Contaminated ground,
brought to closure.
AEM takes properties with contaminated soil, groundwater and sediment through characterisation, remedy selection and regulatory sign-off — and testifies when those sites end up in court.
- Published papers & chapters
- 37Published papers & chapters
- Sediment projects catalogued
- 120+Sediment projects catalogued
- Expert testimony engagements
- 4Expert testimony engagements
- Named clients
- 62Named clients
One principal, personally on the file.
Mark K. Hammaker, P.E. — Principal & President. Work is not handed down to a junior team; the person who signs the report is the person who reviews the data and stands behind it under cross-examination.
Licensed Professional Engineer
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Board Certified Environmental Engineer
Hazardous Waste Management — American Academy of Environmental Engineers
Qualified Environmental Professional
Institute of Professional Environmental Practice
Four things, in the order a site needs them.
Where the file is unusually hard.
Most consultancies can run a Phase I. These are the areas where AEM has spent decades, published the method, and been asked to defend it.
- Contaminated sediments
- Freshwater and marine sediment remediation — dredging, capping and monitored natural recovery — backed by a fifteen-year database of over 120 sediment projects across the U.S. and Canada.
- Chromium
- Over twenty years on chromium chemistry in soils: speciation, analytical method development, bench-scale and pilot treatability testing, peer-reviewed publication and patent applications.
- PCBs
- PCB transport and fate, cleanup levels and disposal approvals across pipeline systems, industrial sites and river sediments — including testimony on historical handling practice.
- Brownfields & legacy sites
- Sites carrying VOCs, SVOCs, PCBs, pesticides, dioxins and furans, and TAL metals, taken through PA Act 2 to a release of liability.
- Immediate-threat sites
- Sites presenting an immediate threat to human health or the environment, where response planning and interim measures come before study.
- Data & facility audit
- Critical review of environmental data, evaluation of environmental response actions, and audits of commercial hazardous waste facilities.
Sites taken to an outcome.
A remedy has to survive the regulator, the builder and the neighbours.
- 01
Read the site, not the template
Historical use, current conditions and the owner's intended future use decide the remedy. A solution that ignores any of the three gets rebuilt later at the client's expense.
- 02
Match the criteria that actually apply
Contaminants are addressed media by media against the cleanup criteria and technical requirements that genuinely govern the site — no more, and no less.
- 03
Test the remedy against reality
Technical soundness, practicality, reliability, constructability and cost-effectiveness — plus regulatory and community acceptance, which sink more remedies than engineering does.
- 04
Hold the budget and the schedule
Multi-disciplined project-specific teams, senior oversight, and documentation in the format the regulator expects — so that no further action is reached without a second round.
Industrials, pipelines, developers — and the firms that litigate for them.
National
- Aker Kvaerner USA
- Alcoa
- Areva NP Inc.
- Chemical Land Holdings Inc.
- Columbia Gas Transmission Corp.
- Columbia Gulf Transmission Co.
- + 13 more
Regional
- Ames Reese Inc.
- Chester County Intermediary Unit
- Cohen Shapiro
- Con-Tech Inc.
- Concord Township, PA
- Copperhead Chemical Company Inc.
- + 21 more
Legal
- Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll LLP
- Barnard Mezzanotte Pinne and Seelaus
- Carson & Fitzgerald
- Covington & Burling LLP
- Cozen & O'Connor
- Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
- + 10 more
Describe the site. You’ll get a straight answer about what it needs.
A first conversation costs nothing and usually establishes within twenty minutes whether the problem is a Phase II, a remedy re-think, or a second opinion on someone else’s data.