Oneida Total Integrated Enterprises (OTIE) has been named the 2022 8(a) Graduate of the Year by the Wisconsin Small Business Administration (SBA).

Since graduating from the 8(a) program in 2017, OTIE has continued to grow and offer our capabilities in infrastructure and facility engineering, civil, mechanical, electrical, and structural design engineering, environmental services, remediation services, and construction support services to government agencies and commercial customers in the U.S. and around the world.

As part of National Small Business Week, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) highlighted the impact of outstanding entrepreneurs, small business owners, and others from all 50 states and U.S. territories. Wisconsin SBA winners were announced at the virtual Lt. Governor’s Conference on Small Business Development held May 3-6, 2022.

OTIE made use of SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on staff, while executives took a pay cut. Gary Mejchar of First American Capital Corp. nominated OTIE for the award.

Photo left to right: David DeMartino, OTIE Director of Operations; Jacquelyn Zalim, Oneida ESC Group Board Member; Jeff House, Oneida ESC Group President and CEO; and Eric Ness, Director for the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Wisconsin District Office

We are pleased to announce the expansion of our San Antonio office with these key hires.

Rick Cavada, PMP is OTIE’s new Business Unit Leader 

Mr. Cavada joins OTIE after serving 21 years as active duty Air Force working inside the Air Force Civil Engineering function. As a Project Management Professional, he has over 11 years of experience in asset management as well as environmental and energy management consulting for Department of Defense installations.

As Business Unit Leader, Mr. Cavada directs the efforts of more than 40 professionals in execution of federal task orders, monitoring and assigning technical resources for outstanding customer service. He mentors staff with emphasis on customer focus and customer care in project delivery. Mr. Cavada also fosters business-to-business relationships to enhance OTIE’s growth into new markets.

Eric Turner joins OTIE as a Senior Program Manager

Mr. Turner joins OTIE after serving 26 years as an active duty Air Force civil engineer officer. While in the Air Force he worked with the Corps of Engineers and NAVFAC as a Program Manager to execute a wide range of design and construction projects for environmental and energy programs in Guam, Qatar, Afghanistan, Europe, and multiple installation in the CONUS.

Mr. Turner will be an engineer doer/seller supporting multiple A-E service opportunities for the Air Force and DoD. OTIE welcomes Eric to our organization where he will apply his leadership experience with large asset portfolios to further our expanding customer service goals.

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Eric Foote, PMP comes to OTIE as the Director, EPA Programs

Mr. Foote joins OTIE with more than 25 years of environmental laboratory and field project experience. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and has managed numerous environmental projects and programs for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Defense (DoD) clients.

He has extensive experience in federal contract management and has served as the Program Manager for several U.S. EPA programs under multiple Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts for the EPA Office of Research and Development (ORD), National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL), and the Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) with focus on treatment, control, and monitoring of remediation technologies, contaminated sites and facilities, and threatened ecosystems.

Please join us in welcoming Rick, Eric, and Eric to the OTIE Team!

The Edge Moor Bridge, a steel and timber trestle bridge, was originally constructed in 1898. The bridge was moved to its current location near Fort Gordon in 1941 to support troop and equipment deployment during WWII.

SRS was the prime contractor and OTIE provided on-site supervision, including health and safety and quality control, for the removal of the now-unused bridge to allow expansion of Highway 78 in Augusta, GA.

Preparations for removal of the bridge began on January 11. Initial work involved preparing the site for the crane and other equipment needed to lift the bridge. Equipment included lifting cables, torch cutters and gases, sling rods to stabilize the bridge during the lift off its piers, and boom lifts.

At midnight on January 11, the crew completed the crane setup and performed torch-cutting of the bridge bearing points to release the bridge from its anchors. The crew also raised lifting cables and placed them on the four corners of the bridge. After two hours of preparation, the bridge was hoisted up, turned approximately 90 degrees, and lowered to the existing roadway. This process took about half an hour. The bridge was then demolished over the next four and a half hours using torch cutters, heavy shears, and grabbers.

The road was reopened to traffic about 5:30 a.m., while the final stages of demolition were underway, and the bridge material was then transported offsite for disposal at a facility to be recycled or reused.

Following the overnight removal efforts, OTIE remained on-site to oversee site restoration and demobilization of the heavy equipment.

Watch a short clip of the removal.

PFASs are a large family of long-chain fluorinated chemicals used in many manufacturing and industrial applications, including fire suppression and oil, stain, grease, and water repellency. Among the many PFASs, perfluorooctoanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) are the most commonly produced.

A major use of PFASs was in fire extinguishing aqueous film forming foam (AFFF). During fire training, equipment maintenance, and use, PFASs were released to the environment. Additionally, PFOS was used in mist suppressants in decorative and hard chrome plating processes.

Under multiple NAVFAC and USACE contracts,  OTIE is performing Preliminary Assessments/Site Investigations on over 170 PFAS sites in USEPA Regions 6 and 9 involving over 2,700 soil and 1,300 groundwater samples. We use stringent clean field sampling protocols to prevent PFAS contamination and to meet data quality objectives (DQOs) for decision support, all in accordance with our approved UFP-QAPPs.

