Blog & Recent Projects

 It is safe to say that 99% of all site assessments are either conducted through traditional sampling, groundwater monitoring wells, or direct sensing methods. As a leading site investigation partner to environmental consultants throughout North America and Hawaii, COLUMBIA Technologies specializes in soil and groundwater contamination assessments.

Since 1999, we have completed over 750 site assessments for some of the most discriminating clients including oil companies, government agencies, commercial real estate owners, developers, as well as architectural and engineering firms. Throughout all of our testing and experiences to date, we believe that using a comprehensive High Resolution Vertical Profiling approach seems to be the most cost-effective and accurate method to assess a contaminated site. This consists of direct sensing technologies to delineate the vertical and horizontal extent of the contamination to pinpoint the location. Once this information is known, following up with confirmation soil and groundwater samples would take place to validate the contaminant of concern.

The direct sensing technologies may cost more up front, however they assure that accurate information is being collected to move forward with designing remediation plans. In addition, our patented real-time data services platform, SmartData Solutions®, is able to produce high resolution visualizations through a secured website for online review of project data.

COLUMBIA Technologies’ state-of-the-art equipment and rapid 3D visualizations combined with historical data completed a site assessment so efficiently that the original project work scope was reduced by 50%.

On this recently completed project, a major energy company required state clearance from regulators prior to advancing their expansion plans at an active petroleum refinery facility in western North Dakota.

Historical data indicated potential contamination in the expansion area requesting for rapid resolution to address regulatory concerns. The client engaged in a site assessment with COLUMBIA to map the area of concern and compare this with the historical data using COLUMBIA’s award winning SmartData Solutions®. With a dynamic work scope and real-time data measurement the team bound the area of concern and closed data gaps to reduce the problem at hand for the client as well as the regulatory agencies.

 During a recent site characterization in Hawaii using LIF/UVOST^® technology COLUMBIA Technologies encountered relatively low levels of petroleum contamination hidden in an usually high background response. This resulted due to the presence of naturally occurring fluorescence materials (likely calcareous sands) in the subsurface at the site. This elevated background fluctuated in response intensity from log to log and often within a single log, making it more difficult to accurately identify residual petroleum contamination responses in the subsurface.

Dakota Technologies, the inventor and manufacturer of UVOST^® instrumentation, was able to mathematically separate five different petroleum compound signatures from the background interference. This extended data processing enabled COLUMBIA to more accurately map the residual petroleum concentration in 3D. The subsequent data set correlated well to soil samples selected by the client providing multiple lines of evidence of the extent of the historical petroleum spill.