David Scrivner is a Senior Principal Engineer based in California with more than 30 years of experience focused on contaminated site remediation, construction management, construction safety, risk management, and construction engineering. He leads Geosyntec’s Construction Management and Delivery practice in Northern California.
Lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and marine environments, especially those in urban waterfront and coastal areas, often have contaminated sediment and surface water and stressed biota from decades of industrial and commercial activities. Sediment contamination can include metals, crude oil and refined petroleum compounds, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), pesticides, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Because contaminated sediment sites present complex challenges, site evaluation and cleanup are expensive and can take several years to implement, and the metrics for remedy effectiveness are not often well defined.
Working with public- and private-sector clients, Geosyntec provides award-winning redevelopment strategies for brownfield sites worldwide. From site identification, investigation, and remediation to design, permitting, and construction management, we provide the services necessary to redevelop an environmentally impacted property to an end use that meets environmental stewardship, regulatory compliance, and stakeholder needs. We employ appropriate and efficient geotechnical engineering and environmental remediation services to solve our clients’ brownfield redevelopment challenges. 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.
Geosyntec practitioners rank among the world's top professionals in providing site assessment and remediation services at a wide range of impacted sites using innovative technologies and solutions that consistently advance the state of the practice. Through our use of innovative technologies and solutions, we provide our public and private sector clients with a wide array of services to address their toughest challenges. Our contaminated site practitioners guide our clients through a specialized remediation plan, consult on regulatory strategies, and develop a comprehensive cleanup approach. We can address numerous types of media, including contaminated soils, sediments, and groundwater. Advancing the State of the Practice Geosyntec's practitioners are pioneers in site assessment and remediation. Our senior practitioners have developed and authored guidance material and courses for local, state, and national agencies and associations on remediation techniques and technologies. Working with the Interstate Technical Regulatory Council, Geosyntec practitioners taught a training course on vapor intrusion, including mitigation options for the development of vapor-impacted brownfield sites. Geosyntec practitioners also wrote the guidance document on evaluating, optimizing, or ending post-closure care at impacted sites, including brownfield sites, and developed a patented approach for sub-slab vapor migration mitigation allowing residential, commercial, and industrial development on sites impacted by vapor intrusion. Our specialists routinely collaborate with prominent national researchers from academia and government agencies to provide innovative and defensible strategies for sites with contaminated sediments. For example, we collaborated with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to remediate chlorinated solvent-contaminated marsh sediments by applying a bioreactive mat system embedded with a dehalogenating microbial consortium, a technology Geosyntec helped develop. This project and partnership earned our client recognition as a finalist for the Service to America Medal awarded by the Partnership for Public Service. Through a collaborative research project with the University of Florida, Geosyntec professionals helped develop the FLUCL software package for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. This software is used to calculate exposure point concentration statistics in risk assessment and was the first of its kind to contain algorithms for censored datasets. FLUCL has received endorsements from several United States Environmental Protection Agency regions and the California Environmental Protection Agency. Geosyntec scientists also pioneered the use of genetic molecular tools to characterize microbes in environmental media and are engaged in applied research and development with top academic institutions around the world, including the University of Toronto, Cornell University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Government regulations for air quality and emissions continue to rapidly evolve. Companies must understand, plan for, and adhere to rapidly changing requirements including monitoring, testing, emissions control, recordkeeping, and reporting. Attaining and maintaining compliance while minimizing operational and financial impacts can be a challenge, particularly in today’s regulatory climate. Geosyntec's comprehensive understanding of air quality laws and regulations, along with our expertise in state-of-the-practice emissions control and monitoring technologies, equip us to provide our clients with innovative and cost-effective solutions for their air quality compliance challenges. Our practitioners offer clients a broad array of services, including permitting, compliance reporting, and air pollution control technology selection and optimization. Our projects routinely involve minor and major source air permitting, compliance assistance, and regulatory negotiations, as well as air pollution control equipment troubleshooting, optimization, and testing. Air Permitting On behalf of clients, we create unique solutions that often help them avoid major source permitting requirements, like Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) or nonattainment area New Source Review (NSR). Relying on our extensive knowledge of operating permit programs and our experience in a broad range of industries and emissions sources, we offer clients permitting assistance that aligns with federal, state, and local air jurisdictions. We craft strategic approaches to air quality challenges. When major source permitting cannot be avoided, our air dispersion modelers and control technology experts know how to respond to challenges associated with major source permitting requirements. Geosyntec’s experts address control technology evaluations, including Best Available Control Technology (BACT) and Lowest Achievable Emission Rate (LAER) evaluations. They are also adept at understanding and conducting ambient air impact analyses, like National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) increments, and state toxic air pollutant (TAP) demonstrations. Air Compliance and Reporting With federal, state, and local air quality regulations constantly in flux, maintaining compliance can be a burden on businesses. Our nuanced understanding of policies, regulations, and drivers empowers us to craft effective and efficient compliance solutions for our clients to help them address challenges and remain in compliance. Together, we develop frameworks for comprehensive environmental management strategies that help clients meet air compliance and reporting requirements. Some of the compliance programs we helped design include those governing emission inventory reporting; Title V annual and semiannual reporting; greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting; and deviation reporting. Evaluation and Optimization of Air Quality Control Devices Our practitioners evaluate air pollution control devices and advise clients to help them meet emission standards and minimize operational costs. Our project experience includes combustion management and tuning for boilers, thermal oxidizers, and other combustion devices. We also specialize in area and source measurement of complex pollutants such as mercury, sulfur trioxide (SO3) and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), Geosyntec has installed state-of-the-practice hardware and software using cross-duct lasers to continuously monitor ammonia (NH3) and SO3. In addition, we can assist clients with selection of continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMS) and offer operational assistance, data management, and equipment maintenance. Continuous Emission Monitoring System Design and Ambient Air Monitoring Geosyntec has supported clients with development of comprehensive environmental management strategies, optimization of plant operations, and increasing efficiency of their air emissions control systems. This has included installation, evaluation, and enhancement of CEMS at point sources and ambient air monitoring systems for fence line or offsite monitoring. Air Litigation Support Leading law firms throughout the United States seek technical support from Geosyntec due to our expertise and credibility providing litigation support. Geosyntec provides resources for attorneys to advocate for their clients’ interests on a myriad of air subjects related to business transactions, environmental management, compliance and enforcement, toxic tort, and general litigation topics. Geosyntec’s team of senior air professionals frequently provide expert witness testimony opinion reports, claims assessments, and agency negotiations and settlement support. Advancing the State of the Practice Experts in process and air pollution control technology design, we help clients develop strategic approaches to complex, multipollutant emission issues and provide clients with a balanced approach to plant operations. In the electric power industry, Geosyntec practitioners design strategies that reduce the amount of coal required to produce energy through improvements in fuel use, waste generation systems, and air pollution controls. Optimal air pollution controls, such as selective catalytic reduction (SCR, or thermal oxidizers), can result in substantial fuel savings and decrease emissions through improved performance of control devices. Geosyntec practitioners frequently collaborate with colleagues and industry peers at the USEPA, the US Department of Energy (DOE), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the Air and Waste Management Association (AWMA), and other organizations on new strategies for reducing air quality impacts. These collaborate strategies involve NOx control, mercury capture, scrubber optimization for heavy metals, catalyst selection and optimization, and plume opacity mitigation. In addition, our experts have developed methods to measure emissions of specific pollutants under complex operating conditions which have been accepted by air agencies across the country. Representative Services Air Permitting for New Facilities and Facility Expansions Air Pollution Control Engineering Ambient Air Monitoring and Source Testing Program Support Air Dispersion Modeling, Accidental Release, and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Modeling Carbon Management and Greenhouse Gas Inventories Compliance Reporting and Auditing Services Capital Project Permitting Assessments Emission Inventories and Mobile Source Studies Feedstock Testing Analyses to maximize Air Pollution Source Control Health Risk Assessments Indoor Air Quality Monitoring and Management Litigation Support and Expert Witness Testimony Odor and Noise Modeling, Monitoring, and Control Operator and Employee Training Process Engineering and Controls Optimization Regulatory Strategy and Compliance Management Strategic Technical Support to Trade Associations
Geosyntec is a recognized leader in waste containment facility permitting and design. From concept to implementation, we assist our clients in achieving efficient, safe, and secure containment of their regulated wastes that require land disposal. Our practitioners assist our clients in increasing commercial viability, achieving and maintaining compliance, and ensuring that short- and long-term needs are met for new and existing sites and projects. We are experienced in the permitting, design, and construction of expansions and closures of: Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills Hazardous waste landfills Coal combustion residual landfills Construction and demolition waste landfills Radiological and mixed waste landfills Tailings impoundments Mine waste rock piles and dumps Our waste containment practice specializes in addressing the most complex and challenging projects through our innovative technologies and designs. Our practitioners assist clients with permitting greenfield sites and existing site expansions, maximizing disposal capacity, and solving complex site challenges. Our practitioners also provide investigation, design, permitting, and construction oversight for on-site disposal facilities for cost-effective, safe on-site disposal of soils, sludges, and miscellaneous debris with a broad range of contaminants, including mercury, PCBs, and volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds.
