Greenway Engineering's new addition precipitated by residential growth, new environmental regulations

By James Heffernan -- Daily Staff Writer

WINCHESTER — What's in your water? The folks in the little white lab coats at Greenway Engineering can tell you — in most cases, within 48 hours.

A new water and wastewater laboratory has been added on to the back of the firm's headquarters on Windy Hill Lane as a resource for area homeowners, businesses and municipalities.

The 2,000-square-foot facility, with a sample drop-off area and room for expansion, is equipped to perform more than 175 different tests, with packages starting at $35.

Doug Smith, Greenway's director of environmental services, said the lab fulfills a need in the northern Shenandoah Valley for comprehensive water testing — from homeowners concerned about their drinking water to industries looking to maintain compliance with their discharge permits to the recent Chesapeake Bay Nutrient Trading Act governing municipal wastewater treatment plants.

"We're hoping that all these services will come together to build a successful lab," Smith said.

In addition, Greenway can monitor individual on-site wastewater disposal systems, which are set to fall under new regulations beginning next year. There are more than 600 such systems in the region, according to Smith.

The lab has been open for wastewater analysis for about two months, but is still awaiting certification from the Department of Consolidated Laboratory Services in Richmond to begin testing drinking water. Smith said the company expects to be fully operational by early September.

In June, Greenway secured a contract with the Toms Brook-Maurertown Sanitary District to help maintain its wastewater treatment plant permit.

Rodney McClain, director of public utilities for the district, said the company is performing biochemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids and ammonia nitrogen testing. The work requires that Greenway technicians be on site three days a week.

McClain said the district previously did some of the testing itself, but new regulations from the state Department of Environmental Quality forced them to reconsider.

"With the time and the expense [involved], we felt it would be better to go with [Greenway]," he said.

And the results thus far have been good, he added.

"We get results e-mailed to us, usually within 24 hours," he said.

Smith said Greenway is currently in discussions with the towns of Berryville and Strasburg, as well as the Frederick County Sanitation Authority, to perform similar testing.

The lab also has a contract with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to sample Lake Frederick to ensure the water is not impacted by residential development in the area.

For homeowners, Greenway has the capacity to test for drinking water contaminants — including E.Coli, fecal coliform, lead, copper, iron and manganese — whether the homeowner is on a public or a private system. It can also determine if a home with a well has hard water and may require a softener.

Smith said the company can either provide the homeowner with a kit to test their own water — then drop it off at the lab for analysis — or Greenway can perform the sampling on site.

"There are certain parameters you can't pick up in the lab," he said.

Most testing can be done within 48 hours, and the company has a software program that automatically e-mails the client their results as soon as they come in.

Smith said Greenway has about $350,000 invested in the lab. Four of its five staff members — Smith, a lab assistant, a chemical hygiene officer and a quality control manager — were acquired from within the company, while the lab's "prodigy," Andrea Martin, is a graduate of Shenandoah University, with a degree in environmental science.

The facility is a natural fit for the engineering firm's portfolio, and when the local housing market begins to pick up again, Smith said, Greenway stands to benefit from county requirements that all new homes on a well system be tested, at a minimum, for E.Coli and fecal coliform.

The goal, he said, is to grow the business and eventually expand into pesticides and herbicides.

For more information, contact Greenway Laboratory Services at 662-4185 or visit www.greenwayeng.com.

*Contact James Heffernan at jheffernan@nvdaily.com