Client: Integral Consulting
Project Highlights:
Normandeau supported the remedial design team’s development of a Quality Assurance Project Plan, Field Sampling Plan, and standard Operating Procedures for an active Superfund Site and provided a team of OSHA HAZWOPER Certified scientists to prepare technical reports and to conduct wetland, vegetation, fish, and benthic macroinvertebrate field surveys.
Services Provided
- Wetland delineation and RIRAM assessment
- Vernal Pool surveys
- Aquatic plant survey
- Benthic Macroinvertebrate sampling and analysis
- Fish community assessment
- Reference station sampling
- Installation of shallow wells and staff gauges
- Boat/captain/GPS support services
- Wetland/floodplain restoration
The Centredale Manor Restoration Project (CMRP) in North Providence, Rhode Island is the site of chemical production and drum reconditioning that took place from the 1940s to the 1970s. Dioxin, PCBs, and other contaminants were released directly to the ground, buried, and emptied directly into the Woonasquatucket River. This resulted in contamination of soil, groundwater, surface water, and sediment at the source area and eventually downstream to Allendale and Lyman Mill Ponds. The affected areas comprise approximately 80 acres. The remedy for the CMRP site, as described in the USEPA Record of Decision and draft Statement of Work (USEPA 2018), was excavation of contaminated soil and sediment above clean-up levels up to the limits of the 100-year floodplain and placement of cover materials.
Normandeau’s role in CMRP was to address data gaps in the ecological pre-design investigations, characterize baseline biological conditions of site-affected water bodies and floodplains, and integrate the data into site restoration design. Normandeau provided technical support for the development of the Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP), Field Sampling Plans (FSPs) and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Normandeau’s OSHA-HAZWOPPER Certified scientists delineated and assessed the functions, services, and condition of jurisdictional wetlands on the CMRP site; surveyed vegetation transects in the ponds and floodplains; conducted fish and benthic macroinvertebrate surveys on site and in two upstream ponds and stream reaches on the Woonasquatucket River, which serve as reference stations; collected fish for tissue analysis; and provided boat, captain, GPS, and other field support for media sampling and hydraulic equipment deployment. Normandeau’s survey results were reported in a series of Ecological Baseline Pre-design Investigation documents that described wetlands, benthic macroinvertebrates, and fish community assemblage, and evaluated the quality of these CMRP resources relative to those in reference communities.
The Normandeau data was critical to the evaluation of the site remedy and restoration design. Normandeau met regularly with the remedial design team, USEPA, other state and federal agencies, and periodically with the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council to discuss design goals and mitigation priorities. Normandeau scientists provided technical assistance for wetland, floodplain, and stream restoration design; including development of goals and performance standards; evaluation and design of alternative restoration concepts; monitoring plans, planting plans, and other habitat enhancement details.