ARC for Soil Vapor Intrusion_OTIE_Sept 2018.pdf

For more information, contact:

Oscar Martinez, Senior Program Chemist | (210) 541-0646 x2230 | omartinez@otie.com

The inhalation of indoor air contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE) can cause direct health effects. It is paramount to monitor for acute and chronic TCE exposure with the best possible technologies that reach low-detection limits and provide timely, accurate data. OTIE’s scientists and engineers are getting ahead of the environmental industry’s curve on vapor intrusion (VI) by recognizing:

• Gasses are dynamic and their volatility characteristics can be missed by the conventional VI investigation and sampling approach which relies on time-weighted average data from passive samplers or vacuum canisters and two-dimensional modeling with assumed vapor diffusion attenuation factors.
• The temporal pattern of VI is the key to understanding the problem and developing the correct solution; and
• Each building has unique characteristics, contaminant history, occupancy patterns, temporal air-pressure profile, preferential pathways, and other factors that need to be understood to address VI effectively.

Through our holistic ARC^© approach (Assess, Respond, Control) and the use of game-changing tools like VaporSafe we can solve our customers short-term vapor intrusion problems and position ourselves for long-term work to address the source of the problem and determine the best mitigation response action.

Read more about ARC^© by downloading our brochure below.

ARC for Soil Vapor Intrusion_OTIE_Sept 2018.pdf

For more information, contact:

Nova Clite, Sr. Hydrogeologist, OTIE – (805) 585‐6396, nclite@otie.com

Emmanuel Vasquez, Project Chemist, OTIE – (805) 585‐4314, evasquez@otie.com

Over the last two decades, there have been growing concerns over emerging contaminants from a group of manmade chemicals known of per- and poly-fluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS). These compounds were often used in fire-fighting foam and a wide variety of commercial and industrial applications. PFAS are persistent and resist degradation in the environment. An increase in drinking water contamination due to possible PFAS releases from sites around the country has led the EPA to issue human health advisory levels, and several individual states have implemented groundwater contaminant levels.

OTIE staff, in partnership with the Air Force and US Army Corps of Engineers, are performing site inspections of aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) at several US Air Force installations in US EPA Regions 6 and 9. As a leader in the investigation and remediation of PFAS contamination, Oscar Martinez has provided briefings on PFAS for groups such as the Alamo Air Waste Management Association, at SAME luncheons in Guam and Savannah, and for government customers from Japan to Savannah. Topics covered range from lessons learned in sampling these ubiquitous compounds, analytical laboratory management and requirements, trending regulatory guidance, investigative-derived waste management, and remediation or treatment technologies.

Oscar is a Senior Program Chemist and Project Manager in OTIE’s San Antonio office and has over 26 years of professional experience. He is the project manager for OTIE’s PFAS-related site inspections contract at multiple US Air Force installations and he has been the Program Chemist for the PFAS program for the past four years.

Download a copy of OTIE’s PFAS flyer:

OTIE_PFAS Brochure_2018

To have Oscar to speak to your organization:

Oscar Martinez | (210) 541-0646 ext. 2230 | omartinez@otie.com

To learn more about PFAS:

https://www.epa.gov/chemical-research/research-and-polyfluoroalkyl-substances-pfas

Jeff brings 30 years of experience in electrical engineering and construction management to the electrical team in our Milwaukee office. He is a licensed Designer of Engineering Systems – Electrical in Wisconsin.

Jeff’s design experience ranges from small low voltage projects to 24.9 KV systems that supply power to wastewater treatment plants. His recent project experience includes lighting, power, and communications systems for water and wastewater facilities, industrial facilities, and marine transfer stations. His work portfolio also encompasses electrical design for cultural and institutional customers, such as the lighting and power design for the pedestrian bridge, walkways, and boat docks for the only Wisconsin state park—Lakeshore State Park in Milwaukee—in an urban setting.

Jeff also holds both a copyright and a patent for real-time, web-based facility system databases for electrical systems. This gives facility operators the ability to view unlimited electrical information at any time in a secure setting. Smart devices are currently being developed to link various sensors on power systems to provide an ongoing status of the transformers, electrical distribution equipment, power feeders and more. Jeff’s work has taken this concept to another level, collaborating with an open protocol Cloud-based company to retrieve analytics of various Internet of Things (IoT) devices and link that information back to the web-based database to create a dynamic system. Ultimately, this allows clients to see how much they save in dollars on a daily basis through greater control of system settings.

Please join us in welcoming Jeff to the OTIE team!

Contact: Jeff Gawronski | (414) 607-6761 | jgawronski@otie.com

The Bank of Wisconsin Dells has received a Projects of Distinction 2017 Silver Award in the category of Restoration & Renovation from Associated Builders and Contractors-Wisconsin Chapter.

The Lake Delton branch needed to update and expand its existing facility to improve customers’ experience and accommodate its growing operations. The addition included office space, a conference room, storage, and a breakroom.

Working with the architect, Architectural Design Consultants, Inc., OTIE provided electrical and mechanical engineering for this $2 million addition and renovation totaling a little over 10,000 square feet.

OTIE’s lighting design included cove lighting, illuminated alcoves, and contemporary fixtures throughout. Other electrical work included design and installation of a new generator. Mechanical work included heat loss/gain calculations and design of a new HVAC system.

Congratulations to the entire team!

Images by JakeRost Photography – Madison, WI