Industry: Metal Finishers
Metals Industries, when taken as a whole, are one of the largest user groups of toxic chemicals in the world. California has been one of the largest centers of metals based industries in the world supplying the defense, automobile and special products industries. Some of the materials used in metal finishing are solvents and surfactants for cleaning, acids and bases for etching, and solutions of metal salts for plating the finish onto the substrate.
The Reynolds Group (TRG) has been providing assistance to this industry for twenty years, beginning in the 1980's, when small metal plating operations were scrutinized for contributions to U.S. EPA Superfund programs until today, when business and property transactions involving metal finishers routinely require environmental due diligence.
TRG uses the results from metals investigations to provide relevant information regarding potential contamination for use in property transfers, liability valuation, litigation support, remedial action planning, regulatory negotiation, source identification, and waste minimization. Our two decades of assessment and remediation experience, with wide ranges of organic and inorganic chemicals, provide our clients with the breadth of knowledge to tackle any assignment. TRG also provides a full range of risk analysis, expert consulting, and remediation services.
Hexavalent Chromium (6687.IV)
| Client: |
CHROMAL PLATING & GRINDING |
| Proj Mgr: |
Al Fuan
|
Completed: |
In Progress |
| Industry: |
Metal Finishers
Manufacturers
|
Service: |
Regulatory Response & Negotiation
Site Assessment
|
| The Los Angeles Regional Water Board (LARWQCB) began searching in the early 2000's for sources of chromium that had impacted key beneficial drinking water supplies in the Los Angeles area. One of TRG's clients, a plating company, was asked to look into its past practices and assess the subsurface because another Fortune 500 company downgradient had detected highly elevated concentrations of chromium and believed it to originate from TRG's client. Working with the law firm of Franklin, Bevins, Walsworth & McCall, TRG was able to advance work enough to demonstrate that the problem at the Fortune 500 company was more likely its own problem than TRG's clients. By creating a compilation, surveyed regional issues report, TRG was able to graphically demonstrate that its client's chromium issue was "de minimus". In this case, TRG worked through its clients insurer, Zurich Insurance North America. |
Brownfield Development (6805.III)
| Client: |
PRIMESTOR DEVELOPMENT |
| Proj Mgr: |
Ed Reynolds Jr.
|
Completed: |
01/23/2009 |
| Industry: |
Real Estate Developers
Metal Finishers
|
Service: |
Soil Remediation
Site Assessment
Brownfields/redevelopment
|
| In a unique government-private partnership, TRGs client developed a major regional retail center on a brownfield property in an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County, CA, that contained a former glass manufacturing facility and other former industrial uses. TRG provided forensic services during demolition of the property to identify environmental concerns associated with historic uses and to locate specific areas requiring assessment. During the course of work, TRG encountered and remediated arsenic and chromium-impacted kiln brick, volatile organic compounds, numerous underground storage tanks and clarifiers, pesticides, and PCBs. TRG conducted assessment and cleanup activities as the site was being developed. By coordinating assessment and cleanup work with the general contractor, TRG had minimal impact on the scheduling and timing of the project. TRG provided further value to the project by negotiating cleanup levels based upon potential health risk in future occupied areas with lesser standards applied to parking areas. |
Heavy Metals Contamination Cleanup (7637.X)
| Client: |
RICHLINE PROPERTIES |
| Proj Mgr: |
Daniel Nunez
|
Completed: |
08/23/2011 |
| Industry: |
Metal Finishers
|
Service: |
Hexavalent Chromium Clean-up
Mtbe Remediation
|
TRG assisted a property management company in the wrap up of a tenant lease in Beverly Hills. The former occupant operated a metal plating business in the leased space. As part of the wind down of the lease, the tenant was required to return the property to its original condition. The property manager had been working with another environmental consultant who had identified metals in the soil beneath the former plating operation. However, the property manager retained TRG to perform the cleanup of the property and obtain case closure from the Los Angeles County Fire Department HAZMAT Division.
Concentrations of contaminants such as chromium, copper, lead, nickel and zinc in the soil exceeded allowable limits and necessitated the physical excavation of the soils in order to clean up the site. Unfortunately, the impacted soils were beneath the building and below a shallow basement. Approximately 50 cubic yards of soil needed to be dug up, manifested and properly disposed of. TRG was able to mobilized specialized equipment to the site in order to excavate the contamination from the basement level and load it into bins for transport to an appropriate disposal facility. Confirmation sampling showed pockets of contamination still in place after the initial excavation, and additional spot excavation was performed. TRG reported on the excavation activities which confirmed the metals at the site are now below concentrations negotiated with the County Fire Department. Case closure is eminent. |
Phase I ESA at Die Casting Company (7134.X)
| Client: |
DYNACAST INTERNATIONAL |
| Proj Mgr: |
Ed Reynolds Jr.
|
Completed: |
03/01/2007 |
| Industry: |
Metal Finishers
|
Service: |
Site Assessment
|
| The Reynolds Group was contracted by the worlds largest die casting company to perform a subsurface investigation at their property. The Reynolds Group performed a physical inspection on the property during the process of performing due diligence for a pending financial transaction. A soil vapor survey was performed and it detected a variety of volatile organic compounds (VOC). |
Soils Removal (5520.X)
| Client: |
Centre City Development Corporation |
| Proj Mgr: |
Ed Reynolds Jr.
|
Completed: |
12/01/1999 |
| Industry: |
Metal Finishers
|
Service: |
Site Assessment
Soil Remediation
|
As part of the redevelopment of downtown San Diego during the creation of the Petco Baseball Park, TRG was awarded a contract by the Centre City Development Corporation in 1999 for the removal of approximately 1,600 tons of metal-contaminated soils.
TRG was the low bidder for removal and disposal of lead contaminated soils in downtown San Diego. The work required significant coordination for traffic planning in this dense downtown area as trucks were immediately loaded and transported out. TRG performed the work for City Centre Development Corporation, a quasi-private/government developer charged with the revitalization of downtown San Diego. |
PCE Sub-Slab Depressurization (7715)
| Client: |
ARIZONA CIRCLE PARTNERS |
| Proj Mgr: |
Daniel Nunez
|
Completed: |
In Progress |
| Industry: |
Metal Finishers
Real Estate Managers/owners
|
Service: |
Vapor Intrusion Mitigation
|
This project in Los Angeles involves a building that formerly housed a metal plating shop. The processes involved with the plating operations used PCE (a chlorinated solvent that readily volatilizes) and released it into the soil beneath the site. Soil vapor surveys and assessments have identified the threat to the health of the occupants of the building due to the intrusion of PCE vapors into the building. Following a site inspection, the Reynolds Group performed a pilot study to determine the applicability of sub-slab vapor intrusion mitigation to protect the occupants from exposure to PCE.
Because the release and subsequent human health threat occurred after the building was constructed, the options for mitigating vapor intrusion were limited. The buildings slab-on-grade construction further limited the options. Through the pilot study, TRG demonstrated that applying a vacuum (depressurization) to the interface between the bottom of the concrete slab and the soil immediately beneath it, PCE vapors could be captured and prevented from entering the building. TRG then designed a simple and practical depressurization system to be installed to protect the workers at the facility from the human health risk.
|