What’s New at BrightFields, Inc.

BrightFields is excited to announce that we now offer energy audits to residential and commercial customers to assist them in saving energy and lowering energy bills.  Energy audits are a great way to begin going green.  Our energy audits include:

• Safety checks of appliances and associated piping that use gas, oil or propane.  Measure the effectiveness of flue gas venting and combustion efficiency.
• A blower door test to evaluate the “tightness” of the home.  Leaks are identified using thermal imaging and negative pressure.
• An evaluation of water consumption to determine the flow rates of sinks, showers and toilets.
• A pressure load check to determine whether there is a balance between the HVAC system supply and return.
• Insulation is documented and areas for improvement are suggested.
• An exterior evaluation to examine drainage, flue vents, HVAC placement, shading, home orientation, and general construction.
• A lighting survey.  Switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs is one of the easiest and cheapest energy savings fixes.

Information is modeled and a complete report is presented.  The report details areas where improvements can be made, and will allow you to prioritize improvements based on cost, energy savings and return of investment timing.  Our energy audits fulfill the state and federal requirements that will allow homeowners to be eligible for state rebates and federal tax incentives.  Our trained auditors will advise you on which incentives you may be eligible for. 

More information, as well as an audit request form, is available on our energy audit webpage:  http://www.brightfieldsinc.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20

Anyone working in the construction industry should be aware that common renovation activities conducted in older homes may create lead dust, that if improperly handled may present a health hazard to occupants in the building.  The U.S. EPA, in April of last year, passed a rule affecting construction contractors who perform renovation, repair or painting of pre-1978 housing.  Under the rule, beginning in April 2010, “contractors performing renovation, repair and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint in homes, child care facilities, and schools built before 1978 must be certified and must follow specific work practices to prevent lead contamination.” 

The rule also requires that beginning in December 2008, renovators who disturb lead paint in child care facilities built prior to 1978 need to provide the lead hazard information pamphlet entitled,  Renovate Right: Important Lead Hazard Information for Families, Child Care Providers, and Schools to the owners and occupants of the facilities, and to the parents and guardians of children under age six that attend these facilities. 

Beginning in April 2010, contractors working on pre-1978 housing and child-occupied residential and commercial facilities will have to complete a lead safe work practices training course, and use safe work practices when conducting renovation, repair and painting.  The rule applies to renovation contractors, painters and other specialty trades and to maintenance workers in multifamily housing. 
BrightFields is currently developing curriculum to be a certified provider for the contractor safety training required under this regulation.  We plan to begin training courses in the fall of 2009. 
Please contact Matt Jones (mjones AT brightfieldsinc . com) for further information. 

Delaware residents are increasingly expressing interest in opportunities to increase the financial benefits associated with their land while, at the same time, preserving their lifestyle and the natural value of their land now and for generations to come.  Residents are specifically requesting that more information be offered about the voluntary land conservation options available to them and how these options can support their financial, retirement, and estate planning goals.

In response to these requests, The Nature Conservancy is offering a workshop entitled “Land Conservation Options and Estate Planning for Delaware Landowners”.  This  free workshop is being offered two times, once on Thursday, February 19, 2009 from 9:00am to 11:30am at the St. Jones Estuarine Research Reserve (818 Kitts Hummock Road, Dover) and once on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 from 6:00pm to 8:30pm at the Carvel Research and Education Center (16483 County Seat Highway, Georgetown, Delaware). 

Helping The Nature Conservancy with this workshop is a team of first class tax accountants, trust and estate attorneys, real estate attorneys, and appraisers with expertise in conservation transactions.  The workshop will feature these experts discussing and answering questions about a number of case studies that highlight how various land conservation options can help landowners meet their goals for their land, families, and long-term financial plans.  Workshop attendees will receive a kit of materials to take home for future reference.

The natural features of Delaware provide habitat for over 400 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians, and the cultural history of Delaware has yielded working landscapes and a rich tradition of land stewardship.  A growing population and increasing land use threaten these unique features of our state.  The future of Delaware’s working landscapes and natural resources hinges on finding cooperative solutions that meet the needs of Delaware’s private landowners. 

If you would like more information about the workshops, please contact Kate Hackett at The Nature Conservancy at 302-584-2170 or email (khackett@tnc.org).

Lee dePersia returned to work at BrightFields after spending eight months on Reserve duty in Afghanistan.  BrightFields is thrilled to have Lee back!

A message from Lee:

I finished my Afghanistan tour on 6 December 2008 and departed for a week in Kyrgyzstan waiting for a flight back to the US.  I arrived in the US (BWI) on 13 December and was met at the airport by my family.  Overall the deployment was a great experience, but it is always even better to get home.  While in Afghanistan I managed approximately 60 construction delivery orders with a total value of about $164 million in vital medical construction projects that directly advanced the healthcare of 70,000 Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers and 82,000 Afghan National Police (ANP) and their families.  Projects included a $10 million overhaul of the 400-bed National Military Hospital (NMH), the largest hospital in Afghanistan, enhancing the Afghan’s ability to provide advanced trauma care.  Projects also included several renovation projects at civilian hospitals for the Ministry of Public Health including a new emergency room at Malalai Hospital, the largest maternity hospital in Kabul with over 100 births daily.

