during which the city's
largest employers have either left or relocated their
manufacturing jobs, contributing to high poverty rates
and environmental degradation. Several hundred
known contaminated sites, including dumps, demolition
yards and abandoned brownfields, dot the city.
But many land revitalization projects are now being
designed and implemented in Camden, which
are creating a demand for range of environmental
professionals. Working with Camden County College,
where the training is offered, the New Jersey
Department of Environmental Protection designed an
environmental workforce and job training program
curriculum based on the needs and skill sets identified
by Camden employers, project contractors and
community partners.
Enabling Local Residents to Help
Their Communities
The program trains unemployed or underemployed
Camden residents for jobs that enable them to
help their communities, in areas where jobs and
environmental cleanup are needed most. "Camden
is perfectly positioned for sustainable revitalization
and beneficial brownfield reuse, including solar panel
installation and green stormwater infrastructure,"
says Jaime Ewalt Gray, who designed and managed
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 36
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the program for the New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection. "These graduates have the
skills necessary to transform Camden and the region."
Program participants are certified in solar panel
installation and trained in environmental sampling and
remediation, solid waste management and recycling,
leaking underground storage tank removal, and
innovative and alternative treatment technologies.
Program participants learn techniques for constructing a solar array on
a roof deck rack and installing solar panels, modules and components.
"We are training unemployed
and underemployed workers and
helping them find environmental jobs,
including jobs in the solar industry."
Joe Pranzatelli
Career Center Coordinator
Camden County College
Core Training:
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration 40-Hour Hazardous
Waste Operations and Emergency
Response (OSHA 40-Hour
HAZWOPER)
Solar Panel Installation
Solid Waste Management and
Recycling
Leaking Underground Storage Tank
Removal
Superfund Site Cleanup and
Innovative and Alternative Treatment
Technologies
Indoor Air Testing
Water and Soil Sampling
Mold Remediation
Environmental Cleanup
Graduates Trained: 72 since 2011
Graduates Employed: 52
Average Starting Hourly Wage: $19.00
Graduates Working in the Field
Two program graduates went on to work in solar
sales and three found positions in solar installation.
Graduate Anthony Lyles, who was unemployed when
he enrolled in the training program, was hired to install
solar panels on top of Lindenwold High School in
Camden County. "I appreciated the range of subjects
covered during the training and the insight it gave
me into environmental work," says Lyles. Today,
Lyles continues to use his environmental training at
a stormwater management company, whose clients
are mostly major retailers with large parking lots. He
inspects and maintains retention ponds, bioswales,
storm drains and curbs, and ensures that any liquid
falling from garbage compactors does not leak into
stormwater drains.
A Passionate Advocate for Solar Power
Another graduate, Carolyn Contravo, got a job in
solar sales estimation following graduation. Originally
from Clementon, New Jersey, Contravo was raised by
her single mother in a neighborhood beset by crime
and drugs. "It was really hard to realize there was
more to life than that," Contravo says. She dropped
out of high school in 2009, but earned her GED
credential later that year. The birth of her son in 2009
put her education on hold. Her welfare caseworkers
presented several job training options, including the
environmental program at Camden County College.
She went to an informational seminar at the college,
where the speaker described how unused space like
a deserted parking lot or an abandoned building can
be transformed into solar farms. "That really resonated
with me," Contravo says. "Growing up in Clementon,
there were so many abandoned spaces that could
be redeveloped in beneficial ways, including through
the use of solar panels. I remember a half-burned
shopping mall that stood empty for years. If someone
had torn that down and replaced it with solar panels,
it might have prevented the brownouts and other
electricity problems we had in Clementon during
the summer."
"I wanted to go back to school and
find a job, but I needed help."
Carolyn Contravo
Program Graduate
37 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
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Contravo wondered why people were not using solar
power more often and decided to enroll in the program
to find out. Her caseworkers arranged for child care and
transportation. During the training, she learned about
different sources of energy and the advantages of using
solar power. She also learned how to install solar panels
on roofs in hands-on training she really enjoyed. "We
learned how to climb up to a roof, measure and lay out
the racks and install the panels," she says.
After graduating from the program in December 2012,
Contravo focused her job search on the solar industry
and promoting the use of solar power. "Solar power
doesn't really get the attention it deserves," she says.
"It can make a big difference in a short period of time,
stabilizing the grid with renewable energy, helping
people save money on electricity, protecting the
environment and adding value to a property."
Graduate Carolyn Contravo attaching racks to a roof during her solar
panel installation training. Contravo credits EPA's environmental job
training program for inspiring her interest in solar powerand for
getting a job in that industry.
The Right Woman for the Job
Contravo was hired by RCL Enterprises in February
2013 as an Administrative Assistant and liaison who
educated customers interested in having solar panels
installed at their homes or businesses. She also
coordinated with energy suppliers and contractors to
plan installations. She occasionally consults with her
father, who works in construction, on ways that he can
incorporate solar installations on his projects. "Now
I see the potential for solar installations everywhere,"
Contravo says. "That has been the biggest impact of
the training. It showed me the potential for improving
communities like the one I grew up in."
Renewable Energy
Installation Snapshots
City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
In 2013, Shawn Koerner, a 45-year-old, unemployed
Milwaukeean, was losing hope that he'd ever find a
job. Through the local media, Koerner heard about
the Environmental Workforce Development and
Job Training program run by the City of Milwaukee.
After completing the training and walking away
with certifications in lead abatement and asbestos
abatement supervision, as well as training in energy
efficiency, he was hired by Midwest Thermal Services,
Inc., an environmental and industrial remediation
company, as a Project Manager with a salary of
$40,000 a year. "The training allowed me to take my
skills to the next level," Koerner says. His work has
included asbestos abatement and the installation of
infrastructure for high-efficiency mechanical systems
at Miller Brewing Company (now MillerCoors), a
brewery headquartered in Milwaukee.
