Water Footprint

Locus cloud-based software offers the solution for the complex problem of footprinting water quality

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., May 24, 2010 — In response to international recognition of the need for industry to increase its water reporting efforts, Locus Technologies (Locus), leader in cloud-based environmental compliance and information management software, has expanded its award winning Environmental Information Management (EIM) software to include water quality footprinting capabilities for businesses.

EIM’s expanded functionality enables companies to manage and organize their water quality data on a larger and more comprehensive scale using cloud-based computing and storage, thus avoiding the need to buy additional environmental software or store the same data in more than one location. And, Locus’ innovative enterprise software model employs mashups — applications that integrate data or functionality from multiple sources or technologies — offering the potential to completely upend the way a corporation manages its water data.

There is little dispute in both scientific and business communities that water shortages represent a worldwide challenge no less important than climate change. Water is a finite resource, growing in scarcity as the world’s population explodes. The worldwide water shortage is acute — less than three percent of the world’s water supply is drinking water. In addition, there is one notable difference between water and air emissions. Any emission of unwanted gases into the air can be almost instantly remediated by cutting off the source. However, any gases that have escaped cannot be recaptured to be remediated. In contrast, water that is contaminated frequently can be treated, but the process is generally lengthy, costly, and energy-intensive. Once contaminated, water needs to be monitored until cleaned. Water is vital and its value varies according to locality, use, and conditions.

Over the last 15 years, Locus has focused on water quality and related issues. The company has a world-class team of experts with deep domain knowledge in this field. Locus’ flagship application EIM is successfully deployed at thousands of sites worldwide and contains organized water quality information at millions of locations. Existing regulations require monitoring and reporting of both groundwater and surface water contamination from various industrial processes, spills, and other releases. Until recently, such voluminous data was kept mainly to comply with regulatory reporting requirements regarding effluents and contamination.

However, governments and other voluntary reporting organizations such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the non-profit Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) are shifting their focus from compliance-based monitoring and reporting of effluents to reporting on the scarcity and quality of drinking water supplies, in effect monitoring the “water footprint” required of industry, agriculture, and manufacturing. The water accounting is the next big challenge for business.

CDP late last year launched its Water Disclosure initiative, seeking to increase reporting on water-related risks and opportunities, especially by companies operating in water-intensive sectors. CDP Water Disclosure will provide critical water-related data from the world’s largest corporations to inform the global market place on investment risk and commercial opportunity.

The total volume of freshwater used by a business defines its water quantity footprint. Water quantity footprints are measured in terms of volume of water consumed and/or contaminated per unit of time and are relatively easy to calculate. Such is not the case for water quality footprints, which require analyzing water samples for a potentially endless number of chemical parameters that define water quality in accordance with various regulatory standards such as the Clean Water Act. The amount and quantity of data generated in this process is staggering and unmanageable without sophisticated software tools, such as EIM provides.

“Water management issues represent a potentially huge area of risk for business. Reducing one’s water footprint should be part of the environmental strategy of a business, just like reducing one’s carbon footprint or energy usage already is. Our customers have traditionally focused on meeting emission standards associated with releases to water, air, and soil,” said Dr. Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus.

“Meeting emission standards for compliance purposes is one thing, but looking at how effluents’ management actually results in lower risk, reduced energy consumption, improved operational efficiency, and ultimately an improved bottom line is another thing. Leaders who create water quality transparency for their companies before others do, and who formulate specific and measurable targets with respect to water footprint reduction, can turn this into a competitive advantage and Locus software can help them do that,” continued Duplan.

San Francisco Chronicle | The Gulf Spill: Shut down the well first

It appears that almost the entire focus of the response to the BP oil rig spill in the Gulf of Mexico is on how to deal with the oil on the surface of the water. The focus needs to be on shutting down the well.

Full article here.

EPA Calls for Stricter Drinking-Water Standards

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning to tighten standards for four water contaminants that can cause cancer as part of a new strategy to toughen drinking-water regulation.

EPA said it will start rulemakings to revise standards for two contaminants used in industrial or textile processing, tetracholorethylene and trichloroethylene, within the year. The EPA will follow that rulemaking by setting stricter standards for epichlorohydrin and acrylamide, which can contaminate drinking water through the water-treatment process.
Speaking at a conference of the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said her agency is now developing a broad new set of strategies to strengthen public health protection from contaminants in drinking water.

“To confront emerging health threats, strained budgets and increased needs—today’s and tomorrow’s drinking water challenges—we must use the law more effectively and promote new technologies,” she said.

