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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Who can forget the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, quite possibly the world’s worst industrial and environmental disaster of all time? It killed 11 workers and cost untold billions in damages. It also galvanized the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to develop an action plan on international standards to aid…

Finally after three continuous days of stiff winds fed by the fast-dissipating Tropical Storm Lee, meteorological conditions have calmed down enough to enable fire crews to make significant headways controlling the wildfires. According to fire chiefs, about 30 percent of the big fire in Bastrop, Texas has now been contained, fueling hope that the end…

Here Come the LEED-tigations. In an interesting article (“Legal tips for construction firms pursuing LEED”) that appeared recently on dailycommercialnews.com, writer Peter Kenter cautioned that litigations involving LEED-related issues in building construction are bound to become increasingly prominent on the scene as owners and builders become greener in their expectations. LEED, which stands for Leadership…

How green was my valley? That was a question asked a long time ago by Richard Llewellyn in his novel by the same title, but today virtually the same question is finding resonance among green advocates and ordinary homeowners who want to live in an environment that’s clean, sustainable, and green. Luckily for the environment,…

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…