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Global Environmental Operations, Inc. (GEO) is a highly experienced environmental, chemical and civil engineering firm. The firm has a unique philosophy that is committed to customer satisfaction. Our work guarantee is that it's either right and acceptable, or there is no charge for our work. We believe in our ability to deliver on our promises: quality work done quickly, on time and on budget. Some of GEO's strengths come from our vast experience and wide variety of projects we have performed. Some of those projects include: air pollution testing and consulting; thermal analysis; hazardous and non-hazardous wastes consulting, disposal and permitting; remediation and environmental restoration; underground storage tank removal; environmental assessments; hazardous waste incineration; wastewater consulting; modeling; system design; trouble-shooting; industrial and commercial water supply; and consulting on environmental technologies and their development. Our network of professionals includes safety professionals, chemists, other chemical engineers, research specialists, thermal destruction specialists, and other civil consultants. On a specific project, GEO organizes the required skills, prepares a schedule, communicates with the client, and exercises organizational and cost control to deliver a project on time and under budget. GEO provided consulting services to industry and private individuals to help them get properties removed from classification as a hazardous waste disposal site, and avoid associated liabilities in all corners of the Earth. GEO was the first non-Ecuadorian environmental professional to provide any type of cost estimate for the cleanup of the country. (See JungleFumble.pdf in the books, articles and training section.) GEO has prepared remediation plans for the world's largest remediation project: Petroleum Contamination of Ogoinland, Riverstate, Nigeria (2022) GEO has provided consulting services to homeowners and their attorneys in Mobile, Alabama regarding nuisance odor complaints arising from a poorly run privately owned municipal waste transfer station. GEO provided testimony and analysis for a water quality dispute between a homeowner and a county municipal government in Florida. The case involved a questionable diversion from one small drainage basin to an adjacent basin. GEO provided analysis of an industrial accident at a Construction and Demolition Landfill in Louisiana, where a truck dumping a load of heavy clay tipped over on to an adjacent truck cab, killing the driver GEO also has worked on some interesting legal projects:
GEO provided practical guidance to NATO regarding remediation of areas which had been decontaminated after chemical attack, and planning advice on assisting cities affected by or anticipating terrorist attacks through pre-positioning of supplies and equipment. GEO conducted a safety audit for a local manufacturing firm and made recommendations for improvements.
GEO has worked on projects in many corners of the world. In Belarus we were tasked with evaluating a proposal to clean up land contaminated by the Chernobyl incident. In Africa, we evaluated a proposal to substitute natural gas for charcoal cooking in residences, on a country-wide scale. In Venezuela, (before Chavez) we worked closely with PDVSA on several projects in the oil business involving new chemical plant construction, evaluation of the Exxon Fleet and marine yard in Lagunitas, waste disposal practices in and around Lago de Maricaibo, and pipeline and supply construction on the East side of the Lake to feed a chemical plant with natural gas. In New York GEO helped a General Motors assembly plant in New York identify Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) in products and remove them from the plant. GEO conducted a study for a different General Motors plant which determined that paint waste was not hazardous under RCRA, and that the plant could successfully defend itself from errant claims of improper disposal of hazardous wastes. In many of our activities we offer real value because you get our full attention and not some junior professional just creating billable hours for his company. We also believe in sharing our knowledge, passing it on to the next generation through writing, and through teaching courses. We published our 5th book on environmental subjects in April 2019: Practical Wastewater Treatment, 2nd Edition, a hands-on guide to industrial wastewater treatment theory, practices, and issues. |
About Us
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WHO WE ARE: Global Environmental Operations was established in 1991 as a Georgia for profit corporation. (GA Control Number K112297), and has operated successfully as a small business working both nationally and internationally. The principal: David L Russell, is a Registered Professional Engineer in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Kansas, and Iowa. GEO is a consulting and engineering firm with over 50 years of experience in all phases of environmental work for the chemical industry, general industry and municipalities. Some of GEO's strengths come from our vast experience and wide variety of projects we have performed. Some of those projects include: air pollution testing and consulting; thermal analysis; hazardous and non-hazardous wastes consulting, disposal and permitting; remediation and environmental restoration; underground storage tank removal; environmental assessments; hazardous waste incineration; wastewater consulting; modeling; system design; trouble-shooting; industrial and commercial water supply; and consulting on environmental technologies and their development. TRULY GLOBAL: At Global Environmental Operations, Inc., we offer solutions to problems wherever in the world you may be. GEO has a proven track record of international clients and partnerships.
