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CH2M Hill
Specialty: Environmental and infrastructure engineering and construction
Tom Kraemer, CH2M Hill vice president for waste management services for the western United States, said there’s a big issue with jurisdictions moving to greater recycling and waste diversion from landfills. It’s this: Some technologies touted as being able to convert waste to products or energy that can then be sold don’t deliver as promised. “I think the personnel in cities and counties responsible for implementing the mandate to recycle are faced with a real conundrum in deciding which things will work for them or not,” Kraemer said. Some communities “are making bad decisions,” purchasing products that haven’t panned out, he said, and some companies selling such products have gone bankrupt. More local cleanup On another front, Kraemer praised the Puget Sound cleanup Gov. Chris Gregoire is championing — an initiative that will mean a lot of work for environmental firms. “It is extremely comprehensive in that it is identifying a whole variety of sources of contaminants that have gotten into the water, and how to get rid of them, in addition to cleaning up the contamination,” he said. On a different front, Kraemer said federal funds are increasingly being diverted away from environmental management and cleanup. “We’re seeing announcements from federal agencies saying funding will continue to be reduced for environmental cleanup across the U.S.,” he said. Wind farms, landfill gas Kraemer said CH2M Hill is doing quite a bit of work on renewable energy projects. It’s helping with several new wind farms in Washington, Oregon and elsewhere, he said. The company is also doing work locally, with the Ingenco project, and around the world on using flammable gas generated by landfills as fuel to run electric power generators. “That’s clean energy, and we’re helping our clients claim greenhouse gas reduction credits by setting up these systems,” Kraemer said.
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