Ecological Risk Assessment
Ecological Risk Assessment
Experience conducting ecological risk assessments (ERA), ranging from screening-level to complex multi-pathway wildlife exposure evaluations. Expertise includes chemical source identification, environmental fate and transport, ecological effects assessment, food chain/web transfers of contaminants, uptake of metals and persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) chemicals, and deriving risk-based cleanup goals.
Examples of client assignments include:
- Preparation of ecological risk assessments to support the evaluation of the implementation and residual risks of various sediment remediation alternatives in urban waterways and ports/harbors across several U.S. states and other countries. This work typically involved comparisons to baseline conditions using historical data, spatial and remote sensing tools, and results from environmental sampling. The objective was to assess the environmental risks, costs, and benefits of the different engineering remedy options.
- Participation in periodic reviews and revisions of ecological risk assessments that use results from sediment, soil, and aquatic biota sampling to confirm the progress of various remediation activities in relation to cleanup goals set by the state of Michigan and the US EPA for sediments and floodplain soils in the Tittabawassee River and Saginaw River/Bay watersheds.
- Seasonal sampling of sediments, benthic organisms, and fish to monitor the progress of recovery of aquatic biota following dredging work and the installation of armored and thin-layer sediment caps to isolate chromium-contaminated sediments situated offshore from a former plating facility located at the confluence of the tidal-influenced Lower Hackensack River and Newark Bay, NJ.
