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Contents
Underground Iraq
Today, In Iraq, Was Good
August Word From Iraq
July Word From Iraq
June Word From Iraq
Outstanding EMS Guidance Recognized
The Word From Iraq
TLI Solutions is Prime on EMS
A TLI Solutions' Contract Expands
News Archives
August, 2008
By Colonel Jerome Stolinski (JROC Director)
For this story, we are going underground beneath Sadr City to get the real dirt on this country. The Zeblin Main Sewer Trunk Line collects sewage from the Eastern side of Baghdad—through Adamia, Sadr City and the 9 Nissan districts—and transports raw sewage to the Rustamiyah Waste Water Treatment Plants. The Zeblin Trunk Line is currently assessed at 40% operational. The major issues are blockage as follows:
- 50% due to grease and industrial waste buildup within the line
- 20% caused by residential trash
As done in other parts of the city when trash collection was suspended due to civil unrest, people started removing the manhole covers and throwing the trash in the sewer. The cleaning of these trunk lines is paramount to increase the effectiveness of the sewer collection system and eliminate standing sewage in streets. This contract includes the following:
- Clean, repair, and remove sludge from the 25- kilometer long Zeblin Interceptor line in Baghdad as necessary, to eliminate sewage ponding in streets, homes and other areas in the city
- Rehabilitation of pump stations and repair of any major sewer collapses in any of the sewage networks that are connected to the trunk line
The ultimate goal of this project is to increase effectiveness and improve the City of Baghdad sewer system with respect to public health, safety, and welfare of the people and to enhance the efficiency of Zeblin Interceptor Sewer Trunk Line. This project is budgeted at $7M and should take about 6 months to complete. The design drawings and specifications are currently being put together by the Baghdad Sewage Authority (BSA). The JROC has discussed this at the weekly Joint Planning Commission. Currently the project is allocated in the 2009 budget, but because of standing sewage in Sadr City and other areas, our office is urging the Government of Iraq to move this up to fund it in FY08.
The large metal object in the lower right marked Type A is connected by a cable and literally pulled through the trunk line to clear out the line. It is estimated that there are over 2 million Dupa’s dumping into this line. As Mr Duba can tell you, that's a heavy load to contend with.
Sewers, Manholes, and Equipment
Aug, 2008
By Colonel Jerome Stolinski (JROC Director)
If you have read my previous articles, then you know here at the Joint Reconstruction Operation Center (JROC) we work with a lot of high-ranking civilian and military personnel with the Government of Iraq (GoI). Several weeks ago our office received a call from the Chairman of the Baghdad Provincial Council, which is above the Mayor of Baghdad and holds and sets the budget for the Providence of Baghdad. I’ll leave out the names here, but the Chairman called in dire need of a favor. His nephew was in a terrible automobile accident leaving him impaled by a steel pole. The local hospital in Baghdad received him, removed his spleen and put him in a room. I've never been there, but the Chairman described it as unsanitary, and has terrible care. He said if he leaves his nephew there, he will die— pleading with us to get him admitted into our Military hospital here in the Green Zone. Tthere was an HBO special on Baghdad ER—this is it. Any Coalition forces injured or deceased are flown to the hospital here, those that require more complex care are stabilized and then sent to Germany. We quickly made a few phone calls. To get a local Iraqi into a U.S. Hospital requires a U.S. Major General Officer to sign off on the paperwork. So we rapidly completed the paperwork, located a MG to do the signing-off, and proceeded to admit the Chairman's nephew into the hospital. His relatives brought him in a private vehicle. The young man was literally on his death bed and the doctors here were very up front. They gave him very little chance of recovery. We also obtained permission to have his brother stay with him day and night in the adjacent bed. Several weeks later the young man—having the proper care—made a miraculous recovery and went home the other day to the care of his family. He is expected to make a full recovery.
Not all stories here in Iraq have a happy ending, but today was good. The family was extremely grateful and invited us to celebrate at their house. For security reasons we were unable to attend, but it was a nice gesture. That’s all for now.
The tall Major in this photo is the doctor. He is set to go back home in a few days. The young accident victum will be his last miracle of life here in Iraq before he redeploys. The female LTC is LTC Marisa Quintanilla of the JROC. She did most of the leg work to get the young man admitted, and worked all the clearances to get the family members into the hospital.
On the far left of this photo is me.
