Effective Environmental - 877 - 207

Effective Environmental Announces Acquisition

Effective Environmental, Inc. (E²) is pleased to announce that it has purchased Columbia Environmental Services, Inc. The acquisition brings together two established and respected providers of environmental services.

"By meshing the combined strengths of E² and Columbia, the company takes a huge leap forward in its mission to be the premier environmental service company in the south central United States," Matt Gilbert, Director of E² announced. "With E²'s expertise in waste distribution, and Columbia's experience and reputation in environmental remediation and construction, employees and clients of both firms will benefit," added Greg Blomquist, Vice President of Columbia.

With the combined resources of the two companies, E² is better equipped to meet the environmental remediation and construction requirements of its client base. Additionally, E² brings more comprehensive industrial waste management resources to Columbia's customers in the oil and gas, chemical, industrial, waste, wastewater, geological and engineering consulting, and real estate industries.

E² now offers a full array of remediation and construction services including soil remediation; UST/AST removal; tank cleaning; facility decontamination, demolition and decommissioning; confined space entry services; landfill and pond/pit construction and capping, and wetlands construction services through the Effective Environmental, Columbia Division.

About Columbia

Backed with over 30 years of combined experience, Columbia offers a full array of remediation and construction services. Our services combined with our top safety record, allows us to meet our clients needs in technical experience, cost savings, quality, and project schedules.

Columbia has successfully completed hundreds of environmental projects for over 200 clients in compliance with both federal and state regulatory programs; including Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Toxic Control Substance Act (TSA) and the Texas Administrative Code (TAC).

All environmental projects are supported by experienced and fully trained staff, including project managers, field supervisors, field technicians and support personnel, including technical, administrative and health & safety. Columbia's uncompromising dedication to safety, service, performance and customer satisfaction has proven to be our symbol for quality and value.

Below are descriptions of some representative projects performed by Columbia to illustrate their broad capabilities:

Project: Soil Remediation/Wetlands Construction

Former Oil Refinery, Gainesville, Texas

Columbia conducted a response action and NRDA restoration implementation at a Former Oil Refinery in Gainesville, Texas . The project included the construction of wetlands/aquatic, woodlands and grasslands habitat totaling 132 acres. Columbia constructed dikes, dams and concrete spillways for habitats requiring approximately 50,000 cubic yards of soil to be excavated and moved on site.

The response action included the solidification /stabilization and excavation of 6,900 cubic yards of crude oil sludge. Columbia solidified the sludge with fly ash and the utilization of a company owned pneumatic dust filter to comply with a zero (0) dust mandate. Over 100,00 - cubic yards of impacted soil was excavated and placed in a landfill that was located on site.

Columbia excavated and handled over 110,000-cubic yards of on-site soil to provide a cover system (cap) over the landfill. The footprint of the cap had to be expanded twice during the project to handle the excess soils for the impacted areas. The project also included the demolition of farm structures, construction of over 10,000 linear feet of fencing and 79 acres of re-vegetation.

Project: Underground Storage Tank Removal

Former Ardmore Air Field, Ardmore, Oklahoma

The Ardmore Air Field project included the demolition and removal of three 50,000 gallon and one 25,000 gallon underground storage tanks. The project consisted of excavating approximately 3,000 cubic yards of material to remove the tanks and piping.

The project included demolition and removal of an on site pump house with above ground stainless steel piping, valves, filters, and pumps. The tanks were cut on site and hauled to a local scrap metal recycler for recycling. The excavation was backfilled with imported fill.

Project: Soil Remediation

Former Scrap Metal Facility, Hagerstown, MD

Columbia was contracted to perform site remediation at a former scrap processing facility in Hagerstown, Maryland . The project was completed in three separate phases with the first being a response action to remove previously stockpiled hazardous and non-hazardous materials. The second phase was the demolition of the existing buildings and process equipment on-site.

The third phase of the project included the solidification/stabilization and excavation of 6,900 cubic yards of lead contaminated sediment from a storm water holding pond. Columbia solidified the sludge with Portland cement prior to the lead stabilization activity. Almost zero fugitive dust was emitted during the solidification portion of this project using the company-owned pneumatic dust filter.

Columbia utilized a stabilization agent to treat the lead impacted sediments from levels over 20 mg/L TCLP to less than 0.10 mg/L TCLP allowing the material to be disposed of as a non-hazardous waste. The stabilization of the waste saved our client over $ 700,000 in hazardous waste transportation and disposal cost.

Effective Environmental / Columbia Division

The newly created division will be based out of E²'s new Pasadena office. All equipment will be relocated from Columbia's office in north Houston over the coming weeks.

Less than a month after joining forces, E² and Columbia have already worked side-by-side on several projects. Project managers from both companies are involved in a Superfund remediation project in Freeport. Additionally, crews have conducted confined-space grease trap clean-outs in the Medical Center, and drilling mud removal and tank cleaning for a major oilfield services client.

If you have any questions about the new environmental services now available as a result of this acquisition, feel free to contact your local representative, call E² at (877) 207-1299, or visit our website at www.Eff-Env.com.