2017 SMART Vancouver

March 2, 2017

SMART Remediation talks have focused on innovative technologies for remediating contaminated sites, approaches for site characterization, project case studies, regulatory and industry perspectives, and other related topics.

The 21st SMART Remediation conference was held in Vancouver on Thursday, March 2nd, 2017. Details on the speakers and presentations are provided below.

Speakers

Alan McCammon,
MOE

BC Framework

Alan McCammon

Alan McCammon is a member of the management team for the Land Remediation (Contaminated Sites) Section of British Columbia’s Ministry of Environment. His primary responsibilities focus on the areas of brownfield remediation and redevelopment, high-risk contaminated site management, compliance/enforcement, and environmental assessments involving remediation. Alan is currently leading the Province’s review of BC’s Brownfield Strategy which focuses on increasing certainty in economic and environmental outcomes, development of partnerships across the stakeholder spectrum, and delivery of a range of educational and capacity building initiatives. Alan is a registered professional geoscientist specializing in contaminant hydrogeology.

BC Framework

Results-based approach to selection of remediation options under BC’s Environmental Management Act British Columbia’s regulatory framework for contaminated site remediation is a flexible regime supported by a wealth of technical and administrative guidance. Some of the flexibility of the Province’s Environmental Management Act comes from provisions related to selection of remediation options. This session, presented by one of BC’s statutory decision makers, will provide a brief overview of the opportunities for contaminated sites professionals in developing and implementing remediation plans.

Marc McAree,
Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP

Making Out the Environmental Due Diligence Defence at Trial

Marc McAree

Marc assists clients to manage environmental risks and liabilities while limiting clients’ reputational risk. Marc brings significant environmental law expertise to: contaminated land/brownfields clean ups, environmental-aspects of transactions, environmental insurance, all manner of environmental compliance, environmental approval and order appeals, and defence of environmental prosecutions and environmental civil actions. Marc is recognized for his excellence in advocating for clients in environmental civil litigation at all levels of Ontario Courts, defence of clients against environmental regulatory prosecutions, and appearances before Ontario’s Environmental Review Tribunal and other administrative decision-makers on appeals and at hearings. Marc has particular experience prosecuting and defending contaminated land claims and nuisance impacts including odour, noise and light, and also in defending civil actions brought against environmental consultants. Marc is named in the 2021 Lexpert™®/American Lawyer Guide To The Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada. Marc was peer selected and named the Best Lawyers’® 2019 Environmental Lawyer of the Year (Toronto). He is peer selected annually for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in Canada© for environmental law. Marc is ranked “Most Frequently Recommended” by The Canadian Legal Lexpert® directory and ranked “AV® Preeminent™” by peers in Martindale-Hubbell. He is ranked as a Global Leader in Who’s Who Legal Environment and ranked as a National Leader in Who’s Who Legal Canada Environment. Marc is called to the bar in Ontario and British Columbia. He obtained a joint Bachelor of Laws/Masters in Environmental Studies at York University. Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP is named “Law Firm of the Year” for Environmental Law in the Best Lawyers in Canada, 2021 Edition!

Making Out the Environmental Due Diligence Defence at Trial

Environmental prosecutions in jurisdictions across Canada can result where the Crown alleges a violation of an environmental statute or regulation. Upon conviction, charges can lead to fines and/or jail terms. These are known as quasi-criminal offences. The federal government, provincial and territorial governments and municipalities lay charges under a host of environmental laws. On March 15, 2016, the Court released its decision in R v ControlChem Canada Ltd. The company was charged with five environmental offences under two provincial statutes. The charges arose from the independent actions of the company’s employee. Contrary to the company’s environmental management system, the employee drained the liquid contents of totes to an outdoor storm sewer catch basin at the company’s facility. The Court found that the discharge of liquid caused the nearby creek to turn milky white and acidic, thereby impairing the creek. Did the Court find that the company met the environmental due diligence defence and should be exonerated, or did the Court convict? Environmental due diligence cases highlight the need for corporations, their directors and officers, senior management and employees to implement an integral environmental systems approach to ensure that foreseeable and preventable environmental events and harm do not occur. Many corporations rely on their environmental advisors to provide incisive and practical advice to keep the company, its management and employees out of environmental trouble.