Other EPA Environmental Job Training
Programs Delivering Renewable
Energy/Alternative Energy Installation
Training:
Alaska Forum, Inc., Alaska
Arc of Greater New Orleans, Louisiana
City of Camden, Arkansas
City of Tacoma, Washington
Cypress Mandela Training Center, Inc.,
California
Florida State College at Jacksonville,
Florida
Limitless Vistas, Inc., Louisiana
Memphis Bioworks Foundation,
Tennessee
Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment
Board, Massachusetts
Metropolitan Energy Center, Missouri
Northwest Regional Workforce
Investment Board, Connecticut
Nye County, Nevada
Pathways-VA, Inc., Virginia
Sitting Bull College, North Dakota
St. Paul Port Authority, Minnesota
The Fortune Society, New York
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 38
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ENHANCED ENVIRONMENTAL
HEALTH AND CHEMICAL SAFETY
Santa Fe Community
College Builds a Local
Environmental Workforce
The recent recession hit New Mexico hard, resulting
in a loss of more than 40,000 jobs between 2007 and
2011. In addition, the economic downturn further
exacerbated the state's problems associated with
rising poverty and extreme income inequality, which
rank as the worst in the nation.
Not even Santa Fe, a popular travel destination prized
for its scenic beauty, rich history, cultural diversity
and extraordinary concentration of arts, music and
fine dining, could escape the pinch. Many of the
city's minority neighborhoods and surrounding
communities, including eight Native American pueblos,
have broad pockets of unemployment and poverty,
as well as disparities in educational attainment,
stable employment opportunities and workforce
preparedness training.
The cleanup of radioactive and hazardous
contamination, caused primarily by past activities at
national laboratories and in the mining industry, is
increasing the demand for jobs in environmental health
and safety and hazardous waste cleanup in the Santa
Fe area. However, many of these positions are being
filled by individuals outside of these communities or
out of state because of the limited number of locally
trained and qualified workers. Educators at Santa Fe
Community College are working to change that.
Readying a Skilled Local Workforce
EPA's environmental job training program enabled
the college to design a robust program and provide
unemployed and underemployed New Mexicans
with quality technical training and certifications that
employers required but were not readily available in
northern New Mexico.
Some employers are reluctant to hire older workers for
a myriad of reasons. However, gaining these skills and
certifications makes program graduates of all ages
more attractive to environmental employers.
Core Training:
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration 40-Hour Hazardous
Waste Operations and Emergency
Response (OSHA 40-Hour
HAZWOPER)
Federal, State and Tribal
Environmental Laws
Environmental Site Assessment
Superfund Site Cleanup and
Innovative and Alternative Treatment
Technologies
Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act
Federal Emergency Management
Agency National Incident Command
System 700- and 800-Level Global
Positioning System
First Aid and Cardiopulmonary
Resuscitation (CPR)
Supplemental Training:
HAZWOPER Supervisor
Environmental Site Investigation
Methods
New Mexico Water Regulations
Leaking Underground Storage
Tank Removal
Solid Waste Management
Graduates Trained: 76 since 2011
Graduates Employed: 54
Average Starting Hourly Wage: $16.40
39 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
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"Our training participants range in age from 19 to 60,
and many of them have been seeking jobs for months,
and in some cases years, and they lack confidence,"
says Janet Kerley, the program's Project Manager
and Principle Instructor. "In the training, we challenge
them to perform. Graduates learn job skills and earn
certifications that allow them to compete in a difficult
job market and secure a wide range of public and
private sector environmental jobs, including positions
in environmental health and safety."
Program trainees taking OSHA 40-hour HAZWOPER training.
Employers who have hired program graduates
applaud the college's approach and the relevance of
the training.
Sean Pauly, who works for environmental staffing
agency Aerotek, says, "Over the last several years, we
have utilized and successfully placed several former
students of this program. Every student from the
program was offered the position they interviewed for
and was brought on permanently with our client. Not
only are they doing a great service for Aerotek but they
are providing quality work for our clients."
"It's exciting to see Santa Fe
Community College leverage their
EPA grant funds to train local workers
for well-paying environmental jobs.
The college's program trains workers
on the importance of properly and
safely performing this work, and
its high job placement rate proves
its effectiveness. Investments in
job training programs like this help
improve the health of our communities
by putting unemployed and under-
employed New Mexicans to work
revitalizing our neighborhoods. I'll
continue to support funding to help
clean up and redevelop contaminated
sites and spur economic growth in
our communities."
- Tom Udall
U.S. Senator
New Mexico
Displaced Homemaker Launches
Environmental Career
Monica Canaris completed the college's environmental
job training program and landed her first job through
Aerotek in 2012, making $17 per hour decommissioning
and decontaminating a closed Intel semiconductor
fabrication facility in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. "I put a
teaching career on hold for 15 years to stay home and
raise my sons," she says. "Now divorced and older, I
needed employable skills and a steady income. The
training gave me direction, skills, confidence and a new
career path. My sons are proud of me, and I am earning
good money."
Canaris has worked on several other high-profile
projects, including a reclamation project dealing
with unexploded ordinances at the Pueblo of Laguna
sitea former World War II training areaand a
project characterizing hazardous waste under
Santa Fe's advanced chemical transport program.
Her latest project is for Aerotek's client, Sky City
Communications. She's helping to survey and assess
the environmental health and safety of 33 landfills
on Navajo Nation land in four states for the Bureau
of Indian Affairs.
The impacts of the work on Canaris' life go far beyond
the perks of having a good job. "I've thought of myself
as an environmentalist my entire life," she says, "and
I'm now working in a field where I am directly making a
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 40
-------
difference in people's lives and in my community and
getting paid well, which translates into being a happy
person and finding my place in the world."
Monica Canaris using a global positioning device to record the latitude and
longitude coordinates of a solid waste site located on Navajo Nation land.
Like Mother, Like Son
Nathan Carnaris, Monica's son, also graduated from
the environmental job training program in 2012. He
had been under- or unemployed for three years, and
with no long-term job prospects and mounting debt,
Nathan hoped that the certifications offered by the
college's environmental job training program would
help him gain entry and build an environmental career.
