Contaminated Land

Contaminated Land

The variety and size of project types we have worked on is unparalleled–everything from small, pre-acquisition site “health checks” through to multi-site complex brownfield remediation schemes.

Contaminated Land Project Summaries

Gas Works redevelopment Fleetwood

REC has been retained for over six years in a commercial development site by two national blue chip companies advising them on environmental issues at a former gas works site. The involvement has included the following;

Site Investigations (Geotechnical and Environmental).
Quantitative Risk Assessment (pre and post CLEA SGVs).
Environmental monitoring.
Invasive plant species survey.
Liaison with the regulators.
Development of Remedial Method Statements.
Development of tender for remediation contact.
Validation of remediation levels.
Landfill tax exemption application.
Air quality monitoring during earthworks.
Characteristics of hazardous/non hazardous materials.
Development of validation report.

Go To Contaminated Land

Recently revised regulations governing the cleanup of contaminated land and groundwater use risk assessment procedures as the foundation for decision making and regulatory approval.

Installation of Fuel Storage Tanks, an Operational Airfield

As part of the risk assessment for controlled waters, REC put forward a strong case for the removal of all potential sources of contamination without the need to treat residual contamination within the shallow and deep groundwater systems. By adopting a pragmatic approach REC were able to identify a saving of approximately £1million to the client.

As part of the development of the site REC have provided a validation support to the client and overseeing the removal of contaminated materials to appropriate landfill facilities. The validation support has involved the supervision of the remediation process, scheduling of testing, characterisation of materials, air quality monitoring, with the ultimate aim being the provision of a site suitable for it’s intended use. The validation report, which is required in order to discharge planning conditions has recently been submitted for approval by the regulators.

Potentially significant ground and groundwater contamination had been identified by consultants acting for the Ministry of Defence around existing fuel storage facilities. A contractor was awarded the contract to reconstruct the facilities and had been advised to set aside £400,000 to bio-remediate soil contaminated by fugitive aviation fuel.

The contractor commissioned REC to quantitatively assess the environmental risk from the fuel contamination. REC modelled the site conditions, applying Environment Agency risk models and advised the contractor that the issue was the movement of volatile hydrocarbons in groundwater, not contamination of soil.

By removing the former tanks and fuel lines, which were the contamination sources and focusing the remedial effort upon remediating the contaminated groundwater, the remedial costs were reduced by over 50%.