Contaminated Media Investigations and Assessments

Geosyntec Consultants applies reliable and innovative approaches to site investigations and assessments for clients with property or land holdings impacted by a wide array of known and emerging contaminants in soil, sediment, and groundwater. We also conduct investigations and discover the sources of air emissions, subsurface vapor intrusion into buildings, and contaminants found in surface waters.

Our assessment specialists include some of the most respected and sought-after professionals in the environmental remediation industry today. They possess the experience and technical skills needed to conceptualize and implement all aspects of contaminated media assessments and remediation programs. Using a multidisciplinary approach, Geosyntec brings together nationally recognized, in-house specialists in engineering, ecology and biological sciences, risk assessment and applied toxicology, and earth sciences to address the complex issues associated with contaminated media.

Our contaminated site practitioners guide our clients through a specialized remediation plan, consult on regulatory strategies, and develop a comprehensive cleanup approach. We can address numerous types of media, including contaminated soils, sediments, and groundwater, and offer numerous services including:

Groundwater Assessment and Remediation

Our expertise in efficient site characterization, including sites that exhibit complex groundwater flow regimes, has distinguished our firm and practitioners as leaders in the practice. Geosyntec's practitioners are highly skilled in the assessment and remediation of a broad suite of contaminants, including metals, chlorinated organic chemicals, petroleum hydrocarbons, and emerging contaminants, and utilize award-winning, technology-based remediation strategies that are often first to field. Read more

Sediment Assessment and Remediation

We specialize in the assessment and remediation of sites where sediments have been impacted by a wide range of contaminants including metals, crude oil and refined petroleum compounds, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, pesticides, and PCBs. Our conservation, remediation, and restoration experience includes sites ranging from small, intermittent flow streams to large man-made and natural lakes, as well as complex river, estuary, and harbor systems. Read more

Vapor Intrusion

As one of the preeminent firms for assessment and management of subsurface vapor intrusion to indoor air, our practitioners design innovative and cost-effective solutions to address our clients' most challenging projects. We specialize in providing services that include regulatory negotiation and litigation support, soil gas sampling, indoor air quality (IAQ) monitoring, mathematical modeling, customized mitigation system design and optimization, and ventilation assessment. Read more

Advancing the State of the Practice

Geosyntec's practitioners are pioneers in site assessment and remediation. Our senior practitioners have developed and authored guidance material and courses for local, state, and national agencies and associations on remediation techniques and technologies. Working with the Interstate Technical Regulatory Council (ITRC), Geosyntec practitioners taught a training course on vapor intrusion, including mitigation options for the development of vapor-impacted brownfield sites. Geosyntec practitioners also wrote the guidance document on evaluating, optimizing, or ending post-closure care at impacted sites, including brownfield sites, and developed a patented approach for sub-slab vapor migration mitigation allowing residential, commercial, and industrial development on sites impacted by vapor intrusion.

Our specialists routinely collaborate with prominent national researchers from academia and government agencies to provide innovative and defensible strategies for sites with contaminated sediments. For example, we collaborated with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to remediate chlorinated solvent-contaminated marsh sediments by applying a bioreactive mat system embedded with a dehalogenating microbial consortium, a technology that Geosyntec helped develop. This project and partnership earned our client recognition as a finalist for the Service to America Medal awarded by the Partnership for Public Service.

Through a collaborative research project with the University of Florida, Geosyntec professionals assisted in the development of the FLUCL software package for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. This software is used to calculate exposure point concentration statistics in risk assessment and was the first of its kind to contain algorithms for censored datasets. FLUCL has received endorsements from several U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regions and the California EPA.

Geosyntec scientists also pioneered the use of genetic molecular tools for the characterization of the microbes in environmental media and are engaged in applied research and development with top academic institutions around the world, including the University of Toronto, Cornell University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology.