Sample projects

What the work actually looked like.

Each entry states the setting, the contaminants, the regulatory program and what AEM did. Client names are withheld where the engagement or the litigation requires it.

Brownfields & Site Assessment

3 projects

Former manufacturing site to public golf course

Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Program: PA Land Recycling and Environmental Remediation Standards Act (Act 2)
Contaminants: PCBs

Scope

Three years of technical consultation on a defunct aircraft parts and rail car manufacturing facility
Remedial investigation and cleanup plan design
Interim remedial measures ahead of the full remedy
Soil, building and groundwater remediation strategy

Outcome

Act 2 Release of Liability. Recognised with the PA DEP Southeast Regional Office Community Environmental Excellence Award (1999). The site is now a public golf course.

Transformers, underground tanks and asbestos at a defunct resort

Location: Chester County, Pennsylvania
Program: PA Department of Environmental Protection oversight
Contaminants: PCBs, Petroleum, Asbestos

Scope

Phase I, II and III environmental assessments
Identification of 33 electrical transformers and 24 underground fuel storage tanks
Oversight of removal and disposal
Groundwater characterisation

Outcome

Negotiated a monitored natural attenuation agreement with the Department.

Environmental site assessments, residential lots to industrial complexes

Location: Multiple sites
Program: ASTM E1527 Standard Practice
Contaminants: Various

Scope

More than 80 Phase I environmental site assessments completed
Properties ranging from single residential lots to large industrial and commercial complexes
Findings carried through to scoping where further work was warranted

Outcome

Roughly 40% of assessments identified conditions warranting a Phase II.

Characterization & Remediation

6 projects

Chromium across some forty sites from one former manufacturing works

Location: Approximately 40 individual sites
Program: Administrative Consent Order
Contaminants: Chromium (total and hexavalent)

Scope

Over twenty years of continuous consultation
Interim remedial measures, remedial investigation and risk assessment
Treatability studies with bench-scale and pilot testing
Speciation work and analytical method development
Remedial alternatives evaluation and implementation oversight

Outcome

More than a dozen sites reached a no further action designation. The work produced peer-reviewed publications and patent applications.

Senior technical oversight for an international energy service firm

Location: North America, plus Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom
Program: Multi-national divestiture agreement requirements
Contaminants: Various

Scope

Senior technical oversight of site characterisation and remediation across the portfolio
Selection and quality assurance review of project teams
Cost and schedule management
Regulatory interface and Sarbanes-Oxley reporting support

QA/QC for a pipeline contamination investigation

Location: More than two dozen compressor stations
Program: USEPA Consent Decree
Contaminants: Historical pipeline discharges to soil and groundwater

Scope

Eight years of QA/QC oversight
Quality Assurance Project Plan preparation
Technical oversight of soil, groundwater, sediment and surface water characterisation
Site characterisation reporting and regulatory interface

Asbestos, lead, mercury and PCBs across a municipal water system

Location: A large east coast municipality
Program: Municipal facility management compliance
Contaminants: Asbestos, Lead, Mercury, PCBs

Scope

Four years of senior-level strategic consulting
Characterisation of over 350 facilities
Development of an electronic facility database
Technical specifications and standard operating procedures
Work plan and assessment oversight

PCBs in gas pipelines and their environs

Location: 89 sites across the eastern United States, including 65 compressor stations
Program: State Consent Orders and a federal USEPA Consent Decree
Contaminants: PCBs from lubricating oil

Scope

Site assessments across the full portfolio
Remedial options evaluation and project management
State regulatory negotiation
Expert testimony and depositions on PCB characteristics, cleanup levels and disposal facility approvals

Underground storage tank releases

Location: Multiple sites, Pennsylvania
Program: PA Act 2
Contaminants: Fuels and associated compounds

Scope

Soil boring coordination, ground penetrating radar and electromagnetic survey
Tank removals
Soil, groundwater and surface water assessment

Outcome

Releases of liability obtained.

Contaminated Sediments

2 projects

A fifteen-year database of major contaminated sediment sites

Location: United States and Canada
Program: Various state and federal programs
Contaminants: Various sediment contaminants

Scope

Documentation and evaluation effort spanning fifteen years for a Fortune 100 client
Over 120 projects catalogued
Remedial methods documented — monitored natural recovery, capping and dredging
Searchable electronic database, maintained and updated

Outcome

A standing reference for cost, outcome and lessons learned when a new sediment remedy is being scoped.

Superfund site, extended river

Location: Northeastern United States
Program: USEPA Superfund
Contaminants: PCBs in sediment

Scope

Fifteen years of consultation
Source identification and characterisation
Definition of interim remedial measures
Evaluation of removal and treatment technologies
Review and analysis of the USEPA remedial plan
Development of detailed engineering plans and specifications

Outcome

Engineering for one of the largest in-river environmental dredging projects undertaken.

Recognition

Community Environmental Excellence Award

Pennsylvania DEP Southeast Regional Office, 1999 — for the remediation of a defunct aircraft parts and rail car manufacturing site in Philadelphia, since redeveloped as a public golf course.

1999