Ms. Jackson said the agency would now address contaminants as a group rather than individually, saying the current process is too time-consuming and fails to take advantage of cost-effective programs and technology. She said the EPA would also help to foster new technologies, use existing laws more stringently and partner with states to share data from public-water systems.

The agency is also assessing 14 other contaminants, including law and copper, chromium, fluoride, arsenic, atrazine and perchlorate.

Locus and Overhoff to Offer Real Time Tritium Monitoring and Compliance Software at Nuclear Facilities

Cloud Computing Solution for Tritium Transparency at Nuclear Power Plants

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., March 15, 2010 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in web-based environmental compliance and information management software, and Overhoff Technology Corporation, the world’s leader in the design and manufacture of Tritium monitors and radiation monitoring systems, have partnered to offer a complete Tritium monitoring solution for the nuclear industry using Overhoff’s Tritium instrumentation and Locus’ award winning Cloud Computing software.

As the new Administration advocates expansion of America’s nuclear power industry, pushing for billions of dollars in federal incentives and announcing plans to build the first nuclear plant in decades, new issues have arisen regarding leaking and possibly dangerous levels of Tritium, a radioactive byproduct of the nuclear process. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which oversees the inspection and licensing of nuclear facilities, says roughly 30 of the nation’s 104 reactor units have experienced Tritium leaks. According to the NRC, none of the leaks have impacted public health or safety but, the unmonitored and unexpected releases have raised concerns within the industry and among watchdog groups nationwide.

Similar concerns regarding leaks at several plants in the mid 2000’s prompted the members of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) to put forth a Ground Water Protection Initiative (NEI-07-07) in 2007. This Initiative identifies actions that utilities can take to improve their management and response to instances where the inadvertent release of radioactive substances may result in low but detectible levels of plant-related materials in subsurface soils and water, even when these are well below the NRC limits pertaining to the protection of public health and safety. One of the key actions that adoptees of the Initiative are expected to undertake is the establishment of an on-site groundwater monitoring program involving on site monitoring or regular sampling and analyses to ensure the timely detection of inadvertent radiological releases. The Tritium groundwater challenge was addressed in 2009 when Locus introduced the nuclear module for its flagship product EIM that is already deployed at several nuclear power plants.

According to the NRC, additional requirements pertaining to the monitoring of air releases of Tritium and Carbon-14 are likely to be promulgated in the future. To meet these requirements, new monitoring instruments and data management tools will have to be installed since many facilities are still using over 30-year old stack monitors and few, if any currently have H-3 or C-14 stack monitors in place.

For those nuclear facilities wanting to fulfill their responsibility under existing (e.g., 10CFR-51 and 10CFR-52) as well as likely forthcoming regulations, the Locus/TA Overhoff solution provides a complete system for Tritium monitoring. TA-Overhoff has been designing and manufacturing nuclear air and stack monitors since 1946. The company recently announced the new, state-of-the-art CAM-TC and CAM-TCI series monitors. The model CAM-TC is a full-service, state-of the-art, stack monitor that reads, analyzes and records Beta-Gamma Particulates, Iodine, Noble Gases, C-14, Tritium and optionally, Alpha Particulates. The data captured by the CAM-TC monitors is immediately passed to Locus’ EIM where it is managed and integrated with groundwater and other monitoring data. Within EIM, graphs can be plotted, reports generated, maps can be produced and statistical analyses performed.

“Nearly all of the activities associated with water and air protection at nuclear power plants, including the assessment of site characteristics, the ongoing monitoring of site conditions, and decommissioning of old plants or permitting of new plants, involve the collection and/or analysis of data. The tools and systems used to manage and store this information must satisfy strict NRC security and QA/QC requirements such as NQA-1 or ISO 9001:2008 to ensure that only the appropriate people can access the data, and that the quality of the data adheres to the highest NRC standards. It is also critical that these applications allow engineers and scientists to do their work in a cost-effective way, allowing them to focus less of their time on finding the data they need and formatting various outputs, and more on the evaluation and analysis of these data. In addition data must be transparent and verifiable to all stakeholders. All of these requirements are instantly met using Locus/Overhoff monitoring and data management solution. We are very pleased that Overhoff Technology has decided to join forces with Locus. The company’s outstanding reputation for having monitors that excel in performance will enhance Locus’ offering in the important nuclear monitoring market,” said Dr. Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus.

“We are very pleased to join with Locus to bring an integrated and elegant solution to address the nuclear industry’s Tritium monitoring needs. Our experience in producing hundreds of different types of monitors for different users, coupled with Locus’ market leader position in Cloud Computing-based environmental data management, will benefit our joint clients,” said Dr. Robert I. Goldstein, President and CEO of Overhoff.

