Demand up for tank cleanups, site assessments

William Lindsey cares about Springfield's environment.

"We do all types of environmental work," he said, with landfill design, leaking underground storage tanks and environmental assessment of properties comprising most of the workload.

Lindsey, who holds a patent for technology to clean gasoline out of groundwater, opened the Springfield office of Midwest Environmental Consultants in 1997. Founded in 1991, Midwest has its headquarters in Jefferson City.

"A lot of older stations have gasoline floating on the groundwater," Lindsey said. "I have technologies I use to remove the gasoline vacuums, chemicals for bioremediation."

Almost half of Lindsey's business comes from underground storage tank cleanups.

"Most people don't realize this, but it is almost uncommon to see a gas station or convenience store that either hasn't had leaks or isn't leaking," Lindsey said. "The newer ones are much better off."

Securing funding for cleanup operations for leaking tanks is part of his service, he said.

"Missouri has an insurance fund that helps pay for the cleanup," Lindsey said. "So many of these sites I work at are passed down through the family, and the children can't sell it because it is contaminated."

It is very important to have an environmental assessment done before buying commercial property, he said.

"We do the investigation to see if (sites) are contaminated and supervise the cleanup," Lindsey said, adding that he sees growth in the investigation of potential property contamination.

Midwest Environmental is not alone in the growth of its environmental work. More than 3 million jobs in the United States are supported directly or indirectly through pollution-control enterprises.

APICSThe Performance Advantage reported 84 percent of people in the United States beleive damaging the environment was a serious crime and 75 percent of those people believe executives should be held personally responsible.

With numbers like those, it is not surprising that companies pay stricter attention to environmental concerns and work to prevent contamination.

Companies call Midwest to do compliance auditing on their environmental concerns, Lindsey said.

"We are really fortunate in the U.S.," he said. "When you have a good economy and a good gross national product, you can afford to spend money on pollution control. A lot of countries struggling to survive can't do that. In the last 20 to 30 years we have seen some improvement in water and air quality."

Lindsey cites the changes in Missouri during the past century. Around the turn of the century almost every tree in the state was cut down, he said.

"The Department of Natural Resources does a pretty good job of looking after the environment," Lindsey said. "My firm does a lot of water work river clean-ups and waste-water treatment plants."

The environmental assessment on phase I of the new Jordan Valley Park was done by Lindsey.

Last year, Lindsey presented a paper to a national conference of peers on the city's purchasing the land for the new park. He said he stays abreast of developments in his field through research and presenting papers on developments.

"There have been a lot of changes in the past 20 years," Lindsey said. "We keep what works and get rid what doesn't."