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What does a Biosystems
Engineer do?
John
R. Bradford, III (BE'96)
Exxon Company, U.S.A.
Memphis, Tennessee
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name is John R. Bradford, III and I graduated from Clemson University
in 1996 with a Bachelors of Science degree in Biosystems Engineering with
an emphasis in Natural Resources Engineering. Exxon Company, U.S.A. (EUSA)
recruited me from the program as an Associate Environmental Engineer within
the Marketing Department to work at our company headquarters located in
Houston, Texas. Currently, I am a Senior Environmental Engineer and reside
in Memphis, Tennessee, where I manage the Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee
territory. |
I serve
as the Senior Environmental Engineer to all active and former EUSA retail
stores within my assigned territory. My primary job duties include:
- Responsibility
for soil and groundwater environmental remediation activities at Exxon
retail store locations;
- Coordination
of environmental site activities with nationally recognized environmental
consultants and contractors; and
- Communications
with state environmental agencies such as the Tennessee Department
of Environment and Conservation in order to steward environmental
remediation efforts.
The most interesting
aspect of my position is that I have the opportunity to manage environmentally
impacted sites. I do this by using engineering knowledge from Biosystems
Engineering and EUSA training in order to determine and implement the
most efficient means of environmental remediation. My objective is to
receive case closure directives from state environmental regulatory
agencies.
Special Projects
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I was assigned
to the Memphis, TN, office as the Environmental Engineering support
for a pilot mass re-construction project in which EUSA constructed
approximately 40 new TigerMarkets within a one year time period.
I coordinated all on-site environmentally related activities including
solid and liquid waste handling and disposal. I am presently managing
a similar project in Nashville, TN. To date, I have also facilitated
several Environmental Engineering training courses to new EUSA
Project Engineers.
For more information about Exxon Corporation, please visit our
company website at: 
http://www.exxon.com/exxoncorp/index2_ie.html
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an engineering viewpoint, one of the more interesting aspects is
the remediation of sites containing compromised underground storage
tanks (UST). I supervised the removal of the old UST's and submitted
the Tank Excavation Assessment Report to the state UST regulatory
office. I sampled both the soil and groundwater from the old tank
pit for benzene toluene ethyl benzene xylenes (BTEX), methyl tertiary
butyl ether (MTBE), and total petro-hydrocarbons (TPH). |
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pea gravel and soil from the old pit was stockpiled until the analyses
were completed in order to make a decision on the use of the material
- i.e. disposal at a solid waste landfill or re-use on site. All
pit water was pumped into a frac-tank until a sanitary discharge
permit was received or until proper disposal to a liquid disposal
facility was arranged. |
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I submitted
all analytical data for soil and groundwater that exceeded state
action levels to my UST regulator. These sites were opened as
new cases and an Initial Site Characterization Report (ISCR) had
to be submitted. The ISCR included four groundwater monitoring
wells for areas up-gradient, down-gradient, adjacent to the tank
field, and adjacent to the pump islands. All monitoring wells,
including soil from the installation, were analyzed for BTEX,
MTBE, and TPH. Results from the ISCR allowed the UST regulator
to issue a directive for further site investigation, active remediation,
or monitoring. If site remediation is required, a process known
as Dual-Phase Groundwater & Vapor Extraction is utilized (see
schematic diagram).
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To
summarize, I was directly responsible for the correct handling and
disposal of all generated wastes during construction for the project.
Types of waste included waste oil, gasoline bottoms, asbestos, hydraulic
liquids (from the car bay lifts), UST pit water, antifreeze, diesel
sludge, and soil. I was responsible for the disposal method as well
as proper handling - i.e. hazardous vs. non-hazardous materials.
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UST requirements
for the new construction sites include:
- spill protection
such as catchment basins to contain spills from delivery hoses;
- overfill
protection such as ball float valves to slow the flow as the
tank nears full capacity,
- overfill
alarms;
- corrosion
protection such as double-walled fiberglass tanks; and
- corrosion
resistant product piping such as fiberglass double walled lines.
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Continuing
Education
I am working to complete requirements for an Executive MBA degree
(4.0 GPA; full-time student with 12 hours) at the University of
Memphis where I am the Univ. of Memphis mascot (tiger). My class
meets every Saturday from 7:00 AM - 6:00 PM where we receive lectures
from three professors.
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