the big oops - CIVIL constRuction projects that become enviroNmental projects
Everyone has had a Big Oops. Some end up being bigger than others! A State entity consultant under contract engaged IKON Environmental Solutions, LP (IKON) many years back. It was the first project IKON had ever done for the State entity. It was an easy civil earth moving project. They needed assistance moving soil from a Site they bought along a bayou to make a detention pond in the Rice Military area of Houston. They needed earth moving services, services to transport the overburdened soils for placement off-Site, and elevation location and grading to a rough grade. It was originally a $200,000 dollar project to move approximately 10,000 cubic yards (yds3) of soil.
When working on finding a suitable placement area for the 10,000 yds3, IKON requested analytical that had been done at the parcel, as is customary for soil placement for many soil sellers and buyers. Two samples were provided, both at the surface, one with elevated levels of lead and one with elevated levels of PCBs, neither over regulatory levels. When asked for additional analytical, the State entity had provided all the testing that was performed on the parcel and confirmed that no additional analytical testing had been done! The Entity needed the land and took the sellers at their word regarding the history of the Site.
Often, this is how these projects start, we think we are going to move some soil and construct something easy, and on day three, IKON completely changed direction. On day three, IKON received soil samples back that were advanced for soil characterization and classification, over approximately 5 acres of area. To everyone’s surprise, in separate areas of soils, were PCBs, heavy metals, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and visible municipal waste; all these areas were over regulatory levels.
Quickly, IKON headed back to the consultant that held the Prime Contract with the State entity and broke the unwelcome news on the sampling. At this point, the environmental consultant got engaged and did direct push boring (drilling for samples) across the Site. As the property was pieced together, the geology quickly started to tell the story of a partially disturbed Site that seemed to have a raven (past river channel) full of municipal waste running through it. But it did not stop there, there was an area of incinerator ash, another area of PCB impacts, and yet another area of VOC impacts.
Specific areas with municipal waste and incinerator ash were uniquely shaped areas. They were dendritic in nature and were filled with the waste. These features were well seen once the refuse, incinerator ash, and impacted soils were removed down to 15 feet in some places. These ravens formed the terminal end of an old tributary to the bayou that was filled in with municipal waste and incinerator ash in the early days of Houston. While the practice of filling in tributary terminals was fairly common, usually more is known at the start of projects about the environmental status and the history of Sites. In this instance, the State entity knew that it needed the land and did what was needed to acquire it.
Meanwhile, on the pivot, it is a fairly substantial change to go from digging and scrapping clean soils into trucks and transporting them to another construction Site in need of soil, versus characterizing, classifying, digging, separating, and isolating six different types of impacted soils at a Site. Most of these soils could no longer be used at another construction Site; they needed to be disposed of. The four soil streams were separated into municipal waste, Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) waste for the PCBs, and two special waste streams for ash with metals, and soil with VOCs.
By the end of the project, more than 50,000 yds3 had moved to differing landfills capable of accepting the different wastes, and the State entity had spent close to 12M dollars.
This is a start to the discussion about what happens when you must work backward on a civil construction project that turns into an environmental project during digging. Join our industry veterans to discuss our upcoming webinar on Working Backwards: Civil Construction Projects that Become Environmental Projects. IKON Environmental Solutions invites you to join us for our upcoming roundtable discussion on civil contracting gone awry. Register here for the Webinar. For additional information, or for help with environmental remediation contracting, contact Rey Garza, Greg Blomquist, and John Savage.
