Care Environmental Remediation Services

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: ***: Thank you for forwarding Ms [redacted] 's response to my complaint Here is my response as well as attachments: Answer: Four years after the report and documents were filed with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection; the variance for raising the health based concentration of lead at the site due to DAP and the lead background concentration was denied by the Case Manager (This response time was not uncommon for the NJDEP due to the number of cases each case manager was handling.) C.E.R.Swas advised in by the new property owner’s attorney that the Notice of Deficiency letter was sent to Mrs [redacted] ’s old home address in [redacted] and went unanswered by Mrs [redacted] After three years, the NJDEP submitted the NOD letter to the Property address in The NOD letter was clearly not forwarded to Mrs [redacted] because no forwarding address was provided to the new owner, the NJDEP or to C.E.R.Sby Mrs [redacted] We were not advised that the case manager required additional investigations in order to further evaluate the variance Perhaps if Mrs [redacted] contacted C.E.R.Sto inquire on the status of the No Further Action letter then the NJDEP letter of deficiencies would have been resolved in a timely basis under the previous NJDEP Program A four year response time from the DEP was NEVER relayed to me And I did already state, that when I moved I had no idea the case was still under review, I thought it was settled I hired Care Environmental because this was a field they were the experts in I knew nothing about “environmental cleanup” Therefore, I trusted Ms [redacted] when she told me everything was taken care of As for "Care" not being notified of the Letter of Deficiency, I asked the Case Manager to forward me the letter they sent out The attached copy of that letter clearly shows a copy was mailed to Care Environmental Remediation Services, Inc Answer: NJDEP’s SRRA phaperiod was soon to be final at the time C.E.R.Swas contacted by the new owners attorney and subsequently by Mrs [redacted] At that time, the new requirements and mandatory deadlines as needed for this project must be followed by the Responsible Party (Mrs [redacted] ) C.E.R.Scompleted our investigation for Mrs [redacted] as promised by May 2, 2012, however, we could not guarantee that the NJDEP would allow this project to remain with a case manager to obtain a No Further Action Letter In fact, on May 2, 2012, C.E.R.S contacted the NJDEP case manager and he advised us that he was no longer allowed to accept cases for closureI explained this in detail to Mrs [redacted] Now the project was assigned to the LSRP program After May 7, and as a licensed LSRP, I have an obligation to fulfill every aspect of the Notice of Deficiency in order to close the project Subsequently, C.E.R.Sprepared the draft report for Mrs [redacted] ’s case on June 20, The report addressed all deficiencies except one notice of deficiency This was the laboratory data from the buyers consultant in Later, we found out that this consultant went out of business, therefore, we could not obtain the laboratory report needed to satisfy the final outstanding deficiency And, without fulfilling the final deficiency, I personally could not close the case without jeopardizing my obligations to the NJDEP LSRP License of which I hold Mrs [redacted] did not understand this, however, over time I believed she understood the ramifications I agree that I did not respond to Mrs [redacted] ’s cumbersome e-mails, however, I answered all her phone calls and if I was not available, my project manager, Jon didI expressed to Mrs [redacted] to call me by phone when she needed to speak to me Thus I disagree with her complaint as Mrs [redacted] failed to understand the responsibilities and obligations of a LSRP, such as myself, as associated with the LSRP program I need to be 100% sure that closing this case was regulatory compliant Ms [redacted] and I were in contact regarding the importance of finding the original laboratory used Time had continued to tick by without any work being done on my case so I volunteered to do the leg work and find the laboratory used by [redacted] I found a previous employee of [redacted] and that was how I discovered the lab they used Unfortunately, I learned from the lab that they had destroyed the file due to the age of the report All this information was relayed back to Ms [redacted] I understood the position we were in, but did not understand the "give up attitude" of Ms [redacted] As for those "cumbersome emails", perhaps if promises were not made that the report "would be completed", or that somecommunication was received, I would not have continued to send them My phone calls were not always answered either, but I have no proof of that, other than all my outgoing callsIn I spoke to the project Manager, ***, a couple of times, but he was limited on what he could do for me All he could tell me was that they had the soil sample report and Ms [redacted] had my file Attached are a couple of the more important emails that show the broken promises over the years I would have liked to attach more, but the file is too large(Please note the dates) Lastly, I understood Ms [redacted] not wanting to put her license on the line However, I was puzzled by her attitude since it was her firm that did the initial cleanup workI hired her firm because they were experts In Ms [redacted] finally stated she could go to Trenton to gain guidance I encouraged her to go and even said I would pay whatever, just get this case closed I have documented that that discussion took place on November 28, and we agreed on approximate $for her trip Due to her schedule, Ms [redacted] advised it would have to wait until after the holidays The date was set for January 4, The trip never took place January 30, Ms [redacted] constructed an email seeking a Technical Consultation There was no response from anyone to that email As you can see by the attached copies, on March 10, I emailed all parties involved in the original email string asking for a status Mr [redacted] responded that he dropped the ball Had I not sent my email in March would Ms [redacted] had followed up? I suspect