Environmental Compliance & Engineering Design

Site & Facility Closure

VERTEX supports corporations with the proper closure of surplus or legacy real estate assets throughout the globe that are encumbered by environmental liabilities. Corporations often have difficulty in managing costs and uncertainties associated with environmentally encumbered assets and seek a higher level of accuracy, assurance, and transparency in establishing the true cost of managing and disposing of such assets.

VERTEX delivers cost-effective, professionally managed Facility Closure services to our clients. We provide these services using a range of delivery mechanisms tailored to project requirements, including economic analysis of facility closure, pre-demolition support, and oversight services. VERTEX is able to execute the decommissioning, decontamination, and demolition projects for facilities of any size, whether by managing the design-bid process or by providing turnkey options for sensitive projects where continuity of the project team is critical for success.

Site Investigation

The site characterization and investigation process often drives the entire evaluation and remedial progression at a site and can affect site management for years into the future. For this reason, VERTEX has extensive experience in managing the investigation and construction processes in a manner that maximizes the control of the overall scientific and regulatory process. Our engineers and scientists are experts in the management of site investigations under various state and federal programs. Depending on regulatory and site conditions, VERTEX scientists and engineers use a variety of strategies to help minimize unnecessary data collection and sampling. We also incorporate phased approaches to ensure that investigations remain focused and cost-effective.

Environmental Remediation

VERTEX’s team of experienced remediation professionals comprehensively evaluates remedial actions that may be needed to address subsurface impacts present at a property. We have extensive experience conducting remedial investigations and feasibility studies as well as developing cleanup action plans for properties of any size and complexity. We support the environmental needs of complex and fast-track construction projects as well as operating industrial and commercial businesses. In all cases, we strategize with our clients to implement a plan that coincides with their business goals and work with a sense of urgency to minimize impacts and delays to the projects and operating facilities. For development projects, our team incorporates conceptual or full redevelopment plans with remediation approaches to minimize disruptions and costs.

Remedial Design

As an industry leader, VERTEX routinely performs risk assessments, remedial investigations, feasibility studies, agency negotiations, design, construction, and implementation of remedial systems, and operation and maintenance of these systems. Our engineers use many different technologies, including excavation and dewatering, pump and treat, oxidation, vacuum extraction, bioremediation, solidification/stabilization, low-temperature thermal extraction, soil washing, air stripping, capping, and vaulting. VERTEX works closely with clients to achieve the most efficient and best possible result at their contaminated sites.

Solid Waste Management

VERTEX performs a variety of solid waste management services, including the design of landfill systems and transfer stations; the preparation of solid waste management facility permit applications supported by facility manuals, operation and maintenance manuals, and drawings; the preparation of landfill closure investigation reports, engineering reports, construction quality assurance plans and construction certification reports; the preparation of contract drawings and specifications; providing bid phase and construction management services. Landfill engineering services are provided for municipal solid waste landfills, inactive hazardous waste disposal sites and clean fill disposal sites including the design of liner systems, capping and closure systems, leachate management systems, landfill gas collection and treatment systems and monitoring systems for groundwater and landfill gas.

VERTEX provides landfill post-closure services including closure system inspection and reporting; the management of leachate and landfill gas control systems; and groundwater and landfill gas monitoring. During the engineering design phase of landfill closure projects, future site uses have been incorporated into the closure design including parks and public works facilities. VERTEX continues to provide post-closure services at these and other landfill sites ensuring that the engineering and institutional controls continue to meet regulatory requirements.

VERTEX is also experienced in the preparation of solid waste management plans; solid waste facility master plans; requests for proposals for municipal contracts and agreements for solid waste management, collection and disposal; bid documents for various recycling and municipal solid waste contracts; and solid waste facility condition evaluation and reporting.

Brownfields Redevelopment Support

Brownfield Tax Credit programs offered by numerous states and municipalities across the country provide lucrative financial incentives to redevelop environmentally challenged properties. VERTEX is able to assist clients and tax consultants in determining if these programs would be cost-effective and appropriate for their projects. We help navigate the intricate requirements to receive the maximum tax credits possible to offset construction costs.

Permitting

VERTEX evaluates the environmental compliance status of facilities under a multitude of state and federal regulations. Our team reviews available documentation, inspects site operations, and meets with facility staff to see what improvements may be needed to ensure that there are no gaps between what is being done and what is required under the law. Evaluations typically include the compliance status of the property as it relates to on-site petroleum or hazardous substance usage and storage, waste disposal practices, environmental health and safety practices, sanitary discharge, stormwater discharge, air emissions, and hazardous materials reporting requirements.

Storage Tanks/UST Management and Permitting

VERTEX has worked on thousands of residential, commercial, and industrial tank removals. We also provide emergency spill response, in-compliance tank testing, and/or remediation management. Whether it’s routine compliance work for a permitted tank or if a leaking tank is unexpectedly encountered during construction, VERTEX has the experience and contractor network available to work quickly to address our clients’ needs.

Indoor Air and Vapor Intrusion Assessment

The installation of building vapor mitigation systems in areas of volatile contamination is becoming increasingly common as more states continue to adopt and refine their indoor air protection regulations. Even in the absence of regulation, the installation of a chemically-resistant vapor barrier with or without a sub-slab depressurization system can be a cost-effective risk management tool to protect site users. VERTEX’s engineers have extensive experience in evaluating, designing, and implementing the construction of these systems either as a retrofit installation or incorporated into new building design. We work directly with project civil and structural engineers to provide stamped engineering drawings and specifications. This allows systems to be integrated into construction bid documents at the beginning of the project and installed concurrently with the building utilities with minimal impact on the project schedule.

Risk Assessment

Nearly every remediation project culminates with a human health and/or ecological risk assessment to achieve regulatory closure. At VERTEX, we continually keep the risk assessment goals of a project in sight to streamline the remedial response actions required to achieve closure. This approach often results in significant cost reduction through efficient project management. Our risk assessors possess the expertise necessary to address risk assessment issues under USEPA and state regulations.