Geo-Environmental Services
Subadra has just completed environmental investigations at a portfolio of 25 retail petrol filling station sites on behalf of a major oil company. The project was brought to completion on time and on budget, using a combination of our own drilling equipment, our in-house UKAS accredited laboratory and reported by our highly experienced consultants.
Contract Value: £100-200k
Environmental planning conditions are commonplace in brownfield development and much of our work is involved in the negotiation of discharge of such conditions. We have developed excellent relationships with Planning Authorities and Environment Agency/Scottish Environment Protection Agency over the years and enjoy a good success rate in planning condition discharge.
Earlier in the year Subadra were commissioned to assist in a significant phased retail development on the south coast of England. The site is within Zone I of a Source Protection Zone, overlies Chalk and is 40m from surface water. In other words it is in an extremely environmentally sensitive location. Initial investigation works had identified diesel and waste oil in shallow groundwater under the site.
This is where owning our own drill rigs and our own laboratory comes into play! We were able to delineate and characterise the contamination, and install sentinel wells within a month and without delaying the build programme. As a result of our detailed assessment, we’ve negotiated a long-term remedial solution for the site, installed the required groundworks and construction works have commenced.
Otherwise known as ‘understand your audience’.
We have recently completed a highly complex site investigation and detailed risk assessment of a public amenity site on behalf of a Local Authority. Our technical report, however, needed to be understood by a wide range of stakeholders, including regulators, consultants, site users and the general public. We used a range of graphical presentation methods in our report, cut the industry acronyms to a minimum and offered a report written in ‘plain English’. The result? Clear advice and a happy client, who described our report as ‘a model of site investigation & risk assessment communication’.
Subadra have been retained by a major food wholesaler/distributor to carry out a comprehensive audit/investigation of the fuel storage and supply infrastructure at a multi-site portfolio across the UK. Key to winning the contract was our ability to complete the project within a tight timescale. This is only possible because of our unique approach whereby every aspect of the project will be carried out using in house resources, from borehole drilling through to laboratory analysis; and, of course, our competitive rates!
Sometimes you need a detailed ground investigation with large numbers of boreholes, utilising a variety of different investigation tools (drill rigs, plate bearing tests, pile probing etc), with data collected and assimilated over a period of days or even weeks, that delivers a detailed description of site geology and provides a well defined contaminant delineation.We can do this for you.
However, sometimes you need a basic no frills contamination survey that is both cost effective and done on a very fast turnaround.Here at Subadra we own and operate our own survey team, drill rigs, chemical analysis laboratory in addition to our team of highly skilled geotechnical and environmental consultants that are responsible for collating, assessing and the reporting the data we produce. This means we can carry out high quality, cost effective Phase One and Two contamination surveys within days.This service proves invaluable for may of out clients who are always on the lookout to purchase new sites to add to their portfolio and don’t want to lose out on a lucrative deal or, perhaps worse, get caught out by discovering contamination issues after the site has been purchased.
SPOSH? POSH? (insert baffling acronym of your choice here). Sometimes our industry really makes a meal of what should be a simple process. How do you determine if a site is contaminated or not? We think the answer is simple: do a decent site investigation!
We have recently been working at site that proved to be a classic example of a ‘cheap’ site investigation saving nothing. The original investigation was carried out by others four years ago. After many other consultants were hired but failed to provide any clear answers (or any answers at all) we were commissioned to break the impasse.
We constructed 180 boreholes on a 5m grid using one of our dynamic sampling rigs. Boreholes and sampling locations were surveyed using GPS allowing us to develop a 3D contaminant profile of the site. Finally
sufficient information is now available to allow our client to make sensible decisions regarding future use and/or remedial strategy for the site. All this without resorting to any obscure and baffling acronyms.
Subadra have been appointed by the Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMI) to provide specialist environmental advice to their members. The RMI represents the interests of petrol retailers and forecourt operators across the UK. They provide support on matters ranging from contaminated fuel problems to getting a better deal with your fuel supplier.
We join their technical support team in providing practical and sensible advise for all matters associated with fuel leaks, spills and ground contamination issues.
Whether you need guiding through the planning process during a site redevelopment or you suspect you may have had a fuel leak – we can help.
Please contact James Edley(Tel. 01296 739412 or email) for further information.
Subadra have recently been awarded a package of investigation works by one of the major oil companies. We were selected based upon our continued excellent working relationships with the end client and their project managers , continuing to provide a high quality service and as always being able to offer cost effective site investigation services.
Particular praise was made of the quality of our tender submission, highlighting key areas of excellence and capabilities which enabled the client to quickly and easily conclude that we were the service provider best suited to complete the works.
The works package includes investigating 12 retail filling sites using our GeoProbe direct-push drilling system. The majority of the chemical analysis will be completed by our UKAS accredited laboratory. The reporting deadlines for the package is six weeks from the point of instruction. Contact value: ~£55k+
There are always cost savings to be made when multi-site packages are being completed and we like to pass these savings onto the client. If you have a small network of filling station sites or are a ‘Top-50’ operator and need an environmental survey get in touch to discuss our highly competitive rates.
We have recently completed an environmental baseline survey for ASM Metal Recycling Ltd on a site in Iver, assisting in their application for a site licence under the Environmental Permitting Regulations (England and Wales), 2010. The works were
designed to assist with the completion of a Site Condition Report for submission to the Environment Agency.
As part of our assessment we used our Geoprobe drilling system to construct 50mm diameter boreholes and install permanent groundwater monitoring infrastructure at the site. Site works were completed in a single day. Soil and groundwater samples we collected were then analysed by our in-house UKAS accredited laboratory.
We would always recommend that anyone taking on the leasehold of a site consider completing an environmental baseline survey before taking possession or commencing activities. Identifying and quantifying historical contamination before occupation is the only
sure way to protect against future claims by the landlord for historical contamination liability.
Please contact James Skinner for advice regarding any aspect of managing potential environmental liabilities during a property leasehold.