Design Services for a Delaware River Wetland Park

On behalf of the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC), Sci-Tek was contracted by OLIN, a landscape and urban design firm, to perform a Phase II Environmental Subsurface Investigation at the South Wetlands Park property for Philadelphia-side, Delaware River piers 64, 67, and 70 located along S. Columbus Boulevard.  These services were in connection with design services for a Delaware River Wetland Park­— a unique riverfront park in South Philadelphia.  The project was driven by the Master Plan for the Central Delaware River District and adopted by the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. Thus, the Phase II investigation supported a range of waterfront improvements including new development, greenspace, community space, transportation networks, and programming.

Past environmental assessments and historic maps reviewed by Sci-Tek indicated the potential for impacts to soil and groundwater from polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and heavy metals.  As such, soil and groundwater testing was performed to evaluate the potential for these contaminants in the site’s subsurface.  The Phase II Investigation was performed per ASTM’s “Phase II Environmental Site Assessment Process”, E-1903-11 and included the following services:

• Coordinated with a Geoprobe drilling contractor for the proposed boring locations, and a Pennsylvania-certified analytical laboratory for analysis of the environmental samples.
• Coordinated a geophysical survey at the site for subsurface utility and anomaly clearance and safety purposes.
• Coordinated with the driller to advance 10 Geoprobe soil borings at the property.
• Provided continuous soil evaluation during advancement of the soil borings. The samples were logged and field-screened with a photoionization detector (PID) for the presence of potential organic vapors.
• Compared the analytical results to applicable PADEP soil and groundwater clean-up standards.
• Prepared a Phase II Subsurface Investigation Report that documented the activities and findings of the subsurface investigation. The Phase II Report included a description of Phase II activities, laboratory analyses review, subsurface boring logs, site investigation photographs, and our professional opinion and recommendations per the laboratory results.