Geosyntec's engineers and scientists aid many clients in the decommissioning and remediation of power plants, refineries, military facilities, NASA storage and assembly areas, and chemical manufacturing and distribution facilities. We also consult on the remediation and closure of dozens of industrial waste and solid waste containment facilities regulated under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Notably, Geosyntec practitioners were key members of the Closure Project Team for the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Fernald Feed Production Center in Ohio, tasked with overseeing the removal of 31 million pounds of processed nuclear product, decontamination and demolition of 223 buildings, and removal of 8,900 cubic yards of radium-bearing waste. For this project, Geosyntec designed a hallmark on-site disposal facility (OSDF) to safely contain low-level radioactive waste and hazardous waste generated during the demolition and site cleanup process. We were selected as the engineer-of-record for the permitting, design, and quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) services during construction, filling, and closure of the OSDF. The result is a secure 65-acre, eight-cell waste containment facility containing 2.95 million cubic yards of materials and capable of lasting at least 200 years, and up to 1,000 years to the extent achievable with available technology. At Fernald, Geosyntec redefined how modern containment systems could be used to securely dispose of hazardous and low-level radioactive waste. We have since been tasked with the design and construction of new OSDFs at both the DOE's Portsmouth and Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plants in Ohio and Kentucky, respectively. In addition, Geosyntec engineers and scientists have contributed heavily to asset retirement and conversion services for the electric power industry. For a former waste-to-energy generating facility in Florida, we prepared the preliminary remedial design for a 60-acre site regulated under CERCLA. Our services included construction management, third-party construction quality assurance oversight, and laboratory testing services as well as oversight of the demolition of two incinerators, a 200-foot water tower, and miscellaneous process and administrative buildings. Our optimization of the remedy led to minimized construction costs and approval of design modifications, resulting in client cost savings in excess of $1.5 million. We also provided valuable assistance in negotiating construction claims, which resulted in additional client savings. For another client undergoing a large-scale renovation and expansion of a coal-fired power plant, Geosyntec performed pre-demolition hazardous materials assessments and coordinated the facility's coal handling/processing structure demolition. We subsequently provided implementation design, bidding support, oversight, and documentation of soil remedial action plans, coordinating it with demolition and renovation/expansion activities. By supporting the client and demolition/ construction contractors with time-critical waste profiling, segregation, and management and by acting as regulatory liaison, we helped maintain the project's crucial renovation and expansion schedule. Geosyntec worked with the City of Coral Gables, Florida to prepare the design and bid package for the demolition of a waste-to-energy incinerator and 50-ft tall stack that contained elevated concentrations of lead, arsenic, and dioxins. Our significant experience in the assessment, characterization, and ultimate disposal of incinerator ash helped our client remove the stigma that the site once had in the community and positioned the property for commercial redevelopment. Geosyntec has provided single-sourced services for clients planning to decommission and demolish industrial manufacturing facilities with the intent to obtain regulatory closure in support of the future sale of the property. At these facilities, Geosyntec performed site characterization, decommissioning, decontamination, hazardous building material assessments, oversight of abatement, development of bid documents and bid support, construction management, construction quality assurance, and oversight of scrap/asset recovery. Single-sourced services reduced the clients cost and time to obtain closure by requiring fewer contracts to administer and fewer consultant/contractor interfaces to manage. The coordination of the work is placed with one consultant - Geosyntec. At a former catalyst manufacturing facility in Southern California that produced catalyst for use in petroleum refining, Geosyntec assisted the client in preparing the site for sale as part of their plan for consolidating their manufacturing capabilities into one facility. Geosyntec performed decommissioning and decontaminating support, hazardous building material surveys, oversight of abatement and demolition, Phase I and Phase II site characterization and soil remediation, and obtained regulatory closure. After Geosyntec completed the work and obtained the regulatory closure, the client sold the property as planned. Geosyntec has successfully provided similar services to other industrial clients for facilities that include former electrical transformer manufacturing, oil and chemical refining and processing, and aerospace fastener manufacturing. One measure of the value of Geosyntec's services is the repeat business with clients. For example, the client with the catalyst manufacturing facility in Southern California contracted with Geosyntec to perform similar, additional decommissioning and demolition services at their Northern California manufacturing plant.
