THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 11, 1995 TAG: 9501100121
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALLISON T. WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SMITHFIELD LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
James Evans is an environmental engineer who sees the regulations writing on the wall. So he has opened a consulting company to help businesses comply with these ever more complex governmental rules.
Just as income tax services are thriving because of the often indecipherable federal tax code, environmental consulting is the hot new business in the 1990s.
And Evans Environmental Consulting, which Evans opened in November in his Cherry Grove Road home, is the newest kid on the enviro-consulting block in Hampton Roads.
Evans says his company has the environmental expertise vital for helping companies comply with the growing number of strict federal and state guidelines designed to protect the environment.
``It's hard to keep up with all the regulations because the government keeps changing them,'' Evans said in a recent interview. ``But companies have to do it.
``The liability for not following these mandates is outrageous. The government can sue the company as well as individuals personally if something happens.''
Evans received his environmental engineering degree from the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine in San Antonio, Texas, during his three years in the service. When he left the military in 1992, Evans was teaching environmental safety and emergency preparedness classes at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey.
The 25-year-old Norfolk native returned to Hampton Roads and last year settled in Isle of Wight County with his wife, Lori, and infant daughter, Kristen.
Before opening his own firm, Evans worked as an environmental engineer at Allied Colloids Inc. in Suffolk and, most recently, as a consultant for an environmental service firm in Norfolk.
Evans said his firm is equipped to provide a variety of training and other services that many companies need in order to satisfy governmental mandates. His services target companies that manufacture or use chemicals in their production processes or routinely use heavy machinery like bulldozers or cranes.
Evans Environmental can provide site assessments for companies that must dispose of hazardous waste. For example, service stations needing to dispose of underground storage tanks can hire Evans to get an estimate for removing the tanks or to oversee the removal.
This spring, Evans will offer training courses that some companies are required to provide employees. This includes daylong classes in hazard communications training on how to understand chemical warning labels and documents; chemical hygiene training in the safe handling and storage of chemicals; respiratory protection; powered lift-truck safety; personal protective equipment auditing, which teaches people which equipment is best for different situations.
Although regulations - such as those of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration - require the training be provided, companies are not required to hire a consultant to do it.
``But I am able to provide companies with a professional level of expertise'' that is not always available in-house, Evans said. ``My training goes above and beyond what the law requires.''
Evans will provide the training in a company's workplace or will coordinate a training conference at meeting sites close to the business.
Although Evans Environmental is now a one-man show, Evans said he expects the business will grow enough to add one employee in the next few months. If that happens, he said, he will concentrate his efforts on teaching while the other employee focuses on on-site assessments for companies. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
James Evans' business is the new kid on the enviro-consulting
block.
by CNB