Posted:
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
Category:
Environmental, Industrial Skills
Now that certification is being required by many states, including Texas, to operate underground storage tanks (USTs) in compliance with state and federal regulations, marketers such as gas-station operators and convenience-store owners are casting about for the best way to get their certification to operate USTs.
360training.com is providing just that training to currently uncertified UST operators in Texas. Recently, the e-learning specialist introduced its UST A/B operator training course, a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ)-approved training program designed to teach the course taker how to detect and prevent UST leaks through proper operation and maintenance as recommended by state and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations.
The course is completely online, as is the final exam, which requires a 70-percent score to pass. The course covers ten topics (including release detection, initial release response and abatement, TCEQ corrective action, waste management, and soil and groundwater cleanup, and installation and technical standards for USTs) in eight lessons. The student must pass the quiz at the end of each lesson to progress to the next. Each quiz requires a passing grade of 70 percent.
The complete underground storage tank training course is available at Learn2serve.com, one of the 360training.com’s portals.
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Posted:
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
Category:
Environmental, Industrial Skills
There are over 590,000 underground storage tanks (USTs) storing petroleum or other potentially hazardous substances in the United States today. Most of these are owned by gas stations and various industries, but some are maintained by commercial properties and government entities. Each one, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is a serious environmental and health threat because it could leak its contents into the groundwater if improperly maintained. About half of the United States sources its drinking water from groundwater.
Recognizing the danger and following the lead of the EPA, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has now required UST owners and operators in the state to undergo approved underground storage tank operator training. The requirement takes effect on September 1, 2012.
360training.com, a leading U.S. e-learning hub and a supporter of public health and the environment, has partnered with Texas Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association and TAIT Environmental to introduce the first TCEQ-approved online underground storage tank training course. The training aims to teach the course taker how to minimize, if not prevent, USTs from leaking gasoline, diesel, and other toxic fuel products into the environment. It also introduces the student to all the state and federal regulations relevant to the safe operation of USTs. On completion of the course the course taker receives a UST operator training to operate and maintain USTs in the state.
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Posted:
Monday, January 16th, 2012
Category:
Environmental, Industrial Skills
Only a few studies have been conducted so far on the economic pluses of building green or of retrofitting a building to be certified green. These pioneering surveys have become important landmarks for an industry that increasingly has no way to go but green—as indeed have its practitioners who are scrambling to earn the coveted Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) credentials, including the LEED Green Associate, via certification programs such as the LEED Green Associate Exam Prep. Given that, general contractors and electrical contractors—who should now be finishing their contractor CE or electrical continuing education—are looking at some busy few years ahead.
In 2008, for instance, the CoStar Group finished a study that revealed that sustainable “green” buildings easily outperform their non-green counterparts in occupancy, sale price, and rental rates.
LEED buildings that year commanded rent premiums of $11.33 per square foot over the non-LEED buildings. They also turned in 4.1 percent higher occupancy. Rental rates in Energy Star buildings enjoyed a $2.40 per square foot premium over comparable non-Energy Star buildings, and returned 3.6 percent higher occupancy.
The study also reported that Energy Star buildings sold for $61 per square foot (on average) better than their counterparts, even while LEED buildings took in $171 more per square foot, stated CoStar.
Those figures have been validated throughout the industry. More than 43,000 projects are now participating in the commercial and institutional LEED rating systems. In floor-space terms, that’s about 8 billion-square-feet of construction space in the U.S. and 120 countries combined. Meanwhile, nearly 15,000 homes have already been awarded LEED certification with much more coming.
The green retrofitting and new construction are coming and the industry is kicking into gear. The best contractor continuing education and electrical continuing education are available online at IndustrialInstitute.com, a 360training.com portal, for those who want to take fully capitalize on the green boom just ahead.
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Posted:
Monday, January 16th, 2012
Category:
Environmental, Industrial Skills
A new trend in construction seems to be hamstringing the industry’s recovery from the four-year-old housing bust and recession. Green retrofitting of commercial buildings, reports insurancejournal.com, is actually outpacing the construction of new green buildings, and by a good margin.
