OVERVIEW
Investigating PFAS requires a diverse technical, regulatory, and management skill set to navigate the evolving science, guidance, and regulations associated with this class of emerging contaminants. HGL’s cross-disciplined staff of chemists, community involvement specialists, engineers, geologists, hydrogeologists, hydrologists, GIS specialists, historians, project managers, and regulatory specialists collaborate to provide clients with a comprehensive team to tackle their investigative needs. HGL’s PFAS training program requires that all field staff achieve internal certification in PFAS sampling methods and that they review all associated PFAS sampling SOPs annually to ensure quality. HGL’s PFAS teams have conducted more than 150 PFAS studies at over 90 DoD, DLA, NASA, EPA, and commercial sites across the country.
Examples of HGL’s accomplishments in recent or ongoing PFAS projects are provided below.:
- CERCLA Preliminary Assessments (PAs) for potential Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF) sources were completed at over 86 installations and thousands of sites ranging from fire training areas, fire stations, burn pits, hangars, crash and spill sites, and storage sites.
- CERCLA PAs for potential non-AFFF PFAS sources were performed for 128 installations and sites ranging from landfills, metal plating/etching facilities, storage areas, chrome plating facilities, housing areas, sewer/stormwater runoff locations, and other industrial facilities.
- CERCLA Site Inspections (SIs) were executed at over 45 installations and 500 sites where drinking water was potentially impacted.
- CERCLA Remedial Investigations (RIs) were completed at 12 installations and 56 investigation sites. One RI is complete, seven have initial fieldwork complete, and four are in the work plan phase.
- Data gap investigations outside of the CERCLA process, including Site Assessments, Drinking Water Protection Studies, and CSM updates, have been performed by HGL’s hydrogeologists. Twelve of these studies are complete.
As part of the RIs, HGL has completed human health risk and ecological risk assessments evaluating potential risks posed by PFAS in groundwater, soil, sediment, and surface water. HGL’s risk assessors are experienced in reviewing the literature to identify appropriate ecotoxicity information to support evaluation of PFAS compounds that lack ecological screening values.
Some of HGL’s specialized PFAS capabilities are explained in more detail on the PFAS Chemistry, Forensics, and PFAS-DSS pages.
