MEDITERRA ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANTS

Remediation of Contaminated Soil and Groundwater

In the framework of soil and groundwater contamination and specifically based upon the requirements of Spanish Royal Decree 9/2005 which establishes a list of potentially soil polluting activities as well as the criteria and standards to declare a soil as contaminated, MediTerra offers its environmental consultancy services.

Soil and Groundwater Contamination

The MediTerra team offer their knowledge and broad experience at both national and international levels in order to find the solution that best fits the necessities of their clients. It is managed every aspect of the investigation from the elaboration of proposals and reports, laboratory and field work machinery subcontracting, contacts with local authorities to the planning and execution of remediation works. MediTerra has got the specific tools and equipment to solve the issues arising from contaminated soil and groundwater which make every performance both technically and financially more effective. The methodology applied by MediTerra is based on a progressive approach through various investigation levels or phases which range from simple questionnaires used to identify potential contaminated sites during Due Diligence operations to more complicated procedures used in the execution of remediation projects. MediTerra collaborates with various Environmental European Programs created with the aim to fight against soil contamination among which it is worth mentioning:

CABERNET (Concerted Action on Brownfield and Economic Regeneration Network)
NICOLE (Network for Contaminated Land in Europe)

The Risk Assessment

The Risk Assessment is nowadays the basic tool for the study of environmental contamination. Its application during Phase II investigations allows us to determine the extent of the identified soil and groundwater contamination and plan the most adequate remediation actions and their estimated cost. Spanish Royal Decree 9/2005, which establishes a list of potentially soil polluting activities as well as the criteria and standards to declare a soil as contaminated, considers the general criteria to determine the level of soil contamination as well as the possible soil remediation measures to be applied on declared polluted soils will lie upon an Environmental Risk Assessment. The Risk Assessment evaluates the impacts that the identified contamination may have on the environment and the human beings through transport vias such as soil, groundwater, surface water and air. Besides, it also sets the concentration limit values below which no risk on the receiver is assessed.

Methodology Applied

MediTerra has broad experience on the usage of various Risk Assessment methodologies following the parameters established by Royal Decree 9/2005 on contaminated soils. However, the two most commonly used models are the North-American RBCA and the Dutch Risc-Human.

List of selected projects where a Risk Assessment methodology has been applied:

• Deviation of the river Llobregat /Expansion of the Port de Barcelona
• Remediation works on an old location of a pigment factory
• Review report of Risk Assessment models and their applicability on the Catalan Region (Wastes Authority. Government of Catalonia)
• Study of the applicability of a simplified Industrial Risk model (ASRI) to establish the assessment criteria on contamination risks of the industries in Catalonia (Waste Authority. Government of Catalonia)
• Methodology for the identification of preventive measures for soil contamination deriving from industrial activities. (Environmental Office. Government of the Basque Country)

Compliance & Corporate Audits and Environmental Due Diligences

Compliance & Corporate Audits and Environmental Due Diligences

MediTerra is a specialist in the development of Compliance and Corporate Audits as well as the assessment of costs and environmental liabilities in relation to Due Diligences. The performance of these audits comprises and combines technical, financial and legal aspects.

The audits conducted by MediTerra have been mainly focused on:

• Present and future environmental, health and safety legislation in the Regional, State and European frameworks
• Assessment of the main environmental aspects: soil contamination, groundwater, air and water emissions, management of waste and building materials
• Environmental risk assessment
• Identification of potential hidden environmental liabilities
• Revisions of environmental management systems
• Change of title deed of environmental permits
• Settling of investigation works and costs involved
• Health and safety audits and revisions (work place, ergonomics, transport, etc)

Over the past seven years MediTerra has performed nearly 200 Environmental Due Diligences and Environmental Management, Health and Safety studies in factories and facilities in countries such as Spain and Portugal. MediTerra has conducted audits as well as investigated sites from the most diverse industrial sectors such as the automotive, pharmaceutical, energy, paper, plastic, metallurgical, ceramic, cosmetics, recycling, and various manufacture industries.

Some representative industries and clients are the following:

Johnson&Johnson, Universal-Vivendi, SunChemical, Akzo Nobel, PPG, Rexam, Coates Lorilleux, Aventis, NorskHydro, GE Capital, Enbridge, Morgan Matroc, SPX, Steelcase, Nubiola, Barclays, American Standard, AirProducts, Lar Grosvenor Group, Sanistán Ibérica, Novartis, Sara Lee, Alcoa, Exide Technologies, Gilette – Braun, Culligan, Luzenac-Explosivos RioTinto, Emerson, Guarro, ECO Refrigeración, Houghton Ibérica, Serica-Energy Corporation, XL, Arlington, Agalsa, Laimo, DDR, Tenería Puig, Taller d’Enginyeria Ambiental S.L., Cadbury Schweppes, Vorsevi S.A., Fibran S.A.,Watts & Partners, ENVIRON (UK), Carl Bro, Energy & Environment (Denmark), Tauw   Holland), ENSR (UK), ETE, ATOS (France), WSP (UK), BAE Systems (UK), Cuatrecases Lawyers, Manubens Lawyers, Cornellà de Llobregat City Council, Santa Coloma de Gramanet City Council, and other private industrial companies.