Less than a month after graduating from Santa Fe
Community College's job training program, Nathan
was hired in a full-time position by Los Alamos
Technical Associates at $16 an hour to conduct
environmental assessments in areas surrounding
Los Alamos National Laboratory in north-central New
Mexico. Founded during World War II, the laboratory
"Not only was Monica proficient
at her assigned task, but she went
above and beyond to make sure
that we met deadlines and completed
the project. Her knowledge with
hazardous chemicals was above
our expectation, and she was able
to help our staff understand certain
aspects of the project."
Client Manager
Sky City Communications
served as the research and development facility where
the first nuclear weapon was created. The company
later paid for Nathan's move to Columbus, Ohio, where
he was promoted to Project Manager within two years,
making $50,000 per year with full benefits to oversee
environmental assessment work in seven states.
From Unemployed to Overseer of the
Environmental Health and Safety of 26
State Buildings
Thomas Gonzales was also able to reboot his career
after completing Santa Fe Community College's
environmental job training program. He had owned
and operated a construction company in Santa Fe
that employed 150 workers, but the housing market
crash forced him to close his business in 2008. Mostly
unemployed for five years, with only small jobs here
and there, Gonzales went back to school to study
sustainable technologies with the intention of starting
a career in solar energy. It was during this time that
Gonzales heard about the college's environmental
job training program.
Gonzales graduated from the program in 2012 and
a few months later accepted a job with the Facilities
Management Division of New Mexico's General
Services Department. He was hired as the Facilities
Operations Supervisora new position created by
the state to develop a hazardous waste and indoor air
quality program and oversee the environmental health
and safety for 26 state buildings on four campuses.
Gonzales makes $18 per hour and has a retirement
plan, health care, annual paid time off, sick leave and
other benefits, including paid training.
"The variety of training and certifications provided
under the college's environmental job training grant
prepared me to develop the first comprehensive
environmental health and safety manual for the
Facilities Management Division," says Gonzales.
The manual covers safety and environmental standards
41 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
-------
Graduate Thomas Gonzales monitoring indoor air quality at a state
government building in New Mexico.
required by OSHA and a testing program for radon,
mold and lead in state-owned buildings.
Within a year, Gonzales was promoted to facilities
operations manager and is earning nearly $30 per hour
now. He continues to oversee dozens of state-owned
buildings, including the Governor's residence in Santa
Fe, and is in the process of developing a new facilities
operations program and employing and training the
division's campus operators. Having been employed
with the state for more than two years, Gonzales has
become the source of information on environmental
health and indoor air quality for fellow staff members.
"The Santa Fe Community
College's training aided me in
my employment with the state
and my career advancement.
I acquired the knowledge that
helped me stand out and made
me a valued candidate in the
hiring process."
Thomas Gonzales
Program Graduate
Designing Training Based on Local
Markets Yield Jobs
Program graduates Jerry Lucero, Marc Bonem and
Sara Lass also are building sustained careers in
environmental and chemical safety with state agencies.
Lucero is working full time, conducting safety briefings
for the New Mexico Department of Transportation.
Bonem was hired as the Solid Waste Enforcement
Officer with the New Mexico Environment Department,
and Lass is the sustainability coordinator for New
Mexico's prison system.
Several other graduates are working in the emergency
response, and water and wastewater fields. Irina
Repnikova, for example, is the Emergency Response
Coordinator for the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar
(Burma). Russell Daniels is a Water Harvest Specialist
with Harvest H20, and Willie Torres started his own
company, developing sustainable biofuel water usage
systems for homes in Puerto Rico. Brent Chavez is
working for the Santa Clara Pueblo's wastewater
treatment facility.
"Santa Fe Community College's
innovative job training programs
are providing opportunities for
hard-working members of our
community by ensuring they have
the skills they need to get ahead.
EPA's environmental job training
grant plays an important role in
those efforts. Whether it's for
students preparing to enter the
workforce for the first time or those
going back to school to pursue a
new career, [the college] works with
industry partners to ensure that the
curriculum reflects the knowledge
and training students need and
those employers are looking for.
This collaborative effort has had
tremendous success."
Ben Ray Lujan
U.S. Representative
New Mexico
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 42
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Northern Arizona
University's Institute
for Tribal Environmental
Professionals Puts
the Navajo Nation's
Unemployed to Work
Cleaning Up a Legacy
of Uranium Mining on
Tribal Lands
The Navajo Nation, whose borders lie within Arizona,
New Mexico and Utah, occupies a mostly rural area
just larger than West Virginia. The Navajo people face
a number of challenges, including an unemployment
rate near 50 percent, high poverty rates and lingering
environmental impacts from past mining activities.
Approximately 4 million tons of uranium ore were
mined between 1944 and 1986 for weapons
manufacturing. By the late 1980s, mining operations
ceased, leaving behind more than 500 documented
abandoned radioactive mines, ponds and tailings
piles, which have contaminated homes and drinking
water sources with elevated levels of radiation.
Cleanup could take decades and cost billions to
complete, but it also will bring hundreds of jobs to
Navajo lands. Northern Arizona University's Institute
for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP) is making
sure that the vast majority of those jobs go to the
Navajo people, benefiting those historically affected by
the negative legacy of environmental contamination.
Cleanup of Abandoned Uranium Mines
Expected to Create Hundreds of Jobs
The U.S. Department of Justice reached
a $5.15 billion settlement agreement with
Kerr-McGee Corporation in 2014, of which
approximately $985 million will be paid to
EPA to fund the cleanup of approximately
50 high-priority abandoned uranium mines in
and around the Navajo Nation. Additionally,
the Navajo Nation will receive more than
$43 million to address radioactive waste left
at the former Kerr-McGee uranium mill in
Shiprock, New Mexico.