The family
August, 2008
By Colonel Jerome Stolinski (JROC Director)
Hello again, one of the missions we work on here at the Joint Reconstruction Operation Center (JROC) in downtown Baghdad is the coordination of the municipal wastewater treatment of the 7M people of Baghdad. Currently there are over 400,000 m³/day of untreated waste water being dumped into the Tigris River. The Government of Iraq (GoI) has recently contracted with a Swedish company for the delivery and installation of 13 self contained compact wastewater treatment units to be placed at various locations around Baghdad. Each CU serves 100.000 people; the 13 CUs will serve a total of 1.3M people. Design Capacity of each unit is 10.000 m³/day (equivalent to 2.6m GPD). Estimated cost < $4M US/each ($54M US for 13). The purpose of these units is the treatment of wastewater of small municipalities or towns without sewer systems. These CUs are intended for short term relief until additional permanent facilities can be constructed. These units will be installed and operate over the next several years and will help alleviate some of the pollution currently contaminating the Tigris River and relieve some of the concerns of the Iraqi citizens using the river south of Baghdad. As a side note, we have a number of other actions ongoing actions with the GoI to eliminate untreated effluent from being dumped into the Tigris river. The most major is the reconstruction and expansion of the Karkh WWTP in south Baghdad in the Doura District. When operational the Karkh plant will have the capacity to treat the 400,000 m³/day currently being dumped into the Tigris and much more to allow for future capacity as the population of Baghdad grows. Our office has been working this issue for the past year; we had a meeting with the Japanese Embassy yesterday to discuss this project. Japan is providing approximately 550M in loan to Iraq for this and several other projects across Iraq. Thanks all for now.
Wastewater Treatment Compact Units.
July, 2008
By Colonel Jerome Stolinski (JROC Director)
Hello again from Baghdad. Last week, the Joint Reconstruction Operations Center (JROC) hosted a meeting to discuss on-going and future sewer projects in the Adhamiyah Security District. Co-chaired by the Baghdad Provincial Council and the GRC (Gulf Region Central) District, USACE, the meeting brought together the Amanat Baghdad, the Adhamiyah Beladiyah, and three GRC contractors in a successful effort to synchronize and deconflict sewer projects within the yellow circle shown at right. The Baghdad Provincial Council, the GRC, and the JROC are currently working to schedule similar meetings for the Al Mansour, Al Bayaa, and Doura districts. Because of security problems the GRC Construction Representatives are only allowed to spend a minimal time on the job site, this has posed a significant QA/QC problem. Because of this, the contractors have been delivering less than satisfactory performance on the job sites, this problem is systemic of engineering projects all over Baghdad. The resolution to this problem is to have the Amanats office designate a few engineers to work on the jobsite and report issues to the USACE GRC Construction Representatives. Since these personnel have no COR contractual rights there are a few additional things to work out, and just getting all these people to the same table takes a monumental effort from our office. Thanks all for now from Baghdad, it's getting hot—120 degrees in the shade today!
Baghdad meeting, area map.
June, 2008
By Colonel Jerome Stolinski (JROC Director)
Hello again from Baghdad. A few weeks ago we had a meeting that marked the transition of the Baghdad Joint Planning Commission (JPC) from the GRD (Gulf Region Division, USACE) compound (in the Green Zone) to the Baghdad Provincial Council building in downtown Baghdad. At this meeting, the Baghdad Provincial Council announced that all unfunded projects of the Baghdad Integrated Project Priority List (BIPPL) will receive funding in 2008. This marks a huge accomplishment and a significant victory for the citizens of Baghdad, as you can see from some of the photos (at right) there are several parts of the city where sewage is over flowing in the streets of Baghdad. The BIPPL is a collaborative list of unfunded projects put together by JROC and the Amanat Baghdad, then prioritized by the operational status of the system and the impact the fully operational system will have on the Iraqi people. There are 63 sewer projects on the BIPPL that total $179M. JROC has requested a complete project list to confirm commitment and to have better fidelity on the Amanat Baghdad sewer plan for 2008.Part of the mission of the JROC is to hand over city planning processes to the Government of Iraq so they eventually become independent and manage the government without the aid of the coalition forces, so this transition of the JPC was hailed as a huge success and was well received when the JROC briefed General Petreus. That’s all for now!
From Top: Baghdad meeting, sewage site problems.
