Work Safe Alberta has recently released Work Safe Alberta Annual Best Safety Performer Awards for 2006. BLUE RIDGE is a proud recipient of the 2006 award. The purpose of the award is to recognize Alberta employers with exceptional performance in workplace health and safety.

In order to qualify for the award BLUE RIDGE had to meet the following requirements:

• Have less than 40 person years of employment during the award year.
  
• Hold a current Certificate of Recognition or are a Partner in good standing under the Partnerships in Health and Safety program on December 31 of the award year.
  
• Have no workplace related fatalities in the previous three years.
  
• Have no outstanding compliance orders under Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) Legislation,
  
• Have no violations of the OH&S Act in connection with any incident investigated by Alberta Employment, Immigration and Industry during the past two years.
  
• Are not currently being prosecuted for a violation under Alberta’s OHS Legislation.
  
• Have achieved 60 consecutive person years of employment with no disabling injuries in the most recent years.
  

BLUE RIDGE is eagerly looking forward to the announcement of the 2007 recipients in the fall of 2008.

Good work BLUE RIDGE!!!

Just in time for the 2008 environmental field season, BLUE RIDGE is deploying a new GPS fleet tracking system to mitigate the perils of working alone in the oil patch. The system, developed by GEOTrac International and in partnership with Bell Mobility, adds a level of safety for employers, employees and contractors not previously seen in our industry.

SAFETY:

• Call-Ins: GEOTrac helps takes the guesswork out of locating employees in the event of a missed call-in or call-out. Setting up GEO fencing, or pre-defined map points, for your work sites sends a notification of all activity within that Geo fence including which asset or vehicle is the trigger.
• Speeding: Having the ability to monitor and record a vehicle's speed remotely ensures that all employees and contractors arrive home safely at the end of the day.

"Taking work alone safety seriously is vital to ensure the safety of our workers and the GEOTrac fleet tracking system provides us with the assurances we need, as well as allowing quick emergency response times. In creating a culture of safety BLUE RIDGE is willing to go to the next level to ensure our staff arrives home safely. We do not just talk the talk about safety, we walk the walk, and show our staff that we are willing to take any precaution to protect them" says BLUE RIDGE's Safety Coordinator, Tammy Calderbank.

PRODUCTIVITY:

• Route Tracing: Mapping is the emphasis at GEOTrac, but with new roads being built every day and old roads being reclaimed, not all roads will appear in an oilfield atlas. GEOTrac's mapping team provide the ability to add any previously travelled GPS route as a road in their data store, saving time and money in the future.
• LSD-Based Mapping: Creating emergency response routes, and tracking the real-time location of employees is a simple matter with GEOTrac because their mapping is based not only on GPS coordinates but also on an LSD grid.

"This level of safety and operation transparency gives us the corporate compliancy we have been looking for. Clients are now provided with additional checks and balances for their operation. This is the type of compliancy and transparency they demand from their business unit, and BLUE RIDGE provides that," states president JP. Melnyk, P.Geol.

The environmental industry has become one of the fastest growing industries in the world. As such it has become an industry that requires professionalism in order to protect the public. Professional organizations such as APEGGA and ASET promote professionalism with their members and provide a strict Code of Ethics and Practices for their membership.

BLUE RIDGE and The Association of Science and Engineering Technology Professionals of Alberta (ASET) are pleased to congratulate Amanda Warne, BLUE RIDGE Project Administrator, on becoming an CERTIFIED ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGIST, (C.E.T.) in the discipline of BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES / ENVIRONMENTAL Engineering Technology. The achievement of the internationally recognized professional credential is a significant step in Ms. Warne’s professional career.

ASET is an internationally recognized professional organization and in 2007, ASET and APEGGA favourably passed a proposal to amend the EGGP Act which would place ASET members as Professional Technologists. The legislation gives ASET a regulatory role whose members will be accountable to the public.

