Remediation Submittals

All paper correspondence regarding remediation issues should be submitted to the department in triplicate to:

Estuardo Silva, P. G., Administrator
Remediation Division
P.O. Box 4314
Baton Rouge, LA 70821-4314

Suggested format for submittal

One of the copies should be directed to the attention of the remediation team leader if assigned
Include the following information on the reference line of all the correspondence submitted:

RE:    Purpose of Letter
Agency Interest (AI) Name
AI Number (if assigned)
AOI Name or Unit Name or AOC Name
Applicable Alternate ID
Physical Address
City
Parish

Submittal Guidelines for Electronic Documents

The Underground Storage Tank (USTD) and Remediation Divisions (RD) are encouraging correspondence to be submitted in electronic format if the consultant/submitter wishes to do so, or if requested by Division personnel. Such submittals must be submitted as PDF on CD/DVD/Flash Drive, along with at least one printed copy. In order to facilitate submission of the electronic file to EDMS, PDFs must comply with the following:

Types of color - Each page in the document will ultimately be converted into a single image for storage in EDMS. Based on the content of a page, there are three color formats that the resulting image may have: Bitonal – the image literally contains only black and white. For example, plain text on a white background. Bitonal is preferred because it will result in the smallest file size.
Color – contains colors other than black, white and gray.

Creating documents

- Make as much of the document bitonal as possible (If bitonal will not capture the content of the document scan in color). Do not use decorative color content that appears on every page of a document (e.g., logos and/or company letter head).
- Use text formatting (bold, italic, underline) or font size for emphasis rather than using color.
- Unless other legal or regulatory restrictions exist, sign transmittal letters and forms in black ink.
- Inserting images (pictures, maps, etc.) - Flatten the layers in an image before inserting it into the document.
- Reduce the resolution of the image to the minimum required for legibility. This is especially important when importing pictures from a digital camera.
- Page size:  Avoid custom page sizes when possible.
- Avoid pages larger than 11" X 17" (e.g., maps/drawings).
- Number of pages: No more than 999 pages per PDF. If a document has over 999 pages, break it up at natural points, such as Sections/Appendices. If laboratory data submittals are voluminous, please include these as an Appendix in a separate file on the CD. Font size should be at least 10 point.
- Wet-Ink signed Transmittal Letter: Include immediately behind report/plan cover page or, if a small submittal, as the first page.
- If the document consists of multiple volumes, each volume must be included as a separate file (PDF) on the CD/DVD/Flash Drive. File names for each volume must be the same except volume number (e.g., RFI Report for Tank 234 Area – Volume 1, 2, 3, etc.)
- Scanning documents:  General scanner settings:  Scan all documents at 200 DPI. See remarks about bitonal above.

- Performing OCR on the documents is not recommended. Documents will be converted back into images in EDMS.
- Scanner dependent settings – use these features if they are available with your scanning hardware/software configuration.  - - When scanning bitonal content on colored paper, drop out the color of the paper.
- Use hole fill features on documents that have been punched for binding.
- Quality Control - Ensure that all pages are in the proper orientation.
- Ensure that there is not unnecessary black space around the edge of documents by selecting the appropriate page size or using cropping.
- Delete blank pages
- Check for loss of content from any image cleanup features used. Be especially careful of despeckling features removing punctuation such as periods and decimal points.
- Converting electronic documents to PDF.  Use any features your software offers to explicitly flatten the document. For example, Adobe Reader and Acrobat have a "Print as Image" option in the advanced print settings. This will flatten the file when printing to PDF.
- Do not digitally sign or certify the document.
- Do not set security restrictions on the document.
- Do not include embedded comments or other annotations
- Do not use the "Optimize Scanned PDF", "Reduce File Size" or "PDF Optimizer" features in Adobe Acrobat. Avoid similar features in other products.

Where Do I Send My Information

Please use the address at the top of this page for mailing all correspondence and documents.  No correspondence or documents should be sent to regional office personnel.

NOTE:  These guidelines are subject to change.  If you have any questions or problems you can contact Mike Miller at 225-219-3797 or email at: _DEQ-WWWRemediation@la.gov

Providing the information in the format requested will expedite our mail process and ensure that all correspondence received is assigned and filed accurately.

Thank you for your cooperation.