Environmental issues

Ge­o­sig­ma’s en­vi­ron­men­tal ser­vi­ces in­clu­de wor­king in con­ta­mi­na­ted are­as, en­vi­ron­men­tal due di­li­gen­ce and en­vi­ron­men­tal au­dits of buil­dings, en­vi­ron­men­tal im­pact as­sess­ments and per­mits, mo­ni­to­ring che­mi­cals (RE­ACH/GHS) and en­vi­ron­men­tal ge­ophy­sics.

In the­se are­as we ha­ve a com­p­rehen­si­ve of­fe­ring in­vol­ving a wi­de range of dif­fe­rent ser­vi­ces and pro­jects. By ma­king ef­fec­ti­ve use of our skills and ex­per­ti­se in dif­fe­rent fi­elds, we can pro­vi­de our custo­mers with uni­que, cost-ef­fec­ti­ve so­lu­tions. We are con­s­tant­ly wor­king to of­fer our custo­mers en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly sus­tai­nab­le so­lu­tions.

Our custo­mers in­clu­de the Swe­dish Trans­port Ad­mi­nist­ra­tion, the Swe­dish ar­med for­ces, oil com­pa­ni­es, cont­ractors and pro­per­ty de­ve­lo­pers, pro­per­ty com­pa­ni­es, con­sul­tan­cy or­ga­ni­sa­tions, in­dust­ri­al firms, Coun­ty Ad­mi­nist­ra­tion Boards, local autho­ri­ti­es and local-autho­ri­ty-ow­ned com­pa­ni­es.

So­me of our employ­e­es spe­ci­a­li­se in spe­ci­fic fi­elds, whi­le others ha­ve a bro­ad skills ba­se com­bi­ned with ex­ten­si­ve ex­pe­ri­en­ce. To­gether, we ha­ve a gre­at de­al of know­led­ge of the fi­elds we work in. Our employ­e­es in­clu­de che­mists, ge­ophy­si­cists, eco­tox­i­co­lo­gists, eco­lo­gists, bi­o­lo­gists, hydro­ge­o­lo­gists, hydro­lo­gists, ci­vil en­gi­ne­ers and ge­o­lo­gists.

You can find out mo­re about so­me of the ser­vi­ces we of­fer in the are­as we spe­ci­a­li­se in.

Chlo­ri­na­ted sol­vents

Ge­o­sig­ma has spe­ci­a­list ex­per­ti­se in in­ve­s­ti­ga­ting con­ta­mi­na­tion cau­sed by chlo­ri­na­ted sol­vents. This is a prob­lem which ari­ses as a re­sult of the use of the­se pro­ducts in dry cle­a­ning, me­cha­ni­cal en­gi­ne­e­ring, sur­fa­ce tre­at­ment, la­bo­ra­to­ri­es and the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal in­du­stry.

We spe­ci­a­li­se in the fol­lowing are­as:

• We ha­ve de­ve­lo­ped and used a method for iden­ti­fy­ing con­ta­mi­na­ted va­pour from chlo­ri­na­ted sol­vents un­der and in buil­dings and for car­ry­ing out risk as­sess­ments.
• We ha­ve iden­ti­fi­ed and se­pa­ra­ted off are­as which are the sour­ce of chlo­ri­na­ted va­pour by de­tec­ting and qu­an­ti­fy­ing the va­pour emit­ted by con­ta­mi­na­tion using a ha­lo­gen de­tector (HDI)
• We ha­ve qu­an­ti­fi­ed the sol­vent con­tent of soil, wa­ter and air using an HDI
• We of­fer high re­so­lu­tion de­tec­tion of chlo­ri­na­ted sol­vents in soil using HDI and un­distur­bed soil samp­ling, re­fer­red to as so­nic dril­ling.
• We car­ry out sour­ce area in­ve­s­ti­ga­tions in rock, in­clu­ding in si­tu me­a­su­re­ments of chlo­ri­na­ted sol­vents and sle­e­ving (se­a­ling) of dif­fe­rent sec­tions du­ring the dril­ling pro­cess.
• We pro­vi­de sour­ce area in­ve­s­ti­ga­tions un­der buil­dings with equip­ment de­sig­ned for in­do­or use.
• We cre­a­te mass flux and lo­ad mo­dels of con­ta­mi­na­ted are­as.
• We pro­du­ce va­pour trans­port mo­dels of con­ta­mi­na­ted are­as.

Low con­cent­ra­tions of chlo­ri­na­ted sol­vents are harm­ful to the en­vi­ron­ment and to he­alth. The main prob­lem which they re­p­re­sent in­vol­ves ex­po­su­re to con­ta­mi­na­ted drin­king wa­ter and to soil air un­der con­ta­mi­na­ted buil­dings.

The con­ta­mi­na­tion has a com­plex dis­tri­bu­tion pat­tern becau­se sol­vents are hea­vi­er than wa­ter, ha­ve low visco­si­ty and can sp­re­ad deep in­to the soil pro­fi­le or mo­ve ho­ri­zon­tal­ly whe­re they me­et den­ser are­as of soil.