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A RANGE OF SOLUTIONS: Although we are a small firm, we offer a range of specialists to meet your needs. GEO's technical staff includes Environmental Engineers, Chemical Engineers, Geotechnical Engineers, Safety Professionals, Health Professionals, Geologists and Chemists. Our history of success includes:
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Dave has been working in the safety and security fields with industries in the Middle East. He has provided analyses on issues of safety and security for companies in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Turkmenistan, and Kuala Lumpur as well as some companies in the US. Dave Russell: Educational and Professional Activities
Dave Russell: Protocol Professional In 2022 Dave Russell received a certificate of completion from The Protocol School of Washington where he worked with protocol professionals, learning their craft and how to apply it to all kinds of activities and meetings. Dave Russell: One-Man Global Operation |
This goes a long way in explaining why Russell, 60, went on to become first a chemical engineer and then an environmental engineer specializing in the industrial sector. In Lilburn, Georgia, he serves as president of Global Environmental Operations. He took a roundabout way to get to his station in life, but it has paid off, as he finds himself in demand and doing environmental jobs in far-flung foreign countries. Along the way, he has cultivated a network of other engineers that assist him on projects, so an individual like him can bring resources to bear in large complex projects. Russell started down the road to environmental engineering by first getting a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Illinois in 1966. A master's degree in civil engineering from West Virginia University followed a year later. In his first job out of school, he worked as an environmental engineer for Meridian Engineering, a consulting firm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He designed municipal water and wastewater treatment plants and worked in industrial wastewater treatment as well. "I had always had a love for water treatment," he says, hearkening to his days growing up. On the municipal side, Russell's stint at Meridian involved some of the typical civil engineering work consulting firms do for government entities. "But I found out industrial is my love because it's somehow a lot cleaner, a lot less politics. And there's a better appreciation, better understanding," he relates. "If you deal with someone who has their hands on the process, and you can make that process work the way they could not, they appreciate that. That's a far cry from a politician or municipal officials who have a theoretical knowledge, or less, of the machines they rule." Besides, he adds, "The sewage treatment business is old, old business, and there are not as many people who have a good understanding of industrial processes and industrial wastes. So partially it was a business opportunity." After leaving Meridian, Russell went on to work as an environmental engineer first for IMC Chemical Company in Terre Haute, Indiana and then for Allied Chemical Company in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania. Then he became an environmental manager for Hooker Chemicals in Niagara Falls, New York with corporate responsibility for all water pollution control programs. Russell started working at Hooker Chemicals shortly after the press brought the infamous Love Canal episode to light. He took a major role in supervising cleanup at the Love Canal West in Lathrop, California, which involved massive contamination of groundwater in an agricultural area by phosphate and pesticide manufacturing facilities. The company sent chemicals to huge ponds in an arid area assuming they would evaporate. It didn't work that way, and calcium sulfate and radium leached into the groundwater. After that, Russell began his foray into the world of independent consulting, becoming a self-employed consulting environmental engineer in Williamsville, New York, a suburb of Buffalo. He specialized in consulting to the chemical process, wire and cable, rubber, and other manufacturing industries. The next move had Russell jumping back to working for consulting firms. First came Lockwood Greene Engineers in Atlanta, Georgia, where he served as a project manager for solid and hazardous waste business development. Then at Law Environmental Services in Marietta, Georgia, he served as a process engineer and designed remedial solutions for a number of contaminated sites, including heavy-metal-laden buildings, petroleum leakage areas, wood preserving facilities, and boxboard paper manufacturing plants.
GEO has provided services to a wide variety of industries, including chemicals, petroleum refining, petroleum marketing and distribution, transformer manufacturing, automobile assembly, pulp and paper, and nuclear. In the petroleum industry, jobs on Russell's resume include preparation of remediation, spill control, and contingency plans for bulk petroleum terminals and specialty remediation projects on petroleum-contaminated sites. In the automobile industry, he consulted on PCB cleanup and equipment rehabilitation at a General Motors Fisher Body Plant in Syracuse, New York. In the nuclear industry, he designed a subsurface barrier and groundwater protection system for cleanup of leaking radioactive underground storage tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Center in Richland, Washington. In the food processing industry, he has done process consulting and spill control planning for the Cryovac Division of W.R. Grace. At another job, he developed a electrolytic flotation system to remove oil and grease from wastewater. Perhaps the key to Russell's success has been the network of associates he has surrounded himself with. "I'm just a small one-man shop, but I do have a remarkable collection of friends, and we help each other out and network and share projects when the occasion arises," he explains. Most of his cohorts have come from past jobs. He typically works with experts in areas he doesn't cover. "For example, I don't do AutoCAD. I can barely run an AutoCAD station. I don't have one in my office. I have people I get to do that for me. I'll sit down and prepare a sketch in five minutes and let them spend five hours filling in the blanks, just because it's more cost-effective." He also works with a group of six to twelve other consultants in areas such as asbestos, safety, OSHA, and combustion matters. "I tell people I'm a little shop with a pretentious name. With the company charter, I can do all kinds of things." Russell's exploits with GEO have taken him around the world to exotic locales. "I'm lucky I've had some unique