Outstanding EMS Guidance Recognized
June 2008
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) was awarded the 2008 FHWA Transportation Planning Excellence Award on June 16, for the Practitioner’s Handbook series produced for AASHTO. Our own Dave Soltis was, "the primary author of the EMS Practitioner’s Handbook" as noted by Wayne Kober, of Wayne W. Kober, Inc.
In offering his congratulations, Mr. Kober notes that, "Since 2003, you [Dave Soltis] have supplied some outstanding EMS guidance to the State DOT’s."
The Handbook titled Developing and Implementing an Environmental Management System in a State Department of Transportation (DOT) can be viewed
here. It is one in a series of ten handbooks.
The Transportation Planning Excellence Awards Program is a biennial awards program developed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to recognize outstanding initiatives across the country to develop, plan, and implement innovative transportation planning practices. The program is co-sponsored by the American Planning Association.
President of TLI Solutions, Inc., George Duba, remarks, “The timing for such recognition couldn’t be better. With gas prices sharply increasing, the whole country is going green and we seem to be ahead of the curve. We have done projects and authored documents that are on the cutting edge of sustainability and environmental stewardship. Essentially, we've been green and now we can share that experience with an ever more interested public.”
May 19, 2008
By Colonel Jerome Stolinski
Currently, I'm deployed to Iraq for 12 months (Jan–Dec 2008) as the Director for the Joint Reconstruction Operations Center (JROC) located in the Green Zone in downtown Baghdad. As a civilian, I am an environmental project manager for the Omaha District Corps of Engineers in Omaha, Nebraska. For the past 15 years, the Omaha District has had the pleasure to work with many excellent firms in the Environmental and OE business—TLI Solutions is one of those companies. Many of our PMs and technical staff have enjoyed working with George Duba, Steve Swanson, Gene Barber, and other of their staff on many highly successful projects all over the United States. George tracked me down in Baghdad somehow; really good contractors can do that stuff. They must have had Intell Training from the KGB or something!
In this first article, I'll explain what the JROC is. The JROC is an office that was created by General Petraeus in 2005. It was implemented to coordinate the reconstruction efforts of the Iraqi Government and the Coalition Forces in efforts to synchronize projects; therefore, they compliment the efforts of all. This way, the Iraqi Government can have a handle on all projects being completed within Baghdad. The JROC coordinates the reconstruction efforts of the ten central districts of Baghdad and surrounding Qadas (rural areas), a relatively daunting task. But there are approximately 30 personnel in the office: 20 Iraqi personnel for the different ministries, 5 contractors, 1 Iraqi colonel, and 7 U.S. uniform military officers.
Lunch buffet of Iraqi food in our Baghdad office
Pictured—from right to left—is Shukri Rabaddi (a contractor from Jordan), Colonel Nasar (Iraq Army), me, and, in the background, some Iraq personnel in our office. The JROC works for several organizations and maneuver elements. I personally answer to approximately a half-dozen general officers. Like a contractor, everybody is my customer. That’s all for now!
May 2008
TLI Solutions is the prime contractor for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS),
U. S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology Program (US-VISIT), and Administration and Logistic Branch (ALB), on project called Environmental Management Support for US-VISIT, Administrative and Logistics Branch.
Federal agencies are expected to perform their missions in an environmentally responsible manner without adversely affecting efficiency, productivity, safety, or health. Environmental stewardship has evolved from a best practice to a mandate.
TLI Solutions will evaluate environmental practices, policies, and vision within
US-VISIT.
The work also involves exploration of adopting a Comprehensive Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (EOSH) program, incorporating a best practice Environmental Management System (EMS), and metrics to measure the effectiveness of sustainability and conservation practices.
A TLI Solutions' Contract Expands
April 2008
TLI Solutions' Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP) contract with the U.S. Army Environmental Command (USAEC) has expanded to add new MMRP work.
The expansion includes two new sites to TLI Solutions' contract to conduct Site Inspections and expands their geographic area into Texas. It also includes follow-on sampling, which enables TLI Solutions to conduct multi-incremental sampling at depth for some of their Hawaii sites.
The MMRP was established in 2001 to manage the environmental, health, and safety issues presented by unexploded ordnance (UXO), discarded military munitions (DMM), and munitions constituents (MC).
The MMRP is an element of the Defense Environmental Restoration Program (DERP), under which the Secretary of Defense carries out environmental restoration resulting from historical activities.