Core Training:
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration 40-Hour Hazardous
Waste Operations and Emergency
Response (OSHA 40-Hour
HAZWOPER)
OHSA 40-Hour Radiological
Technician
OSHA 30-Hour Construction Safety
Supplemental Training:
Environmental Cleanup
Hazardous Materials Handling
Introduction to Federal and Tribal
Environmental Regulations
Cultural Responses to Hazardous
Environments
Graduates Trained: 36 since 2015
Graduates Employed: 12
Average Starting Hourly Wage: $12.00
Readying the Navajo for Jobs Close
to Home
Cleaning up radiation and other contaminants left
behind from uranium mining requires appropriate
training and protective equipment, says Roberta
Tohannie, the Job Training Program Coordinator
for ITEP. EPA awarded ITEP a grant to train Navajo
workers so that they would have the right credentials
to secure well-paying and sustainable jobs in the
cleanup of radioactive materials, Superfund and
brownfields sites, as well as jobs in environmental
justice advocacy and communications, solid waste
management, and emergency response. Participants
are being provided leading-edge environmental health
and safety training to ensure that once in the workforce
they know how to protect themselves from exposure
to contamination.
ITEP coordinated with the Navajo Nation EPA and the
contractors managing the assessment and cleanup
of abandoned uranium mines to ensure that their
program provided the training and certifications
needed to secure employment.
43 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
-------
"By preparing Navajo residents for
well-paying jobs close to home and
giving them an active role in restoring
and protecting their communities for
future generations, we're not only
improving their economic viability,
we're also empowering the Navajo to
create a new legacy."
Roberta Tohannie
Job Training Coordinator
Northern Arizona University's Institute for Tribal
Environmental Professionals
Most Navajo do not have the advanced chemical
and hazardous safety training and credentials to
work on high-priority sites and cannot afford the
training required for these jobs. That's where ITEP
has played a critical role. All Navajo residents selected
for ITEP's training program were unemployed or
underemployed. Many participants had to travel more
than 100 miles one way to attend training. "Without the
free training and leveraging of other critical resources,
such as transportation to assist trainees in completing
the program, graduates would not have been
able to learn the specific job skills and acquire the
qualifications necessary to enter this job market,"
Tohannie says. "This type of training and additional
resources would not have been possible without the
grant funds from EPA and financial contributions
from the Navajo Nation EPA and the Navajo Nation
Department of Workforce Development."
Volunteer Advocates for Cleaning Up
Navajo Nation Lands
Sarana Riggs is a single mom and has spent most
of her adult life as a volunteer grassroots activist,
advocating for causes, including the cleanup of
uranium contamination on Navajo lands. Although
it was fulfilling work, it was unpaid, and Riggs knew
she needed an education and a steady income to
support her family. She was one semester away from
completing a degree in the medical field when she
was involved in a serious car accident that left her
unable to complete the degree.
Unemployed and living on the Navajo reservation after
leaving school, Riggs was excited when she came
across ITEP's environmental training program.
"Training opportunities close to
the reservation are rare."
Sarana Riggs
Program Graduate
"The training was intense," Riggs says, "and covered
areas such as federal and tribal environmental
regulations, hazardous materials handling,
occupational safety guidelines and cultural responses
to hazardous environments."
Paid Liaison and Educator
Riggs graduated from ITEP's environmental job training
in 2014 and accepted a job with the Grand Canyon
Trust, an environmental justice organization that
assists the Navajo Nation and other tribes in the U.S.
Southwest and other communities adversely affected
by environmental and public health issues, including
uranium contamination. Riggs is the liaison between the
Grand Canyon Trust, the Navajo and other tribes, and
she supports education and outreach efforts, including
organizing meetings with top tribal officials.
Program trainees taking soil samples at an abandoned uranium mine
located on Navajo Nation land in New Mexico.
Graduate Sarana Riggs on the job, educating Colorado River
guides about the environmental and cultural challenges facing the
Navajo Nation posed by unsustainable development, including the
resurgence of uranium mining.
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 44
-------
Riggs says the training led to her getting the job with
Grand Canyon Trust. It opened a door for her to build
upon her environmental justice activism and earn a
steady paycheck, which has enabled her to pay off
her student loans. Up next, she plans to pursue an
environmental law degree once she completes her
undergraduate degree in environmental studies at
Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.
"Sarana is a credentialed, talented
and versatile professional. She has
been an essential asset to the Grand
Canyon Trust's efforts to protect the
natural beauty of the Grand Canyon,
and Navajo and other tribal lands from
a resurgence of uranium mining.
Her efforts on both fronts attracted
the attention of local and national
media. Sarana was interviewed by the
CBS affiliate in Flagstaff, Arizona, and
photographed by the New York Times."
Roger Clark
Program Director
Grand Canyon Trust
Single Mom Builds New Career
Another recent graduate of ITEP's environmental job
training program is Malia Green, a member of the
Navajo Nation who had been a stay-at-home mother
of four special-needs children. Although Green
managed to complete two years of college, after her
marriage ended, she moved back to the reservation,
where she has help looking after her children while
seeking employment. But jobs of any sort on or near
the reservation, let alone jobs providing a living wage,
were hard to come byuntil she completed ITEP's
training program.
"The training challenged me, especially the math,"
Green says. "But it provided me with the skills and
qualifications I needed to safely clean up uranium and
other contaminated sites." Furthermore, the national
certifications were key to preparing her to secure a
position with New World Environmental, where she
now provides oversight and logistics support for the
assessment of 161 contaminated housing sites in
Arizona and New Mexico.
Green knows it's important to keep her credentials
updated, and she's eager to give back to her community.
She recently completed her refresher OSHA 40-hour
HAZWOPER and radiological certifications, and she's
tutoring the next class of future graduates.
Graduate Malia Green (front right) during OSHA 40-hour
HAZWOPER training.
Uranium Cleanup by Navajo for Navajo
Tommy Charley, another ITEP graduate, says he found
himself locked out of the opportunities to clean up his
own lands because he lacked the right mix of training
and credentials to break into the uranium cleanup
market. "These jobs were being filled by people
outside of the Navajo Nation," he says.
"We've been the ones impacted for
decades by the contamination, and
now we were being shut out of the
economic opportunities to clean up
and restore our own communities.
But this job training program is
helping change that."
Tommy Charley
Program Graduate
Charley completed ITEP's environmental job training
program in 2014 and is now employed full time
by the engineering company CH2M HILL. He was
hired as an intern, making $13 an hour, to assist
with soil sampling at an abandoned uranium mine.