Amanda’s internationally recognized achievement as a Professional Technologist with ASET is well deserved. The decision by Amanda to pursue Professional Certification illustrates her high degree of professionalism and dedication to the technical field. Amanda has made a commitment to abide by the ASET Code of Ethics and will be subject to any disciplinary action. As the CEO of BLUE RIDGE Environmental Services Ltd. and as a professional member of APEGGA I know that this reflects positively on the high standards of excellence that BLUE RIDGE maintains and cultivates with their employee’s.

ASET not only works to recognize professional disciplines and achievements within the environmental sector, but within the Information Technology sectors as well. ASET provides accredited standards and recognized disciplines for IT professionals categorized as Certified Computer Information Technologist (C.C.I.T) or Certified Technician (C.Tech.). BLUE RIDGE encourages and assists its staff in completing the steps to obtaining professional designations. Currently all IT staff at BLUE RIDGE are involved with ASET to achieve professional designations within the accredited association.

Congratulations Amanda!!!

This past fall BLUE RIDGE added an ARGO to its fleet. The ARGO is an 8x8 tracked vehicle capable of carrying up to 6 people through deep snow, water, muskeg and extremly rough terrain. With the recent changes to the reclamation criteria for Forested Green locations, the ARGO has proved most helpful for site inspections in Northern Alberta. The ARGO will be useful for accessing sites that are typically limited to winter access only, giving field consultants a chance to inspect vegetation during the growing season.

In addition, BLUE RIDGE is a proud participant of the IHS Energy CD recycling program. By participating in this program, IHS Energy will plant a tree on behalf of BLUE RIDGE.

The reclamation goal for industrial activity in forested areas is to establish a trend that is congruent with the sites’ pre-harvest structure and development. To achieve a greater degree of success requires a study of the proposed location prior to disturbance to form a baseline for the reclamation. This can be accomplished by collecting detailed pre-construction site cruise data. The cruise data typically includes: species composition, stems / hectare, wood volumes, stem health, snag and coarse woody debris dispersion, ground vegetation, watershed and soil characteristics, terrain, wildlife observations and stakeholder consultation. This information is key for determining specific pre-construction characteristics that should be preserved (wildlife and riparian reserves), induced (girdled trees to produce snag representation) or temporarily synthesized (erosion control) in order to carry the reclamation process to a successful conclusion.

The pre-construction end-land use or an end-land use that is acceptable to the main stakeholder (improvement) is the desired result with any reclamation. Success of a restoration is measured by an inspection of soil and vegetative parameters, landscape, drainage, and stability of the reclaimed site. In forested areas reclamation treatments focus on landscape, drainage, and vegetative cover, without consideration of soil type or salvage. Consequently, the end result from one reclaimed site to another can be dramatically different because pre-construction characteristics are highly diverse including soil types and potential end land-use.

End-land use quality is maximized by including surface soil salvage and replacement and soil erosion prevention as part of your reclamation action plan. Today’s legislation is prone to a significant reduction in the quality of the end-land use after industrial activity. Our approach and one that will be forth coming is one of soil conservation and stabilization. Forest land capability is usually reduced significantly after industrial activity. This limits the productivity of the site for future generations. Then, from the cumulative effects of multiple construction sites, this causes productivity from the landscape level to shift to a lower land capability. With proper pre-site assessment and suitable reclamation techniques, the impact upon soil can be reduced so that future productivity will not be severely hindered.

The compass analogy describes the importance of pre-construction assessment. To reliably compass and traverse to a destination, you must take a “back shot” and see where you have been; by taking this preparatory step, you are sure not to miss your target. Getting lost can be very dangerous and, in reference to forest reclamation, intrinsically expensive.

