Written by Greg Beck | Land Contamination Principal | Cato Bolam Consultants
Cato Bolam takes pride in being able to offer a range of services from the initial design of a project all the way through to its completion. A great example of that is the work carried out by our Land Contamination Team. They tend to be involved right at the start of the project, and even before a site is secured, by investigating what, if any, land contamination exists. It is the nature of land contamination that what you see doesn’t necessarily represent what is there. So it is important to find out early. If land contamination is found the Team then works through the processes of analysis, reporting, resource consenting, remediation and validation. The result being a clean site!
A great example recently handled by our Land Contamination Team is a 2.7-hectare property located west of Whangarei that had been subject to intensive agricultural use, including orchards and large glasshouses, for approximately 50 years. The Team performed a Preliminary Site Investigation (PSI), primarily of a previously under-investigated part of the property. The PSI confirmed the presence of contamination in multiple areas of the site and an updated Detailed Site Investigation (DSI) was necessary as part of the resource consent application for the planned subdivision of the property.
The DSI confirmed the presence of heavy metal and/or asbestos contamination in 12 separate areas across the site. Cato Bolam prepared a Remedial Action Plan (RAP) that examined a number of options for cleaning up the site. Due to the very large volume of contaminated soil present the typical solution of excavating the soil and transporting it off-site for disposal would have been prohibitively expensive. Instead, the Team recommended that the contaminated soil be managed on-site within a bund that would enclose the contamination at a fraction of the cost of disposing of it off site. This was the option chosen by the client and the Team then coordinated the project and collected validation samples that documented that the site now poses no threat to future residents. Since contamination remains on the site within the bund an On-going Monitoring and Management Plan was also prepared to set out procedures to assure that the bund containing the contaminated soil will remain intact and that risk to human health and the environment will be appropriately managed into the future.
Few projects will have as many steps as this one, but it is always satisfying that the Land Contamination Team looks for solutions outside the square. This, together with working with our other Cato Bolam land development teams, can save the client money and finish with a clean site that is fit for its intended purpose.
Greg Beck and the Cato Bolam land contamination team provide start to end land contamination services. Please contact Greg for an obligation free discussion via [email protected] or get in touch with us using the contact button below. We welcome you to learn more about our land contamination services here.
