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Vac-Tron first took shape in October of 1994 when Don Buckner founded American 
Manufacturing and Machine, Inc., out of his garage with his son, Donnie Jr. Forged from their desire to “make something better” — the “virtual manufacturing” company relied on subcontractors to build and sell pumper and septic-tank trucks across the U.S. While in this role, Buckner saw a need for innovation in the trenchless industry, which was, at the time, marked by disastrous underground utility strikes. Soon, Buckner developed a revolutionary, well-made industrial vacuum system that could safely locate underground utilities — without the risk of a strike — and Vac-Tron was born.
Vac-Tron Equipment is now one of the country’s largest producers of industrial vacuum equipment. Vac-Tron offers a full line of industrial vacuums, potholing, daylighting, hydro-excavation, and air excavation equipment. Vac-Tron’s equipment can also be used for directional drill slurry removal, Power Pole setting, manhole clean-out, culvert clean-out, lateral and storm drain clean-out, industrial clean-up, waste clean-up, lift-station clean-up, oil spill clean-up, as well as other natural disaster clean-up applications.
Vac-Tron Equipment enables your excavations to be clean, precise and ready for inspection. Our equipment can uncover pipelines, phone lines, fiber optics — and anything else buried up to 20 feet underground — quickly, safely, and without damaging any expensive or hazardous lines.
When damaging a utility, the costs and ripple effects could add up quickly; environmental contamination, project delays, lost time and productivity, financial liability, redesign costs, change orders, extra work orders, construction claims, higher insurance costs, higher financing costs, but even more importantly an injury could occur or even death.
Damage prevention starts with one phone call, and since 2007 the phone number for that call has been 811. 811 serves as an easy-to-remember phone number for both professional excavators and homeowners to call — and it’s the law. With Vac-Tron Equipment, you can safely locate utilities using a non-destructive method such as vacuum excavation.
Common Ground Alliance (CGA) is a member-driven association of 1,700 individuals, organizations and sponsors in every facet of the underground utility industry. Established in 2000, CGA is committed to saving lives and preventing damage to underground infrastructure by promoting effective damage prevention practices in an effort to reduce damages to underground facilities in North America. CGA compiled statistics showing that from 2009 to 2011 excavation practices from known events are not sufficient, increasing from 37% to 41%. Notifications are still not being made. Awareness ranged from a low of 57.8% in the Northeast to a high of 75.0% in the Midwest. Generally speaking, as awareness increases, the percentage of events attributed to notification not made decreases.
Increase your awareness. Dig the safe way, the Vac-Tron way. Spring is here and so are all those construction projects. Remember, April is National Safe Digging Month. Please visit us at www.vactron.com or call 1-888-VAC-TRON.
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EPA’s National Stormwater Calculator (SWC) is a desktop application that estimates the 
annual amount of rainwater and frequency of runoff from a specific site anywhere in the United States (including Puerto Rico). Estimates are based on local soil conditions, land cover, and historic rainfall records.
It is designed to be used by anyone interested in reducing runoff from a property, including
- site developers,
- landscape architects,
- urban planners, and
- homeowners.
The Calculator accesses several national databases that provide soil, topography, rainfall, and evaporation information for the chosen site. The user supplies information about the site’s land cover and selects the types of low impact development (LID) controls they would like to use. The LID controls that the user can choose are the following seven green infrastructure practices:
- Disconnection
- Rain harvesting
- Rain gardens
- Green roofs
- Street planters
- Infiltration basins
- Porous pavement
Green infrastructure promotes the natural movement of water, instead of allowing it to wash into streets and down storm drains. Green infrastructure also has the added benefit of beautifying neighborhoods and increasing property values.
The SWC estimates runoff at a site based on available information such as soil type, landscape and land-use information, and weather. This update to the SWC will allow users to consider how runoff may vary based on historical weather and potential future climate. To better inform decisions, it is recommended that the user develop a range of SWC results with various assumptions about model inputs such as percent of impervious surface, soil type, sizing of green infrastructure, as well as historical weather and future climate change scenarios. Please check with local authorities about whether and how use of these tools may support local stormwater management goals and requirements.
