Contaminated Land Desktop Surveys

This comprehensive service is designed to provide cost-effective and engineering and risk-based solutions optimised to the site in question. We engage proactively with regulators on behalf of our clients to agree approaches and thereby avoid delays in gaining planning approval or sign-off. You can find our more about what is included in a desk study, or why you might need to undertake a contaminated land assessment.
PC Enviro provide consultation throughout the planning process from initial feasibility to demolition and construction. Our collaborative approach helps build strong working relationships with all stakeholders to ensure Environmental desktop study the best possible outcome. We undertake, coordinate and manage Environmental Impact Assessments to determine the likely significant environmental effects of new developments including residential, commercial and retail.

You may need to do an assessment to decide if boreholes need to be decommissioned to prevent any ongoing risks. However, in many cases this does not negate the need for an intrusive investigation. This section provides an overview of what you need to consider for an intrusive site investigation. You may need to excavate trial pits, drill exploratory boreholes and construct gas, vapour and groundwater monitoring wells. You will also need to evaluate the uncertainties and any limitations to ensure that the site-specific assessment criteria are sufficiently precautionary and conservative. Despite the site-specific nature of these assessment criteria, we still expect them to be suitably precautionary, especially in the context of regulatory decisions and agreement.
The methodology will be based on site specific constraints and crucially will consider proposed land usage; for example the level of contamination which is tolerable for an industrial site is higher than the amount tolerable for a residential site. If potential contamination risks are found then we will recommend a site walkover and/or a phase II intrusive investigation. Our team of dedicated Geo-Environmental and Geotechnical Engineers are experienced in carrying out high quality Phase I Desk Studies. A Phase I Desk Study assessment is carried out at the start of the development project. Desk Studies are an essential element of the site assessment, as they allow for future stages of the investigation to be comprehensively and economically designed for your site. Desk Study Reports can either be completed in order to assist with the discharge of a contaminated land planning condition or to allow due-diligence report to be undertaken to assist the sale of a site.
The hydrogeological sensitivity of the site is also examined by consideration of ground permeability, aquifer status, Environment Agency Source Protection Zones, spring locations and private water supplies. Our strong research environment focuses on key issues in the UK and internationally, from the social and economic impact of developments in the UK, to studies of Brazilian rainforests, Caribbean towns and livelihoods in Africa. We work with business and industry, charities and non-governmental organisations, and link with other departments whose expertise provide a diverse and stimulating research environment.

Our software is available in both a no-cost ‘Community’ version below and as a low-cost ‘Professional’ edition through our official partner LQM. With Groundhog, our mission is to provide you with a simple, effective way of visualising and interpreting site data as well as developing conceptual and 3D digital geological models. A Preliminary Ecological Appraisal is potentially very useful for developers since it feeds into the early stages of master planning, can assist with the emerging scheme design and can enable clients to more accurately estimate project costs. Volunteering can be a good way of gaining some experience and your local environment agency will likely advertise opportunities on its website.
Increasing environmental regulation means that there is a growing demand for consultancy services. Your role will involve providing expert advisory and assessment services to your clients with the aim of minimising or eliminating environmental damage. M-EC has an experienced, qualified and fully-equipped team so all ground investigation work is undertaken by ourselves, using our own equipment. ECL will design a site-specific Site Investigation to satisfy your project requirements and any regulatory authorities with all Site Investigations carried out to the relevant British and European Standards.

A walk over survey together with a conceptual site model and risk assessment is produced, complete with any recommendations for further work including any requirement for intrusive investigations. We design and undertake phase 2 intrusive site or ground investigations to assess site conditions and inform risk assessments. Working with in-house drilling contractors, we use all types of drilling methods, including window/ dynamic sampling, cable percussive, rotary and rota-sonic drilling, to obtain soil and rock samples and provide monitoring installations.
If you derive site-specific assessment criteria you must have sufficient specialist knowledge and proceed with caution. For example, for a Part 2A obligation, to allow recommendation of or to satisfy a planning condition. You must base your assessment on the potential severity that the risk poses to the receptors against the likelihood of it happening. For more information on exploratory investigation see the phases of investigation in the intrusive site investigation section. Use the information you have collected to develop an initial conceptual site model.
If you cannot use existing or derive new generic assessment criteria you will need to do a detailed quantitative risk assessment or decide to proceed to the options appraisal stage. From your preliminary risk assessment you will have identified one or more potential contaminant linkages that need further assessment. First do a preliminary unexploded ordnance risk assessment to identify if a detailed unexploded ordnance risk assessment is needed. Following the detailed risk assessment you may need to put relevant measures in place. For example, evaluation criteria for the risk to human health from exposure to contaminants are often based on direct intakes through pathways such as ingestion and inhalation.

Fully integrated with the professional development lecture programme of the South Wales Group of the Geological Society of London. Design and deliver construction and post-project monitoring and mitigation plans. Ensure that the assessment of impacts is ‘joined up’ across pressure sources, accounting for both direct effects and indirect effects. We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site.
I have worked with GGS for a number of years in both the consultancy and regulatory sectors and have found their input invaluable on sites where ground gas risks are a key risk driver. Our expert team of highly trained specialists use the full range of gas monitoring techniques and technologies to provide market leading services and advice to our clients. Once a development is operational, we offer a range of assessment, monitoring and consultancy services to assist with achieving compliance with license/permit requirements. Undertake an historical desk and remote sensing study of a previously industrialised site and develop a conceptual ground model of that site to aid redevelopment and planning. The relevant remediation technique is chosen based on a variety of factors including the type, location and extent of contamination, the timescales required by the client and the sensitivity of the site measured against the cost of remediation. Depending on the results of the desktop survey we may recommend a site walkover to gain a better understanding of the current land condition.
At Hydrogeo we are a team of qualified geologists, hydrogeologists and contaminated land specialists with over 40 years of experience in geology, groundwater and contaminated land. Traffic and Transport Assessments are a vital part of the planning process as it determines the impact of new development on the surrounding highway infrastructure. Drawing on data from a variety of sources, we are able to provide you with a detailed travel plan for any size or type of development. The data collated will also allow specific targeting of high risk areas during the Phase 2 site investigation.