The company later employed him as a part-time
environmental field technician, and he traveled to
Evansville, Indiana, to conduct soil sampling for lead
and arsenic at the Jacobsville Neighborhood Soil
Contamination Superfund site. He also traveled to
Lake Charles, Louisiana, to conduct sampling for
asbestos, herbicides and pesticides on a 160-acre
former chemical manufacturing brownfields complex
near the Gulf Coast.
45 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
-------
CH2M HILL later promoted Charley to a full-time
position as Site Safety Coordinator at an abandoned
uranium mine in Utah and Colorado. Now, he has a
retirement account; health, dental and life insurance;
and access to paid training and other benefits.
ITEP graduate and CH2M HILL employee Tommy Charley got his
start in the environmental field conducting soil sampling at this
abandoned uranium mine.
"Tribal elders consistently point to job
training as a way to provide support
to local communities, and CH2M HILL
officials see ITEP's training program
doing just that. Tommy Charley was
a great match to CH2M needs in that
he had hazardous waste and radiation
worker training and was enthusiastic
about joining our New Mexico team.
CH2M HILL got the added benefit
of having someone knowledgeable
about the Navajo culture and fluent in
the Navajo language to assist on our
project within the Navajo Nation."
Karen Jarocki
Operations Lead & Project Manager
CH2M HILL
ITEP's training and this job have given him and his
family the financial stability they've been looking for,
and they are grateful. "I'm able to save money for the
first time in a long time," Charley says. His family is
thrilled that he has a career with a great company,
and Charley is happy that he has the opportunity to
help protect Navajo lands for future generations.
Other program graduates are also working in
abandoned mine lands and uranium cleanup jobs.
Victor Lee is an Engineering Aid with the Navajo
Abandoned Mine Lands program in Shiprock, New
Mexico, and Tom Begay, Jr., is employed by Weston
Solutions to conduct environmental site assessments
on radioactive and other contaminated sites. Besides
the need to clean up abandoned uranium mines,
hundreds of Navajo homes were built with uranium-
contaminated materials or have been contaminated
by uranium and need to be remediated or demolished.
ITEP and the Navajo Nation EPA are standing by to
ensure that trained and credentialed Navajo residents
are first in line for these jobs.
Graduates of Northern Arizona University's Institute for
Tribal Environmental Professionals 2014 environmental
job training program.
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 46
-------
Enhanced Environmental
Health and Chemical
Safety Snapshots
St. Louis Community College, Missouri
Donald Partee, who was formerly incarcerated as
a young man, graduated from St. Louis Community
College's job training program and landed a job with
Environmental Resources, Inc., in St. Louis, removing
asbestos and mold. Later, Partee became a Project
Manager with Maurice-Benjamin Company, supervising
up to six workers. One signature project he's worked
on involved the lead renovation, repair and painting of
the Frank P. Blair School in St. Louis, which is listed on
the National Register of Historic Places.
Zender Environmental Health and
Research Group, Alaska
Frank Simpson had worked part time as a
maintenance tech for the City of Port Heiden, but
after completing Zender's environmental job training,
Simpson was promoted to bulk fuel tank farm safety
operator earning $25 an hour.
Frank Simpson working as the Bulk Fuel Tank Farm Safety Operator
for the City of Port Heiden.
Other EPA Environmental Job Training
Programs Delivering Enhanced
Environmental Health and Chemical Safety
Training:
Alaska Forum, Inc., Alaska
Center for Working Families, Inc., Georgia
City of Camden, Arkansas
City of Detroit, Michigan
City of Durham, North Carolina
City of Glens Falls, New York
City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
City of Oxnard, California
City of Richmond, California
City of Tacoma, Washington
City of Texarkana, Texas
City of Toledo, Ohio
Civic Works Baltimore Center for Green
Careers, Maryland
Corporation to Develop Communities of
Tampa, Inc., Florida
Cypress Mandela Training Center, Inc.,
California
Energy Coordinating Agency, Pennsylvania
Enterprise Center, Inc., Tennessee
Florida State College at Jacksonville,
Florida
Groundwork Providence, Rhode Island
Hunters Point Family, California
Iowa Western Community College, Iowa
Lewis and Clark County, Montana
Limitless Vistas, Inc., Louisiana
Los Angeles Conservation Corps,
California
Memphis Bioworks Foundation, Tennessee
Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment
Board, Massachusetts
Metropolitan Energy Center, Missouri
Mo-Kan Regional Council, Missouri
Mott Community College, Michigan
North Star Center for Human Development,
Inc., Connecticut
Northwest Regional Workforce Investment
Board, Connecticut
OAI, Inc. Greencorps Chicago, Illinois
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc., Oregon
Pathways-VA, Inc., Virginia
Rose State College, Oklahoma
Sitting Bull College, North Dakota
Southeast Neighborhood Development,
Inc., Indiana
Southern University at Shreveport,
Louisiana
St. Nicks Alliance, New York
The Fortune Society, New York
The Workplace, Connecticut
47 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
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BROWNFIELDS REMEDIATION
Civic Works Grads Build
Green Careers in Baltimore
In 1950, Baltimore was the sixth largest city in the
country, home to 950,000 people and a thriving
manufacturing industry. But a nationwide decline in this
sector cost Baltimore more than 100,000 manufacturing
jobs by 1995, or 75 percent of its industrial employment.
This shift contributed to an economic decline that lingers
today, with 8 percent of the city's population unemployed
and nearly 24 percent living below the poverty level.
The drop in manufacturing also left a high concentration
of abandoned properties and brownfields. The city has
an estimated 1,000 brownfields, totaling 2,500 acres. As
a result, the demand for environmental technicians is
high, especially in lead and asbestos abatement, and
environmental site assessment, inspection and sampling.
Breaking Down Barriers to Employment
The Civic Works Baltimore Center for Green Careers
provides brownfields remediation training through
its B'more Green program. "The program is making
Baltimore's economy more equitable and sustainable
by training residents for jobs in the environmental
sector," says Gicelle Fundales, Director of Training
and Production at Civic Works.