not My file was not a priority for her The consultation finally took place by March and Ms [redacted] advised me I would have a report by the end of the following week (as written in her March 15, email attached) April I followed up, and again, no response Answer: The LSRP program did not allow for an incomplete submittal to address an outstanding deficiency I expressed this to Mrs [redacted] and also let her know that we should sample and test in order to satisfy the requirement I also cautioned her that if we found additional contamination, we would have to address it Mrs [redacted] did not want to sample or spend any more money Mrs [redacted] proceeded to try to find the consultant who did the work initially to obtain the data needed to satisfy the NODI told her that we if she found the data to satisfy the NOD, THEN WE WOULD BE DONE! She was not successful In March 2013, I personally executed a technical consultation with the NJDEP in an attempt to gather information to close the case The NJDEP technical consultant is a way for LSRP’s to obtain the NJDEP opinion on whether the project requirements are satisfied for a LSRP to issue a Response Action Outcome for the project This was conducted and I obtained the information that I needed, however, I remained unsatisfied that this would protect my license and my obligations to the NJDEP In the next months to come, I rewrote the report and consulted with colleagues and the NJDEP I spoke to Mrs [redacted] and expressed my concerns Many of my comments above apply here As for the part regarding the samples, of course I did not want to spend more money I no longer owned this property, I was under the impression all work was completed in and was frustrated with the process I advised Ms [redacted] to do what she had to do, I wanted this to be over As to her broken promises on completing the report, no communication was granted to me Just silence with no explanation as to why we could not come to a conclusionAgain, my file was not a priority to her If Ms [redacted] was no comfortable with her report, why then did she not convey this to me and allow me to hire another firm to complete it I never asked her to do something she was not comfortable with When my pleas for an answer were never responded to and I contacted the project manager to get my soil sample reports (because Ms [redacted] would not return my calls) and allow me to move on with another company, I did not even get a response from Ms [redacted] on that Why didn't she turn over the documents and allow me to proceed with another firm? Answer: As far as I am concerned with this complaint, Mrs [redacted] failed to understand the complexities of the LSRP Program, however, the attorney she hired didI did finally wrap up the projectsolely because of a NJDEP representative that assisted me in my decision making As far as billing is concerned, the actual time and materials invoiced to Mrs [redacted] at courtesy rates totaled $7,772.50of which I knew she would not pay nor agree to I credited the invoice $3,by “No Charge” LINE ITEMS in the invoice detail so that her balance would be closer to $4,as originally discussed since the project was assigned to the LSRP program I personally performed many hours on the project and on her behalf as gratis Her bill was $4,Personally, I believe I was very fair to her, especially because she did not understand the program In fact, after I provided her with the Response Action Outcome to complete the project, she still asked the NJDEP for their letterI expressed that my RAO replaced the NJDEP NFA By the way, I finished the project on August 14, and e-mailed her all the documents and invoice I gave her an additional credit of $495.00, so that her remaining balance was $She did not pay her invoice until September 9, I totally understood the complexities of the ProgramMy complaint is based upon the fact that no report should take years to complete The additional soil samples were taken in May 2012, by October I advised Ms [redacted] that the report from the original lab was destroyed Why did it take until January to request the technical consult? Why was there no follow up to her request for the consult? Why did I have to reach out to Trenton and get things back on track? Why did it take from March 14, until August 14, (date report was written) to find that assistance from NJDEP and close this file? In Ms [redacted] ’s eyes, my file was not a priority Ms [redacted] gained the knowledge she needed from the March consultation and yet it still took over a year and a half to write the report That is unreasonable Also, no professional should ignore their client’s request for communication and updates on a job her company was hired to do No professional should be forced into action through the hiring of an attorney -- but that action is what brought about a conclusion I have attached a copy of Ms [redacted] 's estimate How could she have been so far off on how much she anticipated her expense would be? Again, she did the initial clean up in I know the LSRP program was new but imagine you are me and expect a final bill to be close to $2,and then be handed a bill for over $4, NEVER was it communicated to me that Ms [redacted] felt her estimate was inaccurate As for why I asked the NJDEP for their sign off, my answer should be obvious, it was because at that point I lost all confidence in Ms [redacted] 's ability and needed to ensure the State of New Jersey’s records reflected the case as closed Ms [redacted] states the project was finished on August 14, 2014, however, she neglected to tell you that there was additional dialogue regarding fees and her inability to file with the State until all fees were settled It was not until AFTER the September 23, email from NJDEP that the case could move forward for review and ultimately closed, so Care was paid prior to my file being complete I will adjust my request regarding settlement and ask Ms [redacted] to refund my attorney fees in the amount of $(I should not have had to hire an attorney to reach conclusion) and I want her to honor her $2,quoted contract price and refund my $1,overpaymentThank you again, ***, for your attention to my complaint and I am hopeful we can reach some resolutionRegards, [redacted] Regards, [redacted]