Parisa Jourabchi,
Golder Associates

Soil Gas Mitigation Systems – An Emerging Practice

Parisa Jourabchi

Parisa Jourabchi is an Environmental Engineer working on site investigation and remediation projects at Golder Associates. Parisa has 15 years of experinece in the use of models in environmental geochemistry including fate and transport applications in groundwater, sediment, and vapour intrusion. She is also active in developing field investigations and using models to quantify natural source zone depletion rates. Parisa has applied models to soil vapor simulations for a variety of contaminated sites applications in support of remediation and risk assessment.

Soil Gas Mitigation Systems – An Emerging Practice

The field of soil gas mitigation is an emerging practice in Canada. There is increasing public awareness of the potential risks from inhalation and/or explosion of volatile chemical compounds and naturally occurring gases such as radon and methane gas. Consequently, mitigation of soil gas intrusion into buildings or enclosed spaces is increasingly required or considered as a pre-emptive strategy at many sites. For new building construction there is a range of possible mitigation solutions, which often involve sub-slab measures where passive or active venting and/or barrier systems are installed. New materials such as aerated floors provide for more efficient venting and options for using wind turbine or low-powered fans. For existing buildings there is also a range of possible mitigation solutions, with one common approach of using the existing granular layer beneath the sub-slab as a venting layer as part of a sub-slab depressurization system. Less common are measures such as building pressurization or ventilation, which may offer advantages for some sites. This presentation focus on six key points to consider for sub-slab venting systems in new and existing buildings. Key points presented include: 1) Establishing Project Objectives and Performance Goals, 2) Selected the Venting System Type, 3) System Design and Optimization, 4) Construction Testing and Inspection, 5) System Commissioning and 6) Ongoing Operation and Maintenance. A discussion on each key point along with practical examples is provided. The presentation concludes with a case study which highlights combined new build and retrofit sub-slab venting system from start to finish.

Kevin French,
Vertex Environmental

Remediation Design: Use of Bench-Scale Testing

Kevin French

Mr. French is Vice President of Vertex and has over 30 years of experience and expertise in environmental engineering, specializing in site assessment and remediation. Kevin has been involved in the design and implementation of remediation programs across Canada involving PRBs, carbon adsorption, in-situ chemical oxidation and reduction, aerobic and anaerobic biodegradation, etc. in soil, groundwater and bedrock for a variety of contaminants, including petroleum hydrocarbons, chlorinated solvents and other compounds. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the University of Waterloo, is a Professional Engineer and a Qualified Person in Ontario, and frequently presents on environmental site assessment and remediation at conferences and seminars across Canada.

Remediation Design: Use of Bench-Scale Testing

The success of full-scale remediation is based upon many factors, some of which may be unknown prior to commencement of clean-up efforts. Bench-scale testing can be used to define many variables, including the type and concentration of remediation amendment, the duration of remediation amendment contact with the contaminated soils and groundwater, observation or measurement of any by-products, etc. Experimenting on soils and/or groundwater collected from the site can lead to many key observations that ultimately reduces uncertainty for full-scale remediation efforts. The purpose of this talk is present various bench-scale experiments that have been completed to demonstrate the results and to present how those bench results were incorporated into the full-scale design.

Mayson Abraham,
SECURE Energy Services

Case Studies of Risk Assessments in Different Upstream Oil and Gas Settings

Mayson Abraham

Mayson Abraham graduated from the University of Victoria and is a member of the Alberta and BC Association of the Chemical Profession. He has helped clients assess, remediate, and reclaim sites for over fifteen years. He has managed project teams across Western Canada and in the United States to complete work within a wide variety of sectors, including oil and gas, railway, government, construction, mining, industrial, and commercial.

Case Studies of Risk Assessments in Different Upstream Oil and Gas Settings

The presentation will review the risk assessment process for obtaining regulatory closure in both Alberta and British Columbia upstream oil and gas settings. A variety of case studies will be used to illustrate: • Differences between the closure processes in each province;
• Paths and techniques to achieve regulatory closure;
• Challenges inherent to the different systems; and
• Client issues that can arise post-closure, including those related to site re-development.

