engineering and geotechnical services

Data Management & Geographical Information Services

The GIS and Data Management division of Consulting Earth Scientists manages and processes data for all environmental, geotechnical and mining applications.

Our management revolves around the sophisticated and fully developed database management systems interfacing with our geographic information system. We are able to carry out a diverse range of activities ranging from data storage and electronic quality checking of laboratory results to 3D visualisation and remediation modelling. All of this is conducted in a secure and fully traceable environment.  CES offers the following GIS and Data Management services:

• Data storage - Secure relational database for storage, quality checking, data tracking, electronic data submittal (field and lab results)
• Electronic submittal of all types of data - soil, water, geotechnical, gas, dust and chemical
• Import of historical field and laboratory data
• 'Clean' data export to a multitude of 3rd party software
• Web access to the database
• Import all types of spatial data - aerial photographs, cadastre, historic maps and drawings
• Process and visualise spatially referenced tabular, photographic, geotechnical, architectural, heritage data.
• Process lithological, stratigraphic and chemical data in 3D for environmental, geotechnical and resource and mining projects
• Direct export from the database to prevent duplication and maintains accuracy
• GPS - locational accuracy of all field operations using advanced differential correction procedures

Environment & Contaminated Land Investigation & Remediation Copy

Contaminated land investigation, assessment, remediation and validation has been a CES core speciality since our inception in 1995. We pride ourselves in delivering pragmatic, cost effective, innovative, and practical solutions.

We employ Certified Environmental Practitioners, Site Contamination Specialists and we work with our clients to achieve commercial, environmental, and strategic objectives. Our clients have direct access to our team of professionals which ensures complete understanding of our client’s requirements and enables us to provide the most appropriate, pragmatic and cost effective advice. CES remains at the cutting edge of contaminated land investigation and remediation and emerging contaminants of concern. We implement project specific Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) procedures to improve transparency, consistency, comparability, completeness, and confidence in the project undertaken. Our field activities are followed up with secure data storage and where necessary, advanced modelling capabilities through our Data Management & Geographical Information Services (GIS) when required.

Contaminated Land

CES provide a comprehensive range of contaminated land, investigation, assessment, remediation, validation and due diligence Services including.

• Preliminary Site Investigations (PSI) (Phase I).
• Detailed Site Investigations (DSI) (Phase II).
• Soil, Groundwater, Gas and Vapour.
• Remediation Options Appraisals (ROA) and Remediation Feasibility Assessments.
• Remediation Action Plans (RAP).
• Detailed design of Remediation Schemes.
• Site Remediation Supervision, Monitoring and Validation.
• Landfill/Hazardous Gas Risk Appraisals, Management, Monitoring and Remediation.
• Leachate and Groundwater Quality Sampling, Monitoring, Assessment, Management, Treatment and Remediation.
• Environmental Management Plans (EMPs).
• Construction Environmental Management Plans (CEMP).
• Asbestos and Asbestos Contaminated Soil & Asbestos Management Plans.
• Acid Sulfate Soils Assessments and Management.
• Human Health and Ecological Qualitative and Quantitative and Risk.
• Expert Witness Services for contaminated sites.
• Assessment of Underground Petroleum Storage Systems (UPSS).
• Hazardous Building Materials Audits
• Emerging & Existing contaminants of concern investigation and assessment

Contamination Remediation & Site Validation

Consulting Earth Scientists has extensive experience in the design, execution and successful completion of ground, groundwater and ground gas contamination remediation solutions. Design and execution of remediation has been a core speciality of our company since our inception and our experience ranges from small, single-use sites to large, complex projects with multiple stakeholders. CES has experience with numerous and varied contamination remediation methodologies including:

• In-Situ Chemical Oxidation (ISCO)
• Excavation and off-site Disposal
• Soil Vapour Extraction (SVE)
• Underground Petroleum Storage Tank Excavation, Removal and Validation
• On-site immobilisation/encapsulation
• Acid sulfate soils management and remediation
• Ground gas mitigation and vapour barriers
• Bioremediation
• Containment Cell Design and Construction
• Pump and Treat
• Air Sparging
• Multi-Phase Extraction
• Foam Fractionation

Geotechnical, Geological & Hydrogeological Investigations

Ground conditions are one of the greatest risks facing a project developer or owner. Soil, rock and water form the core foundations upon which our social and physical infrastructure is built.

