Geosyntec approaches each brownfield site individually by tailoring investigations, risk assessments, and remediation approaches to the client’s planned end use. We work with regulators, developers, and insurance providers to realize the full economic and social value of their sites and develop solutions that are amenable to all parties. We provide stakeholders with start-to-finish consistency and reassurance that the environmental elements of development are being managed by one firm because of our expertise in regulations, risk assessment, groundwater and soil remediation, soil vapor mitigation, geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering, and solid waste and environmental management.

Specialized Experience with Brownfield Sites

Applications for Grants: Geosyntec helps prepare brownfield grant applications and conducts financial analyses for clients considering participation in government-sponsored brownfield programs.

Site Assessments: Our environmental management specialists perform site evaluations ranging from informal site walks or document reviews to formal Phase I due diligence services in accordance with ASTM E 1527. If necessary, we provide follow-up with Phase II site investigations.

Risk Assessments: Geosyntec’s in-house toxicologists and risk assessment specialists work with developers to reduce the cost of redevelopment using three key strategies, as follows:

• Optimizing site layout to separate receptors from environmental impacts
• Managing contamination in place using engineering controls rather than costlier and more extensive removal or remedial measures
• Identifying cost-effective building or landscaping design features, like aerated floors, grade-level parking, and surface cover, to mitigate risk

Geoenvironmental Engineering: Our geoenvironmental and geotechnical engineers develop design approaches to stabilize, contain, and control conditions beneath foundations to allow the construction of buildings, parking lots, or other developed surfaces to meet end-use goals on previously unusable or unstable ground.

Vapor Mitigation: Geosyntec engineers mitigate solvent, petroleum, and methane vapors using a wide range of time-tested and innovative passive and active technologies, including traditional vapor barriers, our own patented subslab-vapor venting system, and low-cost, highly efficient aerated floors. We effectively disrupt the exposure route for indoor air, reducing potential hazards and allowing building development over impacted areas of the site. Our site-specific designs work with the development team’s foundation and architectural design elements. Geosyntec is performing leading research for the US Department of Defense on vapor mitigation optimization.

Green Energy Solutions: Our engineers assess the engineering and regulatory feasibility of green energy development on impacted sites. We provide permitting services, preliminary design, and site improvement recommendations to support wind and solar energy development.

Construction Services: Geosyntec’s in-house construction services group provides constructability reviews, bid support, construction quality assurance, and construction management services.

Innovation in Brownfield Redevelopment

Geosyntec’s practitioners are advancing the state of the practice by writing guidance documents, teaching courses, and acquiring design patents that enable brownfield redevelopment. We have authored or coauthored vapor intrusion guidance documents issued by several industry groups and state agencies and have been members of US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) expert panel on vapor intrusion since its inception in 2000.

Regulatory Compliance Management

Geosyntec personnel have been key members of both Interstate Technical Regulatory Council (ITRC) working groups on vapor intrusion and invited instructors for the classroom and web-based training that included thousands of regulators and other stakeholders. Our practitioners also wrote the guidance document on evaluating, optimizing, or ending post-closure care at impacted sites, including brownfield sites, and are working with regulators to incorporate our approaches into regulations.