Southwest Environmental Limited

Environmental Site Investigation for Health Care Trust

Following a Desktop Study it was recognised that a site in Exeter had an industrial heritage, the site had been used for a number of years as a land fill site, there were no records kept of what was placed as fill.

The site in question was relatively small and as such it was deemed only a small number of investigative points were necessary, eight positions were chosen, 6 of which were designated for shallow soil sampling, and the other two for shallow soil sampling and installation of monitoring wells.

The site work went well being completed in one day, and the shallow soil samples and ground water samples were promptly dispatched by courier to the UCAS accredited labs for testing.

Although during drilling no suspicious smells were noted, it was apparent on return of results from the labs (2 weeks later) that some of the soil on site was contaminated. It was now necessary to decide how contaminated.

Site Investigation Logs

A quantitative risk assessment was performed, this involves comparing the levels of contamination found on site with the Soil Guidance Values that are provided by the Environment Agency.

Each SGV is varied depending on the intended use of the site. Commercial land use requires the lowest land quality and Residential with Gardens requiring the highest.

Gas and groundwater monitoring reveal nothing unusual and therefore the site was deemed fit for use and construction started.

If needed geotechnical samples could have been collected for foundation design during the site work stage of the Investigation, in this instance these were not required