BLUE RIDGE ingenuity developed a new process of collecting, storing and reporting data. Palm Pilot systems were traditionally used to store data for personal use and manage scheduling. Business demands for accuracy and rapid turn around times prompted our IT Team to develop software applications for collecting data. BLUE RIDGE has developed applications for linear developments such as access road, pipeline, trap line mapping, mining, logging, battery sites, leases, etc. The system is layered to handle aerial photographs, drawing package, and critical data marking. Aerial photographs of linear developments and large area soil disturbances are used to aid in the collection of data and reporting. BLUE RIDGE hand held documentation system is capable of collecting data from detailed soil and vegetation to aboriginal consultation and traditional land use. All sample points can document data as well GPS coordinates and photographs. The collected data is digitally transferred from the field to database remotely. The collected data, photographs, aerial photograph information, drawing data, and GPS information is report ready immediately after download is completed. The consultants at BLUE RIDGE are eager to begin using the application on a regular basis.

Having vital data immediately stored in electronic or digital formats eliminates the need for data to be copied or manually entered into the database, ultimately cutting back on time spent entering data and making the margin of error that much smaller.

A big hand of thanks to the BLUE RIDGE technical team, nice work!

The staff participated in the "Back to Basics" conference, which was held at the Capri Centre in Red Deer. The venue provided an excellent environment to view exhibits and socialize with colleagues. There were an estimated six hundred participants attending, eight of which, were representing BLUE RIDGE. The short programs were interesting. The volunteer technical sessions were awesome and the staff found them extremely informative, interesting, and entertaining. In particular, the sessions which pertained to Geophysical Methods, Environmental Impacts of Potassium Sulphate, Reclamation Dilemmas, and Phase I/II Environmental Site Assessments were quite good. On the whole, the two day conference provided an excellent opportunity to receive a broad overview of the processes, situations, and issues which we are up against everyday in the Environmental Industry. Thanks to the CLRA organizers and volunteers on a job well done, we all benefited from the experience.

ABORIGINAL CONSULTATION

Developing long term relationships with First Nation communities is the first step when conducting successful business in Alberta and British Columbia.

BLUE RIDGE has developed an Aboriginal Lands Team. Our advantage is that the Aboriginal Lands Manager and Aboriginal Relations Advisor have been working with First Nations communities for over a decade promoting aboriginal incentives. They are both proud to be aboriginal, are a pleasure to work with, and understand First Nation communities. Derek and Dean develop working solutions for Aboriginal communities and private sector businesses operating within aboriginal jurisdiction.

Their heritage and pre-existing relationships with Aboriginal communities often make the difference when dealing with sensitive projects, timelines and issues.

FIELD SEASON

The 2005 field season proved to be challenging as weather conditions often impeded reclamation and remediation activity. "We had an unusually wet season hampering some projects, slowing our field crews down a bit," remarked CEO and President JP Melnyk, "I think our field staff did the best they could by making efficient use of rained out days to make phone calls to landowners and by preplanning their field activities." Mr. Melnyk went on to say, "All in all, I think we still had a productive year and I'm pleased with everyone's contribution."

SAFETY

In 2003 BLUE RIDGE implemented a safety initiative called Near Miss Reporting as outlined by Conoco Phillips one of our lead clients in the Oil and Gas industry. Near miss reporting is submitting close calls or almost an incident so that it can be documented and the root cause eliminated or controlled for the next person who comes along.

To encourage participation in 2005, BLUE RIDGE handed out safety awards as an incentive for individual participation throughout the company. "I'm extremely pleased with everyone's efforts in reporting near misses" said Tammy, "and we handed out six awards with the grand prize being a trip for two to Las Vegas or equivalent."

There were no incidents to report this 2005 field season, and we will continue to encourage field and office staff to use Near Miss reporting as a safety tool.

TRAINING

BLUE RIDGE continues to invest in its employees by continually supporting training, education and/or seminars that better equip staff for their every day challenges.

Some of these current courses include: Team building and Effective Communication, BC Aboriginal Consultation, Database and (Structured Query Language) SQL Server 2000, Project Management, Occupational Health and Safety Certificate Program, External Safety Auditor.

NEW STAFF

BLUE RIDGE welcomes Amanda Warne, Environmental Technologist, as part of the office staff. Amanda is the Assistant Project Administrator responsible for file management, database integrity, and report tracking. Amanda has been an awesome addition to our team and approaches her job tasks with enthusiasm. Welcome aboard Amanda!