David Robinson,
3E Remediation Dynamics Inc.

Mobile On-Site Treatment of Hydrocarbon Contaminated Soil

David Robinson

David M. Robinson is the Director of Business Development at 3E Remediation Dynamics Inc. an environmental soil treatment services enterprise with offices in Calgary and Vancouver. He combines a technical engineering background with past experience as a commercial lawyer at McCarthy Tétrault, one of the largest law firms in Canada. He has been an advisor on the financial, contractual and environmental aspects of major domestic and international pipeline and power generation projects for TransCanada and Ontario Power Generation. He has coordinated the development and commercialization of innovative environmental technologies for oilfield waste management. Recently Mr. Robinson moderated the investment banking and private equity capital forum at the 2016 Global Petroleum Show.

Mobile On-Site Treatment of Hydrocarbon Contaminated Soil

3E Remediation uses advanced mobile equipment, chemistry and microbes to quickly process hydrocarbon contaminated soil at site to meet applicable environmental criteria. Mobile on-site treatment eliminates expensive trucking and waste disposal fees, enables innovative solutions for challenging situations and delivers both cost savings and improved environmental sustainability. Attend this session and learn more about: o Soil Remediation Case Studies: diesel storage tank leak, oil pipeline release, o Mobile operational solutions for inaccessible wetland sites and winter operating conditions, o Mobile processing solutions for embedded rocks, remote peat soils and impermeable wet clays, o Advanced equipment for rapidly processing large volumes of soil and capturing VOC emissions, o New method for treating marine oil spills on remote, rocky beach coves with no land access. o New method for treating salt contaminated soil at oil & gas wellsites

Bruce Tunnicliffe,
Vertex Environmental Inc.

Permeable Reactive Barriers for Petroleum Hydrocarbons Compounds (PHCs)

Bruce Tunnicliffe

Mr. Tunnicliffe is President of Vertex Environmental Inc., and is an Environmental Engineer with years of experience designing and implementing remediation of chlorinated solvents and petroleum hydrocarbons. Having worked on many hundreds of in-situ projects, Mr. Tunnicliffe has extensive experience on innovated assessment tools and in-situ remediation techniques. Mr. Tunnicliffe holds a Master’s degree from the University of Waterloo, has authored many publications, and has presented at numerous conferences.

Permeable Reactive Barriers for Petroleum Hydrocarbons Compounds (PHCs)

Managing dissolved contamination along property boundaries or adjacent to sensitive receptors such as residential properties or streams has long been an area of focus for the environmental industry. Risk Control Measures are often required in conjunction with risk assessment or remediation. In the 1990s the permeable reactive barrier (PRB) was pioneered – an underground permeable “wall” which is a barrier to contaminants but allows the natural flow of groundwater to continue through the subsurface wall. The initial PRB used zero valent iron (ZVI), was termed the “Iron Wall”, and was very effective and widely applied for the treatment of chlorinated volatile organic compounds (cVOCs). Unfortunately the Iron Wall is ineffective for petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs). For more than 20 years many attempts have been made at creating a PRB for the treatment of PHCs, but until recently each technique has had serious limitations. The purpose of this talk is to showcase a new in-situ Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) based technology which has been successfully used to treat PHCs (and cVOCs) along property boundaries. The technology is referred to as a “Trap and Treat” concept. Previously the use of GAC in the subsurface has been limited due to the limited adsorptive capacity of the GAC. However, a new technology (to Canada) allows for both the adsorption and the treatment of the dissolved PHCs. Thus passive PRBs can be installed to allow for PHC plume capture and treatment over a long period of time. This talk will present the “Trap and Treat” technology and describe how the technology can be applied along property boundaries, adjacent to streams, or along other sensitive receptors. A case study will also be provided. Additionally, other emerging PHC PRB approaches will be showcased, compared and contrasted to the use of the Trap and Treat approach. The talk will conclude with general recommendations on installation techniques for PRBs for PHC treatment.