Participants in the program include local, unemployed
and underemployed residents; single parents;
previously incarcerated individuals; veterans; and
dislocated workers. Since 2005, 43 percent of
participants have been veterans with significant
barriers to employment. Seventy percent of participants
were formerly incarcerated or have a substantial history
of arrest and conviction. "Most participants have had
some interaction with the criminal justice system, often
in part because they cannot find a job," says Fundales.
"In some cases, folks arrive at the program literally right
out of prison. Helping them establish stable careers
reduces recidivism."
Building the Right Workforce
B'more Green ensures that local Baltimore companies
that are engaged in brownfields cleanup and
revitalization projects have access to a trained and
ready workforce. "We look forward to working with
B'more Green graduates," says Paul Hayden of
Core Train ing:
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration 40-Hour Hazardous
Waste Operations and Emergency
Response (OSHA 40-Hour
HAZWOPER)
Asbestos Abatement Supervisor
Lead Abatement Worker
Confined Space Entry
Environmental Site Assessment
Stormwater Management
OSHA 7405 Fall Hazard Protection
OSHA 7200 Bloodborne Pathogens
Protection
Graduates Trained: 193 since 2011
Graduates Employed: 174
Average Starting Hourly Wage: $13.68
Geo-Technology Associates, Inc. (GTA), a
professional engineering firm providing land and
property enhancement services. Hayden's firm
partners with Civic Works by training program
participants in environmental assessments. GTA's
environmental division has been training B'more Green
students for the last four years. "During our training
session," he says, "we actively evaluate the students
for employment and have not been disappointed. GTA
believes this program provides well trained employees
that are ready to begin their professional career with
our firm."
GTA has hired six graduates as engineering
technicians to work on remediation projects at several
of Baltimore's largest brownfields sites, including
Canton Crossing Retail, Union Wharf and Union
Mill. These technicians assist in environmental site
assessments; soil, ambient air and groundwater
sampling; soil remediation; asbestos and lead-based
paint surveys; and standard construction observation
and testing work.
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 48
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Supporting Participants With Case
Management Services
To prepare participants for jobs, Civic Works provides
case management services to help remove barriers
to employment. It recently enhanced these services,
hiring a full-time case manager to ensure that
participants have a place to live, transportation, food
and other basic necessities needed to make it to
training each day and to obtain and keep a job. The
organization says that because EPA's grant covers
most of the technical coursework and certifications,
Civic Works can use private grants to cover case
management, as well as an additional 40 hours of life
skills and job readiness training. "Civic Works can offer
more comprehensive services thanks to the EPA's
grant," Fundales says.
B'more Green graduate Lance Wolf knows first-hand
the importance of effective case management. Wolf
says, "The program is geared toward people who
need direction. It teaches you how to think positively,
which you might never have done before because you
didn't have anything positive to think about."
Wolf grew up in a West Baltimore neighborhood that
was known for drugs and gang-related violence. He
and his sister lived with their mom, while their dad was
mostly absent.
Despite these challenges, Wolf did well in school and
entered the Navy in 2009, but he was discharged for
medical reasons. "It was tough," he says. "There were
many reasons why I wanted it to work out. Both of my
grandfathers were in the military."
As a scientist in training at KCI Technologies, B'more Green
graduate Lance Wolf conducts initial environmental assessments on
vacant buildings marked for revitalization in Baltimore.
Returning home, he attempted to go to community
college but did not follow through. After a couple of
unsatisfying jobs in security and home services, Wolf
discovered the B'more Green program through Train
Baltimore and enrolled in November 2013. Wolf was
21 years old when he entered the program. Within a
month of graduation, Wolf was hired as an Industrial
Hygienist by KCI Technologies, Inc., which paid him
25 percent more per hour than his previous job, to
assist in environmental site assessments
Still with KCI, Wolf now earns $21 per hour as
a scientist in training and supervises a team of
inspectors working on Baltimore City-owned vacant
housing. He and his team conduct initial environmental
assessments to determine whether the housing
is contaminated and requires remediation. In the
evenings, he takes courses at the Community College
of Baltimore County, studying environmental science.
He hopes to graduate with an Associate's Degree
in 2016, and then continue his studies toward a
Bachelor's Degree. Interested in environmental justice,
he wants to study why some communities care less for
their environmental surroundings than others.
"Everyone should have a healthy
environment in which to live."
- Lance Wolf
Program Graduate
Graduate Starts Her Own Environmental
Services Company
Another B'more Green graduate, Aisha Dorn, has long
been aware of the environment around her. Dorn was
raised in West Baltimore primarily by her grandmother,
who was once a sharecropper and loves to garden.
Dorn's mother tended a community garden with her
siblings and taught Dorn how to grow vegetables in
the backyard.
When she graduated from high school, she enrolled
in Baltimore City Community College and planned to
major in environmental science. The program was
not fully established at that time, and the classes she
needed to graduate were few and far between. "I just
wasn't able to get out of the program what I expected,"
Dorn says.
In 2011, Dorn was working in retail for minimum wage
when she heard about Civic Works. Its mission to help
Baltimore City residents find jobs and opportunities
to do more resonated strongly with her. Dorn enrolled
in the B'more Green program, and for six weeks
49 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
-------
attended training all day and then worked the late
shift at the store. "I was really exhausted, working that
much," she says, "but I knew it would pay off."
CEO of Lifeline Environmental and Civic Works graduate
Aisha Dorn (right) at the White House speaking at a panel on
workforce development.
Following graduation, she landed a job at FCC
Environmental, a hydrocarbon recovery company,
where she earned nearly twice the amount she had
been making per hour in retail. There she used her
training in confined space entry and hazardous waste
handling to dispose of waste while cleaning narrow
leaking underground storage tanks.
In 2012, she co-founded Lifeline Environmental, LLC,
with her husband. The company offers asbestos;
lead and mold remediation, and demolition services.
Dorn knows exactly where to look for qualified
environmental technicians for jobs: To date, she has
hired seven B'more Green graduates.
In addition to creating local jobs, Lifeline
Environmental recently started the Clean House
Initiative to create healthier homes. The Clean House
Initiative identifies vacant and dilapidated properties
in Baltimore's underserved communities to combat
environmental hazards like lead, asbestos and mold.
