EnvironmentalChemistry.com
Environmental, Chemistry & Hazardous Materials News, Careers & Resources

Kenneth Lea Barbalace

Founder and Editor-in-Chief

Degree

AAS Fire Science, Hazardous Materials Control. from the University of Alaska Fairbanks

Own Business

J.K. Barbalace, inc, which focuses on website publishing with EnvironmentalChemistry.com being the flagship property.

Profile

Ken lives in Portland Maine area with his wife Julia, and stays busy editing EnvironmentalChemistry.com, providing database consulting services and enjoyng what Maine has to offer.

Prior to relocating to Maine Ken lived in Alaska for eight years. First he moved to Sitka Alaska in January of 1992 where he was a volunteer fire fighter with the Sitka Fire Department. Then in August of 1994 he moved to Fairbanks Alaska to attend the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

After graduating from UAF in 1997 with a degree in fire science specializing in hazardous materials, Ken accepted a position as Safety/Regulation Compliance Specialist for Alaska West Express where he worked until June of 2000 (Alaska West Express is one of the largest transporters of hazardous materials in the state of Alaska).

Prior to moving to Alaska in January of 1992, Ken had lived for three and a half years in Yellowstone National Park working on a seasonal basis for park concessionaires and volunteering for the National Park Service and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. His work locations in Yellowstone included Old Faithful, Mammoth Hot Springs, Lake Yellowstone and Roosevelt Lodge.

Contact Ken

If you would like to contact Ken, please use our contact form or call him at 207-797-8202. When calling, please try to call between the hours of 9:00 am and 6:00 pm Eastern Time (GMT -5:00). If you are a member of the media and working on a deadline, you may call outside of these hours, but please be reasonable with calling times.

BEFORE KEN CALLING PLEASE NOTE:

  1. ALL CHEMISTRY AND REGULATORY COMPLIANCE QUESTIONS (e.g. regarding a specific chemical in our chemical database) need to be asked via our CONTACT FORM so that they can be directed to the appropriate party to be answered. We are unable to direct such questions to the appropriate party via the telephone.
  2. ABSOLUTLY NO SALES CALLS THIS IS A PRIVATE PHONE NUMBER AND IS IT ON THE NATIONAL DO NOT CALL REGISTRY. We promise, that if you call Ken trying to sell something he will not buy it even if he would otherwise be interested. Any sales inquiries must be via our CONTACT FORM, if we are interested in what you are selling, we will reply, if not we won't.

Ken's Photography

Pictures from Yellowstone National Park

Ken worked in Yellowstone from June of 1988 until Sept. of 1991. It was one of Ken's favorite places to live and work.

Essays and Tales of Adventure

Written while I lived in Yellowstone National Park and Sitka Alaska, all of these essays are based on true events in my life. Some are dark, some are light, but is that not the way life is? To old friends, long lost but not forgotten, who have stumbled upon my site, I hope the essays bring back fond memories and please make sure to write me, I'd love to hear from you.

Enjoy,
Ken Barbalace

Summary of Experience

EMPLOYMENT

FOUNDER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EnvironmentalChemistry.com 10/95-Present

In October of 1995, Ken founded what became EnvironmentalChemistry.com, which provides environmental, chemistry & hazardous materials news, information & resources including: in depth articles; a detailed periodic table of elements; chemical database; hazmat emergency response guides; hazmat placarding information; etc.

WEBSITE PUBLISHER/COMPUTER CONSULTANT 02/97-Present

J.K. Barbalace, inc., Portland ME: Ken focuses on website publishing and provides database development consulting services.

Ken's most popular site is https://EnvironmentalChemistry.com. This site is an educational site focusing on chemistry and environmental issues and includes a very popular periodic table of elements. EnvironmentalChemistry.com has been featured in NEA Today and won many awards (see below). As with all web sites Ken develops, this site is designed to W3C's HTML and CSS specifications.

WEBMASTER 07/00-06/03

Woodard & Curran, Portland ME: W&C is an environmental engineering firm w/450 employees headquartered in Portland ME with offices throughout the northeast with operational centers throughout the United States. Ken was responsible for the development of W&C's intranet, maintenance and continued development of W&C Internet website. This included the development of web based "thin clients" and databases (MS SQL and MS Access).

Ken provided web page and database development advice and support to teams working on their various projects, frontline desktop technical support and developed and maintained corporate wide spam fighting measures. Also Ken was responsible for the configuration, security and maintenance of W&C's web servers (Win NT 4 w/IIS4, Win 2000 w/IIS5) and SQL server (Win 2000 w/MS-SQL 2000).

