In preparation for construction work, TGE Resources, Inc. performs industrial hygiene inspections, such as asbestos and lead assessment, at a variety of facilities, including city wastewater treatment plants. Pictured, Kristi Destouet, TGE’s Senior Technical Manager for Indoor Environmental Quality/Industrial Hygiene.

President and CEO Robin Franks founded TGE Resources, Inc. in 1994. She is trusted by clients to provide expert testimony on subjects that include mold and moisture intrusion, asbestos contamination and property trespass of hazardous materials.

When it comes to building and construction, things hidden from sight can be your biggest nightmare. An undiscovered contaminant—whether asbestos in the ceiling of an old building or an underground plume of hydrocarbons from an old gas station—can stop a construction project in its tracks and potentially lead to significant environmental risk. That’s why it pays to have a trusted environmental consultant like TGE Resources, Inc. (TGE) from the earliest stages of a project. From an initial environmental assessment of the site or building to removal or mitigation of a hazardous contaminant, TGE teams with clients to keep construction projects on track and moving forward. “We support all phases of industrial and commercial construction and repurposing of property,” says President and CEO Robin Franks. “We provide peace of mind, respect worker safety and ensure environmental compliance.”

Headquartered in Houston, TGE is an environmental consulting, engineering and industrial hygiene professional services firm with more than 27 years of serving the public and private sectors. The certified women-owned business provides a wide array of services, including real estate assessment and remediation, industrial hygiene, asbestos consulting, workplace hazard assessment, environmental compliance, oil field consulting, petroleum storage tank consulting, soil vapor testing and mitigation, NEPA assessment, permits and reporting, and expert witness litigation support. The company serves a varied base of public and private firms—from energy, construction, government and transportation to health care, education, legal and hospitality.

Environmental Assessments

Robin explains how an assessment begins. “The client prospects to buy a property or may own a site to be sold or developed—or may require lending for a transaction and need lender approval. We prepare a Phase I environmental site assessment (ESA) that often provides a ‘clean bill of health,’ or we may identify historical or observable problems at the location. We access and review resources, including old photos, maps, land records, leases and previous property ownership. We may discover, for example, an old dry cleaner on the property over 50 years ago that could indicate the presence of residual hazardous wastes from spills and equipment use involving solvents. The risk of solvent waste may present concern for not only ownership but also tenants, occupants and lenders.”

Robin continues, “When Phase I risks are found, a Phase II ESA is recommended and performed to identify the presence and extent of contaminants at the location. Our team of geologists, engineers and industrial hygienists offer intrinsically ‘smart’ and cost-efficient options to scope the project. We quantify risk and remove roadblocks. For complicated urban redevelopment projects, we identify contaminants and execute cleanup in compliance with state programs. For residual hazards that cannot be cost effectively removed, we offer permanent mitigations for safe occupancy. For example, we design, field marshal (during construction) and certify the installation of soil vapor controls and mitigation systems to allow safe reuse of former dry cleaner locations, gas stations and former oil and gas well sites—the more contaminated the land, the better we can help for safe property reuse.”

The company’s urban core projects have included over 25 locations in recent years, which have been remediated by a combination of source removal, an integrated/team approach to engineered improvements and sub-slab and indoor air testing to prove up beneficial reuse and safety. “We prepare soil management plans for contractor reference during construction, assist in segregation of waste during earthwork and typically integrate ‘smart design’ engineered systems to depressurize the slab and actively or passively vent volatile organics to the exterior of the building,” she adds.

Once that mitigation system is in place, TGE experts periodically monitor to ensure the system is doing what it’s designed to do. The company keeps state regulators properly informed of the system’s progress. “That mitigation system ensures the occupants of that building keep safe from exposure to a harmful contaminant,” Robin says.

Credentialed, Certified and Licensed Professionals

While some may be tempted to go with the lowest bid for a Phase I ESA, saving a couple of hundred or even a few thousand dollars upfront, firm selection based on low price may be a risky trade-off if an environmental liability is present and missed, according to Robin. “An environmental condition that is found during or even after construction (possibly during subsequent refinance) may result in diminution of property value, undermine/limit its intended use and also cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in post-construction retrofit costs, ensuing lawsuits and reputational loss” she says.

“You have to be careful about the environmental consultant you go with,” she continues. “In place of traditional, well-established firms like TGE, staffed with credentialed, well-trained, committed employees who stand behind our work, the environmental industry is now plagued with firms that use unqualified temporary (contract) employees with a focus on high-volume project turnover. When obvious factors of risk are missed during any stage of assessment, but found later accompanied by unexpected cost, these firms are typically not available to support the client.”

The environmental professionals at TGE have extensive certifications, licenses, registrations and affiliations in a wide range of disciplines across the U.S., according to Robin. “We keep pace with—often lead—the industry with innovative and cost-saving tools, delivery systems, software and employee training. We continually refine our services and capabilities to minimize subcontracting and roll up offerings for the convenience of our clients,” she says.