The initiative also brings energy efficiency upgrades
and clean power to these properties. Because of
her company and experience with Civic Works, Dorn
was invited to the White House to speak at a panel
on workforce development, sharing her passion for
investing in her community and revitalizing Baltimore
neighborhoods.
"It is important to give back to
Baltimore by helping local residents
find jobs to rebuild neighborhoods
and advance economic opportunities
for all."
Aisha Dorn
Program Graduate
Co-founder, Lifeline Environmental, LLC
City of Tacoma Grads Leap
Into Environmental Jobs
Located in western Washington on Commencement
Bay, the City of Tacoma experienced population
growth and increased industrial development in the
late 19th and early 20th centuries, due partly to a
flourishing maritime industry. In the late 1970s, much
of the waterfront development closed or relocated,
leaving many vacant sites and a legacy of soil and
sediment contamination. Since then, efforts to clean
up and revitalize these sites have created employment
opportunities in the city, where employer surveys and
labor market assessments have identified a demand
for green occupations.
A program participant takes part in a confined space training exercise.
The city's environmental job training program
recruits local, unemployed and underemployed
residents; single parents; formerly incarcerated
individuals; veterans; and dislocated workers. The
program has focused on preparing graduates for
environmental jobs at brownfield sites, such as
those along Commencement Bay, the South Tacoma
Way Industrial Area, census tracks in Pierce County
with five or more former gas stations and other
contaminated locations.
Training Leads to a Variety of
Environmental Jobs
Since 2011, EPA's environmental job training program
has enabled the City of Tacoma to provide training for
environmental jobs beyond brownfield remediation
although brownfields remain its primary focus.
For example, when program staff discovered that
employers were increasingly looking for stormwater
management skills, they developed training based
on local, state and federal guidance, as well as best
practices from private construction and environmental
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 50
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firms. Participants learn how to develop, maintain and
comply with stormwater management plans, and they
earn an erosion and sediment control lead certification,
which is often necessary to inspect stormwater permits
at construction sites.
The program hosts a regular forum where employers
can speak with graduates about their line of business
and sometimes recruit graduates on the spot for jobs
as environmental technicians, environmental laborers,
hazardous material technicians, asbestos inspectors
and green construction laborers.
A Veteran's Perspective
U.S. Navy veteran Andrew Shuckhart completed the
city's environmental training and secured a job as a
Regulatory Project Manager for the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers. "Adjusting to life outside the military can
be difficult," Shuckhart says. "Training like this helps
make veterans more marketable, not just because of
the certifications but also because of the professional
development. You learn how to write a resume, succeed
in a job interview, and build a professional network."
Like other veterans, Andrew Shuckhart has built a successful career in
environmental services, thanks to the training and support he received
from the City of Tacoma.
Core Train ing:
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration 40-Hour Hazardous
Waste Operations and Emergency
Response (OSHA 40-Hour
HAZWOPER)
OSHA 10-Hour Construction Safety
First Aid and Cardiopulmonary
Resuscitation
Confined Space Entry
Mold Remediation
Chemical Safety
Leaking Underground Storage Tank
Removal
Environmental Site Assessment
Stormwater Management
Forklift Logistics, Operation and
Warehouse Training
Supplemental Training:
OSHA 10-Hour Outreach Training
Program for Disaster Site Worker
Certified Erosion and Sediment
Control Lead
Asbestos Abatement Worker
Lead Renovation, Repair, Painting
Graduates Trained: 557 since 2000
Graduates Employed: 447
Average Starting Hourly Wage: $14.54
Other Veterans Who Recently Graduated
From the Program
U.S. Army veteran Joshua Whitney was
wounded in battle during his service. During
his transition out of the Army, he completed
the City of Tacoma's environmental job
training program and landed a job as a forklif
driver, earning $20 per hour with benefits.
U.S. Air Force veteran William Anderson
completed the environmental job training
program and earned a job as an analyst
working for a contractor of Boeing.
Graduate Staffs Projects With Other
Program Alumni
Another program graduate, Ricardo Loza, says he
applies all his environmental certifications in his job
at TCB Industrial, a staffing firm that specializes in
placements at industrial facilities. As the Regional
Director of Operations, Loza staffs projects in the
environmental remediation, petroleum and construction
industries. His environmental training gave him the
knowledge and skills he needed to fill the position at TCB.
Loza had worked for years in retail management and
the shipping industry before losing his job during the
recession in 2008. He had been unemployed for nearly
five years when he learned about the City of Tacoma's
51 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
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environmental job training program during a visit to the
city's Department of Health and Social Services, where
he was applying for food stamps. "That was both my
darkest and brightest day of the last several years," he
says. "I stayed on the food stamps until I graduated
the program. I was completely broke."
Loza landed the job at TCB less than a month after
graduation in April 2013. He now helps staff projects at
brownfields like the Duwamish Water Way, which was
contaminated by decades of heavy commercial and
industrial operations, such as metal manufacturing,
container storage and shipping, marine construction,
and fuel processing. Loza helped place the staff who
remediated the soil by dredging the canals and banks,
laying down core mat to cap contaminated sediments,
and transforming more than a half mile of industrial
waterfront back into natural shoreline.
Loza has represented TCB at all but one of the
environmental training program's employer forums for
graduating classes since his own graduation. He has
placed five program graduates in permanent positions
since joining TCB. Two are oil refinery technicians
earning between $18 and $20 per hour to clean and
safely maintain storage tanks in accordance with
appropriate environmental procedures, and three are
environmental services technicians earning $20 to $22
per hour to conduct a variety of tasks.
Diede went to work for Advance Environmental,
where he was paid $40 per hour in prevailing wages
to conduct asbestos and lead abatement work on
projects throughout western Washington. Mike Menotti,
who owns and operates Dirtek Disposal, LLC, asked
Diede to consult on a project to remediate a private
residence in Tacoma that had been condemned as a
methamphetamine lab. "He knew about my brownfield
hazardous waste cleanup training and asked for some
information about removing asbestos and storage
tanks from the house," says Diede. "We worked so
well together he offered me a job!"
