WCS Skills for EA EPCRS
Westlakes Scientific Consulting provides a broad range of environmental consultancy services to public and private sector clients both in the UK and internationally. WSC offers excellent service and quality of work based on its track record of delivering for demanding customers including both UK and European regulatory agencies.
WSC has extensive experience in the following areas:
Skills covering all the lots awarded within the EPCRS framework:
• Geological and environmental data management and conceptualisation, including the application of GIS and computer modelling and visualisation packages in the interpretation of geological, hydrological and other environmental data.
• The application and development of methods and tools for environmental risk assessment including exposure, fate and effect modelling, data analysis and multivariate statistics.
• Specialism in prioritisation and ranking techniques. Identification and ranking of environmental hot spots in terrestrial and aquatic systems.
• Multi-criteria evaluation and decision support for environmental management including software development.
• Development of environmental policy, development of related environmental management systems, and environmental liability review in relation to due diligence.
• BPEO, MADA and related environmental decision making techniques.
• Statistical analysis of microarrays and ecotoxicological tests.
• Development of numerical models for transport processes in soil and groundwater (MORPHO software – modelling of regional phosphorus transport). Modelling of transport, sorption, geochemical speciation and time series. Parameter identification and sorption experiments.
• Participation in stakeholder dialogue processes involving concerns about environmental performance and environmental safety; communication of scientific issues through public lectures, media interviews, community liaison groups
Land quality
• Geoenvironmental; the design, implementation and interpretation of site investigations of brown and greenfield sites for residential and commercial redevelopment.
• Contaminated land risk assessments relating to land quality, human health, plant health and controlled water risks. Production of implementaion plans and method statements for site invesitgation works.
• Supervision and design of intrusive site investigations including trial pitting, window sampling, shell and auger drilling, water and air flush rotary drilling and grouting works. Procurement and management of contractors. Logging of soil samples to BS5930 and EN ISO 14688. Collection of soil, water and gas samples. Perform percolation tests for soakaway design
• Effluent control and waste management
Water quality
• Development, calibration and maintenance of environmental models designed for predicting the dispersion of contaminants in aquatic and terrestrial environments. Model development for hydrodynamics, sediment dynamics, and radionuclide dispersion. Knowledge of groundwater models MODFLOW and MONDRIAN. Modelling and assessment projects including leading development of 3D groundwater flow and contaminant transport models of major industrial sites.
• Delivery of successful projects concerned with the determination of the toxicity of non-radioactive material discharged into the aquatic environment.
• Provision of pollution investigation modelling in relation to COMAH applications for the water utilities, chemical industry and environmental regulators.
• Water quality permit writing, including technical and legislative interpretation for the Environment Agency’s chemical and nutrient environmental assessment of wastewater and industrial discharges to freshwater, lake and marine environments.
Directives and Market Mechanisms aimed at protecting the environment
• Specific areas of expertise include sustainable development, governance of radioactive waste, community engagement and benefits and public attitudes to waste.
• Research and dissemination skills encompass a wide range of projects, including sustainability, community benefit and engagement, taught course design in the areas of decommissioning, waste, environmental management and global energy futures.
Track Record with the EA
WSC have produced major pieces of work for the Environment Agency within the last 10years related to air, water and land quality and also dose to humans and biota. As well as working directly for the EA, WSC have completed work for other clients, particularly Sellafield Ltd, to meet criteria and standards set by the EA e.g. CEAR documentation. WSC has worked closely and successfully with the EA for this type of work.
Some examples:
Air Quality
Methods to measure and model ambient air pollution at local scales.
A Review of Methods For Modelling Deposition at High Spatial Resolution in Complex Terrain.
Water Quality
Development of water (particularly bathing water) quality model for the Scarborough coastline.
In conjuction with the EA, United Utilities and MWH: Investigation of water quality along the Cumbrian coastline; modelling faecal and total coliforms from multiple discharge points.
Land Quality
- Work for the Welsh Assembly, overseen and reviewed by the/ with the considerable involvement of the EA: Investigation of Sea-Land Transfer of Radioactivity on North Wales Coast.
- Dose to Humans and Biota
- Monitoring and modelling information on atmospheric deposition and integration into air quality modelling
- Provision of method for the EA to assess radon dose to biota and provision of full model for uptake of radon in plants.
- Argon and Krypton dose to biota.
- Determination of radiological impacts of Sellafield marine discharges on Irish coast communities.
WSC has been a consortium member and had full involvement in ERICA (Environmental Risk from Ionising Contaminants Assessments and management) and FASSET (Framework for Assessment of Environmental Impact)