REPRESENTATIVE PROJECTS
The Northwest is our home, so it’s personal. When it comes to helping our neighbors, we’re proud of what we continue to achieve with our clients and community partners. Here are some examples to demonstrate the frequent scale and complexity of the many projects Coles and Betts Environmental Consulting team members have tackled:
1: Award-Winning Brownfield Rescue—McMinnville School District
Category: Site cleanup/brownfields
Challenge: Legacy contamination from an abandoned asphalt plant adjacent to a school district’s site for a new school building was preventing the school’s construction. The asphalt plant parcel needed to be redeveloped as a parking lot and stormwater retention pond for the new school.
See What We Did
C+BEC Role:
- Conducted a site investigation, determining that contamination from an adjacent parcel (a former asphalt plant) had impacted a school district’s property right where it wanted to locate a school
- Identified the property’s contaminated areas. Calculated contamination risks to future students, staff, and the environment, and developed a remediation method with DEQ oversight to ensure the safety of building occupants and the environment
- Oversaw removal of contaminated soils and the construction of a cap (a parking lot) to prevent students and staff from contacting contaminated soils
- Worked with DEQ and school district to establish an easement and equitable servitude for the property
Result: Helped the school purchase the adjacent contaminated property, build the school, and remediate the contamination in a protective, and cost-efficient manner. Essentially removed the contamination sources that had potential groundwater risks. Won the Oregon Brownfields Award for 2008.
Highlight: Ensuring a safe community space and supporting our future.
Click here for more project details and a printable PDF.
2: Remediating a Former Bulk Petroleum Facility
Category: Site cleanup/remedial investigation/PRP research
Challenge: Legacy contamination limited the ability to use the property and was decreasing the property value for an organization with limited funds to remediate soil and groundwater contamination.
See What We Did
C+BEC Role:
- Assisted client with securing insurance policy funding
- Worked with client, client’s attorneys, insurers, and regulators to conduct a site investigation and groundwater-monitoring activities to determine extent of contamination
- With contamination confirmed, worked with client, insurers, attorneys regulators, and former owners
- Efficiently allocated limited insurance funds
- Advanced the resolution with regulators and former owner
Result: Cost-effective use of insurer’s funds to identify and characterize contamination. Currently working with the former owner and regulators to select a clean-up remedy.
Highlight: Helping make the impossible possible. Unsticking the stuck.
Click here for more project details and a printable PDF.
3: Rehabilitating Former Lumber Mill Brownfield
Category: Site cleanup/brownfield/technical review/property transaction
Challenge: Legacy contamination at a former, backfilled log pond decreased the probability of an industrial-zoned property to be developed to its fullest potential. The previous owner and purchaser both had limited funds to address contamination and conduct the site redevelopment issues.
See What We Did
C+BEC Role:
- Assisted client with property transaction
- Prepared Phase I ESA report
- Worked with geotechnical company to screen test pit soils for evidence of contamination
- Oversaw underground storage tank (UST) decommissioning activities, including confirming all regulatory reporting requirements were met
- Reviewed Phase II ESA work plan proposed by DEQ and its consultant to ensure client’s requirements were achieved
- Oversaw Phase II ESA field work
- Ensured all potential areas of contamination were properly addressed and the Phase II ESA didn’t go over—or under—board
- Prepared reports required by the Brownfields program on a fast track timeline, enabling client to secure Brownfield funding in a timely fashion
- Oversaw removal of log pond in areas of known or suspected contamination
- Provided technical assistance for cost-effective and comparable request for bid documents, sub-consultant costs, and other contaminated-property transaction issues
- Worked with the former owner, regulators, the client, and the client’s subcontractors to efficiently remove limited areas of contamination on the property and to ensure the client’s goals were met
Result: Client now has a development-ready site for future tenants or buyers, bringing jobs to the community. The former log-pond leachate will not impact nearby surface water bodies.
Highlight: Saving the local economy and environment.
Click here for more project details and a printable PDF.
4: Cleaning Up a Legacy Leaking Underground Storage Tank
Category: Site cleanup/remedial investigation/UST remediation/legacy contamination/technical review
Challenge: Gasoline from former leaking underground storage tanks was impacting soil and groundwater at this site, migrating into a city’s right of way, and migrating below an adjacent commercial property. Investigation identified an additional off-site plume that had migrated onto the property and commingled with the client’s contaminated plume.
See What We Did
C+BEC Role:
- Assisted client with obtaining regulatory file closure with DEQ by working with insurers, adjacent property owners, and the city to conduct site groundwater-, soil-, gas- and air-monitoring activities
- Identified the contamination’s risks to the client’s property and neighboring properties, and worked with all parties—insurers, attorneys, neighbors, and regulators—to select a remediation solution
- Completed a remediation pilot study to ensure the proposed remediation method would work
Result: Businesses were able to remain operational, and the impact on property values and on the building occupants has not been negatively impacted by remediation activities. Ultimate regulatory file closure is underway.
Highlight: Supporting a city’s thriving business community through uncertain circumstances.
Click here for more project details and a printable PDF.
5: Orchestrating Technical Oversight and Remediation for Wetlands
Category: Site cleanup/remediation/compliance/technical review
Challenge: Historic fill materials on the site contributed to stormwater and wetlands sediment contamination. A neighboring property also discharged their stormwater into the same wetland and wanted to install stormwater treatment on the client’s property per an easement. Our client’s old insurance policies funded the investigation and remediation of the wetlands and uplands.
See What We Did
C+BEC Role:
- Helped client secure insurance funding
- Conducted site investigation to delineate upland fill material contamination and wetland sediment contamination
- Worked with regulators, insurers, city permitting, UPRR, the US Army Corps of Engineers and attorneys to build consensus on a remedial method
- Worked with adjacent property owner on an easement to allow construction of their new stormwater system to discharge onto our client’s wetland property
- Worked with a network of professionals, including an engineer and biologist, to design a complementary stormwater system and wetland restoration method
- Worked with a regulatory agency to ensure compliance goals had been met
Result: Upland fill materials were capped minimizing the migration of contamination to groundwater and the wetland. The wetland was remediated and stormwater was treated prior to being introduced. Wildlife is no longer at risk of encountering contamination in this location and the wetlands are thriving.
Highlight: Facilitating a money-saving, community-building partnership that enhanced neighbor relations and eased financial burden.
Click here for more project details and a printable PDF.
