Lindsey is an employee-owner at SCS Engineers on the solid waste management team performing Construction Quality Assurance – CQA and reporting for field projects, as well as OM&M on landfills and assisting with landfill reporting and compliance.
Lindsey earned her BS in Soil and Waste Resources—Waste Management from the University of Wisconsin—Stevens Point in the Summer of 2018. She currently serves on the SWANA Badger Chapter Board and is co-YP Liaison, plus participates in SCS’s Young Professionals program.
Lindsey recently published an article Finding Solutions for an Open Dumpsite: Solid Waste in The Gambia in the April edition of the Badger Chapter YP Newsletter.
The Gambia, is a tiny sliver of a country in West Africa, has a population of just under 2.5 million. About a fourth of the country’s population is under the jurisdiction of the Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) – the most densely populated area of The Gambia. The people and leadership of the Kanifing municipality are united in their desire to have positive changes in solid waste management in the community and at the Bakoteh dumpsite. Ideally, solving the problem will implement a means of positive change for many aspects of the KMC citizens’ lives.
Outside of work, Lindsey is a self-described “bird nerd” who has two parrots: A Green Cheek Conure (7 years old) and a Yellow-Naped Amazon (34 years old). She often volunteers at Feathered Friends Sanctuary and Rescue where they provide care for around 65 surrendered parrots.
Municipalities and their private sector partners will experience high costs, especially in residential collections to cover all of the costs incurred as workers transition to working from home. FEMA can help protect public health and safety by committing to cover the costs of essential services provided that aren’t paid by the service recipients.
The National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA), and the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) have both sent letters to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Peter Gaynor requesting that the agency establish a system to compensate the waste and recycling industry for providing services to protect public health and safety that otherwise would go unpaid during the COVID-19 outbreak.
NWRA says it also shared copies of the letter with Vice President Mike Pence, who is leading the nation’s COVID-19 response task force, and the House Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Recovery, which has oversight of FEMA.
Solid waste management is identified as an essential critical infrastructure workforce in the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) March 19, 2020 memo, and has been listed as essential in every emergency order issued at the state level in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in city and county responses as well.
“Providing these essential services to those unable to pay as a result of economic hardships caused by COVID-19 while continuing to employ the workforce needed to support such an effort will require assistance,” NWRA President and CEO Darrell Smith writes in the NWRA letter.
“Since both the public and private sectors collect and manage solid waste and recyclables, SWANA’s letter asserts that all sanitation departments, haulers, and post-collection companies providing services during the COVID-19 pandemic without being paid for them should be eligible for reimbursement,” said SWANA Executive Director and CEO David Biderman.
Darrell Smith points out that FEMA can establish a vehicle under disaster debris management plans or by other alternative direct compensation means as selected by the agency to compensate the waste and recycling industry for providing uncompensated services to protect public health and safety during this time of national emergency.
Both NWRA and SWANA specifically ask for funding to cover services provided in the U.S. related to customer bad debt and other uncompensated costs incurred for services being provided to the public during the national emergency.
Despite the many impacts on our lives right now, our thanks go to the many public and private solid waste management employees, and organizations such as SWANA and the NWRA, for continuing to serve our communities to keep them clean and safe nationwide. Solid waste management is definitely an essential service on the frontline.
Both associations are providing guidance, as many waste management activities must continue. SCS is following association advice, state protocols, and our clients’ recommendations in our own procedures as we continue to perform essential work. We share the SWANA resources and recommendations here and thank them for their dedication. SCS employees should use SCS resources available on the SCS intranet and through our Health & Safety protocol, which reflect the safety precautions advised here.
Reprinted Letter to SWANA Members dated March 23, 2020
As communities and companies throughout the United States and Canada respond to the Coronavirus pandemic, SWANA will continue to provide assistance to its members and the waste industry.
A growing number of states and localities are issuing orders identifying certain industries as “essential” during the pandemic, and these orders typically include the solid waste industry and other categories of employees who may be SWANA members. In those locations, employees and contractors may need to demonstrate proof to law enforcement personnel or others that they work in an essential industry. See this template letter that employers can customize to their needs and provide to employees and contractors. The letter should be on agency/company letterhead and include a contact person and a telephone number to call. The contact person should be familiar with the applicable emergency declarations.
Employees and contractors should carry the customized letter with them at all times, and particularly when they are going to or from work. Several waste industry employees in California in their personal vehicles were stopped on their way to work by law enforcement personnel late last week, but fortunately, their employer had created a letter similar to the attached and the employees were able to show that letter and proceed to their places of employment.
