Groundwater Remediation

Introduction

Highlands Environmental Solutions, Inc. (HES) was retained by a major shipping company to overtake environmental service activities at a shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia. While under the direction of another environmental consultant, the assessment and remediation project had not progressed at an acceptable pace to the client or state regulatory authority. Furthermore, the remedial action plan proposed by the existing consultant did not match the client’s future plans for the property.

Overview

HES reviewed existing site data and worked closely with the state environmental regulatory agency to develop a limited contaminant and risk assessment plan to fill existing data gaps. With this data, HES was able to demonstrate that certain contaminants detected at the site were related to buried wooded piers and pilings that are ubiquitous to the site and surrounding area, and not related to the client activities at the site; and demonstrated that areas of residual petroleum impacted soil do not pose a substantial risk to the environment or human health and safety due to the industrial use of the site and surrounding properties.

HES proposed, and has been successfully implementing, aggressive mobile vacuum techniques to recover free product from the site. HES further demonstrated that free-product petroleum beneath the site is limited in extent and is essentially immobile due to tidal influences on the local water table.

Conclusion

Using available data, HES successfully negotiated regulatory closure of the site five years faster than projected by the previous consultant. By attaining regulatory closure, the property owner was able to proceed with construction activities associated with site modification and expansion.