Environmental Consultancy Services

MediTerra Consultors Ambientals, S.L. (MediTerra) is an independent company formed by a team with more than 15 years experience in projects developed both locally and internationally. Since its foundation in 1998, its activity has been oriented to the investigation and remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater and the performance of Environmental Compliance and Corporate Audits and Environmental Due Diligences. Aware of the fact that the environmental problem requires specialised solutions, MediTerra has joined an interdisciplinary team of professionals coming from diverse study fields such as Engineering, Biology, Geology, Hidrogeology, Geography and Law. The MediTerra team is also well prepared to offer its services in the English language. MediTerra manages and performs its projects at national and international levels, being its three major clients: the Private Sector (industries, law firms, project management companies, real estate agencies, finance entities, etc.); Multinational Consultancy Companies with which MediTerra collaborates as a local specialist associate; and the Public Administrations to which MediTerra acts as an advisor in the development of environmental policies concerning contaminated soil and groundwater. MediTerra is widely recognised within the environmental consultancy sector thanks to the professional quality of its team, its experience and specialisation, the final quality of its services, and its capacity to respond quickly and efficiently to the demands of its clients. A big evidence of that is the number of multinational consultancy firms that contract MediTerra as their supporting collaborator company in Spain. In addition, these collaborations with multinational companies of the environmental sector has led MediTerra create its own international network of companies so that local clients that also operate in other countries can easily access to quality environmental services without any geographical, legal or language impediments. Due to the number of projects MediTerra performs and the fact that most clients require environmental results in a very short time, MediTerra has incorporated the specific environmental tools (legal database software, risk assessment models, etc.) which minimize the projects time and cost.

Activity sectors

The investigation and remediation of soil and groundwater contamination on the one hand and the Compliance and Corporate Audits and Environmental Due Diligences on the other hand constitute the two main key areas of MediTerra.

Compliance and Corporate Audits and Environmental Due Diligences

MediTerra is a specialist in the development of Compliance and Corporate Audits as well as the assessment of costs and environmental liabilities in relation to Due Diligences. The performance of these audits comprises and combines technical, financial and legal aspects. MediTerra evaluates all potential environmental risks associated with the contracted environmental operations as well as those aspects related to Health & Safety issues. However, from both the technical and legal points of view, the contaminated soil vector is the one that requires more financial costs as well as subsidiary responsibilities for the potential seller or purchaser. These subsidiary responsibilities can make a Due Diligence operation unfeasible since the cost of the decontamination works may easily exceed the cost of the operation itself. For this reason and depending on the sort of information compiled during the first phase, MediTerra evaluates the possibility to perform a phase II (soil and groundwater investigation) to determine more precisely the risks and costs associated with a potential contamination. The expertise of MediTerra in both fields allows the Due Diligence operations to develop smoothly since all environmental aspects are carefully managed by MediTerra which minimizes the time of response. The industrial sectors for which MediTerra has performed environmental Due Diligences as well as environmental and Health & Safety Compliance and Corporate audits are very varied, ranging from metallurgical, automotive, energy and electronic component industries to ceramic, paint, chemical, pharmaceutical and financial businesses just to mention a few. (For more information please see Selected References doc enclosed). It is worth mentioning the participation of MediTerra in the Due Diligence for the purchase of part of the Spanish petrol distribution company Compañía Logística de Hidrocarburos CLH (former CAMPSA) in 2001 – 2002. MediTerra in collaboration with the multinational American consultancy firm Environ, advised the biggest petrol distribution company of North America, the Canadian Enbridge, in the purchase of 25% of the biggest Spanish petrol distribution company (CLH). During this Environmental Due Diligence, potential environmental liabilities related to more than 100 petrol storage facilities and more than 3400 km of petrol distribution pipelines were identified. The MediTerra team directly participated in the negotiations of the purchase advising the Enbridge lawyers.

Soil and Groundwater Contamination

MediTerra is widely experienced in performing investigations of soil and groundwater contamination and implementing the subsequent remedial actions. The MediTerra team handles every aspect arising from these investigation projects, from initial client contact, elaboration of proposals and reports, sampling and analytical campaigns, contacting the competent authorities and execution of remedial projects. The methodology followed by MediTerra is based on a progressive approach through various investigation phases which range from simple questionnaires used for the identification of potential soil and groundwater contamination to more complex procedures necessary for the performance of remedial actions.

MediTerra offers the following services in relation to soil and groundwater contamination:

- Investigations to characterize the quality of soil and groundwater which include a preliminary investigation and historical information compilation, site inspection, and field analyses;
- Risk assessments;
- Design and supervision of remedial programmes