Details Matter – What’s at Stake With Environmental Projects
In our line of business, details aren’t small. They’re everything. Every site is different, ignoring details can lead to incorrect assumptions, which can lead to delays, unnecessary costs, or even legal consequences.
Start with a Solid Foundation
At AEL Environment, every new project begins the same way: with a discovery meeting.
Some clients are surprised by how quickly we ask to know their site address, project goals, and long-term plans. But there’s a reason we don’t send out a proposal, schedule drillers and send a sampling team until we fully understand the details.
A discovery call isn’t about process and paperwork. It’s risk management. Environmental conditions vary widely, even between neighbouring properties. Without a clear understanding of your site, your objectives, and regulatory requirements, the approach may be flawed from the start.
Before we begin an Environmental Site Assessment (ESA), start the paperwork on your environmental permitting or can even think about remedial planning, we need to understand the unique conditions of your specific site, as well as your unique project constraints, and most importantly, your end goals.
Seemingly Small Environmental Details that Make a Big Difference
The realities beneath a site’s ground surface are not minor. Each one can substantially influence your project approach, timeline, and cost.
Why Depth to Groundwater Matters
A realistic and properly researched drilling and sampling project proposal should include the expected depth to groundwater and projected groundwater flow direction, in addition to the number of boreholes and monitoring wells planned.
Depth to groundwater influences:
- Drilling method
- Number of monitoring wells
- Location placement of monitoring wells
- Placement depth of well screens
- Sampling duration
- Whether contaminants potentially can reach the groundwater at all
Yes, there may still be unforeseen circumstances encountered as a project progresses, but an experienced firm will base their project scope on as much information as is available, and not minimum assumptions that can create foreseeable changes in scope later.
Other Geophysical Details that Matter
Subsurface soil conditions are not minor factors, they can have a huge impact on project approaches, timeline, and cost.
- Soil grain size impacts leachability and therefore which MECP Table your site must meet during a Phase Two ESA or remediation.
- Tight clays slow groundwater flow and well recovery times.
- Bedrock drilling may require coring and can double the time on site.
- Sands and gravels allow contaminants to spread far and fast and deep.
- Granular fill is not soil. It does not require testing under the Excess Soil regulation. It however acts as a preferential pathway for water and contaminant flow.
- The density of a contaminant (whether it’s an LNAPL or DNAPL) impacts the predictability of its migration and related tracking strategies.
- Clay, silt, sand, and granular fill behave differently—and contamination behaves differently in them too. Is it clay or silty sand? This detail matters.
Do you have specific questions about your site, options and approach?
We’re here to help.
Public Service Timelines
- Public utility locates, Freedom of Information Requests and government reviews such as Record of Site Condition (RSC) applications, Environmental Compliance Approval (ECA) applications are a public service and do not have a rush option.
- It’s also important to know that regulatory bodies also often require multiple rounds of review, so incorporating these into project timelines is essential.
Planning and proper expectation-setting are your best defense when it comes to factors that are mostly outside of anyone’s control, and experienced professionals will help guide you through the process.
Site Access and Logistics
Some details are non-negotiable and can place limitations on equipment selection, timeline and overall project approach.
- A drill rig cannot pass through an area one inch too small. You may need to consider alternate locations or equipment.
- Careful planning and communication are essential for many sites to maintain operations during an environmental drilling or remediation program. Your project manager should be proactive in leading these conversations and asking questions that take business operations into consideration.
- Remote sites require planning around weather, seasonal ice roads, helicopter loads, wildfire risk, equipment logistics and more.
Quality Assurance Protects You from False Results
Our Standard Operating Procedures include trip blanks, field duplicates, blind Quality Control (QC) samples and careful management of Chains of Custody – built into every project to mitigate the chance of error.
Environmental samples are highly sensitive—one sampling protocol slip, laboratory error or cross contamination event can appear as a false positive, leading to unnecessary retesting, legal interventions or even remediation.
At AEL Environment, our team of experts are here to guide you through it—with real expertise, real accountability, and real-world results.
Experience You Can Rely On
Providing tailored environmental solutions nationwide for over 25 years, AEL has the experience and expertise to help you achieve your end goals.
Do you have site-specific questions?