When select outsourcing is desired by clients, possibly to cover a large geographic area or to expand volume under a compressed schedule, TGE may employ Critical Alliance Partners (CAPs), according to Robin. “CAPs are carefully vetted, like-minded firms that are individually contracted to execute certain work under TGE’s standard operating procedures. Their work is reviewed by TGE to ensure consistency and the high quality our clients expect,” Robin says.

Of the company’s staff of valued employees, Robin could not speak more highly. “Employees like Kristi Destouet, our Senior Technical Manager for Indoor Environmental Quality/Industrial Hygiene, greatly contributes to the success of the firm. Kristi is bright and well-liked by clients and co-workers. She brings out the best in our team and teaches by example.”

To keep top talent like Kristi, Robin says that TGE offers generous salaries and competitive benefits. “Our management team has impressive longevity of between 10 and 25 years, ensuring continuity with our many long-term clients,” Robin says.

Those long-term clients include big hitters like United Airlines, Walmart, most national lenders/banks, Emerus Hospital Partners, MultiCare hospitals, JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle IP, Inc.) and TIAA (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America). “We have performed a wide array of services for these companies that has included everything we do, including real estate due diligence, environmental remediation and comprehensive industrial hygiene services that often include emergency response—especially following catastrophic loss to real estate following storms and the presence of ensuing mold damage,” she says.

When natural disasters hits, TGE is not only there for clients, but also helps a community in need. For example, when Hurricane Harvey devastated the Houston area, TGE staff provided boots on the ground help in cleanup efforts. “Our staff provided gratis environmental guidance and assistance to assist in the recovery of low-income households and homes, including for the elderly, giving guidance on best practices in the control of diseases and mold,” Robin says.

Tackling an Environmental Challenge

While any job can have unknowns and challenges, a project funded by local private foundations and the city of Houston offered more surprises than is typical. The client had a plan to transform 12 acres of blighted, underused surface parking into a beautiful and vibrant urban park in the heart of downtown Houston, now known as Discovery Green.

TGE was brought in at the beginning of this project with the mandate to study the land, rectify any environmental issues during active construction and achieve “clean closure” certification, meaning no further environmental action would be required by the state’s environmental regulatory body, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The problem? The land had been used extensively over the last 170 years and held beneath the surface a whole history of environmental surprises. “Our work began with a Phase I ESA where we learned that the land was originally developed with high-end homes in the 1830s, transitioning into use for auto body and repair shops, gasoline service stations, laundries and chemical processers/users,” Robin says. Additionally, the land contained bayou (dredge) material that had been added to the soil at different points in time.

The project advanced to a Phase II ESA with a comprehensive geo-assessment that included surface and subsurface soil testing and shallow groundwater characterization. The team discovered a trove of buried history under the concrete slabs that dotted the landscape. “We found and removed underground storage tanks, abandoned sumps, cisterns, wells, septic tanks and abandoned piping,” she says. TGE identified seven “affected property” locations with areas of contamination. The team developed an aggressive remediation strategy, which involved extensive shallow soil removal, as well as in-place injection of organic treatment chemicals to reduce waste volume and contamination too deep to cost effectively remove.

Over time, only one contaminated area remained, with soil and groundwater far too deep to access with traditional methods. This one area put the hope of a clean closure certification in jeopardy.

TGE then learned of rather late-stage plans for an extensive underground parking garage that would be constructed directly above this contaminated site. “This garage would be constructed at such a depth below the water table that continual dewatering would be required once constructed,” Robin says. “Luckily, we recognized an opportunity to mitigate the contaminated area.” With removal and segregation of the last bit of impacted soil during garage construction, the firm installed groundwater monitoring wells into the slab of the newly constructed garage. After a full year of dewatering, groundwater testing and state-mandated reporting, TGE solicited the state and received clean case closure. “The greatest moment was the point of realizing the fortuitous placement of the garage, allowing us to fully realize our client’s objectives,” Robin says.

Quality Work, Ethical Standards

Robin got her start in the environmental field in the late 1980s, working alongside respected real estate professionals and developers who saw promise in the young geologist and biologist. “They first involved me in projects that required what today we call ‘environmental site assessments’ of real estate, which were under contract to sell, lease and develop,” Robin says. The budding environmental real estate professional who learned new skills on the fly, gained extensive knowledge of environmental assessments, waste management, facility cleanups and remediation. “In seven years of working with national and local environmental firms in this capacity, I gained an incredible amount of experience,” she says.

By the early 1990s, Robin hit a fork in the road. “I found that my track record of success was not recognized, advanced or aligned consistently with my demonstrated responsibilities or goals, so I started TGE Resources.” The company gave Robin flexibility in raising her growing family and the ability to control the quality of work. She not only heads TGE, but also is a much-sought-after thought leader who has spoken on environmental issues at conferences around the world.

Robin says that TGE’s commitment to quality remains first and foremost in everything the company does. “We are a group of highly trained environmental professionals who deliver quality work on time, with proven expertise and high ethical standards. We understand this business through and through and are ready to demonstrate our capabilities and show new clients why they should trust us, too.”