I appreciate the e-mails and good wishes I received from so many people, and especially the support from other BrightFields staff who stepped up and filled in so admirably while I was away.  It is never easy to lose an employee for 8 months, especially in a company the size of BrightFields, but the BrightFields staff stepped right in and picked up the slack and I appreciate that very much.

Hospital addition under construction at Gardez: 

 Malalai Emergency Room grand opening:

Hospital before and after:

On November 20, BrightFields became the first commercial enterprise to conduct a city cleanup under Wilmington’s new Adopt-A-Block program. BrightFields adopted a section of Greenhill Avenue from Lancaster Avenue to Sixth Street. A total of 3 bags of trash were collected during the cleanup. For more information on Wilmington’s Adopt-A-Block program, see this website: http://www.ci.wilmington.de.us/Adopt-a-Block/index.htm.

The Wall Street rescue package passed by the House and Senate includes an extension, until December 31, 2009, of the Section 198 brownfields remediation expensing provision, which allows property owners to deduct the expenses of cleanups in the year incurred, rather than treat them as capital improvements. First signed into law as part of the Tax Relief Act of 1997, it is the only federal incentive targeted to private site owners, typically new property purchasers. Properties eligible for the incentive include those contaminated with hazardous substances or petroleum. Section 198 also allows property owners to amend tax returns to include deductions for past cleanups. The tax expensing program had expired at the end of 2007. As the bailout bill is written, the deduction is retroactive back to December 31, 2007.

No provisions of the incentive have changed. It is still applicable to non-Superfund caliber properties used for trade or business. Taxpayers must obtain a statement from their state environmental agency verifying that they are in fact brownfield sites. Any corporation that is considering filing an amended return to take advantage of the retroactive tax deduction still must do so within three years after the date it filed its original return, or within two years after the date it paid the tax.

- Courtesy of the “National Brownfields Association.”

For more information about the Federal Brownfields Tax Incentive, or any of the financial incentives offered by Delaware, or the surrounding States, contact Mark Lannan at (302) 656-9600.

Link to article:  http://www.communitypub.com/business/x810458245/Brightfields-finds-bright-spots-in-polluted-properties

The State of Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) announced changes to their Brownfield Program funding policy that will exclude Private and Non Profit organizations from receiving Brownfield Program funding if they acquired a property prior to July 1, 2004 (the effective date of the Brownfield Program).  Government entities will still be eligible. The effective date for this policy is 30 days from signing, or October 11, 2008.  After October 10, prospective purchasers will still be eligible to apply; however, current owners will not. This policy change does not affect sites already enrolled in the Brownfield program.

Just a quick note to let you know I am doing good.  Went to Gardez this past week to look at projects there. We flew in Russian helicopters flown by Afghan pilots.  I think our average elevation above the ground was about 50 ft.  Great for picture taking!  It’s Ramadan so Muslims don’t eat or drink anything during daylight hours.  We came back in the late afternoon so the pilots were a little hungry and thirsty - I think they went extra fast and extra low!  If they wanted to they could have hit us with rocks.

While there I got to see a concrete pour for the roof of a Hospital Addition.  They poured 300 cubic meters of concrete - all by hand with just drum mixers.  No concrete batch plants or pump trucks in Gardez.

They started at 5AM and were still at it at 3PM when I left - again with no food or water all day.  Gardez is at an elevation of about 8,500 ft.

The Afghans are hard workers and avid gardeners.  Flowers and agiculture everywhere you go.

That’s it.  Hope everyone is doing well.  Im sending along a few photos.

The fortress photo shows 2 fortresses built by Alexander the Great some 3,000 years ago.

Lee dePersia, a Program Manager at BrightFields, was deployed to Afghanistan and arrived there on June 7, 2008. Lee, a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air National Guard, will be serving with the Army on this tour of duty. He will be serving as a Project Manager/engineer on hospital and clinic construction projects for the Afghan Security Forces and their dependents. Lee is currently working on replacing the local hospital in Qalat as well as working on numerous other renovation projects.

BrightFields, through Lee, is currently holding a clothing drive to send to Afghanistan’s needy. BrightFields is collecting winter clothes, blankets, shoes and especially children’s shoes to donate to the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) that operates in Zabul Province. Zabul Province is probably the poorest of all the Provinces in Afghanistan and is an area of known Taliban activity. It is also an area where Taliban enter Afghanistan from Pakistan. The US and Coalition forces are fighting the public relations battle in the area and the PRT does a lot of work attempting to better the lives of the local Afghans. If you would like to contribute, call BrightFields at 302-656-9600 for more information.

Here’s a recent update from Lee:

And some recent photos to go along with the update:

fortress

MRAP

hospital

scaffolding

heater

Lee looking sharp