This letter is intended to allow workers to demonstrate that they work in a job category identified as an essential service, including solid waste and recycling operations. It should not be used for any other purpose or by employees that are not actively supporting these operations.
In addition, attached is a notification document for solid waste employers and others to place in their work vehicles to demonstrate they are covered by recent emergency order guidance. It cites the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, March 19, 2020 memo that identifies workers engaged in the removal, storage, and disposal of residential and commercial solid waste and hazardous waste as essential infrastructure workers.
Please do not hesitate to contact Jesse Maxwell at or me at if you have any questions about this letter, or need assistance responding to the Coronavirus pandemic. Please stay safe and healthy.
NWRA resources are plentiful and include these:
COVID-19 WORK PRACTICES At this time CDC and OSHA are not issuing waste and recycling specific guidelines for the handling of waste and recycling materials related to COVID 19. If this changes, NWRA will alert its members. Use this industry guidance.
COVID-19 RESOURCES Resources and information provided by agencies and organizations.
Thank you!
Recently, Waste360 published “Organics Diversion Drives Changes in Landfill Operators’ Roles,” an article examining the evolving role of landfill operators in organics waste diversion. Five industry leaders provide insight into how landfill operators and the solid waste industry are adapting to accommodate the evolution and the cost of organics management.
Waste360 interviewed:
The article provides best practices, strategies, technology, and systems that could support or supplement landfill operators’ response plans to the changing policies and contract requirements in more economically sustainable ways. Waste360 rounds up answers to the most common challenges operators and public works departments face including how to reduce permitting time, cost, and environmental impact.
SCS Engineers Summer Internships
Openings and applications here
SCS provides valuable technical and engineering business experience as you work alongside our professional staff on a diverse range of solid waste and environmental projects. Opportunities can jump-start your career path as SCS interns become part of the solutions we deliver to our clients.
Opportunities in 2020 are available nationwide.
Interns typically work 40 hours per week. Paid internships start in May or June, and end in August or September; your exact start and end dates are arranged to accommodate your school schedule.
Learn more about the SCS Engineers program here.
SCS Engineers Summer Internships
Openings and applications here
SCS provides valuable technical and engineering business experience as you work alongside our professional staff on a diverse range of solid waste and environmental projects. Opportunities can jump-start your career path as SCS interns become part of the solutions we deliver to our clients.
Opportunities in 2020 are available nationwide.
Interns typically work 40 hours per week. Paid internships start in May or June, and end in August or September; your exact start and end dates are arranged to accommodate your school schedule.
Learn more about the SCS Engineers program here.
Inductive Automation® announced the software firm now recognizes SCS Engineers as a Premier Integrator. Premier Integrators have a high level of commitment, professionalism, and competency using the Ignition software. They must consistently produce high-quality work and must consistently demonstrate successful projects with very satisfied end-users.
SCS uses Inductive Automation’s Ignition supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software in their solution because it is a proven state of the art software, which works well with cloud-based systems and the internet of things (IoT). It allows clients to easily control, track, manage and report on their processes.
Large landfills, counties with multiple landfills, and private waste management firms have been waiting several years for SCADA software to catch up to their business needs. Landfill operations are extremely complex and expensive since they monitor and manage multiple systems to protect the public from contamination to the air, water, or soil. There are typically multiple operations active on many sites, such as waste recovery, recycling, composting, Gas Collection and Control Systems (GCCS), and renewable energy plants.
SCS Remote Monitoring and Control®, or SCS RMC® provides a next-generation option to monitor and control systems, and see the data collected and the systems in action. It allows users to control their systems remotely, collect data and use the data to enhance their productivity, reduce their operations and maintenance (O&M) costs, and reduce their environmental risk. Other offered services include 3D imaging from drones and virtual reality (VR). SCS uses aerial data collected via drones to compose topographic mapping, 2D images, 3D renderings, GIS, thermal, infrared (IR), and methane leak detection for waste facilities. The SCS RMC® team can take rendered models and apply them into virtual reality (VR) headset as well, which allows decision-makers at waste management facilities and organizations to “walk the site” from anywhere.
Current clients save Operating & Monitoring (O&M) costs and reduce human error by generating internal and regulatory reports automatically, using data automatically collected by the system. They can also receive instant notification of malfunctions and can troubleshoot these notifications remotely.