Habitat for Humanity

On Friday May 27th BLUE RIDGE employees donated their time and resources for a day to help build homes for low income families and single mothers. Contributing to our community and in the communities where we do business is an important social responsibility for all. The representatives of BLUE RIDGE demonstrated exceptional dedication and team work as they worked to successfully complete the floor construction for 3 main floors of townhouses that were at various stages of construction. In addition, some staff worked with great determination to remove the temporary sidewalk so that a newer, safer walkway could be put in place. Consequently, the BLUE RIDGE staff and management believe that the whole experience was a tremendous success. The day provided the staff with an excellent opportunity to enhance their team work, communication, and group problem solving skills. Employees were able to develop a collective understanding of their co-workers' strengths during the day's interaction and activity. BLUE RIDGE plans to continue its support of important social causes and positive contributions to the community.

"I found the experience at Habitat for Humanity to be a rewarding one. I think that it was a good exercise in team building as well."- Garry Coy, Project Manager

"I thought the Habitat for Humanity day was great. Our group worked exceptional well as a team, I got to see other staff members in a different, more positive light, and we all had the opportunity to interact on a social level without talking about everyday work at all! I believe that BLUE RIDGE should continue to setup these types of opportunities in the future."- Loni Larson, Project Manager

"The Habitat For Humanities experience was great. Experiencing staff in a different environment revealed some strengths that were not evident in our day to day work. Besides the benefits that our community receives it was an awesome team building exercise. The strengthening affect in our company was noticed. We will be contributing again." - JP Melnyk, CEO

"I thought it was quite a fun experience, mainly because we were able to see our peers outside the atmosphere of the office."- Dan Stante, IT Manager

"I enjoyed going to Habitat For Humanity, I found it was a nice change from what I regularly do for volunteer work with Girl Guides. I enjoy being able to assist those who are less fortunate than myself and hope that my contributions to Habitat for Humanity has made their future or even just their day that much brighter."- Angela Smith, IT Assistant

"I had so much fun using my pink hammer and other tools that I had never heard of before to rip apart sidewalks at Habitat for Humanity. It was a nice break to get to know some of my coworkers on a more personal level and not only that giving to the community and helping those less fortunate. I thought it was a huge success, and hope to do habitat for humanity or something like it in the future."- Kat Melnyk, Receptionist / Data Entry Clerk

"It was a good experience for me. Since I came to Canada I have been receiving a lot of assistance from other people. It was a good chance for me to do something for our community. So I really appreciated the opportunity."- Justin Zhang, Junior Field Technician

"The day the staff of BLUE RIDGE Environmental Services closed down the office and spent the time outdoors helping with the building of the homes was a fulfilling time. It was a rewarding experience, knowing that we were actually helping someone who really needed the help. It would be nice to do it again."- Jo Ann Mohr, Administrative Assistant

"I really enjoyed learning to use new tools and taking things apart. I feel that the opportunity to learn about my coworkers in a more casual setting was beneficial in promoting the teamwork skills of all BLUE RIDGE staff. It was also fulfilling to give back to society in such a meaningful way. It certainly reminded me of how fortunate I am to have a place to call home." - Tanya Forde, Technical Coordinator

"I would describe my volunteer experience as very positive and refreshing. A nice change of pace that I would certainly do again." - Lane Cowger, Site supervisor

 

BLUE RIDGE announces our new Pipeline Assessment Application. Written for a hand held computer (PDA), it collects soil and vegetative data and links GPS and photographs to various data points digitally allowing us to provide reporting quicker to our clients then previously available.
For more information please contact us at (403) 241-6738.

Ground Frozen? Still have soil samples that need to be taken this year? BLUE RIDGE announces that our ATVBR - 1000 All Terrain Ground Sampler, allow us to sample soils all year round. For use in environmental assessments, site monitoring, and other projects which require soil sampling up to three feet.
The ATVBR-1000 is available for sale or can be requested for use on any BLUE RIDGE completed assessments.