Former Indian Refining refinery/natural gas/pipeline facilities - Lawrenceville, IL - Confidential Clients - Focused Resources worked in a data management and Lead Researcher position for  multiple legal, technical and real estate teams over 16 years on this site involving 100+ years of data (hard-copy and electronic). In 1998, we were first asked to locate, compile and manage information necessary for the Remedial Investigation/ Feasibility Study (RI/FS) workplan phase of this Superfund site. This facility complex had gone through five owner/operator changes, only one of which included our client(s). In addition to the environmental assessment, remediation and restoration activities, there were numerous legal actions involving the State of Illinois, the US government over World War II claims, four successor owners/operators (several claiming bankruptcy status), property owners (including right-of-way agreements),  and a Class Action lawsuit involving local residents.

Focused Resources' team captured 125, 000 hand-selected documents (1.32M pages) from ten different sources (archives for predecessor & successor owners/operators, consultants, law firms and agencies) located nationally. We designed a process flow by which the responsive, hard-copy data, representing 75 years of operations, were scanned or digitized into an electronic format, bibliographically indexed and uploaded into one database in FYI Concordance. We also located 14 other databases and had that data migrated into our comprehensive database. This resulted in 71  gigbytes (GBs) of project data. Throughout the litigations (involving twelve different law firms), Focused Resources continued to serve as our client's Lead Researcher, for the technical and real estate teams,  producing the information necessary to appropriately respond to all aspects of their efforts from assessment through restoration.

Claims/Litigation Support - Client: Chevron Corporation - We have consulted for Chevron Environmental Management Company, Chevron Business & Real Estate Services, Chevron Mining Company, Chevron Pipeline Company, Chevron Law department performing as their Researcher/Information Management/Consulting Expert on technical and legal teams. We have conducted research, and/or evaluations, for hundreds of projects (for 50+ different project managers/engineers and attorneys) throughout the United States. Our research focuses on determining the legacy liability at Superfund sites, off-site disposal sites/landfills, service stations, terminals, pump stations, pipelines, refineries, manufactured gas plants, exploration/production well/sump sites, mines and chemical plants.

 

Due to Chevron's extensive list of predecessor and successor entities, we have become experts on the owner/operator history of hundreds of companies from the 1800s. We have compiled, reviewed, evaluated and managed millions of pages of documentary evidence over the course of our 30+-year relationship with the oil, gas, energy and chemical industries.  Focused Resources' reports are also used to limit risk for ongoing operations and assessment, remediation and restoration project personnel by influencing Health & Safety and Strategic Site plans.

Refugio Beach Oil Spill from Line 901 (Plains All American Pipeline, LP) - Client: Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP and Grey Fox, LLC -  We were contracted as the Consulting Expert  for the legal and technical teams performing tasks (compliance, strategic planning, litigation support, research & data management) resulting from the May-2015 Refugio Beach Oil Spill (RBOS) in Santa Barbara County, California, along Line 901 with Plains All American Pipeline, LP [(Plains); owner/operator] as named Responsible Party.  This RBOS emergency response, clean up, and restoration, which includes our client's property, was directed initially under a Unified/Incident Command structure. The ongoing  mitigation, leak-prevention review, and Natural Resource Damage Assessment activities (under two federal orders and State and local permits) are  also being directed,  and/or reviewed, by fifteen federal, state and local agencies. The impacts of the estimated 144,000 gallon "oil" spill to our client's property (Release Site and Section 1),  measured approximately 24 feet deep (rupture area) and extended laterally 100 feet to the west and 450 feet to the east of Line 901 "rupture" site. Section 1 project results, protective of our client and any future land use,  have included soil clean up to "residential environmental site levels" as well as additional Mobilization and Demobilization 'Exit Sampling' throughout the property, including the access road to the Release Site/Section 1, used by Plains' and the agencies' personnel, agents, contractors and subcontractors.

For more photographs please see PORTFOLIO section.

Contaminated Groundwater - Chlorinated Hydrocarbons (TCE/PCE) -  Confidential clients: Law firms, State agency, public utility, insurance company, oil companies - We have consulted on multiple cases in locales including California (Claremont, Costa Mesa, Southgate), Massachusetts (Ashland, Concord) and Washington (Seattle, Queen Anne, Mountlake Terrace) in which drinking water resources have been impacted by dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLS) also known as chlorinated hydrocarbons such as tetrachloroethylene (TCE) or perchloroethylene (PCE).  We have consulted as research experts, legal teams' consulting expert, investigation/assessment experts, as well as remediation/restoration experts. We have also successfully eliminated, or minimized, our clients' financial exposure to this legacy liability. Using our expertise to conduct creative,  non-conventional investigations into the land-use history of predecessor and successor owners and operators, we have been able to reliably reconstruct both the liability, "fate & transport" and assessment/remediation scenarios. Also due to our comprehensive investigations, the overall assessment/remediation costs were reduced by focusing on specific targets rather than a "broad and over burdensome" approach.