The trend, speculates the article by Don Jergler, points to two things: one, increasingly more building owners are coming to the conclusion that retrofitting their buildings to Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) standards is cost efficient and environmentally correct; two, new construction, which includes new green building projects, has continued to sink in the last four years.
As of December, industry reports have LEED-certified existing buildings surpassing LEED-certified new construction by 15-million square feet on a cumulative basis. McGraw Hill Construction’s “Green Outlook 2011” report projects that by 2015 the green share of the biggest commercial retrofit and renovation activity will grow by over 300 percent, a $14 billion-$18 billion opportunity in major construction projects, especially in big cities such as New York and Dallas. In the next few years, it seems, general contractors and electrical contractors—who should now be finishing their contractor CE or electrical continuing education—are in for a busy time.
“The U.S. is home to more than 60 billion-square-feet of existing commercial buildings, and we know that most of those buildings are energy guzzlers and water sieves,” said Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chair of U.S. Green Building Council, the organization that established LEED. “Greening these buildings takes hands-on work, creating precious jobs especially for construction workers.”
The best contractor continuing education and electrical continuing education are available online at IndustrialInstitute.com for those who want to be fully ready for the green construction and green retrofit just ahead.
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Posted:
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012
Category:
Environmental, Industrial Skills
Time to save the environment!
The State of Texas, the Texas Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association (TPCA), the TAIT Environmental, and 360training.com have come together to help reduce the danger of accidental releases of toxic petroleum products from the state’s many underground storage tanks (USTs)—poisoning the groundwater from which Texas derives a substantial amount of its water supply.
The product of the collaboration is the TPCA Class A and Class B UST Facility Operator Training Course, the first online underground storage tank training approved by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
Elaborating on the milestone course, 360training.com, which provides the coursework, said that the entire course, the check-up tests, and the final exam are conveniently fully online. All the tests, including the final exam, require a 70-percent score to pass.
The course covers ten topics: release detection, initial release response, abatement, and NAPL removal, spill/overfill protection, corrosion protection, installation and technical standards for USTs, investigation and confirmation steps, TCEQ corrective action, waste management, and soil and groundwater cleanup, and financial assurance. The coursework requires the student to pass the check-up test at the end of each of the eight lessons to progress to the next.
Upon passing the final exam, the course taker receives a UST operator training to operate and maintain USTs in Texas. 360training.com announced that if the course is taken now, the certification will be valid for three and a half years.
Interested UST operators can go to Learn2serve.com, a portal of 360training.com, to access the complete underground storage tank training course.
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Posted:
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012
Category:
Environmental, Industrial Skills
Nearly half of the contiguous United States today gets its drinking water from groundwater, the water that that has soaked into the soil and bedrock, accumulating underground in the spaces between rocks and soil particles. It is a critically important natural resource, but its viability is fragile and is under threat.
Over 590,000 underground storage tanks (USTs) containing petroleum or other toxic substances are buried all over the United States today, thanks to its number 1 user, the ubiquitous gas station. Unfortunately, each UST lies in close proximity to groundwater and for that is a grave threat to health and environment if it leaked into the groundwater.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a leak from an improperly operated or maintained UST can easily contaminate a community’s groundwater and poison it. In addition, the agency has cautioned that even if the leak did not contaminate the groundwater, it is still an environmental hazard because it can cause a fire or an explosion.
Texas, given its long-time and extensive association with petrochemicals (its petroleum industry refines 4.6 million barrels of oil a day) and their hazards, is taking decisive steps to mitigate the danger.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is now requiring UST operators and owners in the Lone Star State to undergo mandatory approved underground storage tank operator training—such as 360training.com’s TPCA Class A and Class B UST Facility Operator Training Course—effective September 1, 2012.
The course is the first TCEQ-approved online underground storage tank training and is the product of a collaboration between 360training.com and two partners, Texas Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association and TAIT Environmental. It teaches the proper operation and maintenance of USTs as recommended by state and EPA regulations, so operators will know how to detect and prevent tank releases of diesel, gasoline, and other petroleum products into the environment. The course also educates the student on all the state and federal regulations relevant to the safe operation of USTs.