"The environmental job training makes
[program graduates'] resumes really
stand out."
Ricardo Loza
Program Graduate
Although he works mainly in the office, Loza has
relied on his environmental training during more than
300 hours of work he has performed for TCB in the
field. For example, his HAZWOPER and underground
storage tank removal certifications helped in a project
to secure and remove a tank from the grounds of a
local public school.
The Program Transforms Lives
Another program graduate, Kent Diede, saw his
life similarly transformed by the training. Diede had
worked in landscaping and sales and had taken
college courses in law, horticulture and aerospace
technology before falling on hard times about three
years ago. Without work, Diede was forced to move
into a homeless shelter. There he discovered the city's
environmental job training program and for 16 weeks
attended training while continuing to live in the shelter.
He graduated from the program in September 2012.
Graduate Kent Diede was homeless when he participated in the
environmental job training program. Today, he's enjoying success in
his work managing environmental projects.
At Dirtek, an earthworks infrastructure company,
Diede manages environmental projects involving the
excavation and transportation of soil and other inert
organic material, including contaminated soils. The
company has worked at brownfield sites, such as
the Reichhold chemical plant, Burlington Northern
Railroad station and Asarco copper smelting plant.
"Kent has been a tremendous asset in managing this
business," says Menotti. "His unique skill set and the
environmental education he received in the job training
program are truly invaluable."
Diede has hired a number of program graduates for
Dirtek projects, including a recent pool-construction
project requiring the excavation of 4,000 cubic yards
of soil at the Peoples Park in Tacoma. "I prefer to hire
the city's environmental job training program graduates
for projects like this," Diede says, "because you never
know what you're going to find in a hole that deep.
It's a safer bet to hire someone who has HAZWOPER
certification and is trained to deal with underground
storage tanks." He hired program graduates Ivan
Rogers and Michael Cotton for the job, which pays
more than $40 per hour in prevailing wages.
TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY 52
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Diede represented Dirtek at a city forum with graduates
of the spring 2015 class, where he encouraged them
to follow through with the goals they set for themselves
during the program. "I told them, if I can transform
my life as dramatically as I did by using this training,
there's no limit to what they can do, too."
"In my experience, the City of
Tacoma's environmental job training
program graduates are highly skilled
professionals who we are grateful to
add to the Dirtek team."
- Mike Menotti
Owner & Operator
Dirtek Disposal, LLC
Brownfields Remediation
Snapshots
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc., Oregon
Deawendoe St. Martin began her journey with
Oregon Tradeswomen in January 2013 at the age
of 35 and as a mother of four children. St. Martin
knew she was a hard worker and had a gift for fixing
things, but the jobs she was working didn't pay
enough for her to support her children. She sought
out Oregon Tradeswomen's pre-apprenticeship
training program because she wanted to find a
lifelong career that would support her family. After
graduating from the pre-apprenticeship program,
St. Martin's desire for learning continued. She signed
up for the environmental track available at Oregon
Tradeswomen to make herself even more marketable
in the workforce. Through the environmental track, she
obtained several important certifications that would
allow her to obtain work in environmental remediation.
Today, St. Martin works proudly for an excavation
company as a union laborer. Through her hard work
and dedication, she is now making a wage that
enables her to comfortably support her family. When
asked about her next goal in life, she says, "The sky's
the limit."
Sitting Bull College, North Dakota
Patrick Two Bear, a Standing Rock Sioux tribal member,
was jobless and had little hope of finding sustained work
close to home because of high unemployment on the
reservation. But Sitting Bull College's environmental job
training program changed that.
After graduating and acquiring certifications in lead,
mold and asbestos abatement, OSHA 40-hour
HAZWOPER, and first aid and cardiopulmonary
resuscitation (CPR) in the spring of 2013, Two Bear
was hired by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal EPA
Program, earning $12 an hour, to assess illegal
dumpsites and to clean up brownfields on the
reservation, including the Old Stockade Building, the
last remaining building of Fort Yates, a former military
fort established in 1863 and decommissioned in 1903.
Once cleanup is complete, the Old Stockade Building
will be restored to an historic site with a museum to
hold artifacts significant to the tribe.
One certification that Patrick secured through the
program proved invaluable both on and off the job:
Patrick used his CPR training to save the life of an
elderly woman who was having a heart attack at a
local restaurant.
Sitting Bull College is a tribal college located
on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in
North Dakota. The reservation encompasses
2.4 million acres and is the sixth largest
reservation in the United States. It is also
one of the most economically distressed.
Approximately half of the residents who
live on the reservation live below the
poverty level, and unemployment is more
than 50 percent. There are an estimated
140 brownfields on the reservation, and
illegal dumping sites containing hazardous
substances and contaminants also impact
the reservation.
53 TRANSFORMING LIVES AND ADVANCING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
f
Whether cleaning up contaminated sites or starting careers in wastewater or stormwater
management, emergency or disaster response, waste or materials management, chemical
safety, renewable energy, or a host of other environmental careers, graduates of EPA's
environmental job training programs across the country represent the vanguard of a growing,
greener economy.
The range of environmental training and career opportunities available through EPA's
environmental job training program would not be possible without the funding and support
of other programs within the Agency. The following programs and partners have supported
training opportunities that ultimately lift up individuals, improve lives for families, clean up
neighborhoods, strengthen communities and protect the environment:
Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation
Office of Emergency Management
Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery
Office of Underground Storage Tanks
Office of Wastewater Management
Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics
Office of Environmental Justice
Center for Program Analysis
EPA Pesticide Program
EPA Urban Waters Program
EPA Lead Program
Innovation, Partnerships and Communication Office
Hazardous Materials Training and Research Institute
EPA's Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization thanks EPA environmental job training
program's grant recipients and graduates for sharing their inspiring stories. Without their
contributions, this publication would have not been possible. We wish them continued success
in their job training programs and careers.
"hank You!
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United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
www.epa.gov/brownfields/types-brownfields-grant-fundingftab-6
Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization I EPA 560-F-15-043 I April 2016
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