Clean water is essential to keeping our families and the environment healthy. The Calculator helps protect and restore the environmental integrity of our waterways.
Source: EPA.gov (click link to view article and watch calculator demo)
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BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (March 30, 2015) – Toro Australia entered the horizontal directional drilling (HDD) market in early 2014 with a strong line of powerful machines. Toro’s expansion into HDD follows the purchase in 2012 of Astec Underground, Inc., a highly regarded manufacturer of directional drills, riding trenchers and other utility equipment, by The Toro Company of the USA, Toro Australia’s parent company. In addition to Australia, Toro has expanded its dealer base with representation in Brazil, U.K. Poland, Russia and New Zealand.
As a result, several Toro directional drills have now been sold into the underground market. One of the first companies to take delivery of their Toro DD4045 directional drill was PDR Group from Burpengary, Queensland, Australia. The communications construction company specializes in directional drilling and telecommunications infrastructure.
Shane Crawford, Drill Supervisor at PDR, couldn’t be more pleased with his DD4045: “I have previously used Astec horizontal drills and with all of the improvements to the DD4045 that Toro has made it is now a better machine than it used to be.”
“Our Toro’s first drill shot was a large rock job on the Sunshine Coast at Caloundra: a 350mm hole down to a depth of 12m and over 180m in length. The Toro drilled through layers of hard bluestone and ‘coffee’ rock with ease! We are currently using the machine to boost our productivity as part of our work on the NBN (National Broadband Network) rollout on the Northside of Brisbane.
“The DD4045 almost seems to be two types of machines into one, it is easy to change between the way you work, single stick or two stick. There are multiple ways of continuing to work when there is an issue, there is even a ‘life jacket unit’ to support you if the drill ever has an issue.
“Toro has been absolutely great to deal with and has exceeded our expectations from the moment we showed interest. Their price, quality, service and expertise is beyond what we expected. We have never had support like this, and Steve Timms from Toro knows the machine inside and out and is fantastic to deal with,” says Shane.
The Toro DD4045 has a thrust capacity of 18,000kg (40,000lbs), which makes it suitable for most mid-range applications. For more information on Toro’s range of underground products, visit www.toro.com.
About The Toro Company
The Toro Company (NYSE: TTC) is a leading worldwide provider of innovative solutions for the outdoor environment including turf, snow and ground engaging equipment, and irrigation and outdoor lighting solutions. With sales of $2.2 billion in fiscal 2014, Toro’s global presence extends to more than 90 countries. Through constant innovation and caring relationships built on trust and integrity, Toro and its family of brands have built a legacy of excellence by helping customers care for golf courses, landscapes, sports fields, public green spaces, commercial and residential properties and agricultural fields. For more information, visit www.toro.com.
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San Diego, Calif. — Woodard & Curran has won an EBJ award for Business Achievement in the Large Firm category. The award was given by the Environmental Business Journal® (EBJ), a business research publication for the environmental industry that has honored 50 companies for revenue growth, acquisitions, innovative project designs, technology applications, new practice areas, social contributions and industry leadership in 2014.
“In what is widely regarded as a stable market, a number of companies exceeded the norms of low single-digit growth with double-digit growth or ambitious ventures into new practice areas or technology development,” said Grant Ferrier, president of Environmental Business International Inc. (EBI, San Diego), publisher of Environmental Business Journal.
Woodard & Curran was recognized for revenue growth of approximately 16% to $166 million in 2014. The company enjoyed steady growth in all its business units and expanded its presence in the Northeast; Midwest, with a new St. Louis office (St. Charles, MO); and the western United States, through its acquisition of TREC. In 2014, the firm reached all-time high rankings on The Zweig Letter’s Hot Firm list (number 29) and Engineering News-Record’s list of the top 200 environmental firms (number 67). “In addition to strong top line growth, we drove over 40% improvement in profitability in 2014. And all of that was accomplished during a year of a major reorganization, with a focus on safety, and a commitment to maintaining our culture and values,” said the company’s CEO, Doug McKeown.
