If the company had to get permits separately for monitoring wastewater and air quality rather than piggybacking onto the APEL umbrella permit, the cost would have been prohibitive during its startup years, Inserva said. Current Environmental Solutions, another new company, is the second small scientific firm ready to move into a lab at APEL already equipped with a cage to shield electromagnetic fields. It uses electrodes as part of a process to heat and clean contaminated soil without excavation -reducing the cleanup process from a matter of years to a matter of weeks. Now, it's cleaning a prime commercial site in Chicago that a previous factory contaminated with solvents. It's also preparing to remove jet fuel and gasoline at a former Air Force base near Fairbanks, Alaska.
Business is good.
The company's already hit its annual sales goal for the year, said Bill Heath, who's on entrepreneurial leave from PNNL to work for the new company. The lab has just what the company needs, starting with low rent, Heath said. The company also will have access to PNNL equipment. And it will have access to PNNL's broad cross-section of experts in geology, chemistry and engineering. PNNL expects to begin using a third of the lab space next week, and Washington State University at Tri-Cities will also use one of the labs.