Litigation Support - Confidential client: Public sector - California County District Attorney's office - Groundwater Vulnerability Study Project (county-wide) - We were contracted as the legal teams' Research/Consulting Expert. The county-wide project  was generated  as a result of a ten-year national Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) lawsuit by water districts in which our client chose not to settle. Our study was designed to evaluate the overall risk to the groundwater resources associated with various land uses involving chemicals and hazardous material, and the potential to claim "damages". 

Site Screening for school sitings - Kroll Associates Inc for Confidential client(s) - Contracted as Lead Environmental Investigators we conducted research and evaluation involving the sites in a dispute between a major Unified School District and a major international insurance company.  Ten sites chosen for initial litigation were used to develop a Review (Cost Allocation) Protocol by which hundreds of properties were evaluated.

Crucial findings on this ten-site project: One investigation, involving  30+ parcels, led to the cancellation of the siting of a high school on what is now a Superfund site (named by USEPA after our investigation). Another investigation identified arsenic contamination in the shallow soil at an elementary school. This soil, within the top 5 feet, had never been sampled by the school district's consultants, USEPA or CA Department of Toxic Substance Control. This finding was substantial since arsenic contamination had been found, due to sampling events, at depth on this site. Our investigation also identified the potential source of arsenic being from the filling of the former Los Angeles River natural channel by city, county and federal agencies, apparently while the concrete-lined channel was being dug. 

National Enforcement Investigation Center (NEIC) Audit by USEPA and Department of Justice - Client: Major oil company - We were originally, hand selected by the management of a Bakersfield Refinery to develop and implement a data-management program during a multi-agency "Enforcement" audit.  Within 4 days of receiving a 10-page, single-spaced list of data categories, investigators of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Department of Justice arrived on site to investigate the facility. This one-week investigation involved the facility's entire operation, staff and management and their compliance with a myriad of regulations covering multiple media (air, water, waste, chemicals).  We designed and implemented a unique, 'triage-style' Information Management (IM) process flow. The process flow required a series of Quality Control measures (every page reviewed by legal counsel), allowed for the data (compiled in a specially created secure file/data room) to be available for review by federal enforcement agents. The IM process flow allowed the facility to keep  control, and preservation, of the data, for the on-going operations of the refinery.  Reportedly our protocols became the federal National Enforcement Investigation Center (NEIC) audit/information management standard.

Compliance Audits/Inspections - Client: Majors & Fox Law Firm - We were hired as Consulting Experts for these confidential projects on nationwide Automobile Repair Centers. We conducted investigations (audits/inspections) which include  Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) compliance inspections as a tool to demonstrate actual (versus published) compliance in their environmental programs. The findings of these audits were used during a class-action lawsuit  and settlement negotiations. Creative settlement included the implementation of an enhanced, nation-wide compliance program utilizing our recommendations.

"Universal Settlement - Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA)" for New Jersey  - Client: major oil company - The client negotiated with the State of New Jersey (NJ) to develop a protocol by which a one-time settlement could be made on all Natural Resource Damage claims. Ms. Coughlin developed the research and evaluation criteria for thousands of sites across NJ for a 75-year timeframe. Ms. Coughlin then successfully resurrected defensible "spill" data (hard copy and electronic) on Chevron, and its predecessor and successor entities including  Unocal, Getty, Texaco, Associated/Flying A, Tidewater, Cumberland Farms & PowerTest sites across the entire state. The research findings, also defended by Ms. Coughlin, were used to successfully calculate the NRDA settlement with NJ. This research criteria was later recommended by NJ to be used by other major oil companies for their NJ's State-wide NRDA settlements. This Universal Settlement (including the research protocol) was the first of its kind, used as a model by the State agencies of NJ.

Litigation, technical & compliance support  - Confidential clients: Joint Environmental Investigation and Remediation Committee  (JEIRC) - Bay area refinery - Ms. Coughlin is an award winning, Technical Lead (from one of three Responsible Parties) involved in designing a 3-Party Technical Committee for this multi-party refinery clean up. This committee was formed during litigation to manage the investigation and remediation on the oldest operating solvent refinery in the nation (100+ years old, 2100 acre on Suisan Bay in Martinez, California). The Technical Committee support to the on-site owner/operator's legal and HES staff involved program and project management including numerous investigations, assessments, and remedial actions. The JEIRC achieved, cost effectively for all three parties, compliance with 3 Orders [2- California Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) and 1-United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)].  The original three member technical team was responsible for the  development of creative, focused solutions (administrative and technical) on an operating refinery. These solutions include standards for project initiation, accounting protocol, contractor-selection protocol, well-integrity program, Enhanced Product Recovery program, unique database design. We were also approved for development/implementation of one of the first Perimeter Plans, approved by the both State and Federal agencies, in a drinking-water aquifer in Contra Costa County.