SAFETY SPECIALIST 12/97-07/00

Alaska West Express, Inc., Fairbanks AK: AWE is the largest bulk transporter of chemicals and other supplies for the oil and mining industries in Alaska. Ken maintained D.O.T Driver Qualification files for around 100 drivers, maintain equipment files, help ensure compliance with U.S. DOT, EPA and OSHA regulations as well as relevant state regulations. To aid in these responsibilities he designed and implemented a complex database that tracks driver qualifications, training, accidents and injuries, equipment, manages our hazardous communication program and prepares required reports including LEPC required Tier Two reports.

WEBMASTER

Department of Geology & Geophysics, University of AK Fairbanks, Fairbanks AK 01/96-6/97: Designed the department's website. This site was designed to HTML 3.2 standards and was cross browser friendly, including Lynx. This site was selected BEST OF CAMPUS for September 1996 by the Internet Board of MDLink.

COMPUTER SPECIALIST (Volunteer) 02/96-07/00

Hazardous Materials Response Team, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Fairbanks AK: Ken was responsible for developing and deploying the team's computer resources. This includes using CAMEO (Computer Aided Management of Emergency Operations) during an incident to create mathematical plume models of gas clouds and researching the hazards of the chemicals involved in the incident.

COACH COMMANDER 05/95-09/95, 05/96-09/96, 05/97-09/97

Grayline of AK, Holland America Westours, Fairbanks AK: Ken was primarily a highway driver, driving Prevost H5-60's (60' articulated motor coaches) between Fairbanks and Skagway. He drove MCI MC-102DL3's (45' motor coaches) between Fairbanks and Eagle and between Fairbanks and Anchorage. Ken also drove various makes of 40' MCI motor coaches on other assignments. Ken was chair of the Safety Committee for the Fairbanks Division. His responsibilities included safety of vehicle and passengers and providing informative tour narration of the routes he drive. Ken also had to be able to make minor repairs to coaches in the event of a breakdown along the highway and have a working knowledge of DOT Regulations. Ken's first season with Grayline, was working worked on bag crew, becoming a Coach Commander for his next two seasons.

VOLUNTEER FIRE FIGHTER/EMT 02/92-08/94

Sitka Fire Department, Sitka, AK: Ken responded to fire & EMS calls, aid in the protection of life, the environment & property, attend weekly training and in depth classes.

CONTINUING EDUCATION & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

  • MS4706 Intense .NET XML and Web Services (MS2524, MS2663) -Feb '03
  • MS4789 Intensive Web Development with Microsoft ASP.NET and Microsoft Visual Studio.Net (MS2310, MS2373) - Jan. '03
  • MS2073 Programming a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Database - March '02
  • MS832 System Administration of SQL Server 7.0 - Sept. '01
  • MS936 Creating and Managing a Web Server Using Microsoft IIS 4.0 (Internet Information Server) - May '01
  • Web Development Using Cascading Style Sheets - Sept. '01

CERTIFICATIONS & LICENCESS

  • Class B CDL with tanker and passenger endorsements.
  • 40 hour Hazardous Waste/Materials Technician, University of AK Fairbanks.

Degree

  • AAS Fire Science, Specializing in Hazardous Materials Control from the University of Alaska Fairbanks

Education

  • 9/94-5/99; University of AK Fairbanks, Fairbanks AK
    • Areas of study include:
      • Hazardous Material Control
      • Municipal Fire Suppression
      • Geology
      • Computer Science

Links of Note

Tens of thousands sites are known to have linked EnvironmentalChemistry.com. The following links lead to search results of sites that link to us:

Web Site Awards

Ken's Most Unusual Summer Job in 1996 and 1997

During the summers of '96 & '97 Ken was a Driver/Guide for GrayLine of Alaska, a subsidiary of Holland America Cruise Lines. For Grayline, he drove two types of Motor Coaches. The first is your standard 40' or 45' MCI. The second and much more unique, is a Prevost (the 'st' is silent) H5-60. The H5-60 is a five axle 60' long articulated motor coach with a Detroit 8V92 engine. While it seats 74 passengers (compared with 52 for a MCI) Grayline usually only fills them with 52 passengers so that the "trailer" can be left open as a lounge. The on board amenities include a galley, on board TV's and a VCR (much like an airplane). GrayLine operates the H5-60 between Fairbanks Alaska and Skagway Alaska going through the Yukon Territories.

The Prevost H5-60 was built by Prevost in Quebec Canada and sold for around $500,000 U.S. To our knowledge only about 50 of these coaches were ever built. 17 of them are owned by Grayline of Alaska which owns the largest fleet of H5-60's anywhere. They are an awesome coach to behold. They stand about 12' 6" in height and are 60' long. Up front there are two steering axles, about 30' back are two drive axles and a mid-ship engine. After the drive axles is an accordion articulation unit followed by the fifth axle. To improve cornering, the fifth axle automaticity counter steers based on the amount of articulation in the articulation unit.

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