When a manufacturing client began implementing a corporate risk-management process for several facilities in its portfolio, an assessment of suspected environmental concerns and physical assets was needed. Barr helped review conditions at the client’s facilities, including several midwestern U.S. facilities with multiple ownership transitions that resulted in a loss of institutional knowledge about legacy issues.
Barr conducted a site reconnaissance of all major structures; reviewed current facility operations and hazardous-material storage and handling, and waste-management practices and infrastructure; interviewed current and former employees and environmental consultants; and reviewed environmental conditions and monitoring and remedial systems. We also reviewed a geocoded environmental database, historic aerial photographs, topographic maps, and city directories. We then prepared a summary report of findings for each facility that included recommendations for additional assessment activities to address data gaps as well as uncertainties and opinions about potential business environmental risks to consider when evaluating future uses of the site.
Barr’s work informed the client’s decision-making and liability-reserve processes and alerted them to site conditions that they could encounter in making modifications to their facilities. At one facility, our work helped identify the potential source of an extensive groundwater contaminant plume, allowing our client to assess remedial measures.
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