The grime fighter: Alaska pioneering business is doing its job--one parking lot at a time.

• Author: Grenn, Ben

While McGruff, the Crime Dog, is busy taking a bite out of crime, Brian Richardson and his company, Surface Cleaning Technologies Inc., is taking a bite out of grime, sludge, dirt and oily surfaces.

Surface Cleaning Technologies provides rubber removal and surface regeneration services to airport runways and tarmacs and shopping parking lots and driveways. Richardson says this new technology will revolutionize the cleaning industry.

"Not that I would recommend anyone doing so, but you could eat off the surface after we've cleaned it," said Brian Richardson, CEO of the newly formed company, located in Palmer.

The business, which will celebrate its first anniversary in July, is a spin-off from Triverus LLC (also based in Palmer) that markets the technology to civilian and military airfields. Triverus employs about 13 workers, while Richardson is the sole employee of Surface Cleaning Technologies. He expects to grow in the not-too-distant future.

"There's no job too small, or too big," Richardson said. "We'll clean anything from shop bays in service stations, or shopping market parking lots, to parking garages."

Surface Cleaning Technologies services are available by the square foot or job. Multiple job types for varying surfaces can be performed under the same contract and video demonstrations are available.

"With our technology, the surface will be like eating off a dish immediately after getting it out of the dishwasher at home. Surfaces cannot get any cleaner."

Other cleaning technologies waste water and/or use chemicals. That is until the Airfield Maintenance Vehicle (AMV) came along. The vehicle, which resembles a Zamboni on a hockey rink or a municipal street cleaner, is the first of its kind (patent pending) in the state. Richardson is expecting the AMV to be completely built this summer. There is a smaller version of the AMV called the Low Profile Vehicle (LPV) (also patent pending). The LPV has been up and operating since last summer.

"We take up where a street cleaner leaves off," said Richardson.

Studies have proven that when other cleaning methods have been applied, contaminants are not entirely eliminated and particulate remains. Hand-held cleaning technology push particulate and contaminants into the environment; there is massive waste of water, it's time-consuming, and labor costs run high.

So, how is runoff contamination reduced? Often, 'Bystander spills' are not reportable nor require cleanup, thereby leaving many businesses...