Owner/Client
DAI Property Management Company, Inc.
Location
Weymouth, MA
CEC Services
- Design of Clean Utility Corridors
- Perimeter Air Motoring
- Documentation of Post-RAO Activities
- Post-RAO Phase IV Remedy Implementation Plan
- Post-RAO Phase IV Completion Report and Final Inspection Report
- MassDEP Compliance
Owner Objective
DAI Property Management Company, Inc. (DAI) develops and manages residential, commercial, retail, and industrial properties in southeastern Massachusetts.
DAI is developing a new six-story, fifty-unit condominium with views of the City of Boston. The site was once home to Bradley Standard Fertilizers, which, in the 1890s, was the largest manufacturer of fertilizer in the world. While manufacturing fertilizer, thousands of tons of “red sands” (contaminated with arsenic and lead) were produced and used as fill on the site. The area has been through extensive remediation with a barrier installed to mitigate exposure to the contaminated soils classified as a “hazardous material” remaining on the site. To develop the property, excavation of this hazardous material was necessary. To minimize costs, hazardous material disturbance below the barrier, pre- or post-excavation testing or analysis of soils and groundwater, and the off-site disposal of hazardous soils, the civil and geotechnical design was implemented in conjunction with the remedial design.
CEC was contracted for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) permitting process of this development. The permitting process was completed as efficiently as possible with minimal contingencies from the MassDEP.
CEC Approach
Given the “hazardous” classification of the soils, CEC worked to minimize soil disturbance below the barrier; it is estimated that less than 1,800 cubic yards of hazardous soils were excavated. CEC’s approach was to relocate all excavated soils on site in a containment cell with no testing or laboratory analysis of soil or groundwater. Concerns about relocating hazardous materials on site were raised with the MassDEP prior to development, as numerous regulators require that any containerized or excavated hazardous soils must be disposed of off-site. Prior to submitting a formal Phase IV Remedy Implementation Plan (RIP), CEC presented its approach to the regional MassDEP in a memo and then in a meeting. The Phase IV RIP included a Soil Management Plan, Health and Safety Plan, and Ambient Air Monitoring Plan. Due to the uncertainty of this type of on-site relocation and no additional testing, the regional MassDEP office decision was deferred to the MassDEP headquarters in Boston. The agency agreed with CEC’s approach. CEC submitted the Phase IV RIP with no additional testing or off-site disposal required, potentially saving the client hundreds of thousands of dollars and a variety of potential complications and additional regulatory hurdles.
CEC completed the Final Inspection Report and the Phase IV work in January 2020. DAI plans to have occupancy in spring 2020.
