Serving New England and the New York Tri-State Area
Serving New England and the New York Tri-State Area
If contamination has been found on your property in Massachusetts, you will need to hire a Licensed Site Professional (LSP) to determine if cleanup work is required. The LSP’s job is to work with you to develop and execute a scope of work that will satisfy the state requirements to address the contaminated property as established in the Massachusetts Contingency Plan (MCP). Our team has the expertise to evaluate remedial options and guide you through your specific situation in the most practical and cost effective ways available.
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IES provides assessment and immediate response action (IRA) oversight for contractors responding to sudden spills, leaks, and other releases of oil and/or hazardous materials (OHM). These could include anything from a roadway accident spilling oil to the ground surface, leaking above ground and underground (AST/UST) oil tanks, and releases of other OHM prompting a hazmat response. We maintain relationships with many regional emergency response dispatchers and responders such as Cura Emergency Services, Emergency Response & Training Solutions (ERTS), Patriot Environmental Services, US Ecology, Inc., Environmental Restoration LLC, ACV Enviro, Western Mass Environmental LLC, Moran Environmental Recovery, Global Remediation Services, Inc., and NEDT Inc.
During a spill response IES is responsible for: • Assessing the extent of the release and affected areas; • Determining and delegating response actions; • Performing field screening and environmental sampling; • Selecting and submitting samples to be laboratory analyzed; • Performing a risk characterization; • Preparing the Permanent Solution closure report and associated documents to be submitted to the MassDEP. All IES personnel are 40-Hour Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) certified. IES completes a broad range of response actions required for both simple and complex OHM releases with a cost-effective and innovative approach to remediation in accordance with current and potential future site uses.
IES has extensive experience with investigating and characterizing contamination of soils and groundwater. Our team has been involved in planning, field sampling, and data analysis phases of contaminant investigations at hundreds of sites across the New England region for a combined total of more than 40 years. Characterizing the magnitude and extent of groundwater contamination is a challenging task due to the limited locations from which subsurface data can be collected and to the dynamic nature of contaminant plumes as they migrate and degrade over time. A solid background in geology, soils, hydrology, and chemistry, along with applicable regulations and laboratory analysis methods, is needed to successfully delineate contamination. Understanding the nature and extent of contamination is an essential step in determining how best to reduce further impacts and to identify appropriate cleanup approaches. IES applies the Conceptual Site Model (CSM) approach, which is a three-dimensional picture of site conditions that illustrates contaminant distribution, release mechanisms, exposure pathways, migration routes and potential receptors. The purpose of the conceptual site model is to present an understanding of known and suspect environmental conditions as they currently exist for the Disposal Site. The CSM also provides a basis for evaluating the need for implementing additional remedial actions.
The focus of an Imminent Hazard Evaluation is to determine actual or likely exposures within the ground surface, drinking water, or indoor air to human and environmental receptors under current site conditions and the surrounding environment based upon the potential for carcinogenic health effects. Risk Characterizations for Imminent Hazard Evaluations are conducted separately for safety, human health, and the environment, depending on the type of condition that triggered the need for the evaluation. The toxicity information used to characterize risk includes reference doses and reference concentrations, and carcinogenic slope factors and unit risk values.
The Massachusetts Oil and Hazardous Materials Release, Prevention and Response Act (M.G.L. c.21E) and the Massachusetts Contingency Plan (the MCP), 310 CMR 40.0000, contain the requirements and timeframes for completing the cleanup of releases. Many clients have reached out to IES after receiving a MassDEP ‘Notice of Responsibility’ letter, indicating an urgent legal matter and requiring necessary prompt action. IES is able to help decipher the legal and statutory liabilities, necessary response actions, and options available. If you have received one of these letters, please review the Massachusetts Contingency Plan (MCP) First Year Compliance Fact Sheet and contact IES as soon as possible to review your case.
IES can help identify whether a release and/or threat of release of oil and hazardous material requires notification to the MassDEP. There are three (3) reportable release notification thresholds according to the MCP:
If you have experienced a release and/or threat of release of oil and hazardous materials to the environment, please contact IES today to determine your regulatory reporting requirements. Furthermore, a release indicated by the measurement of oil and/or hazardous material in soil and/or groundwater requires notification to the MassDEP if the measured concentration in any soil or groundwater sample is equal to or greater than the media and category-specific Reportable Concentrations in effect on the date of the sample analysis.
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