4 The record articles

What’s in Your Dirty Laundry? Delving into The Importance of Your Facility’s Emissions Data

Posted: May 31st, 2016

Authors: Maggie G. 

Adulting. A new, but effective, verb coined by young professionals (YPs) to relay their feelings about having to do grown-up things and hold responsibilities such as: a retirement fund, a mortgage, a car payment, or anything else that makes one think of grown-ups. This may seem silly to some of you, but for the more than 1/3 of ALL4 employees who fit the YP-criteria, this whole adulting thing can prove to be terrible a bit challenging. Remember, ALL4 hires engineers and scientists with impressive GPAs and outstanding work ethics. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but we’re certainly not a bunch of morons. However, most of us weren’t exactly learning a lot of “real life” skills in school like our friends studying accounting or economics (see below)…

http://www.twitter.com

Seriously, though. As a group of science nerds, could anything be more relatable? But before I go any further into this rabbit hole, I feel like I need to make a couple of confessions…

  1. Back in 2013 when my Dad gave me the ol’ “you’re on your own, kid” and I had to file my taxes on my own for the first time, it ended in real, I’m-so-overwhelmed-I’m-just-going-to-cry tears. I was just about to finish college and could have given you gory details about reactor engineering, the refrigeration cycle, heat transfer, and so on, but itemized deductions? Dividends? Exemptions? No. Way. That stuff was gibberish and I was in over my head (and to be perfectly honest, I still pretty much am).
  2. Also, while writing this article, I had to reference Urban Dictionary more than once. Urban Dictionary, for those who aren’t familiar, is a website where old people (aka me, apparently) go to decipher slang like “NSFW.” It turns out NSFW means Not Safe For Work (which, coincidentally, Urban Dictionary probably is). So, clearly I am not as young and hip as I like to think I am.

Stick with me – I swear I have a point.

I’ve been giving this whole thing a lot of thought and I have a theory that some of you might be able to relate to No. 1 above. For me, its taxes, credit scores, interest rates, etc. etc. – I know it’s out there… I know it probably definitely matters and will affect me significantly down the road. But it’s also confusing, overwhelming, and, honestly, more easily ignored. For you, is it Continuous Monitoring Systems (CMS) data? Is it the way your Data Acquisition and Handling System (DAHS) is processing and validating your CMS data? What about U.S. EPA’s new Electronic Reporting Tool (ERT)? Is there something at your facility that you’re treating like a pile of dirty laundry that you can just throw in the closet and slam the door before it all comes tumbling out?

Unfortunately, just like my credit score is and will continue to be important, the data at your facility is, too. We are in the middle of the shift to electronic reporting (or “e-reporting). This means that it is now much easier for U.S. EPA, your state agency, the public, or whoever feels like it to take a gander at your CMS data, performance test results, compliance reports, emissions reports, and anything else submitted on U.S. EPA’s Central Data Exchange (CDX) using the Compliance and Emissions Data Reporting Interface (CEDRI). And, not only will regulators take a look at it, but they will scrutinize it and use it to develop emissions factors, influence future rulemaking, and possibly even issue enforcement actions.

BUT, lucky for you, ALL4 is not-so-afraid of this stuff. You can think of us like the Dad that doesn’t kick you to the curb (love you, Dad). We’re here and ready to help you understand the ins and outs of your data and make sure that it is thorough, accurate, and submitted on-time in the correct format.

So, while the YPs at ALL4 are working on the whole #AdultingAndConsulting thing (shout out to Matt Wolf!), maybe this is a good time for you to brush up on your data (you may discover that it’s time to make a change!). If you’d like to chat about CMS/CEDRI/environmental data, or if you just want me to send you more funny memes like the one above, feel free to give me a call at 678-460-0324 x213!

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