Our client owns the submerged lands of a contaminated urban waterway with a complex history of industrial use. In its capacity as the sovereign owner of waterway, our client authorized third-party activities and/or facilities that were later considered a source of sediment contamination. During allocation of the remediation, our client needed support to distinguish between the potential contamination from authorized activities and the contamination from other historical and/or current sources along the waterway.

The Verdantas Team (as TIG Environmental) supported the landowner during allocation by assessing the history of ownership and operation of all waterfront and overwater facilities; taking inventory and categorizing historic and current overwater structures; developing a reliable hydrodynamic model; determining natural resource damages; maintaining a project database; utilizing chemical forensics to determine likely sources of PCBs, PAHs, and PCDD/F in sections of the river; and identifying orphan contamination. Using this body of technical work, our team quantified our client’s fair and representative share. 

Our expert analysis provided our client with a strong technical foundation to make an argument for minimal allocation. By combining historical research with chemical forensic analysis, we were able to clearly demonstrate what our client’s allocation share should be for the remediation and provide evidence for successful future settlement with other parties.