A Tale of Two Spills: Tracking Illicit Discharges (On-Demand)

Theodore Higgins began his career with the City of Los Angeles LA Sanitation & Environment, Industrial Waste Management Division (IWMD) as an Industrial Waste Inspector, now called Environmental Compliance Inspectors in October 2001. He currently works as a Chief Environmental Compliance Inspector in IWMD’s Fats, Oil & Grease (FOG) Inspection Group. He is responsible for managing an inspection program with an inventory of nearly 10,000 food service establishments (FSEs). As a newly hired inspector, he was part of the implementation of the Fats Oils & Grease (FOG) program. He has worked in other inspection groups with IWMD including significant Industrial Users Inspection Group (SIU) regulating some of the largest companies in Los Angeles including Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, Food Processors, Metal Finishers, etc. as well as Local Industrial Users (LIU) such as Car Washes, Industrial Laundries, Food Processors, etc. After his promotion to Senior Environmental Compliance Inspector, he worked in the Significant Industrial Users group and LASAN’s new RECYCLA Program. In 2017, he was promoted to Chief Environmental Compliance Inspector. His current and past city activities and recognition include serving the division as a “Sector Champion” for the Car Wash Industry where his role is to maintain collaborative partnerships with the Car Wash Business Sector to strategize how to make businesses grow and become more sustainable; representing IWMD by participating in a national focus group on Micro beads/Micro plastics Pollution with the Nation Pollution Prevention Roundtable; IWMD Employee Excellence Award 2012; Emerging Leader recognition by the California Water Environment Association in 2018; Pretreatment, Pollution Prevention & Stormwater (P3S) Person of the Year Award by the LA Basin Section of the CWEA 2019; and representing LASAN on the SCAQMD Environmental Justice Inter-Agency Task Force. Theodore holds Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree from Woodbury University.

Shannon Simmers, Regulatory Compliance Officer for the City of Redlands, CA is responsible for the Pretreatment Program and other regulatory requirements for the City’s Municipal Utilities, and Engineering Department. She has worked in the Environmental Compliance Field since 2014. She is a P3S Executive Committee Past Chair and the TCP Training Liaison. She is involved in several projects such as the TCP Train the Trainer program and the CSUS PFI Update Subcommittee. She is also a Subject Matter Expert for the ECI exam and was involved with ECI exam re-validation and revisions to the ECI Study guides.