YP Spotlight: Abby Holovach

The SWANA Young Professionals (YP) group continues to grow and expand across the country. SWANA YP members have been busy this past year speaking at SWANA events, leading teams, mentoring students and making strides in every aspect of the industry. Let’s get to know some of these upcoming industry leaders!

Meet Abby Holovach: Environmental Management Systems, Spills, and Tanks Programs Manager for the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth and Internal Waste and Compliance Consultant for CG Environmental

Abby Holovach started her career as a Solid Waste Section Investigator with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) DFW Region 4 Office, where she was first exposed to the world of waste and investigated an array of industrial and municipal solid waste facilities. She was then hired by CG Environmental, an environmental emergency spill response and waste management company based out of Fort Worth, Texas. Within a year, Abby moved into the role as CG Environmental’s Waste and Environmental Compliance Manager, where she was responsible for the environmental compliance and waste management for four different industrial and hazardous waste and municipal solid waste management facilities throughout Texas and in Colorado. Abby shares, “While I’ve only been in the environmental and waste management field since mid-2016, time has passed in dog years – it feels so much longer than five years!"

Under incredibly tight deadlines for waste management and removal due to urgent emergency spill situations, Abby had to swiftly handle a menagerie of waste types, including listed hazardous waste from EPA Superfund sites, rotting meat and avocadoes scattered across the roadway, a drum of abandoned Agent Orange, fuel-impacted soil, universal wastes, and everything in between. She shares, “ When it comes to emergency spill response, waste management can be a wild ride! The number of waste characterization profiles I have completed over the last few years is essentially innumerable at this point!” Currently, Abby is the Environmental Management Systems, Spills, and Tanks Programs Manager at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth, while still serving as CG Environmental’s Internal Waste and Environmental Compliance Consultant part-time. She is also active in the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) Dallas-Fort Worth Southwest Chapter as the Social Media Director and VP of Professional Development.

She shares, “I can’t help but always have waste on the brain – for example, while in a haunted house last Halloween, I actually found myself checking the labels on some old 55-gallon drums being used as props. I guess you could say I’m a little bit obsessed! So I am excited to join an organization of like-minded solid waste professionals who are also passionate about responsible waste management and the associated environmental implications. There is always more to learn when it comes to solid waste, and I look forward to swapping knowledge with my peers as a YP SWANA member!”

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