Assessment & Cleanup

Brownfield Assessment & Cleanup

Environmental assessment and cleanup activities can begin after the community and lead organization has conducted their planning exercises to identify the assets and needs within the community and a brownfield site is selected for redevelopment. 

First Step – Conduct a Preliminary Assessment

The first step in the environmental assessment process is to have a Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP) perform a Preliminary Assessment (PA).  PA’s benefit communities by:

• Mitigating Risk – The community is able to see what possible contamination may have occurred at the site based on past ownership and documents that explain details of past operations.
• Liability Protection – The community also receives protections from the federal government if the PA is performed within 180 days before buying the site.  However, the state does not provide liability protection when owners are willing to purchase a site that is contaminated.

Gaining site access is much easier if the previous property owner agrees to allow access or the site is owned by a municipality (through tax foreclosure or any other involuntary reason).  If it is owned by a private property owner who does not allow site access, it can be more complex.  

A PA will typically consist of performing the following tasks:

• Identifying the property description
• Identifying the building description
• Identify historical land use 
• Conduct Interviews & Site observation summary
• Conduct mapping reviews
• Review government database search & previous reports
• Identify current and historical site ownership and operations
• Review tax records, deeds, and chain of title
• Summarize findings and recommendations

Second Step – Conduct Site Investigation

Additionally, if there are any areas of concern (AOC) that are identified during the Preliminary Assessment, then it would be prudent to hire an LSRP to conduct a Site Investigation (SI).  The Site Investigation will identify the presence and/or absence of environmental contaminants on the property through sampling.  Depending on the results of the samples, the Site Investigation should outline additional site investigation needs and potential remedial solutions that may be required to clean up the property if contaminants are found. If no contaminants are found, a Remedial Investigation is not necessary.

A Site Investigation will typically consist of performing the following tasks:

• GPR Survey
• Groundwater sampling
• Soil sampling

Third Step – Conduct a Remedial Investigation

If contaminants are present, a Remedial Investigation (RI) takes the information from a Site Investigation and determines the extent of contamination of the property. This investigation is more detailed and gives a more accurate depiction of the environmental issues on the property, and is necessary to uncover additional information prior to cleanup work beginning. 
A Remedial Investigation may consist of performing the following tests and tasks:

• Groundwater testing
• Subsurface soil assessment
• Sediment testing
• Assessing pathways of contaminants in soil and groundwater
• Creating a Remedial Action Work Plan (RAWP) 

A Remedial Investigation should allow parties involved to develop a plan of remediation, which needs to have the approval of local, state and federal environmental agencies. It will also detail a full scope of options for all parties and time and costs involved with cleanup. 

Fourth Step – Cleanup

After all the assessments and investigations have been conducted and the RAWP is created and a remedial activity has been selected then it is time to implement the cleanup.  Ideally, the cleanup will factor in the reuse, extent of the contamination, and all applicable state cleanup standards.