Industrial Water Permitting (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.

Manik Mohandas is an Environmental Engineer at LA Sanitation and Environment (LASAN) for over six years. For the past two years, he has overseen the administration of the Permitting and Enforcement activities of the City's pretreatment program that handles permit issuances, renewals, amendments and enforcement actions for Significant and Local Industrial Users. He has been involved in several Pretreatment Compliance Inspections and has implemented several recommendations. He started with the City in 2014 and worked on developing hydraulic and hydrologic models for the wastewater systems. Before joining the City, he has worked as a consultant for over thirteen years for major water and wastewater agencies in the Southern California area. Manik played a key role in the development of a patented sewer design tool that is currently used by the City of Los Angeles for all its secondary sewer design and repair projects. Manik is a Registered Civil Engineer in California and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and master’s degree in Construction.