Millions Still Pouring Into Remediation Projects Nationwide: Time to Act

Last November marked the two-year anniversary of the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). This was a major boost to the economy and to green causes overall. 

The scope of the legislation is vast, and the funds are moving to projects through both matching formulas and direct awards. However, the IIJA opportunities won't last forever, and the time to act and secure remediation contracts and cash is now.

Some engineering consultancies, needing to move quickly, may find their personnel, gear, and overall resources limited. That is where an environmental remediation support services partnership can be a competitive advantage. Such a partner can quickly deploy the personnel, know-how, and solutions that enable crucial capabilities like:

• Perimeter air or sound monitoring
• Safety training and program implementation
• Industrial hazardous and non-hazardous waste removal
• Specialized environmental, health, and safety (EHS) and remediation consulting

IIJA: Many Remediation Opportunities

As we noted in our previous blog, the IIJA (and related legislation) was, in part, a response to the public. For years, the government had received requests from community leaders and environmentalists seeking funding for addressing or remediating:

• Untouched or unfinished Superfund sites 
• Abandoned mines
• Brownfields
• Orphaned oil and gas wells
• Hazardous materials, in the form of legacy pollution

Addressing these projects is expensive, complex, and requires a major commitment of resources and professional skills. For instance, Superfund sites hosted various types of highly hazardous waste. Often, the locations contained former manufacturing or processing plants, as well as landfills, and their successful remediation requires special technology, personnel, and expertise. 

Get Your Share of IIJA $$: Partner Now

While much of the law's $1.2 trillion is committed, millions of dollars remain available. (The White House offers disbursement updates on a website.) This means great opportunities for construction engineering firms, which can participate in remediating a vast number of environmentally damaged or at-risk locations. 

In fact, according to a November Brookings report, the IIJA implementation “is just now hitting its stride.” The Brookings authors claim that 80% of all competitive funding remains to be committed. With the IIJA funds in play, this is an exciting time for engineering consultants to do well and do good for the environment and community. 

Partnering for IIJA Projects

Some of these projects are particularly challenging: for instance, a Superfund remediation tends to require complicated multi-phase processes. Only the largest construction and environmental remediation companies will have immediately at hand the people, technology, and skills to handle the entire reclamation program.

For medium-sized or small engineering consultancies, the need to partner with companies that can offer advanced capabilities at scale may make the difference in securing a contract or not. Augmented or specialized third-party capabilities often include: 

Perimeter air monitoring: This is necessary to ensure remediation projects comply with state and federal requirements. Proper monitoring requires a cloud-based data powered solution that:

• Shares rich data easily with stakeholders and systems
• Provides real-time updates via wireless telemetry
•  Offers a streamlined, easy-to-use interface
• Enables the creation of thresholds, that, when exceeded, cause the system to send  notifications
• Generates summary reports

Health and safety oversight: Safety is essential for all projects. Such a policy protects workers and the public—as well as prevents site shutdowns, noncompliance, fines, and more. Secure a partner that can provide on-site experts who offer:

• Industrial hygiene oversight
• Support for environmental remediation and high-risk sites
• Routine daily health and safety support

Routine and unique field services: A complex remediation project may require both basic and very specialized on-site capabilities. Your partner, at the very least, should be able to handle: 

• Soil sampling and characterization
• Contaminated soil excavation
• Test pit excavation
• Facility and site cleanup
• Troubleshooting on-site

General on-site environmental, health, and safety (EHS) services: Encountering contaminated soil or other forms of hazardous waste is potentially dangerous, and presents special complications and challenges. A capable partner should be able to safely oversee:

• Waste collection
• Consolidation
• Packing
• Shipping and disposal
• Sampling
• Training

Partnering for Environmental Remediation Support Services

For now, opportunities for construction engineering companies abound because of the IIJA and related legislation. But, as we mentioned above, to secure the contracts before the funding ends, firms may need uncommon flexibility and speed to market, while maintaining all the other safety and compliance requirements. 

Are you an engineering consultant company looking to participate in IIJA projects—but unsure you possess all the capabilities? Now is the time to start vetting environmental remediation support services partners that can meet all your needs. That's where a partner like Triumvirate Environmental helps. We offer extensive capabilities, from safety training and program execution to perimeter air monitoring, and on to general EHS capabilities.

For more than three decades, we've provided waste handling and remediation services to schools and universities, industry, and large property owners. Our state-of-the-art equipment and innovative technology also allow us to detect, identify, and remove worksite pollution and contaminants, with speed and efficiency, and in legal compliance. 

Talk to us today to learn more.