Not only for landfills, until recent years the public did not realize the long-term value of recycling nor the associated costs. Some clients use SCS RMC® to monitor dumpsters and recycling receptacles for collection. This helps keep waste and recycling inside the container, collection schedules more efficient, and overall operations less costly.
Manufacturing, industrial facilities, and ports use remote monitoring and control for real-time viewing, analysis, and control of equipment and systems critical to production and safe operations, often for air monitoring.
Galen Petoyan, Senior Vice President of Field Services states, “We fully embrace SCS RMC® within SCS Field Services® because the software allows us to provide more value to our clients; our technicians and engineers can avert problems, and when needed, provide rapid, efficient, and accurate analysis and action.”
Operators know that selecting a Landfill Designer involves careful consideration of the designer’s experience and knowledge of construction to control costs and capital outlay.
Landfill operators usually seek to pay the lowest price for design work. While this is in line with the competitive market models, operators need to be sure that the designer’s experience lines up with their desired outcome, or problems may arise later for the operator. If the designer’s general or specific experience in the region is lacking, reconsider your selection parameters.
General experience is the comprehensive knowledge of landfill design and the development of expertise gained on similar projects over an extended period. A few project experiences in the remote past do not adequately qualify a designer. Experience in the region means that your designer has designed and developed similar projects in the larger vicinity of the project.
Regional experience demonstrates that the designer has significant knowledge of geology, hydrogeology, climatology, and available constructions materials in the area. Without this level of experience and understanding, the operator risks ending up with a system that does not function well and may be susceptible to environmental conditions, causing excessive project maintenance costs over time.
I recommend that operators work with a known entity; look for a designer who has done similar projects on numerous occasions in your region, and who can provide proof of their experience and knowledge to design according to your specific goals. A designer may not meet the criteria of the least expensive vendor, but a properly designed and constructed project can save a tremendous amount of money by:
Landfills are unique systems that require explicit design and construction criteria in order to operate seamlessly and safely for a very long period of time. Developing landfills generally takes several decades to complete and requires a substantial amount of knowledge and design consistency to ensure that the various landfill components function together.
Some operators change designers every few years without realizing that they risk inconsistencies in the design and construction every time a new designer comes into the picture. For this reason, I recommend that operators find the most qualified designer who is also very familiar with the construction and field maintenance of similar projects, and then stick with that designer for a long time.
At times, several different designers may be involved with various components of the landfill. To improve design consistency, I recommend that the most experienced design group review each design package regularly in order to help eliminate inconsistencies, improve the overall design integrity, and facilitate proper operation of the constructed systems during operation.
About the Author: Ali Khatami, Ph.D., PE, LEP, CGC, is a Vice President of SCS Engineers and the firm’s National Expert for Landfill Design, CQA, and Elevated Temperature Landfills (ETLFs). Ali has 40+ years of research and professional experience in mechanical, structural, and civil engineering acquiring extensive experience and knowledge in the areas of geology, hydrogeology, hydrology, hydraulics, liquids management, construction methods, material science, construction quality assurance (CQA), and stability of earth systems.
He applies his experience in the siting of numerous landfills and the remediation of hazardous waste contaminated sites. Ali’s expertise includes the design and permitting of civil/environmental projects such as surface water management systems, drainage structures, municipal solid waste landfills, hazardous solid waste landfills, low-level radioactive waste landfills, leachate and wastewater conveyance, and treatment systems.
His cross-practice experience includes the design of gas collection and disposal systems, hazardous and non-hazardous waste impoundments, storage tank systems, waste tire processing facilities, composting facilities, material recovery facilities, leachate evaporator systems, and liquid impoundment floating covers.
More than 500,000 people call Volusia County home. Situated on the east coast of Central Florida, the county has 47 miles of Atlantic Ocean beaches and beachfront cities including Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach and New Smyrna Beach. Volusia County has an abundance of natural beauty and some of the most beautiful parks in the United States.
Green Volusia is the county’s long-term initiative designed to provide residents and visitors with information about green, or sustainable, practices to reduce the impact on the environment. Green Volusia provides information about environmentally responsible practices that benefit the whole community as well as encouraging stewardship and conservation of our natural resources.
Despite the best green practices, it came time to expand the county’s landfill. The City Council approved a contract for Professional Construction Quality Assurance (CQA) and Engineering Services with SCS Engineers. SCS is an award-winning environmental consulting, engineering and construction company known for sustainable environmental solutions. The Council selected SCS for their in house expertise in MSW cell construction, and successful record of delivering the highest quality environmental engineering services.
