National Clothesline

In North Carolina, the Dry-Cleaning Solvent Cleanup Program is moving forward and preparing to spend $80 million to clean up groundwater contamination on hundreds of current and abandoned perc-using plants.

Recently, the North Carolina State Building Commission authorized officials at the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources to negotiate contracts with four environmental consulting firms who will soon begin testing and cleanup operations on 61 drycleaning sites that have petitioned to come into the program. That number, however, will likely increase as many more plants may apply for cleanup consideration now that the program is underway.

Dwindled down from a list that included over 30 potential clients, the four environmental consultant firms chosen were: MACTEC, Inc. of Greensboro; Shield Engineering, Inc. of Charlotte; and two firms from Raleigh — Metcalf & Eddy and the ENSR Corporation.

The four companies will each receive $600,000 contracts for testing and cleanup. This is good news for North Carolina drycleaners since the funding has long been a work in progress.

In 1997, the state’s General Assembly began putting a plan in effect to offer relief for state drycleaners from the potentially staggering financial burdens of cleaning up contaminated sites. To combat the problem, a $10 per gallon solvent tax was levied on perc, contributing about $4 million to the cause. That money will now be used to hire the four consultant firm contracts.

By the year 2000, it was apparent that a lot more money would need to be raised so the North Carolina legislature approved a secondary means of raising money — diverting the state’s 4% sales tax imposed on drycleaning into the available cleanup funds. That effort is expected to raise revenues to $80 million over the course of the next decade.

Fortunately, cleaners won’t have to wait that long for help. The first of the money from the fund will be available as early as July of 2003. Statutes of the law dictate that drycleaning sites will be cleaned up on a “worst-sites-first” basis.

So far, North Carolina has a list of 110 sites that are known to be contaminated. DENR officials believe that the total number may be much higher statewide, landing in the 900 to 1,200 range.

In order to be eligible for financial help, it is entirely up to drycleaning plant owners, or, in other cases, property owners, to voluntarily petition.

Before site owners are accepted into the program they must demonstrate that they are capable of paying a deductible between $5,000 and $39,000 for the first $200,000 in clean-up costs. They will also be responsible for a 1 to 3 percent co-payment on cleanup costs between $200,000 and $400,000.

Potential candidates for the program may apply by downloading application forms on DSCA’s web site, which is located at www.ncdsca.org. The forms, which are in Microsoft Word format, may be completed by hand or electronically; there is no deadline to apply for certification.

Application forms may also be obtained by mail. To make a request, contact Scott Ross, Public Information Assistant, at the following address: Division of Waste Management, 401 Oberlin Rd. Suite 150, Raleigh, NC, 27605; or call (919) 733-4996.

Live equipment demonstrations will be the highlight at Steiner-Atlantic’s Miami EXPO ’03 on Saturday and Sunday, February 8 and 9. The event, which is free to the public, will take place at the Steiner-Atlantic Corporation, located at 290 NE 68th St. in Miami, FL.

Some of the equipment companies that will be present at the event include: AMA Universal, Ajax, Unipress, Aero-Tech USA, Hurst Boilers, Böwe Permac, Cissell, Forenta, IPSO, Milnor, Union and White.

The alternative solvents will be well represented. Rynex, GreenEarth, Exxon DF2000, Green Jet and wetcleaning will all be operated live on the floor.

Attendees will also have the opportunity to witness the use of shirt units and tensioning equipment. Don Desrosiers of Tailwind Shirt Systems will perform a shirt seminar and demonstration and Everett Childers will discuss solvent alternatives.

EXPO ’03 will feature additional classroom seminars, covering topics such as easy wetcleaning procedures and equipment maintenance. They will be taught by instructors Tammy Kernus and Jim Goulet.

The hours for the show will be 8 a.m. to 4 p.m on Saturday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday.

Anyone interested in staying in a hotel near the event can take advantage of discounted room rates at the Marco Polo Ramada Plaza Beach Resort at 19201 Collins Ave. in North Miami Beach. Cost is $95 per night for single/double occupancy or $125 per night for a room with an ocean view. Both rates include breakfast. Call (877) 327-6363 for reservations.