Risk-Based Solutions to Optimize Investigation and Risk Management Action

Terraphase’s risk assessment and risk management consultants bring technical expertise and practical experience to the assessment of risks to human health and the environment in a variety of decision-making contexts, including potentially contaminated sites. Our experts provide high quality and cost-effective risk assessment services to support the investigation and remediation of sites under Federal, State and provincial regulatory programs. This often involves the analysis of exposure to a broad range of chemicals under unique scenarios, allowing clients to justify and implement risk management actions quickly and ensure that human health and the environment are protected.

Risk assessment can be an extremely powerful tool for supporting the site investigation and remediation process. From determining the need for and extent of sampling, to developing alternatives to active remediation, our risk assessors focus on helping clients manage liability by using optimized site-specific risk-based closure strategies.

By combining our risk assessment, engineering, and environmental science expertise, we help clients take full advantage of the potential that risk assessment science has to offer in achieving cost-effective solutions for protecting human health and the environment. In advocating for our clients, we consider the full range of technical, regulatory, and legal options available for risk-based characterization and remedial action. The techniques we have used in support of estimating potential threats posed by sites include:

• Ensuring that scenarios for potential exposure are properly reflected in robust conceptual site models
• Ensuring that the risk management issues are framed accurately and properly to develop effective strategies for performing risk assessments
• Incorporating the use of preliminary “real-time” risk assessments during the investigation stage to allow decision-makers to ensure that data needed to support remedial decisions is collected
• Conducting risk assessments in a manner that allows for highly confident remedial decisions, avoids unnecessary calculations, and minimizes the need to develop and justify site-specific assumptions
• Producing high quality work and supporting materials to help agencies and other stakeholders visualize and understand how (and why) selected risk management actions are appropriate

As a complement to our risk assessment and risk management services, we also help our clients and their partners with the full scope of site characterization and remediation services.  This includes strategic conceptualization, site investigation, data management, design of remedial action objectives and cleanup goals, tailoring of institutional and engineering controls to enable site redevelopment, and communication with regulatory agencies, the public, and other stakeholders. Through this comprehensive support, Terraphase has gained a strong reputation for helping clients find cost-effective, risk-based solutions for remediation and risk management action.