Trinity is excited to announce the addition of two new team members to the Ann Arbor, MI, office, Leslie Hartig and Karlee Foster, who will bring expertise on subsurface investigations to the company. Both Leslie and Karlee have a degree in geology and background in environmental remediation.
At Trinity, we will look to provide expert advice to organizations on how to manage their environmental responsibilities and comply with regulations. Our project experience encompasses a wide range of service areas:
- Phase I & II Environmental Site Assessments
- Baseline Environmental Site Assessments
- Due Care and Continuing Obligations
- Remedial Investigations/Site Assessments
- Groundwater monitoring programs
- PFAS Investigations
- Vapor Intrusion Assessments
- Feasibility Studies
- Environmental Risk Management
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Regulatory Negotiation
Leslie has twenty-five (25) years of experience in the environmental and industrial consulting fields for a range of clients including manufacturing, oil & gas, chem/pharma, primary responsible parties, as well as local and federal governments. Her experience includes managing, supervising and conducting hydrogeologic remedial investigations and soil and groundwater remediation projects including chlorinated solvents, volatile organic compounds, 1,4-dioxane, and PFAS.
Additional project experience includes petroleum exploration and production environmental site management, underground storage tank projects, Phase I and Phase II environmental site investigations, landfill investigations, environmental compliance and compliance auditing coordination experience. She also has negotiation experience with local, state, and federal regulators.
Leslie’s work experience includes a large, chlorinated plume for a Michigan facility with a constructed wetland installed by a previous consultant to address one lobe of the bifurcated plume. Acting as the project manager, her team conducted a supplementary, subsurface soil and groundwater investigation to fully delineate the bifurcated plume. After reviewing several options, in-situ reductive dechlorination was selected as the remedial option using a carbon substrate, emulsified vegetable oil (EVO), to address persistent chlorinated compound contaminants in groundwater. The natural microorganisms in the subsurface soils use the EVO to help breakdown the chlorinated compounds to ethane, methane, and carbon dioxide under anerobic conditions. The EVO was installed to the appropriate subsurface depth using a direct push drill rig and a pump.
Subsequent groundwater monitoring showed the portion of the plume that had historically been treated by the constructed wetland was completely remediated to below residential standards and the off-site portion of the plume was shrinking. The results demonstrated the efficacy of the method, and additional injections could remediate the remaining groundwater plume to residential drinking water standards. Other site work included groundwater monitoring and reporting, National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) sampling and reporting, a vapor intrusion investigation with periodic sampling, and negotiations with regulators and residents with on-going residential update meetings.
Karlee has served clients including manufacturing, oil & gas, primary responsible parties, as well as local and federal governments over her two and a half years of experience in the environmental consulting field. Her experience includes drilling, groundwater sampling, vapor intrusion sampling, and soil sampling, and has overseen work on excavation, construction, and surveying projects. In addition to planning and coordinating field events, she also reviews analytical results and authors reports to be presented to clients.
Karlee took on the role of field task manager for a petroleum client that consisted of PFAS sampling events involving monthly surface water sampling along the refinery’s main drainage ditch and water flowrate measurements, semiannual groundwater sampling of eighty-seven (87) wells in multiple plants and tank dikes, and sampling in catch basins and manholes during dry and wet seasons. Analytical results of all events were reviewed and tabulated in a written report presented to the client. The project involved sampling and maintaining a PFAS Pilot Treatment system that treated stormwater pumped into a weir tank by flowing through a sand filtration system, bag filters, and resin material before discharging back into the stormwater ditch. Additionally, Karlee created and managed the excel master workbook documenting system operations and analytical results and populated weekly summary reports of system performance and sent to the client.
Leslie and Karlee are excited to bring this expertise to Trinity Consultants. Environmental consultants play a crucial role in evaluating the environmental impact of projects, cleaning up contaminated sites, and helping businesses reduce their environmental footprint while managing environmental liabilities. Subsurface investigations are essential to understanding an entity’s regulatory obligations. The investigations generally consist of environmental scientists and geologists sampling and examining below surface materials including soil, rock, groundwater, and any manmade materials. The information gathered then allows experts to identify contaminants of concern, movement of contaminants in the subsurface and ascertain potential problems and make appropriate recommendations.
