Refugio Beach Oil Spill from Line 901 (Plains All American Pipeline, LP) -  Rose Coughlin was contracted as the consulting expert  for the legal and technical teams performing tasks (compliance, strategic planning, litigation support, research & data management) resulting from the May-2015 Refugio Beach Oil Spill (RBOS) in Santa Barbara County, California, along Line 901 with Plains All American Pipeline, LP [(Plains); owner/operator] as named Responsible Party.  We also selected the excellent California Registered Geologist for our technical team and the extensive field and sampling activities. This RBOS emergency response, clean up, and restoration, which included our client's property, was directed initially under a Unified Command structure. The ongoing  mitigation, leak-prevention review, and Natural Resource Damage Assessment activities (under two federal orders and State and local permits) are  also being directed,  and/or reviewed, by fifteen federal, state and local agencies. The impacts, to our client's property (Release Site and Section 1), of the estimated 144,000 gallon "oil" spill measured approximately 24 feet deep (rupture area) and extended laterally 100 feet to the west and 450 feet to the east of Line 901 "rupture" site. The results, protective of our client and any future land use,  have included soil clean up to "residential environmental site levels". Additionally,  Mobilization and Demobilization 'Exit Sampling' was conducted throughout the property, including the access road to the Release Site/Section 1, used by Plains' and the agencies' personnel, agents, contractors and subcontractors.
 

For more photographs please see PORTFOLIO section.

Extended Title Abstracts - Real Property Services -  As part of the land-use investigations for legacy ownership and operations, we have been particularly successful due to an extensive group of Title Abstractors. We have found many times that Title Abstracts do not include all recorded instruments, most likely due to the extensive labor component necessary to pull them manually from assessors' offices.  The contractual relationship between the parties is crucial in outlining financial responsibility for any particular operation.   We find it crucial to illuminate property-agreement facts when investigating      for Legacy Liability on a contaminated site.  Once the various parties are identified by doing these extended Title Abstracts we can then, if necessary, conduct a predecessor- and successor-in-interest evaluation to identify any financial assets.

Historic Land-Use (Owner/Operator) Investigations - Client: Chevron Corporation - We have supported 50+ project managers/engineers, real estate specialists and attorneys representing Chevron Environmental Management Company, Chevron Business & Real Estate Services, Chevron Law departments.  As their researcher, Information Management specialist, and Consulting Expert, we have conducted evaluations for hundreds of projects  throughout the United States and the Northwest Territory of Canada, to determine the specific owner/operator history leading to any potential  legacy liability.  Due to Chevron's extensive list of predecessor and successor entities, we have also become institutional experts on the owner/operator history of hundreds of companies from the 1800s.  Types of sites/operations include: real property (including right-of-ways/easements/leases), off-site disposal sites/landfills, service stations, distribution & marine terminals, pump stations, pipeline corridors, refineries, laboratories, manufactured gas plants, exploration/production well/sump sites, agricultural sites, chemical plants, and multi-party Superfund sites. We have compiled, reviewed, evaluated and managed millions of pages of documentary evidence over the course of our 30+-year relationship with the oil, gas, energy, real estate development and chemical industries.  

Please note: Focused Resources' research and reports are also used (by in-house personnel as well as other consultants) to limit risk for ongoing operations as well as assessment, remediation and restoration project personnel by influencing Health & Safety and Strategic Site plans.

Historic Research/Land-Use Reconstruction -  Revision of a major railroad's history (1860-2009) - The idea for the project was brought by Ms. Coughlin to this client due to her unique position throughout years of investigation (and data management) for legacy contamination in the railroad and pipeline right-of-ways across the country.  She was commissioned to amend the published history of a major railroad, its activities as an oil company, and its real estate holdings. Records, compiled by Ms. Coughlin throughout her career, placed her in a unique position to have records from the 1800s, 1900s and 2000s. These records, from multiple sources (legacy oil companies, legacy pipeline companies, railroad inspections, the railroad's historian collection, newspaper clippings, contracts and right-of-way rights & responsibilities), included contractual agreements, purchase agreements, inspection data, real property specifics, operational data, spill/leak data. In addition to this unique collection of records Ms. Coughlin had compiled (many Privileged & Confidential and only seen by a few designated people), she was also well aware of the position each company usually took when addressing an agency's or property owner's request for data.  She is considered an Information specialist for several of these predecessor entities' archived record collections.

