Mr. Bob Pierson, Director of Corporate Administration and Communications, explains the services Millennium provides and the growth and development opportunities that Millennium envisions for its employees.
What is Millennium?
Introducing Our New Engineer and Field Technicians
Millennium warmly welcomes our Senior Staff Environmental Engineer and two Senior Field Technicians to our expanding team. Parya Saneipoor, Kristy Efe, and Victoria Ortiz have been involved in projects in the Bay and Los Angeles area. Ms. Ortiz recently passed her CSST exam and we’re excited to see how these ladies will continue to grow. Please take a moment to get to know them!
Happy New Year!
Happy Holidays!
The Millennium family is thankful to all our loyal and new clients who have entrusted us to provide for their various environmental and industrial hygiene needs. We’re amazed at how far Millennium has grown over the past 21 years which couldn’t have been possible without you. Thank you again and Millennium sends you warm holiday wishes! (Please note that our office will be closed from December 24 to December 25).
Belgatos Reservoir Project
Millennium Consulting Associates provided a data gap survey and sampling at the Belgatos Reservoir located in Los Gatos, CA. Our Project Manager, Cornelius Harris, explains Millennium's findings that were able to accelerate the hazardous materials removal process, resulting in the demolition and removal of structures to be completed much sooner.
Say Hello to Our IH Project Manager!
Sarah Anderson-Flores joined Millennium’s Oakland office in May as an Industrial Hygiene Project Manager. She has done an excellent job in managing our field technicians’ schedules, managing resources, compiling reports and conducting site walks. Before expecting, she helped out in the field with industrial hygiene tasks. Millennium is thankful for her positive energy, hardworking ethics, and having her join our team!
Millennium Welcomes Scott Nunes to the Team
Millennium is excited to welcome Mr. Scott Nunes as our new Director of Building Sciences in the Southern California Division.
Recent Achievements at Millennium
We’re proud to announce that Aaron Alvarez and Beverly Buchanan recently passed their lead and asbestos certification exams! Aaron, a senior industrial hygiene technician at Millennium, passed his Lead Project Monitor Written Exam on his first attempt. He’s successfully received his CDPH and is currently studying for his upcoming CSST exam.
Beverly, recently promoted to Assistant Project Manager, passed her CAC exam. As a CSST, she gained experience in assisting site and building surveys for demolition and renovation, abatement monitoring for construction and Naturally Occurring Asbestos operations, perimeter and personal air monitoring, data entry and survey report writing, and research of asbestos regulation and work practices. Millennium is excited to see our team continue to challenge themselves and we wish them the best of luck!
Our New Assistant Project Manager
Millennium is thrilled to announce the promotion of Beverly Buchanan to Assistant Project Manager of Millennium Consulting Associates! Beverly, previously an Environmental Field Technician, has been at Millennium for two years. In those two years, Beverly has quickly gained experience in assessing hazards on various job sites, training others for mitigating hazards, conducting safety audits, and preparing root cause analysis reports. While at Millennium, she successfully obtained the CA Department of Public Health Lead-Related Construction certificate and recently, she passed her Certified Asbestos Consultant exam. As an Assistant Project Manager, Beverly’s role will expand to lead tasks, manage budgets, work with clients, and do design work that relates to K-12 remediation and abatement projects. Millennium is excited to have Beverly in this new role and looks forward to seeing her continued growth and success!
Managing Hazmat Costs through Environmental Construction Design by Ramil Arcia
For the K-12 clientele and the general school system, Millennium Consulting continues to exhibit a strong presence within the education infrastructure. The company provides various environmental services to support construction and modernization objectives. Client project managers are tasked with a myriad of responsibilities that extend beyond hazardous materials management, including budget control, design coordination, timely deliverables, communication with faculty, administration and parents, and settling contractor disputes with construction management. These responsibilities are usually numerous and challenging. The goal of an environmental designer is to help navigate the design and work closely with the construction team to abate as much of the hazardous materials onsite within the limits of the project scope and budget. For maximum abatement, it is crucial that the environmental designer know the most integral aspects of the construction design from scope creation to procurement of contract documents to construction execution. As a result, the environmental designer communicates effectively to the client the benefits of maximum hazardous materials removal regardless of the size of the project.
Budget’s Impact on Abatement
Abatement options are generally determined by the budget. Abatement of building materials outside of the proposed scope of renovation must be justified to fit the constraints of the budget. An environmental designer must not only consider the costs of removal, but also the costs of installation. For example, entire room flooring systems may not be included within the architectural and construction schematics, resulting in the risk of inflating the budget if it is later determined that the removal of all flooring, any obstructing materials and installation of new flooring is required. Consequently, an increased budget may take away funds that could be spent on other building systems in greater need of improvement.
Environmental Designer’s Impact on Abatement
On the other hand, an environmental designer working with building systems that have a comprehensive renovation plan can maximize the abatement of hazardous materials by becoming familiar with the details of both the architectural and each trade design for the project. An environmental engineer can realize the potential opportunities to fully abate hazardous materials by learning additional facets of design such as mechanical, electrical, plumbing, structural and fire safety details. For instance, knowing how ceiling fan units are stabilized through the plenum on a ceiling sprayed with asbestos acoustical plaster and lead paint can give the designer valuable information on the exact amount of the ceiling that requires removal. With this knowledge and constant coordination with the architect, electrical and mechanical designer, the environmental designer can propose changes to the scope of the ceiling removal to the client if the costs are within the budget and the benefits of full removal are logical. Moreover, the environmental designer can also project operations and maintenance cost savings and help placate any reservations of full abatement within the current construction project.
Conclusion
Overall, the goal of the environmental designer is to help coordinate and maximize abatement scope that makes the most sense within the current construction project and ongoing maintenance. By working with the client managers, architects, trade designers and the project site, the environmental designer can assist the facility to reduce and eliminate all hazardous materials as much as possible within every renovation and modernization project.
