Environmental Consulting

Clearflow provides skilled services to meet your environmental assessment and remediation needs for both soil and groundwater. Our team has experience in conducting environmental assessments and remediation in all sectors (residential, commercial, industrial and oil and gas).

Environmental Site Assessments (ESAs)

Our team is skilled in conducted all levels of environmental assessments. Professional reports can be provided following each completed ESA phase and will include a summary of the findings of the ESA as well as any required recommendations.

• Phase I ESAs - A Phase I ESAs is conducted to assess if present and historic practices on or near a property have the potential to cause environmental impacts to the soils and groundwater. If there are actual or potential environmental concerns discovered during the Phase I, an intrusive Phase II ESA may be recommended.

• Phase II ESAs - A Phase II ESA involves the instructive investigation of soils and/or groundwater. A drilling truck is typically required to collect and assess soils. If groundwater contamination is determined to be likely groundwater wells can be installed to obtain groundwater samples. During the Phase II ESA, soil and/or groundwater samples are collected and sent to an accredited laboratory to determine if chemicals of concern identified during a Phase I ESA are present in the environment. The concentrations of chemicals will be compared to applicable guidelines to determine if the chemicals pose a risk to potential receptors.
  
  Our team is also skilled at obtaining samples from surface water and effluent sources. We can evaluate trends in the water chemistry of these samples over time and compare to applicable guidelines.

• Delineation - Delineation is typically conducted if remediation of chemicals in soils or groundwater is required to reduce chemical concentrations so that they no longer pose a risk to identified receptors. Delineation involves "stepping out" from sampling locations identified during the Phase II to determine the vertical and horizontal extent of the contamination beyond applicable guidelines. The completed delineation will provide data to estimate the volume of impacted soils and/or groundwater that requires remediation or at the very least the estimated extent of contamination on the subject property. If the contamination extends off the property, permissions will be required to further the investigation beyond the boundaries of the property.

• Site Characterization for Remediation – If remediation is required additional site characterization may be required to obtain information necessary to select a suitable remediation system. Clearflow can conduct hydraulic conductivity testing and pumping tests as required. In addition Clearflow can monitor and interpret trends in groundwater chemistry.

Contaminated Soil and Groundwater Remediation

Clearflow has experience in the application of both traditional and innovative exsitu and insitu remediation methods at all phases of remediation (bench, pilot, full-scale and polishing). Depending on the remediation technology chosen for your site it may be wise to implement the technology in phases so that the technology can be adapted to actual field conditions. Clearflow is experienced with the application of insitu and exsitu remediation technologies for soils, groundwater, surface water or effluent streams. Some of the remediation technologies we are familiar with are electrokinetics, electrodialysis, reverse osmosis, dual phase extraction, pump and treat, land filling (if no other suitable alternative), soil vapour extraction and air sparging, enhanced bioremediation, etc.

We recognize the importance of combining technologies, as required, to obtain the optimal recovery of contaminants. For example a multiphase extraction system used in tight clays will benefit from proper fracture placement to enhance recovery of hydrocarbons.

At Clearflow we believe in sustainable remediation practices and therefore we also conduct research studies to determine the efficacy of developing sustainable and innovative environmental technologies. Our team has experience in securing and maintaining research funding. The ultimate goal of Clearflow is to reduce the need to transfer waste to another location (i.e. land filling, volatilization to the atmosphere or deep well injection) and aid in the development of sustainable technologies that treat the waste to meet applicable guidelines. Our team's experience in research initiatives has included the treatment of salinity impacted groundwater and fine-grained soils using electrokinetics. Click the following link for a published case study for electrokinetics (http://www.esaa-events.com/remtech/2007/pdf/Paper16.pdf).