The primary objective of a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) is to identify a hazardous substance release or the threat of release. Cameron-Cole leveraged our site assessment expertise at two railroad property project sites located in Dallas, Texas; and Denver, Colorado. Our role in these projects was largely to collect data and present our findings to railroad regulators, complementing the client’s ultimate property-development goals while optimizing or minimizing any necessary cleanup costs through limiting remedial soil excavation to targeted areas, as well as offsite disposal of any contaminated material. This was accomplished by applying accepted statistical analyses, which facilitate the remediation process.

In this instance, Cameron-Cole determined that the appropriate interpretation of the soil containment action levels was as an aggregate and not as discreet indicators of a hazard worthy of mitigation on an isolated basis. As a practical matter, the mass of soil to be assessed as an aggregate should approximate the mass that would constitute a truck load. The Cameron-Cole team arrived at a grid pattern from which sample results would be assessed in aggregate to determine whether or not removal was necessitated.

The regulatory agency agreed with using this process, which avoided remediating the site by analyzing one shovel full of soil at a time.