The 2014 EBJ awards will be presented at a special ceremony at the Environmental Industry Summit XIII in San Diego, Calif. on March 11-13, 2015. The Environmental Industry Summit is an annual three-day executive retreat hosted by EBI Inc.
About Woodard & Curran: Woodard & Curran is an integrated engineering, science, and operations company serving clients locally and nationwide. The firm employs more than 850 people across the country and operates treatment facilities nationwide. Visit www.woodardcurran.com for more information.
About the EBJ Business Achievement Awards: In October-December 2013, Climate Change Business Journal solicited nominations for the EBJ Business Achievement Awards. Nominations were accepted in 200-word essays in either specific or unspecified categories. Final awards were determined by a committee of EBJ staff and EBJ editorial advisory board members. (Disclaimer: company audits were not conducted to verify information or claims submitted with nominations.)
About EBI: Founded in 1988, Environmental Business International Inc. (EBI, San Diego, Calif.) is a research, publishing and consulting company that specializes in defining emerging markets and generating strategic market intelligence for companies, investors and policymakers. EBI publishes Environmental Business Journal®, the leading provider of strategic information for the environmental industry, and Climate Change Business Journal®, which covers nine segments of the Climate Change Industry. EBI also performs contract research for the government and private sector and founded the Environmental Industry Summit, an annual three-day event for executives in the environmental industry.
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KANSAS CITY, MO–(Marketwired – Apr 3, 2015) – Andy Sauer, P.E., ENV SP, has joined Burns & McDonnell as the Green Infrastructure and Stormwater Leader in the Water division. Sauer is a recognized industry expert in the integration of green infrastructure design in stormwater control systems, with a specialty in stormwater control alternatives in urban environments.
Sauer has served as project manager on a number of high-profile projects in the Midwest that have demonstrated that green infrastructure best management practices (BMP) can be effective, cost-saving options for stormwater control while also providing opportunities for improved community aesthetics.
“We are thrilled to have Andy Sauer join our team,” said Cliff Cate, Wastewater Systems Director for the Burns & McDonnell Water Division. “We’ve long known and admired Andy’s work on a number of projects in our area. He is one of our industry’s leading advocates for green design solutions utilizing native plants, natural materials, permeable surfaces and natural contours of the landscape as a design alternative that often reduces the scale of traditional built infrastructure.”
One of Sauer’s recent projects includes a 281-acre green infrastructure demonstration project as part of Kansas City’s ongoing Overflow Control Program. In addition to his work in Kansas City, Sauer has served in various project management roles for a similar overflow control program for the City of Omaha and as project manager for several projects within Kansas and Missouri.
Sauer has previously served as an adjunct professor at the University of Missouri – Kansas City teaching a graduate course on urban stormwater BMP. He also has served as Chairman of the American Public Works Association (APWA) Kansas City Metro Chapter Water Resources Committee and as project manager for regional BMP training sponsored by the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC). Sauer is a frequent speaker and panelist at professional conferences throughout the country, focusing on design and construction of green infrastructure projects.
Mr. Sauer holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Engineering and Master of Science degree in Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering both from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is a registered professional engineer in the states of Kansas and Missouri and an Envision™ certified professional.
About Burns & McDonnell
Founded in 1898, Burns & McDonnell is a 100-percent employee-owned firm providing engineering, architecture, construction, environmental and consulting services. With 5,000 professionals working in more than 40 regional, national and international offices, Burns & McDonnell offers clients a single source for a range of engineering, design/build, permitting and related services. For more information about Burns & McDonnell, visit www.burnsmcd.com.
SOURCE: Burns & McDonnell
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Manufacturing and Machine, Inc., out of his garage with his son, Donnie Jr. Forged from their desire to “make something better” — the “virtual manufacturing” company relied on subcontractors to build and sell pumper and septic-tank trucks across the U.S. While in this role, Buckner saw a need for innovation in the trenchless industry, which was, at the time, marked by disastrous underground utility strikes. Soon, Buckner developed a revolutionary, well-made industrial vacuum system that could safely locate underground utilities — without the risk of a strike — and Vac-Tron was born.