opportunities that have taken me into a number of interesting and unusual areas," he says. For example, "I've managed to do a few projects for the Trade and Development Agency, and those took me to Eastern Europe." He has prepared comprehensive environmental evaluations for two refineries in Hungary on a subcontract as part of an Agency for International Development Trade Definition Program team. He has also prepared studies of portions of the organic chemical industry in Romania, and he is currently advising Romanian companies about environmental compliance and cleanup. "Over the course of the years, I've seen an awful lot of stuff," he reveals about his travels. He says the worst he has seen was a plant near Bucharest, Romania that made chlorine chemicals such as DDT using 1940s technology, which had been outlawed in the U.S. 10 to 15 years before. Such experiences have given him a unique worldly perspective, both in terms of a philosophy toward the environment and the difficulties other cultures have in dealing with problems. He has seen where "people in developing countries get beaten down by their government and have no money for environmental cleanup." Russell cites Abraham Maslow's ladder of psychological needs in describing the short shrift often given to environmental problems. "The environment is one of the higher order needs," he says, meaning problems get fixed only when people see the damage they cause. But at the same time, when it comes to an overall environmental approach, "It's got to be a balance because every human activity has some environmental impact." He cites jobs as a concern in applying environmental measures, saying you can't always just shut a plant down. "You have to get creative about how you sell environmental controls and services. It takes a different approach from other businesses. We're looking for better and more creative solutions." A recent job has taken Russell to Ecuador on a project that typifies his overseas work. It involves a large number of pits drilled in rain forests by Texaco to separate the water that comes up with the oil they pump from the ground. These are left over from the 1970s through the mid 1990s, at which time the company pulled out and sold its interest to Petro Ecuador. Russell says Texaco didn't follow then-current environmental laws and used technologies outlawed in the United States with little regard for the environment or human health. The water has heavy metals and toxins in it, and people live next to the black seeping holes. The people are suing Texaco to get them to clean up the mess, and Russell is working for an attorney on the case. With Russell's track record of success, work like this comes regularly from a variety of sources. "Sometimes I get referrals from commercial advisory services. Sometimes the phone just rings out of the blue," he says. It all comes as part of the intrigue and rewards of being a consultant in demand. "When things are working well in the consulting business, they work very well. It has a sense of freedom and creativity, and it can be a nice living." |
Growing up just outside Chicago, Dave Russell was surrounded by industrial plants. His father worked in the water treatment business for many years doing things like building swimming pools and rebuilding boilers. As a result, he recalls, "I had a very comfortable feel for industrial processes. A lot of that was half buried in my psyche, but I knew what these things were and didn't have to learn them. I had seen them from inside and out."
After a separation from a job, Russell would then start Global Environmental Operations (GEO) in 1986. "I was looking around for something to do. My wife was getting tired of me getting in her way around the house, so she said 'go to work,'" as he tells it. For an office, he took over the bedroom of one of his kids who had gone off to college. Clients consist of industrial companies of all sizes and other consulting engineering firms all over the United States. Services include environmental site assessments, solid and hazardous waste control and remediation, water pollution regulatory conformance, spill control, process engineering, and water and wastewater facility design.
Environmental Services
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Global Environmental Operations, Inc. is a distributor for www.dynamita.com and the SUMO wastewater modeling platform. .GEO is working to help them establish SUMO as one of the premier wastewater modeling platforms for dynamic wastewater treatment plant modeling. Evaluation of several modeling platforms, and modeling of several wastewater treatment plants, both in the US and in the Middle East Development of models for evaluation of medium and small scale wastewater treatment plants Development of Models and modeling of Multi-Stage Anaerobic Digester systems to produce recoverable energy Training of Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality on proprietary modeling software for their regulatory use Evaluation of wastewater treatment system for removal of petroleum compounds (volatile organics) from groundwater Evaluation and training of Oman plant operators to understand how new SBR system would operate Evaluation and training of microbiologists in Oman to better understand plant operations, and the nature of the biological waste treatment cycle Current projects include:
The figure below shows a typical schematic for an plug flow anaerobic IFAS system developed using SUMO. Note that there are multiple sequential reactor tanks to simulate plug flow. The plant model indicates that the plant can be readily used for generating usable quantities of natural gas from various animal feedlot wastes.
The figure below shows an Bardenpho process wastewater treatment system schematic developed with SUMO. |
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GEO has an outstanding reputation on remediation & assessments. We have worked on everything from non-hazardous waste lagoons to Superfund sites and Nuclear Sites. Some of the types of projects both in the US and abroad are shown below:
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Books, Articles, Training
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Practical Wastewater Treatment 2nd Edition, April 2019, John Wiley Publishers - Available at Amazon.com Practical Wastewater Treatment 1st Edition, 2010, John Wiley Publishers - Available at Amazon.com Industrial Security: Managing Security in the 21st Century, March 2015, John Wiley Publishers - Available at Amazon.com Remediation Manual for Petroleum Contaminated Sites, 1992, Francis and Taylor - Available at Barnes & Noble Remediation Manual for Contaminated Sites, 2012, CRC Press (Francis and Taylor) - Available at Barnes & Noble
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