UCLA Extension inaugurates Certificate Program in Site Investigation and Remediation.

As more companies of all sizes scramble to comply with the growing body of hazardous waste management regulations, they are running up against an unexpected foe: a lack of trained personnel.

The real crunch comes in the specific area of site remediation, the cleaning up of land that has been contaminated by hazardous or toxic waste. Although ever more sophisticated technologies are being developed for such projects, their implementation is being slowed down by a dearth of professionals with expertise in the application of new techniques.

In the Winter Quarter 1994, UCLA Extension inaugurates a curriculum designed to meet the need for site remediation experts. And those who complete the two-year continuing education program should be kept busy: by some estimates, up to $400 billion will be spent on industry and governmental environmental cleanup efforts over the next 30 years.

One indicator of employment trends can be found in the recent announcement that the Department of Energy will soon be hiring 400 site remediation experts for the cleanup of radiological mixed waste.

While the environmental field as a whole has experienced a recession -- linked slump of late, there has been a shortage of personnel in the special niche of new site remediation technologies. This shortage is projected to become even more acute as efforts to clean up sites that have been contaminated throughout the 20th century move into high gear in the years to come.

UCLA Extension's new Certificate Program in Site Investigation and Remediation is a focused, 36-unit curriculum concentrating on the growing body of material directly related to environmental cleanup. Courses cover such topics as the legal framework for site remediation, scientific concepts in environmental management, the environmental aspects of soils engineering and geology, groundwater cleanup, remediation technologies, risk assessment, and health and safety for hazardous materials management.

Explains UCLA Extension Continuing Education Specialist Margaret Hamilton, "We have seen strong signals coming from the federal government indicating that a number of agencies intend to be active in the area of environmental cleanup in the 1990s. This program addresses the increasing need for engineers and scientists specializing in site remediation and cleanup."

Instructor William Powers, PhD, an environmental program manager with the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center, adds, "The EPA projects that the remediation market on the national level will top $5.5 billion and that the international market will top $4.5 billion in the next few years, including Department of Defense and Department of Energy cleanups, along with industrial cleanups."

Says Powers, who was with the EPA in its earliest years (1970-75) to work on registration of pesticides and toxic substances, "The EPA has noted that the majority of cleanups today still use the old technologies -- excavate, haul, landfill, incinerate -- and it wants more innovative technologies to be used."

These preferred technologies, he points out, include:

* Chemical dechlorination for PCBs, a method using inexpensive baking soda in a low-temperature thermal treatment process to strip chlorine out of contaminated soil (the technical term is "base catalyzed decomposition process");

* A physical separation process for soils that have been contaminated with such metals as lead, cadmium and copper. This process modifies traditional mining extraction processes using centrifugal separators, gravity separators and shakers;

* Air sparging (putting air into the ground to try to volatilize hydrocarbons in the groundwater so that they can be easily extracted);

* Aerobic biofilters (using the clean soil of a nearby unsaturated zone as a filter when vapor is drawn through first the contaminated and then the clean soil to allow microorganisms to biologically degrade hydrocarbons);

* Bioventing (slow movement of air through the unsaturated zone, allowing microbiological processes to occur).

Says Powers, "UCLA Extension's program will help to fill the information gap and lack of trained professionals that have in part held the industry back from implementing these types of technologies." Powers' class, "Principles of Site Investigation and Remediation," meets on nine Saturday mornings, January 22 - March 26, 8 a.m.-noon, at the World Trade Center, 350 S. Figueroa St.

Another instructor who has taught for UCLA Extension environmental science certificate programs is Nestor Acedera, project manager, Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. He points out the difficulties of teaching about, let alone applying, new technologies, saying, "Because no two sites are alike, it's tough to standardize specific technology parameters. Community aspects, location, contaminants and local requirements all have to be considered, along with the fact that most of the problems with which we're dealing are below the surface, involving such inexact, interpretive sciences as geology and hydrogeology."

Students, he says, particularly value the wealth of application examples and case studies that they encounter in Extension courses. "The things we teach often can't be learned in college. Our students appreciate the fact that they're learning about what's happening in the real world."

Sam Unger, MS, a principal engineer at Jacobs Engineering who is scheduled to teach remedial technologies in the Spring, points out a subtle shift in government philosophy away from strict regulations. "Through a variety of programs, such as emission control credits, inducements are replacing regulatory requirements for companies to become more environmentally responsible.

"We'll see this in remediation, too," he adds. "No doubt in years to come companies will have a choice of remediation solutions."

Extension's Winter Quarter site remediation classes include:

* "Environmental Aspects of Soils Engineering and Geology," an introduction to geotechnical engineering and geology, meeting on 12 Thursdays, January 13 - March 31, 6:30-9:30, at the World Trade Center, 350 S. Figueroa St.

* "Legal Framework for Site Investigation and Remediation," a review of laws which mandate and describe cleanup activity, taking place on 12 Thursdays, January 13 - March 31, 6:30-9:30 p.m., Boelter Hall, UCLA.

* "Social Dynamics and Conflict Resolution in Environmental Management," an elective helping students to recognize the impact of communications processes on their technical and political interactions, meeting at UCLA on six Fridays and Saturdays, February 4-5, 11-12, and 25-26.

The fee for each course is $335. The site remediation program augments Extension's certificate programs in hazardous materials management, air quality management and recycling and waste management. For details, call [phone].

John G. Watson is a Public Information Representative for the Engineering, Information Systems and Technical Management programs at UCLA Extension.