Geosyntec has played a leading role in the development of state-of-the-art liquefaction and seismic analyses for over 20 years and has pioneered designing economical structures that safely resist the loads caused by earthquakes or allow for construction over soft soils. Geosyntec is recognized nationally and internationally for our capability to analyze the liquefaction potential of dam embankments and their foundations, as well as to assess the impact of liquefaction on bridges, buildings, and other structures. Our practitioners have performed liquefaction evaluations for hundreds of projects, including assessment of the consequences of liquefaction and development of solutions to mitigate concerns. These solutions have included ground improvement designs followed by testing during construction to verify that design objectives were met. In just one example, a large site owner in Delaware planning to develop a regional waste containment and disposal facility chose Geosyntec to design a foundation and berm on the property that could accommodate challenging subsurface conditions. Our engineers and scientists met the challenge by selecting vertical drains (PVDs) combined with a mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) berm that could be constructed on top of soft, highly compressible river sediments. The 1.5-mile, 60-foot-high MSE berm provided a counterweight at the toe of the containment facility. With almost 2 million cubic yards of material, it is one of the highest and most massive reinforced structures over soft soils built in the United States. Geosyntec's design called of the PVD spacing helped control the rate of pore water pressure dissipation and determined the speed of MSE berm construction and vertical expansion waste placement. To optimize PVD placement, our team developed a project-specific pore pressure dissipation model. As part of the pre-design investigations, Geosyntec developed a sophisticated geotechnical monitoring system consisting of over 150 instruments to track the construction of the MSE berm. The system included electronic piezometers, settlement sensors, shape accelerometer arrays, and inclinometers.
Geosyntec is a preferred partner for innovative, cost-effective, and successful remediation solutions because we approach each project with technical expertise and creativity. For every client, we develop a clear understanding of how to achieve best-value outcomes using the most appropriate technologies and management strategies for individual projects. When the nature of the problem, like an emerging contaminant, requires a new type of remedy, our professionals set the standard for developing innovative science into novel and effective solutions for environmental remediation. From advanced vapor intrusion evaluation strategies to sophisticated bioaugmentation techniques and beyond, Geosyntec delivers practical environmental management solutions that meet project-specific needs and achieve our clients' objectives. Along with our expertise in treatability and pilot tests, Geosyntec practitioners are adept at conducting feasibility studies that develop, screen, and provide detailed evaluations of alternative remedial solutions for impacted sites. Our studies help clients determine the optimum performance they can expect from a remediation system and the expected cost of implementing a remedy. We also provide detailed remediation system design and design/build services for a wide range of innovative and traditional remediation strategies, including those that employ groundwater pump and treat systems; bioremediation and bioaugmentation solutions; chemical oxidation; the injection of nanoscale zero-valent iron; soil vapor extraction; indoor air venting and treatment; and much more. Geosyntec applies the principles of future optimization at the forefront of the design process, positioning the client for long-term savings opportunities, with strategies like modular unit operations of an ex situ treatment train to reduce chemical and energy costs as influent concentrations decrease, or incorporating flexibility into injection systems such as allowing for alternating passive and active flow fields or the ability to add additional components to target residual source zones. Geosyntec is the leading provider of remedial design services, particularly for complex sites where the challenges – whether from unconventional contaminants, difficult geology and site setting, multi-party groups of responsible parties, or all of the above – make the exit strategy difficult to envision. Our collaborative, global network provides our clients with access to the most talented group of environmentally-focused professionals in the industry. We also approach every project as a time-critical action, recognizing that when our clients require remediation services, they should expect to see the positive results of those actions in a timely manner.
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