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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On October 1, 1993, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) privatized the cleanup of contaminated sites in Massachusetts to provide new opportunities and incentives for private parties to respond to contamination and to allow the State to focus its limited resources on the tasks that require government attention. New rules were implemented for reporting, assessing, and cleaning up releases of oil and hazardous material known as the Massachusetts Contingency Plan (the ‘MCP’ or 310 CMR 40.0000) which lays out a detailed process on when and how contaminated sites must be assessed and cleaned up. The regulations are designed to protect the environment as well as the health and safety of the people of Massachusetts. The MCP requires those responsible for cleanups hire a Licensed Site Professional, also referred to as an “LSP”, to manage and/or oversee the required assessment and cleanup work. An LSP is an environmental scientist or engineer experienced in the cleanup of oil and hazardous material contamination. The LSP’s job is to guide and collaborate with the responsible party(s) to develop and execute a scope of work that will satisfy the state requirements to address contaminated property set forth in Massachusetts General Law c. 21E and the MCP. IES’ in-house LSP, Kevin L. McAndrews, is highly qualified to oversee MCP activities and provide waste site cleanup opinions. Mr. Mitchell has been licensed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts since the implementation of the program in 1993 and was an active participant in the recent MCP revisions. He has a long history of providing MCP services spanning from Limited Removal Actions (LRA) to Permanent Solution Statements and successfully bringing contaminated sites into regulatory compliance.
IES has been successful in guiding our clients through the explicit criteria involved during the MCP process from notification, through response and risk reduction measures, to tier classifying/permitting, site characterization, risk assessment, and finally closure. IES achieves regulatory compliance for its clients by taking the lead role in developing remedial goals and implementing closure strategies as the Project Manager and Licensed Site Professional (LSP), while cooperating with environmental contractors to perform the specialized field tasks often required in environmental assessment and remedial response actions. The result is a team of specialized professionals working together to provide our clients with options and cost-effective solutions to reduce environmental liabilities and achieve regulatory and business objectives in a timely and concise fashion. Our highly qualified, personable, and motivated staff work with our clients to navigate the maze of State and Federal regulations in order to find innovative and cost-effective strategies oriented towards a permanent solution. We provide services to meet all aspects of the MCP, RCRA, CERCLA, EPA, USDOT, CAA, CWA, OSHA, as well as local regulations.
IES is highly reputable when it comes to proper judgment and implementation of the MCP Regulatory Process and Standards during the direction and management of response actions for spill response and remediation of contamination. IES directs and conducts a series of response actions including:
An environmental risk assessment is a tool that supplies information about risks to human or ecological receptors due to exposure to identified hazards that relies on environmental media data, site use, fate and transport, and toxicological information. The goal of a risk assessment is to establish whether a condition of “No Significant Risk” (NSR) exists or has been achieved. The three Methods for Risk Characterization described in 310 CMR 40.0941(3) have been developed to provide a range of approaches which vary in detail and circumstances of use, each of which provides equivalent levels of protection to health, public welfare, and the environment. The specific Risk Characterization approach used shall depend upon the nature of the risk being assessed, the response action being performed and the nature of the disposal site.
IES’s consultants conduct risk assessments as a major component of reaching closure for disposal sites where all risk to human health, public welfare, and the environment are evaluated under the MCP. IES uses risk assessments to support regulatory negotiations as well as offer property owners and developer’s assistance with business decisions.
IES has been at the forefront of soil reclamation projects by working with developers and contractors to assist with managing earthworks by fully characterizing soils, preparing soil management plans, and submitting LSP Opinions regarding appropriate placement of soils. See the MassDEP list of Facilities Accepting Reclamation Soil. IES promotes and applies green approaches during the assessment and remediation of oil and hazardous material disposal sites. IES considers all environmental effects of remedy implementation and incorporating options to eliminate or reduce the environmental footprint of cleanup activities to the maximum extent possible. During site cleanups, IES takes consideration of eliminating or reducing, to the extent practicable and consistent with response action requirements and objectives, total energy use, air pollutant emissions, greenhouse gases, water use, materials consumption, and ecosystem and water resources impacts, resulting from the performance of response actions through energy efficiency, renewable energy use, materials management, waste reduction, land management, and ecosystem protection. Another way IES focuses on reducing waste is by recycling contaminated soil generated during cleanups. Typical oil spills will generate tons of petroleum contaminated soil, instead of sending this material to a landfill, IES prepares a MassDEP Bill of Lading (BOL) package including full laboratory analytical data and site characterization information for acceptance at a soil recycling facility such as Aggregate Industries, Ted Ondrick Company, Environmental Soil Management Companies (ESMI) and Clean Earth. These soil recycling facilities utilize various technologies to reduce contaminant impacts and create reusable soil:
If you had a spill of oil at your home or business, or are aware of contamination related to your oil storage tank or delivery line, your first point of contact should be the local fire department. Certain matters are under their direct jurisdiction (e.g., tank removal, public safety issues), and they will in many cases provide advice on how to best proceed. Under state law, you must also contact the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) if certain reporting thresholds are reached or exceeded. In all, there are twenty-two specific threshold conditions that would require notification to MassDEP – in as little as 2 hours after becoming aware of the problem. The most common reporting conditions at homes and small businesses are listed below:
If you have experienced a sudden spill, IES’s LSP can assist with notification requirements and recommend response actions in order to quickly reduce health risks and limit the environmental impact of the spill. IES has worked with many homeowners in the past and is well versed in the Site Cleanup for Homeowners. It is also highly recommended that homeowners carefully review this website, which contains complete step-by-step instructions on how to act and proceed, and the pitfalls that should be avoided.
IES can help provide our clients with a realistic evaluation and assessment of the liability and costs associated with the redevelopment of environmentally impaired properties. The successful redevelopment of these properties requires foresight and experience, as well as environmental expertise and business insight. Our staff of environmental professionals have completed numerous environmental due diligence reviews, environmental investigations, and brownfields cleanups to justify appropriate and cost-effective risk management approaches to interested parties. We focus on the development outcome to provide you with the right level of risk assessment, as well as pre-characterization and management of impacted soil.
IES provides litigation, expert testimony, insurance claim management, third party review, and mediation support services throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. IES provides trial preparation and mediation preparation assistance, expert witness services, assistance for deposition preparation, depositions, mediation testimony, and courtroom testimony. IES’s staff including our Licensed Site Professional (LSP) and Project Manager (PM) use their collective experience to assist clients in negotiations, investigations, and cost recovery to support plaintiffs or defendants in environmental lawsuits.
IES has over 30 years of experience in the planning, scheduling, application, preparation, and client support for federal, state, and local environmental permits, licenses, certificates, and other approvals and supporting studies, surveys, and data collection efforts. Common permits include street opening permits (SOP) for access to conduct drilling and subsurface investigations in public throughways; National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permits for Groundwater Pumping, Treatment and Discharge; and Bill of Lading (BOL) and similar documentation packages for the management, transportation and disposal of contaminated media. Our creative approach to project evaluation combined with regulatory expertise ensures that the permitting process is completed successfully, within our client’s cost and schedule objectives.
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