Remedial Iinvestigation and risk assessment at an industrial site

Challenge

An 85-acre industrial facility adjacent to the Columbia Slough in Portland, Oregon was seen as an area of interest to test and ensure that site-related chemicals from the facility would not migrate into the surrounding environment. Chemicals of potential concern included metals, dioxins furans, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyl compounds. The site was in the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Voluntary Cleanup Program.

Solution

SLR was engaged to perform the remedial investigation, with a source control evaluation and risk assessment for the property. An incremental sampling methodology (ISM) was used to characterize impacts to sediment in wetlands at the site.

ISM is a technique designed to statistically reduce or limit variability associated with discrete sampling, providing unbiased, representative, and reproducible estimates of the mean concentration of analytes in a specific area of interest.