RSK is widely recognised as being at the vanguard of site investigation and has had its procedures for land acquisition and development adopted by the National House-Building Council to support its Land Quality initiative. We are also actively involved in research in this area in collaboration with, among others, CIRIA, the Soil Guideline Value Task Force, DEFRA's Contaminated Land Forum and the Environment Agency division dealing with the Definition of Waste.

We employ more Specialists in Land Condition certified staff than any other consultancy and our human health risk assessments use state-of-the-art sampling and analysis methods.

Site investigation and characterisation

RSK Group assesses liability and provides solutions in the broadest sense, including:

• Day-to-day and future project costs
• Total remediation costs
• National and local regulatory compliance
• Compliance with client’s corporate policies
• Nuisance and/or other third party liability issues

Where necessary, RSK can implement Geographic Information Systems solutions and integrated CAD to analyse and present complex data sets.

RSK achieves cost, compliance, policy and liability goals because our project team anticipates and prepares for future developments.

Risk assessment

Protecting human health and the environment is the driving force behind the regulatory requirements of most European contaminated land legislation and all of RSK Group’s projects. Our site characterisations and risk assessments are regulator friendly and comply with the Environment Agency Model Procedures for the Management of Land Affected by Contamination (CLR11).

Of particular importance is our Conceptual Site Model, which defines what contaminant–pathway–receptor linkages may lead to a human health or controlled waters risk.

We carry out risk assessment in a tiered approach to help avoid superfluous assessments:

• Preliminary Risk Assessment
• Generic Quantitative Risk Assessment
• Detailed Quantitative Risk Assessment

Preliminary risk assessment

We obtain data on site (by desk-based study and site investigation) and prepare the Preliminary Conceptual Site Model. Our aim is a comprehensive set of data describing the site and all relevant contamination issues.

Generic quantitative risk assessment

We use published guideline values and in-house generic screening values to identify what contaminants put human health and/or the environment at risk.

Detailed quantitative risk assessment

This entails a close analysis of site use, exposure scenarios, contaminant fate and transport to precisely model the contaminant–pathway–receptor linkage. It eschews conservatism to focus on the real risks. A small amount of time and effort at this stage can potentially save hundreds of thousands of pounds of remediation costs.

Contaminant fate and transport analysis

RSK Group has extensive experience in contaminant fate and transport analysis, including screening assessments of bioavailability, examination of contaminant/sediment mobilisation, contaminant leaching potential and pore water/sediment distribution characteristics. Our experience also incorporates full numerical modelling of contaminant sediment transport. We maintain a complete library of computer models for predicting contaminant fate and transport and sediment mobility. Our fate and transport analysis experience covers the full range of inorganic and organic pollutants encountered in contaminated sediments, including pesticides and other hydrophobic organic compounds.

Community relations and risk communication

RSK can work directly for a client or in conjunction with in-house community-relations staff to bring public support to your projects. By allaying employee, public and media concerns before they become costly liabilities, we help you earn public trust, avoid expensive surprises and reap the advantages of good corporate and environmental citizenship.

Stakeholder negotiation

We have extensive experience in presenting remediation strategies to critical stakeholders including legislative agencies, financial backers and potential site purchasers.