Provides expert support to projects involving litigious or contentious subjects. These expert witness services are founded on chemistry principles and proper application of scientific methods. 
2018 Conference of the Alberta Chapter of the Canadian Land Reclamation Association
- Date: February 28 - March 2, 2018
- Location: Red Deer Sheraton Hotel and Conference Centre + Google Map
Presentation: Hidden Figures – Your Site Investigation Data is Telling You Something
Dr. Court Sandau, PhD, P.Chem, Principal, Chemistry Matters and Tom Knapik, P.Eng., Manager, Environment, Plains Midstream Canada will present at the Alberta Chapter of the Canadian Land Reclamation Association (CLRA) 2018 Alberta Conference.
Abstract:
Land stewardship for remediation means returning a sit to original condition. Sometimes the original condition is poor soil quality. Knowing how to characterize your site (background and potentially impacted) is important for site remediation objectives. This talk will cover how to statistically characterize your site to define natural sources of metals and salinity to optimize site remediation.
Chemical patterns are everywhere. When a spill occurs, the signature of that spill is distinct and can be characterized in order to monitor the spill accordingly. Even very old releases can be chemically fingerprinted to determine where the impacts on the site exist and to focus the remediation on the appropriate issues instead of monitoring for the sake of monitoring. This is true for metals, salt, and petroleum hydrocarbons alike. Monitoring data can be more than just above or below guidelines.
This talk will present a case study where monitoring data from a large site and collected over a decade were statistically re-evaluated to look at chemical patterns and trends to determine what impacts were truly present on site. Both metals and salinity impacts in soil boreholes and groundwater were analyzed using chemical fingerprinting and multivariate statistical analysis to determine natural salinity patterns and metals on the site. Salinity was assessed using both radar plots and principal component analysis to determine that multiple natural salinity profiles existed for the site that were not related to the current day or historical operations. This information was used to develop site specific guidelines that were used to focus remediation strategies for the site going forward and reduce the amount of needless monitoring conducted each year at the site. This will help reduce monitoring costs going forward and allow the appropriate, targeted remediation on chemicals of concern that pose the biggest environmental concern to the site.