Contaminated land site investigations are often required in order to establish the properties and contamination characteristics (soil, groundwater and land gas) of a site.
All contaminated land site investigations are designed by our engineers to meet the objectives of BS 10175 “Code of Practice for the Investigation of Potentially Contaminated Sites”, as well as the technical approach presented in Contaminated Land Report 11 “Model Procedures for the Management of Land Contamination” (Environment Agency) for applying a risk management process when dealing with land affected by contamination.
A tiered approach is adopted for assessment of the associated risks from contaminated land to find information and properties of identified contaminants, transport, exposure pathways and receptors that could be harmed.
Contaminated Land Risk Assessment & Risks from Contaminated Land Survey
A preliminary conceptual model and risk assessment is prepared as part of the Phase 1 desk study and includes a site reconnaissance walk over contamination survey.
Where plausible possible risks are identified, this preliminary risk assessment forms the basis for the design of further contaminated land investigation to support the next level of risk assessment – generic quantitative risk assessment (GQRA). Usually, ground investigation and laboratory testing is required to provide sufficient data to characterise the site, and to assess relevant pollutant or contaminant linkages.
The contaminated land risk assessment is based on generic criteria. If identified pollutant linkages cannot be adequately assessed using generic criteria, or no such criteria are available that are appropriate for the site conditions, then it may be appropriate or necessary to proceed to detailed quantitative risk assessment (DQRA). Such an assessment is based on site-specific information on the properties and behaviour of identified contaminants, transport, exposure pathways and receptors that could be harmed.
We have a wide range of experience of contaminated land ground investigation and risk assessment for a variety of purposes in many different contexts, covering soil, gas and groundwater contamination: from simple assessments for landscaping cover, to complex multi-contaminant, multi receptor assessments for re-development on heavily contaminated brownfield sites, to groundwater risk assessments for environmental permitting applications.