Dear Friends, Family, Colleagues and Clients:
I write now to provide an end of summer update on the goings on at CDIM. In summary, we are muddling through the pandemic like most others, but we are happy to be healthy and productive and we are thankful for the opportunity to provide continued support our trusted clients.
Since we started CDIM, my partner Mary and I have been grateful for the three years of economic tailwinds that have helped our firm slowly grow. But 2007 had taught us that economic calamity was always on the horizon. And about that we were not wrong!
CDIM has made use of cloud and remote work technology since our inception and as a result were able to quickly disband from the office to our homes in response to COVID19. We revamped our safety program, bought new technology and home workstations, learned a new vocabulary (fomites, distancing, KF94, PCR and seroprevalence), and focused on how to best support our clients in a very different environment.
We’ve worked hard and a lot of good things have happened...
The following are the high points since the San Francisco Shelter-in-Place went into effect on March 17:
One of our staff members bought their first home and became engaged to be married!
CDIM acquired and outfitted a 17-foot Boston Whaler watercraft to enable us to provide nearshore water quality monitoring and sampling in the San Francisco Bay. Through this process, our staff learned a ton about maritime insurance, vessel safety, and compliance requirements from Coast Guard and OSHA for work in/over water.
We were awarded a $1-million, 3-year contract to provide environmental characterization regulatory compliance, water and air quality, and environmental engineering services to the San Francisco Public Works Department.
We continued to support our development clients by designing two drainage systems, one storm water treatment system, and two stormwater control plans. One of the systems required us to acquire necessary measurement and excavation equipment to install test pits and determine a site-specific design infiltration rate for a storm water BMP.
We performed two soil and groundwater investigations, evaluated vapor intrusion at an industrial property, designed the excavation of PCB-contaminated pipe, performed three environmental compliance audits at industrial facilities, designed and implemented an air monitoring program, evaluated the integrity of hazardous waste tanks, designed 15 curb ramps, prepared a grading and drainage plan for an industrial development, performed 4 asbestos/ PCB building material assessments, and represented projects/clients to numerous local building and health departments, USEPA, airport commission, air districts, RWQCBs and the DTSC.
What has kept us focused over the past five months is clear-eyed hard work and a continued drive to provide high quality service to our essential clients.
The end of the pandemic is not yet in sight. But even if it continues into 2021, CDIM is obligated to maintain our own productivity in order to maintain the strength of the commercial network to which we belong (clients, subcontractors, suppliers and all the people/families that rely on them). I am optimistic that we will emerge with a new appreciation for community and increased fortitude against whatever is the next challenge we face.
We encourage those in our network to mask up, distance, take care of others, carry-on with productive and essential activities, and help others to do the same.
Thank you,
Scott Bourne, PE
Principal