Soil and Groundwater Investigation for Site Condition Report
SOCOTEC Consultancy (Scotland) partnered with a thermal power station in North East Scotland to address their regulatory compliance and environmental requirements by firstly creating a comprehensive Soil and Groundwater Management Plan (SGWMP).
This plan focused on identifying Relevant Hazardous Substances (RHS) utilised at the Part A installation and evaluating their potential impact on underlying soil and groundwater conditions.
As per the SGWMP, additional soil and groundwater information was identified as necessary to compile an updated Site Condition Report (SCR). SOCOTEC's involvement encompassed several critical stages, including:
- Designing a complex soil and groundwater investigation plan, supervised throughout a seven-week period
- Overseeing drilling operations and designing 20 new soil and bedrock groundwater monitoring wells
- Developing, purging, and sampling groundwater wells, along with in-situ data collection
- Collecting representative soil and groundwater samples for chemical analysis
- Assessing findings and preparing a comprehensive Site Condition Report.
Rotary drilling techniques were employed to advance holes to varying depths, including bedrock coring. Following the completion of each borehole, a groundwater monitoring well was installed to intercept groundwater response zones. Groundwater was purged, and in-situ water parameters (pH, electrical conductivity, temperature, total dissolved solids, and redox potential) were tested.
The collected soil and groundwater samples were sent to SOCOTEC's UKAS accredited laboratories for extensive chemical analysis, covering a broad spectrum of relevant hazardous substances, as delineated in the SGWMP. The derived data underwent meticulous evaluation to ascertain the condition of on-site soil and groundwater, leading to insights into necessary mitigation measures. The culmination of these findings resulted in the preparation of a comprehensive Site Condition Report.
This thorough investigation and reporting were vital for the thermal power station to demonstrate compliance with their PPC permit and ensure that proper mitigation measures were in place to safeguard the water environment from ongoing site operations. The comprehensive Site Condition Report fulfilled regulatory requirements and furnished a robust data set to support future site condition assessments and potential infrastructure development.
SOCOTEC Consultancy (Scotland) played a pivotal role in facilitating the creation of a detailed Soil and Groundwater Management Plan, executing a complex hydrogeological investigation, and preparing the Site Condition Report for submission to the environmental regulator Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). The study provided the client with expert advice, essential data, and positioning for regulatory standards adherence and potential future development projects at the Power Station site. The outcomes of this investigation have the potential to contribute to the UK's Carbon Capture Strategy, underscoring SOCOTEC's involvement in shaping sustainable and environmentally conscious initiatives.