Specialist knowledge of these components during the early planning phases of a project through to design and construction ensures success. This applies to projects ranging from small subdivisions, high-rise buildings, roads, tunnel and mine infrastructure, to name a few. At CES we pride ourselves on being able to provide pragmatic and cost effective geotechnical solutions for both large and small, simple and problematic sites. Our areas of speciality include:

• Geotechnical, Geological & Hydrogeological investigations and advice.
• Foundation and footings design and inspection (shallow and deep, pile design and construction both conventional and custom design).
• Pile design, inspection and construction supervision.
• Underpinning
• Lot Classification for residential slabs and footings.
• Ground and earthworks supervision and testing.
• Ground stabilisation, treatment and improvement – deep soil mixing, soil nailing, rock bolts and anchors design, inspection and construction supervision.
• Slope stability, landslip and rockfall (investigation, assessment and stabilisation).
• Mining subsidence.
• Retaining structures, basements and deep excavations
• Geotechnical Monitoring – ground movement and deformation monitoring of dams, deep excavations, embankments, slopes, retaining wall, buildings, structures, infrastructure and utilities.
• Vibration & Noise Monitoring and management
• Roads and pavement investigation, design and rehabilitation.
• Specialist geotechnical modelling, analysis and design services.
• Problematic ground investigation, treatment and rehabilitation, including highly variable ground, problematic fill, soft and unstable ground, saline, sodic and acid sulfate soils.
• Quarries and landfill
• Soil and stormwater management
• Soil and water Management
• Aggressive ground and groundwater conditions to inground strictures
• Drone surveys of geohazard areas

Environment & Pollution Monitoring

Environment and pollution monitoring has been a core discipline of Consulting Earth Scientists since our inception in 1995. We are a leader in the development of high-quality, optimised environmental monitoring programmes.

CES conducts both large and small scale environmental monitoring programmes at a large number of industrial and commercial sites and waste facilities and landfills. We operate rigorous specific Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) and have developed sophisticated in-house procedures to ensure the quality of our monitoring data. CES has extensive experience in all types of environmental monitoring including.

• Groundwater
• Surface Water
• Leachate
• Effluent
• Discharge monitoring
• Noise
• Vibration
• Surface and subsurface landfill gas
• Ground gas and vapours
• Air quality - Dust Deposition and Inspirable Dust Directional dust
• High-Volume air sampling
• Automatic/unattended monitoring
• CCTV

Waste Classification, Material Re-use and Resource Recovery

The appropriate classification of waste materials is a crucial consideration and essential to the commercial and environmental success of any construction, demolition and development project.

The incorrect classification of waste can lead to significant unnecessary project expense and/or useful resources unnecessarily occupying valuable landfill space. Incorrect classification and incorrect disposal of waste materials can also jeopardises the commercial viability of projects and have legal implications for project proponents. To not optimise the re-use of materials is a missed opportunity both commercially and environmentally. It is therefore important for any project that the correct waste classification be determined and waste materials, re-used, recycled and recovered as a resource in an environmental prudent, beneficial and lawful manner. Our team at CES has the experience, knowledge and proven ability in providing the full range of waste classification and resource recovery assessment services to ensure that any waste is appropriately classified, managed, disposed, recycled and where possible recovered and reused as a valuable resource. Our services include initial site investigation, sampling (in-ground and stockpiles), assessment, analysis, characterisation and classification of waste. Assessment of compliance with various environmental authority exemptions and reuse applications and specific unique resource and reuse opportunities We also liaise on our clients behalf with relevant authorities to obtain approval for beneficial waste reuse and general and specific resource recovery exemptions.

Waste Facility & Landfill Planning, Engineering & Development

Waste facility and landfill planning, engineering and development are core disciplines at CES. We are a leader in providing planning, approval, design, construction, management and operational advice to some of Australia's largest private and public sector landfill operators.