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Posted:
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
Category:
Environmental, Industrial Skills
LUST is dangerous. LUST is unhealthy. And LUST is everywhere.
LUST, or leaking underground storage tank, was a problem in the making for nearly half a century. The end of World War II kick-started an unprecedented boom in automobile manufacturing, which turned out to be the industrial trigger for the proliferation of gas stations all over the American landscape. That also saw the universal use by the gas stations of underground storage tanks (USTs), nearly all made of steel.
Over 50 years hence—and about a decade past the life expectancy of steel—the USTs are corroded and leaking, putting in danger the environment, the groundwater, and the health and safety of the public. Today, more than 590,000 aging USTs can potentially leak dangerous quantities of petroleum products because rust or improper maintenance has compromised the tanks. (The number is actually down from about a million a few years ago, before the United States Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] decommissioned them.)
To address the developing crisis, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has mandated UST operators and owners in the state to undergo approved underground storage tank operator training, starting September 1, 2012.
In response, 360training.com, a leading e-learning provider, developed the first online TCEQ-approved online course in Texas, the TPCA Class A and Class B UST Facility Operator Training Course. The coursework was made in collaboration with Texas Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association and TAIT Environmental. It took three organizations to put the course together because of the training’s critical mission: To reduce the danger of accidental releases of toxic petroleum products from the state’s many underground storage tanks (USTs), which likely would poison not just the environment but also the groundwater from which Texas gets much of its water.
The TPCA Class A and Class B UST Facility Operator Training Course provides training for the safe operation and proper maintenance of USTs as required by Texas and EPA regulations. It is designed to teach operators to detect and prevent tank releases into the environment. The course also educates the student on all the state and federal regulations relevant to the safe operation of USTs.
By supplying the training, 360training.com and its coursework collaborators hope to contain the danger of LUST and eliminate it in time.
To address the multifaceted nature of UST operation and maintenance, the course covers ten important topics: release detection, initial release response, abatement, and NAPL removal, spill/overfill protection, corrosion protection, installation and technical standards for USTs, investigation and confirmation steps, TCEQ corrective action, waste management, and soil and groundwater cleanup, and financial assurance.
360training.com said that the coursework requires the student to pass the check-up quiz at the end of each of the eight lessons to progress to the next. Upon passing the final exam, the student receives a UST operator certification to operate and maintain USTs in Texas. 360training.com announced that the certification is valid for three and a half years if the course is taken now.
Learn2serve.com, a portal of 360training.com, provides access to the TPCA Class A and Class B UST Operator Training Course.
No Comments »
Posted:
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
Category:
Environmental, Industrial Skills
LUST is dangerous. LUST is unhealthy. And LUST is everywhere.
LUST, or leaking underground storage tank, was a problem in the making for nearly half a century. The end of World War II kick-started an unprecedented boom in automobile manufacturing, which turned out to be the industrial trigger for the proliferation of gas stations all over the American landscape. That, unfortunately, also saw the universal use by the gas stations of underground storage tanks (USTs), nearly all made of steel.
Over 50 years hence—and about a decade past the life expectancy of steel—the USTs are corroded and leaking. And suddenly, the environment, the groundwater, and the health and safety of Americans are all under threat. Today, more than 590,000 USTs are in danger of leaking dangerous quantities of petroleum products because rust or improper maintenance has compromised the tanks. (The number is actually down from about a million a few years ago, before the United States Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] forced half to be decommissioned.)
In response to the crisis, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has mandated that UST operators and owners in the state to complete trainings for their UST operator training requirements—such as 360training.com’s TPCA Class A and Class B UST Operator Training Course—effective September 1, 2012.
The pioneering TCEQ-approved online underground storage tank training, developed by 360training.com in collaboration with Texas Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association and TAIT Environmental, provides training for the safe operation and proper maintenance of USTs as required by Texas and EPA regulations. By design, the course teaches operators how to detect and prevent tank releases into the environment. The course also educates the student on all the state and federal regulations relevant to the safe operation of USTs.
