History
Our Founding & Kansas City Roots
In 1984, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) required the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop regulations covering underground storage of petroleum compounds, particularly gasoline and diesel fuel. The rules were to mandate owners of UST systems to verify, maintain, and cleanup sites damaged by petroleum contamination. The EPA’s rules became effective in December 1988. John Knightly, now of Knightly Environmental Incorporated (KEI), was working for an environmental engineering firm in Des Moines, Iowa at the time.
The firm was uniquely positioned to become the primary consultant to tank owners in need of assistance to comply with the new regulations. With a team of engineers, geologists, and other scientists, including Mr. Knightly, methods were developed to provide the tank owners with cost efficient solutions to the new compliance puzzle. Mr. Knightly quickly became a project manager and geologist working on projects across Iowa managing UST removal operations, conducting site cleanups (of which there were many), and seeking closure from regulators who were learning the process alongside professionals such as Mr. Knightly.
In five short years after beginning his career, Mr. Knightly formed Knightly Environmental Incorporated (KEI) using this crash course in consulting development. The firm was started in the Kansas City area for family reasons. Work with petroleum storage tanks continued strong during the 1990s. KEI often assisted other firms with their work loads associated with USTs. In doing so, Mr. Knightly was able to accumulate knowledge from a variety of individuals with different backgrounds making KEI unique with a breadth of experience not found at most small firms like KEI. In 1998, additional UST regulations went into effect that, once again, produced work for firms such as Knightly Environmental Incorporated. It was during this time that KEI was fortunate to begin a long term relationship with a large, multi-state petroleum marketer that continues today. KEI provides this customer with the expertise to handle a variety of tasks including tank closures and installs, phase I and II environmental site assessments, regulator and insurance liaison services, spill response, groundwater monitoring services, and site closure assessments. KEI works side by side with many contractors, real estate professionals, construction managers, and business professionals. In doing so, we learned valuable lessons on how to see the work performed by KEI from the viewpoint of the customer. KEI has come to understand that trust is the key component to relationships with any member of a customer’s team and that transparency is the guiding principle of a good, healthy customer/consultant relationship.
To this day, KEI’s customers benefit from the experience and knowledge KEI has gained since, literally, before the regulations went into effect. We at Knightly Environmental Incorporated are ready to show you what that experience and accumulated knowledge means for you.