CES has gained an excellent reputation for providing pragmatic solutions to complex landfill problems including the application of new technologies for landfill design and management. Our staff are continually developing innovative ways to combine traditional engineering with new materials and technologies for landfill construction. Landfill services offered by CES include:

• Development feasibility and planning application
• Site Investigation and hydrogeological studies
• Design services for landfill operations, landfill gas, leachate, ground and surface water management
• Liaison with regulatory authorities and licensing advice
• Landfill Environmental Management Plans
• Operational Management Plans
• Leachate Management Plans
• Soil and Water Management Plans
• Landfill Closure and Rehabilitation Planning
• Landfill Environmental Monitoring
• Review and interpretation of monitoring data
• Landfill Construction Quality Assurance services
• Landfill Gas Management and Mitigation
• Odour management and Mitigation
• Landfill Gas Balance Modelling & Emissions Assessment
• Carbon Emission Assessment and Reporting

Energy, Carbon Management & Emissions Reduction

Energy

Renewable energy projects such as solar and wind farms require environmental and geotechnical site feasibility studies which typically include desktop assessment, geotechnical and environmental site investigations and associated field and laboratory testing. In some cases, environmental and geotechnical monitoring may be required. CES can assist with the key geo-environmental aspects of the project including:

• Environmental investigation and remediation of former sites for repurposing for renewable energy projects
• Environmental input for waste to energy projects
• Understanding the existing environmental/geological/geotechnical/ topography and hydrogeological conditions of selected renewable energy sites
• Recommendations on suitable footing and foundation systems and subgrade preparation for structures such as wind turbines, photovoltaic solar panel arrays, power conversion units, substations, transformers, light-weight building and structures and other associated infrastructure
• Detailed analysis and modelling of wind turbine footing and foundation behaviour, including deep pile foundations, lateral pile analysis, pile deflections during wind turbine operations, wind loading and dynamic vibrations
• Design and construction of thermal piles and geothermal heat exchange and moderation ground systems
• Earthworks and excavations, site preparation, soil aggressivity and seismicity
• Access road subgrade preparation and pavement design
• Identification of environmental and geotechnical site constraints and geo-hazards such as acid sulfate soils, erodible soils, sodic and saline soils, landslides, mining subsidence and soft sediments, unstable ground, sites of poor soil drainage and soil susceptible to significant volume change (reactive soils).
• Assessment of the capacity of soils to conduct and dissipate heat based on thermal resistivity testing in accordance with relevant national and international standards
• Assess the electrical resistivity of soil for designing sound electrical grounding system.

Carbon Management & Emissions Reduction

Businesses face increasing pressures to manage and balance carbon and emissions targets with financial performance. CES can assist with your carbon and green house gas emission monitoring, gas balance and emission assessment, management and reporting.

Legal, Insurance, Due Diligence, Compliance & Auditing

Legal & Insurance

Our team of senior geotechnical and environmental professionals regularly assist the courts legal profession. We are accomplished in providing independent, hi-quality, professional judgment, opinion, expert witness and legal testimony. Should you require assistance with regard to the geotechnical or environmental aspects of a legal proceeding, insurance assessment or claim or mediation or arbitration, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Due Diligence

Environmental and geotechnical matters are a critical consideration in modern due diligence reviews for property transactions, business purchases, mergers and acquisitions. Years of experience in due diligence has given the staff at CES a sound understanding of the processes to identify, quantify and manage technical and financial risks in order to provide a level of comfort to clients and their advisers.

• Services provide for environmental due diligence projects include:
• Compliance audits
• Environmental audits
• Environmental site assessments
• Environmental monitoring
• Data compilation and modelling
• Identification of problematic ground conditions
• Assessment of abnormal development costs

Compliance & Auditing

Our professional staff can assist you with your environmental compliance and auditing requirements, such as:

• Environment protection licences application and liaison with relevant authorities
• Environmental Auditing of compliance against various environmental permits and licences.
• Preparation, training and implementation of pollution management plans and pollution Incident responses
• Preparation of pollution reduction programme

Natural Resources & Mining Services

CES provides specialist consulting services to the natural resources and mining industry from initial exploration through to site closure. Our services include:

• Planning, implementation and execution of exploration programs
• Exploratory drill planning, implementation, management, logging and interpretation
• Exploratory geophysics
• Subsurface data collection, analysis and monitoring
• Spatial data management, GIS and 3D modelling and visualization
• Geotechnical Instrumentation installation, monitoring and interpretation
• Geotechnical and environmental risk assessment and audits
• Geotechnical advice for surface plant location and site preparation.
• Rare earth minerals

CES is committed to the highest standards of health and safety. We have an excellent safety record due to the pervasive culture of health and safety at CES.