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Co-authors: Rhys Thompson and Erin Leslie
Last week, 4Pillars was represented by Rhys Thompson and Erin Leslie at the 2019 CRC CARE Summer School on Contaminated Site Assessment, Management and Communication. Participants were exposed to the latest thinking and knowledge in science, law and policy through access to industry experts, policy makers and industry professionals. We are pleased to write that as a result of our attendance, we are positioned better than ever to guide our clients “from risk to remediation”.
The course was launched by Professor Ravi Naidu, Managing Director of CRC Care, who asserted that the organisation is a ‘national centre of excellence for contamination and pollution research’. This point was quickly challenged by Ravi’s fellow instructor, Dr Paul Nathanail (Managing Director, Land Quality Management Ltd, UK). Rather, Paul believed CRC CARE to be an ‘international centre of excellence’. Scott Warner (Ramboll, USA) and Dr Bruce Kennedy echoed this sentiment.
The course covered fundamentals and complexities of site characterisation, risk assessment and remediation. For example, the importance of the Conceptual Site Model (CSM) and how to develop an effective one was made very clear. A CSM is used to show contaminant sources, routes of exposure (pathways) and what receptors are affected by contaminants moving along those pathways. The development of an accurate site-specific CSM ensure that better environmental and human health outcomes can be achieved, as well as avoiding unexpected clean-up and/or remediation costs.
Other topics presented included contaminant chemistry, undertaking of site inspections, establishing Data Quality Objectives (DQOs), sampling designs, legislative frameworks, risk assessments, and management of stakeholders. The rare perspective of a regulator regarding stakeholder management was offered by Danielle Torresan of EPA South Australia during her presentation. Her selected case studies showed that early and targeted communication can be key to saving time and money in cases of contamination and remediation impacting on residential areas, as well as ensuring a positive relationship with the community.
After hours activities included demonstrations of up-to-date environmental and analytical equipment, vapour intrusion and risk rating software tools and a tour of the GCER laboratory facilities at the University of Newcastle. 4Pillars is well practiced in soil and groundwater sampling techniques and is looking to expand into vapour intrusion monitoring.
Looking to the future, it is anticipated that contaminated land management and remediation work will be aided by the development and use of more accurate in-field measuring equipment – 4Pillars will continue to stay informed in these areas to bring value to our clients. tweet
For more information about CRC CARE you can visit their website at https://www.crccare.com/. For more information about how 4Pillars can assist with your contaminated land assessment needs (including PSI’s, DSI’s, Remediation Action Planning and Validation Assessments), contact us today!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence.
