Guaranteed Remediation

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Most companies with contaminated sites are looking for more certainty and control over long-term clean up costs, achieving site closure, and in removing the environmental liability from their corporate financial reserves. From the client perspective, cleanup cost estimates seem to continuously increase over time and contractors do not have an incentive to reach closure and stop billing. As a result, clients are more frequently asking their environmental consultant to share the financial risks of closing sites.

In response to the concerns associated with contaminated site cleanup, ENSR has evolved several Guaranteed Remediation Program (GRP) options to meet the needs for more certain long-term costs, achieving site closure and committing their environmental contractors to take on financial risks of site cleanups. The GRP options are known as a Financial-Risk Transfer and a Shared-Risk Closure. In addition, hybrids of traditional risk-management options such as lump sum or unit price contracts may also provide companies with greater certainty to site cleanup costs than time and materials remediation contracts. For example, ENSR’s fixed-price remediation system operation and maintenance program guarantees performance in annual increments up to five years.

To learn more about ENSR’s Guaranteed Remediation Programs, contact:

Bill Duvel at 978.589.3000 (bduvel@ensr.aecom.com) or

Bill Doucette at 919.872.6600 (bdoucette@ensr.aecom.com)

Former Electronic Manufacturing Facility, Oklahoma

ENSR was contracted to achieve site closure for a fixed-price at a former electronics manufacturing facility in Oklahoma.  Prior RCRA investigations had identified soil and groundwater contaminated with chlorinated solvents. The plume of contaminated groundwater extended approximately one mile down-gradient from the source area. The site entered the USEPA Region 6 Corrective Action Strategy Pilot Program as Oklahoma’s first demonstration project and is under Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality’s (ODEQ’s) oversight.

ENSR’s remediation approach consists of aggressively remediating the source areas and the most elevated portions of the groundwater plume, while monitoring the attenuation of the remaining plume. Source remediation includes excavation and ex-situ low temperature thermal desorption of highly impacted soils, followed with multi-phase extraction to address residual soil concentrations that are above risk-based remediation goals. Source area groundwater is being treated with multi-phase extraction followed by in-situ enhanced reductive dechlorination (ERD). Elevated portions of the plume will also be treated using ERD. ENSR’s thorough technical approach allowed for the procurement of both cost-cap and pollution legal liability insurance policies at favorable premiums. Under the approved CAS Work Plan, ENSR anticipates achieving site closure in 2011.