 

ABOUT OVERHOFF
Founded in 1972, Overhoff Technology Corporation specializes in the design and manufacture of Tritium monitors. With the world’s largest selection of Tritium monitors, Overhoff can offer monitors ranging from simple hand held units to complex integrated digital radiation monitoring systems.

For more information, visit www.overhoff.com or email sales@overhoff.com.

San Francisco Chronicle | One word: emissions

CEO Neno Duplan would not disclose the dollar amount of the contract, which was announced last week, but, he said, “I can tell you, in this industry, it doesn’t get bigger than this.”

Full article here. 

Locus Technologies Wins Environmental Business Journal’s 2009 Business Achievement: Information Award

The 2009 crop of winners contended with what likely was the most challenging business conditions in history.

EPA Delays Start of New Rules on Emissions

The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Monday the agency would delay subjecting large greenhouse-gas emitters such as power plants and crude-oil refiners to new regulations until 2011, and would raise the threshold for using the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.

This decision will be welcomed by the industry but will also afect many GHG (single product) software companies.

ExxonMobil to Implement Locus EIM Worldwide

ExxonMobil to Implement Locus EIM Worldwide

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., February 22, 2010 — Locus Technologies, the industry leader in Cloud Computing-based environmental compliance and information management software, today announced that it has received a 2009 Business Achievement Award in Information Technology (IT) from the Environmental Business Journal (EBJ). This award recognizes Locus for significantly expanding its client base and its product line.

In 2009, Locus expanded its Software as a Service (SaaS) applications in the areas of environmental compliance, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions monitoring, Environment, Health and Safety (EH&S) and sustainability, and added clients in the utilities, grocery and engineered materials industry sectors. Locus also expanded its presence in its key market—oil and gas—by starting worldwide implementation of its environmental information management (EIM) product at ExxonMobil. In addition, the company expanded its presence in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) market.

Locus also gained recognition among key IT independent research analysts with initiation of coverage by Gartner, Verdantix, and UtiliPoint for its position in enterprise-level environmental software offered through its Cloud Computing platform. Also in 2009, Locus received accreditation by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to provide GHG emissions verification services, one of just a few companies to obtain this status.

“We are honored to be recognized for the fourth time by the Environmental Business Journal with its Business Achievement Award,” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus Technologies. “The year 2009 was an outstanding one for Locus. As one of the oldest and most established providers of EH&S software using the Cloud Computing model, we broadened our offerings by introducing an entirely new category of SaaS GHG and sustainability products for the environmental industry, while at the same time solidifying our position at the top of water quality management services. We also significantly enhanced our Fortune 100 customer base, who embraced our new offerings.”

Said Environmental Business Journal Editor Grant Ferrier: “Locus has continued to innovate and demonstrate its leadership position in the environmental software industry by expanding its Cloud Computing-based services from water quality management to GHG and Sustainability offerings. We congratulate them on their continued innovation and success in serving the environmental business community.”

The EBJ Business Achievement Awards will be presented during the Environmental Industry Summit 2010, scheduled for March 3-5 in San Diego.

 

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL BUSINESS JOURNAL
Environmental Business Journal (EBJ), a ZweigWhite publication, is the leading business publication for companies operating in the environmental industry. EBJ provides a strategic overview and an independent perspective on market trends and business strategies that affect this changing industry including competitive strategies, new business opportunities, and up-to-date market trends and data.

For more information, visit www.ebionline.org.

Congress to investigate hydraulic fracturing for concerns about potential drinking-water contamination

WSJ reported today that concerns about potential drinking-water contamination are prompting Congress to investigate hydraulic fracturing, a controversial drilling technique that has helped boost U.S. natural-gas production. Hydrofracturing has been used by the oil industry for decades but has become far more common in recent years as companies discovered large new gas fields  in the US. The resulting drilling boom helped U.S. gas production surge by about 20% since 2005, but sparked concerns that chemicals from the process could seep into drinking-water supplies.

“As we use this technology in more parts of the country on a much larger scale, we must ensure that we are not creating new environmental and public health problems,” Mr. Waxman, chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, said in a statement.

The industry beleives that hydrofracturing is safe and with proper tools like Locus EIM water quality management software can prove that hydrofracturing can be managed to protect groundwater resources. Now, more than ever, a proper water quality management tools are necessary to address skeptics and prove that hydraulic fracturing is not linked to large scale drinking water contamination.  It is almost certain that EPA will legislate this technology and require better monitoring and reporting.