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News Archive / Archive 2010
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Demanding Timescales - Meeting Deadlines : 08/11/2010 Professional project management and appropriate processing and treatment selection helps Cognition deliver work within demanding timescales to benefit the developer.
This project in the South West was awarded in March. All work was completed, including sign off by all regulatory bodies, by June. A clean site was handed back to the developer to enable construction of commercial units ready for occupation in September.
London E17 Garage Remediation : 11/10/2010
Environmental Cyclists – Paris to London : 22/09/2010
Former Furniture Factory Site Kent : 12/07/2010 The scheme comprises the redevelopment of a former mixed use site in Kent. The project involves the demolition of the former furniture factory and its infrastructure, and the construction of a residential development including terraces of two and three storey houses with private domestic gardens and seven four storey blocks of flats. A building containing a large gymnasium at first floor level with car parking below is proposed and the remainder is planned as new accessible public facility. The proposed development will also include new access roads, permeable hard surfaced parking areas and soft landscaping. 
The remediation required is for the removal of asbestos containing materials and hydrocarbon contamination (total petroleum hydrocarbon; TPH; and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: PAH), associated with the made ground at the former factory site Cognition’s proposal will carefully segregate and treat the materials being excavated to ensure the correct treatment. The MTL is for stockpiling, screening, stabilisation and bioremediation to achieve the above.
Material on site will be excavated to form stockpiles. In order to ensure the integrity and containment of the treatment area, Cognition will take samples of the treatment area pre and post works being carried out on site. This will ensure that levels of contamination have not changed over the course of the works.
EA Guidance on Verification of Contaminated Land : 07/06/2010
This new report, Verification of Remediation of Land Contamination, offers guidance on designing a verification programme to increase confidence in the outcome of a remediation strategy. Four key stages are involved in the verification process. The first stage covers development of the remediation strategy, and includes reviewing existing information and that collected in the development of this strategy. The second stage – developing the verification plan – involves identifying the roles, responsibilities and sampling approach needed to show that remediation goals have been satisfied. A verification plan normally sets out the requirements for gathering data, including sampling and testing criteria, and the records that should be retained to demonstrate compliance with the specified criteria. In the third stage, the verification plan is implemented and reported. This verification report should provide a complete record of all remediation activities on site and the data collected to support compliance with agreed objectives and criteria. It should also include a description of the work and details of any unexpected conditions found during remediation and how they were dealt with. In the final stage, long-term monitoring and maintenance may be needed to satisfy long-term remediation goals. With greater media and public scrutiny of environmental issues, more openness and flexibility is needed in environmental decision-making. This report encourages the use of an evolving conceptual model, with uncertainties being reappraised as more information becomes available. Multiple lines of evidence should be collected to support the primary remediation goal, which is usually to reduce the level of a contaminant in soil or groundwater. The report recommends integrating different lines of evidence, using best professional judgement, by following authoritative guidance, and/or by establishing relationships between linked pieces of evidence during remediation planning.
Rowing World Cup Series 2010 Slovenia : 30/04/2010
38 nations and a total of 656 athletes in 281 boats are entered in this first stage of the 2010 Rowing World Cup series. Transmission times on the BBC are as follows: Sunday 30/05/10 Monday 31/05/10 With the 2012 Olympics now only two years away, the World Cup is a key barometer ahead of the London Games. Great Britain won their third successive series last season, but they will face a real challenge from Germany, who topped the medal table at the 2009 world championships. Sophie won a World bronze medal in the lightweight women's double at the 2009 World Championships in Poznan. Coached by Paul Reedy, Sophie, and crewmate Hester Goodsell, were the first GB boat in this discipline to medal since 2007. A strengthened Greek boat led out and proved too strong for GB, and in the race for the line just two-hundredths of a second separated Poland and GB, with Poland taking silver and GB a creditable bronze. Sophie had established herself as the leading lightweight woman in 2009, winning the GB Rowing Senior Trials in the single and with Hester, winning GB's first ever lightweight women's World Cup gold in the double in Munich. In Lucerne they won gold again establishing themselves as a strong partnership for the World Championships. Sophie started rowing at the age of 14 at Kingston Grammar School after gaining a sport scholarship. She progressed through the school winning her first international vest in the J16 GB - France match winning the eight. The following year Sophie raced in the four at the 2003 World Junior Championships winning a silver medal. In 2004 she raced in the same event in Banyoles and came 6th. In 2006 Sophie won silver in the lightweight single at the World U23 Championships and bronze in the senior quad at the World Championships in Eton 1 month later. She won silver in the lightweight quad at the 2007 World Championships. Sophie joined Durham University in the autumn of 2004 and graduated in Chemistry and Physics in the summer of 2007 before joining Cognition’s Technical Department as a Chemist.
Protected Sites : 25/03/2010 It’s not unusual for contamination to exist close to sites of special scientific interest and Cognition has vast experience in such projects. This particular project is surrounded by three protected sites, one within 2000 m of the works and two approximately 0.5 Km north east and south west of the site.
The site is in an area classified as non-aquifer (negligible permeability) status on the Environment Agency Groundwater Vulnerability Map. Ponds and a stream are located 90 m and 200 m to the north of the site. An intrusive ground investigation carried out in October 2009 indicated made ground covers the site, with crushed stone and rubble (0.2–0.7 m thick) overlying scrap yard waste (0.2–1.3m thick). The scrap yard waste comprised crushed stone, concrete, reinforcing bars, metal, wood, polythene, rubber, plastic and fibre glass. Trial pits also revealed a moderate to strong hydrocarbon odour. Grey silty clay was identified below the made ground with slight hydrocarbon odour in some areas within the top 0.1 m. No significant groundwater strikes were encountered during the site investigation although some perched water was evident.
Soil samples were analysed for metals and none were found to exceed generic Soil Guideline Values (SGVs). Elevated PAHs and PCBs were found in some soil samples taken from the trial pits excavated on site. Samples were taken from trial pits for speciated TPH analysis although hydrocarbon odours appear to have been more widespread. Cognition carried out further testing to assess PAH and TPHs across the site and obtain more accurate information of the levels of hydrocarbon contamination. The site investigation also revealed some fragments of cement-bonded asbestos across the site although this was not widespread. Nevertheless Cognition included appropriate methods for dealing with Asbestos Containing Materials (ACM). Remediation works can be summarised as follows:
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A group of Cognition staff together with friends and work associates commenced preparation for their sponsored cycle from Paris to London with a ride of 190 miles over a weekend.
A new report by the Environment Agency explains how to check whether the remediation of land contamination has been professionally carried out, proved successful and met the intended goals.
Sophie Hosking will commence her 2010 rowing season in the World Cup series from 27th to 30th May on Lake Bled, Slovenia.