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Posted:
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
Category:
Environmental, Industrial Skills
Three organizations have come together to deliver TPCA Class A and Class B UST Operator Training Course, the pioneering online course on underground storage tanks: the Texas Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association (TPCA), the TAIT Environmental, and 360training.com, the last a leading e-learning hub.
It took three to make it happen because of the training’s critical mission: To reduce the danger of accidental releases of toxic petroleum products from the state’s many underground storage tanks (USTs), which likely would poison not just the environment but also the groundwater from which Texas gets much of its water.
That danger is clear and ever-present: about 590,000 aging USTs, almost all of them owned and operated by gas stations, scattered all over the U.S. are in danger of leaking their contents if they are not properly maintained now or they continue to be incorrectly operated. By providing the training, 360training.com and its coursework collaborators hope to contain the danger and eliminate it in time.
To address the different aspects of safe UST operation and maintenance, the course was designed to cover ten important topics: release detection, initial release response, abatement, and NAPL removal, spill/overfill protection, corrosion protection, installation and technical standards for USTs, investigation and confirmation steps, TCEQ corrective action, waste management, and soil and groundwater cleanup, and financial assurance.
360training.com said that the coursework requires the student to pass the check-up quiz at the end of each of the eight lessons to progress to the next. Upon passing the final exam, the student receives a UST operator training certification to operate and maintain USTs in Texas. 360training.com announced that the certification is valid for three and a half years if the course is taken now.
Learn2serve.com, a portal of 360training.com, provides access to the TPCA Class A and Class B Underground Storage Tank Operator Training Course.
No Comments »
Posted:
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
Category:
Environmental, Industrial Skills
LUST is dangerous. LUST is unhealthy. And LUST is everywhere.
LUST, or leaking underground storage tank, was a problem in the making for nearly half a century. The end of World War II kick-started an unprecedented boom in automobile manufacturing, which turned out to be the industrial trigger for the proliferation of gas stations all over the American landscape. That, unfortunately, also saw the universal use by the gas stations of underground storage tanks (USTs), nearly all made of steel.
Over 50 years hence—and about a decade past the life expectancy of steel—the USTs are corroded and leaking. And suddenly, the environment, the groundwater, and the health and safety of Americans are all under threat. Today, more than 590,000 USTs are in danger of leaking dangerous quantities of petroleum products because rust or improper maintenance has compromised the tanks. (The number is actually down from about a million a few years ago, before the United States Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] forced half to be decommissioned.)
In response to the crisis, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has mandated UST operators and owners in the state to undergo approved underground storage tank operator training, effective September 1, 2012.
The pioneering TCEQ-approved online UST training—known formally as the TPCA Class A and Class B UST Facility Operator Training Course—was developed by 360training.com, a leading e-learning provider, in collaboration with Texas Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association and TAIT Environmental. The course took three organizations to put together because of the training’s critical mission: To reduce the danger of accidental releases of toxic petroleum products from the state’s many underground storage tanks (USTs), which likely would poison not just the environment but also the groundwater from which Texas gets much of its water.
The TPCA Class A and Class B UST Operator Training Course provides training for the safe operation and proper maintenance of USTs as required by Texas and EPA regulations. It is designed to teach operators to detect and prevent tank releases into the environment. The course also educates the student on all the state and federal regulations relevant to the safe operation of USTs.
By providing the training, 360training.com and its coursework collaborators hope to contain the danger of LUST and eliminate it in time.
To address the multifaceted nature of UST operation and maintenance, the course covers ten important topics: release detection, initial release response, abatement, and NAPL removal, spill/overfill protection, corrosion protection, installation and technical standards for USTs, investigation and confirmation steps, TCEQ corrective action, waste management, and soil and groundwater cleanup, and financial assurance.
360training.com said that the coursework requires the student to pass the check-up quiz at the end of each of the eight lessons to progress to the next. Upon passing the final exam, the student receives a UST operator certification to operate and maintain USTs in Texas. 360training.com announced that the certification is valid for three and a half years if the course is taken now.
Learn2serve.com, a portal of 360training.com, provides access to the TPCA Class A and Class B UST Facility Operator Training Course.
No Comments »
