Opportunity to Provide Input on DTSC’s Efforts to Update Haz Waste Standards

Dear CDIM Partners:

I am writing now to make you aware of a process being undertaken by CalEPA Department of Toxic Substances Control to reevaluate California’s hazardous waste standards. California generates over 1.5 million tons of manifested hazardous waste each year. Nearly half of California’s hazardous waste is shipped to other states where it is no longer considered hazardous. It is an unconscionable failure of public policy that California sets the most stringent standards in the nation for defining what constitutes hazardous waste and then simply trucks hazardous waste to Arizona, Nevada and Utah for disposal in non-hazardous waste landfills, while generating a vast amounts of transportation air emissions in the process.

DTSC has published the 2025 Draft Hazardous Waste Management Plan, A Modern Approach to a Circular Economy (the Plan) and is now undertaking a public outreach effort to gain feedback so that it can adopt the plan and move forward to efforts to update its regulations and policies.

VIEW THE PLAN HERE

COMMENT ON THE PLAN HERE

DTSC, via its Board of Environmental Safety, is hosting a series of hearings, the next of which is May 15, 2025 from 4:45 to 8PM.

MEETING LOGIN INFO HERE

CDIM particularly supports the technical aspects of “Goal 6: Remain at forefront of environmental and public health protection by ensuring proper identification of hazardous waste” and “Goal 7. Identify alternative management standards for certain non-RCRA hazardous wastes while ensuring protection of public health and the environment.”  Tactics to achieve these goals are described in Appendices J (Waste Extraction Test), Appendix K (Non-RCRA Metals), Appendix L (STLC and TTLC), and Appendix M (AMS for Non-RCRA Soil).

CDIM has prepared a template comment letter that can be used for expressing support for DTSC's effort and stating that California must re-evaluate out-of-date test standards and criteria and must consider modern landfill design standards in deciding whether to allow certain low risk waste to be managed safely and locally.

DOWNLOAD THE FORM HERE

If California wants to lead the nation in environmental protection, it must do the technical work to remedy the unintended consequences of its outdated hazardous waste regulations. We encourage our partners in the environmental industry to provide their input to this process, and it has potential to lead to significant positive changes to our work.

Respectfully,
Scott Bourne & the CDIM Team

New Address, New Milestones: CDIM's 2024 Journey

We write now to wish you a warm holiday season and to provide an update on our status. After seven years in SF's Civic Center, CDIM has embarked on an exciting new chapter! We've moved our SF office/headquarters to 601 Montgomery Street, Suite 780, where the Financial District meets North Beach and Chinatown. With the iconic TransAmerica Pyramid as our neighbor, this move caps off a transformative 2024 for our team.

This year brought significant growth, including welcoming a PhD engineer and business manager to our family. We've secured major environmental contracts with the City of Oakland and SF Airport, while supporting our industrial and technology clients through evolving regulatory landscapes.

Our expertise continues to deepen, particularly in environmental compliance support for major development projects. We've tackled complex challenges with legacy pollutants and emerging concerns like PFAS and climate vulnerability. Our field work has continued to expand through use of advanced investigation techniques, remote monitoring, and vessel-based aquatic sampling aboard our 17-ft Boston Whaler.

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Looking ahead to 2025, we recognize the uncertainties in the global economy, political landscape, and climate challenges. While promulgation of federal environmental regulations may slow, we anticipate California maintaining its strong environmental stance and support for green investment.  As we adjust to our new location, we will redouble our efforts to provide high quality, client-created environmental consulting services to our commercial, development, industrial and municipal clients. Our staff is also excited to contribute to our profession by leading the effort to update the Hazardous Waste Section of the ASCE’s California Infrastructure Report Card.

And finally, we’re proud to report that our successful year has allowed us to increase our charitable giving to causes close to our hearts:

San Francisco Court Appointed Special Advocates (SFCASA), supporting foster children

Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, advancing research and patient support

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As 2024 draws to a close, we wish you all a peaceful holiday season and a 2025 filled with meaningful work and precious time with loved ones.

Best wishes from the CDIM team,

Scott, Mary, John, Chris, Lisa, Kylie, Hamed, Catherine and Brian 

2023 Year End Message

Dear Friends, Family, Colleagues and Clients,

 We hope this message reaches you at the end of a productive and fulfilling year. Our team is grateful to be ending its sixth full year working alongside trusted colleagues on projects that positively impact our community.

 It's been a busy year: CDIM added a scientist and engineer to our team; we won a new $2.5M contract for a long-term client and a $0.5M contract with a new client; and, we continue to nurture a network of clients and partner firms by executing environmental projects with diligence and integrity. Through efficient business operations, we have also had the opportunity to continue to make donations to our partner charitable organizations: PanCan Network and SFCASA.

 As the year winds down, we write now to express gratitude to all our clients and partner firms for trusting us, and to wish you a peaceful close to 2023 and prosperity and joy in the year to come!

 Thank you,

The CDIM Team

Scott, Mary, John, Chris, Anne, Lisa, Kylie and Brian

Announcing Brian Price

CDIM is pleased to announce that Brian Price, EIT recently joined the firm. After earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree in environmental engineering from UC Berkely, Brian spent two years at an environmental and geotechnical engineering firm executing field projects.  He joined CDIM in July 2023. Brian will support CDIM on water system and field projects. 

Announcing Lisa Kappler

CDIM is pleased to announce that Lisa Kappler recently joined the firm. After spending five years at a national waste management firm honing her skills in hazardous material and waste management for technology clients, Lisa joined CDIM in May 2023. Lisa holds client service and quality as paramount values and will augment CDIM’s existing environmental compliance capabilities for CDIM industrial and technology clients.

CDIM Wins $2.5M Port of San Francisco Contract

CDIM is pleased to announce that we were recently awarded a four-year environmental consulting services contract with the Port of San Francisco to support the expansion and improvement of their waterfront facilities. Our team includes over 25+ subcontractors that, together with CDIM, will ensure that the Port gets best-in-class services for sediment assessment and remediation, water quality engineering, resource permitting and environmental regulatory compliance.