The resulting study, and 550-page report, is estimated to have eliminated millions of dollars of expenses associated with the legacy contamination within the right-of-way for hundreds of miles of historic pipeline operations for her client. These right-of-ways are continuously the subject of disputes, especially now with projects like High Speed Rail (in California) eminent.

Due Diligence - Compliance Audit/Review - Specialty metals facility - Los Angeles, CA - This project began as a one-day, on-site inspection as part of the due-diligence phase of a business/property transfer but quickly became a health, environment & safety (HES) Compliance Audit the results of which outlinied the diminished value of this facility. Crucial findings: we found the operation to be "treating" a hazardous waste without a permit, having illegal discharges (air, wastewater), and several large, pollution-control pieces of equipment (furnaces) had reached their useful life requiring a substantial financial outlay. Important to note: this facility employed one of the leading national HES Compliance consultants, and had been recently inspected by several local, state and federal regulatory agencies, who had all missed these operational violations. Our  findings represented a major financial shortfall in the facility's value, the threat of a permanent cessation of plant operations, and/or the payment of major violations.

"Sustainable" Practices - Since the 1980s our technical team has designed and managed remediation and restoration projects using what is now called "Sustainable" land-development measures and/or Sustainable Remediation. Historic practices, such as enhanced leak/release prevention (operational changes), product recovery,  waste minimization and elimination, reuse/reclamation/recycling of extracted groundwater, soil, and building materials (ie concrete), elimination of fugitive air emissions, soil & groundwater treatment in situ and use/training of local/regional talent, have been employed whenever feasible.  Due to our 30+ years of experience, as trailblazers in this arena, our team can also assist clients in quantifying these measures on pertinent filings such as Annual Reports.

We respect that our clients have been conducting their businesses in socially-responsible ways. Capturing the specific measures in this 'sustainable' nomenclature can simply be an accounting and documentation issue.

Site Screening for school sitings - Kroll Associates Inc for Confidential client(s) - Contracted as Lead Environmental Investigators we conducted research and evaluation involving the sites in a dispute between a major Unified School District and a major international insurance company.  Ten sites chosen for initial litigation were used to develop a Review (Cost Allocation) Protocol by which hundreds of properties were evaluated.

Crucial findings on this ten-site project: One investigation, involving  30+ parcels, led to the cancellation of the siting of a high school on what is now a Superfund site (named by USEPA after our investigation). Another investigation identified arsenic contamination in the shallow soil at an elementary school. This soil, within the top 5 feet, had never been sampled by the school district's consultants, USEPA or CA Department of Toxic Substance Control. This finding was substantial since arsenic contamination had been found, due to the school district's sampling events, at depth on this site. Our investigation also identified the potential source of arsenic being from the filling of the former Los Angeles River's natural channel by city, county and federal agencies, apparently while the concrete-lined canal was being dug. 

Cyanide contamination in dredged fill and localized groundwater - Algonquin Natural Gas Transmission Pipeline expansion & Cogeneration Plant - Massachusetts (MA) - 2 Confidential Clients -  Concurrent with the permitting phase Ms. Coughlin conducted a limited background/land-use investigation and presented findings to the pipeline & cogeneration construction companies which:

• caused the re-direction of a 1.5-mile natural gas transmission line due to the discovery of pre-existing contamination, enormous unanticipated project safety issues, expenses and project overrides;
• increased the list of Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs) and decreased the clients' exposure to unnecessary liability and expenses; and
  
• assisted clients (and local agencies) in the development of legal cases against other PRPs, including the US Army Corp of Engineers for deposition of contaminated dredged fill.
  

Contaminated Groundwater - Chlorinated Hydrocarbons (TCE/PCE) -  Confidential clients: Law firms, State agency, public utility, insurance company, oil companies - We have consulted on multiple cases in locales including California (Claremont, Costa Mesa, Southgate), Massachusetts (Ashland, Concord) and Washington (Seattle, Queen Anne, Mountlake Terrace) in which drinking water resources have been impacted by dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLS) also known as chlorinated hydrocarbons such as tetrachloroethylene (TCE) or perchloroethylene (PCE).  We have consulted as research experts, legal teams' consulting expert, investigation/assessment experts, as well as remediation/restoration experts. We have also successfully eliminated, or minimized, our clients' financial exposure to this legacy liability. Using our expertise to conduct creative,  non-conventional investigations into the land-use history of predecessor and successor owners and operators, we have been able to reliably reconstruct both the liability, "fate & transport" and assessment/remediation scenarios. Also due to our comprehensive investigations, the overall assessment/remediation costs were reduced by focusing on specific targets rather than a "broad and over burdensome" approach.