Terradex, Author at Terradex

Learn From the Mistakes of Others: BFPP Lessons from Recent Court Decisions

Terradex — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 18:36:14 +0000

Brownfield purchasers often assume that completing pre-acquisition due diligence secures their liability protection. Recent court decisions suggest the analysis does not end there.

A new article by Terradex Vice President Michael Sowinski appears in the Winter 2026 edition of the EBA Journal, examining how the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) can pose significant risks for brownfield purchasers — and how courts have applied CERCLA’s Bona Fide Prospective Purchaser (BFPP) defense in ways that have overwhelmingly disfavored the brownfield purchaser.

In “Learn From the Mistakes of Others: A Review of CERCLA’s Bona Fide Prospective Purchaser Defense to Inform Winning Strategies,” Michael provides a concise, practitioner-focused overview of CERCLA liability defenses for brownfield purchasers, with particular attention to post-purchase continuing obligations and compliance with institutional control requirements.

To assert CERCLA’s BFPP defense, purchasers must conduct “all appropriate inquiries” (often through a Phase I assessment) and satisfy a series of additional elements, most of which remain ongoing indefinitely, which EPA refers to as “continuing obligations.” These include:

demonstrating that no disposal occurred after acquisition,
exercising appropriate care by taking reasonable steps to stop ongoing releases and prevent threatened future releases,
complying with relied-upon land use restrictions and institutional controls,
cooperating with regulators, and
providing legally required notices.

Drawing from recent judicial decisions, the article explains that courts have conducted an exacting review of each element of the defense. BFPP claims have failed where due diligence was defective, redevelopment activities exacerbated contamination, or disposal was found to have occurred during ownership. Notably, redevelopment conducted under agency oversight has not, by itself, satisfied the requirements of the BFPP defense.

Michael also examines EPA’s Common Elements Guidance, including its treatment of disposal categories, institutional controls, and appropriate care. While the Guidance provides useful clarification, courts have often applied a more demanding standard than parties anticipate — particularly in cases involving exacerbation during redevelopment or questions surrounding institutional control compliance.

The article concludes with a discussion of ASTM’s Standard Guide for Identifying and Complying with Continuing Obligations (E2790), which provides a structured four-step framework for identifying and complying with both initial and ongoing continuing obligations, helping purchasers better navigate the demanding and nuanced BFPP defense landscape.

The full article is available here.

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Where Standards Meet Stewardship: Terradex at Brownfields 2025

Terradex — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 00:00:51 +0000

As demand for brownfield redevelopment continues, the standards and practices that guide due diligence, cleanup, and risk management continue to advance. ASTM standards help ensure that redevelopment projects meet regulatory requirements while supporting sustainable reuse and effective long-term stewardship.

At this year’s National Brownfields Training Conference, Terradex Vice President J. Michael Sowinski will speak on two panels addressing recent developments in ASTM standards and continuing obligations, providing practical insights for property owners, brownfields developers, and environmental professionals managing environmental risk and liability. Mike is a national expert on long-term stewardship, continuing obligations, and institutional controls. He leads the ASTM Task Group that drafted Standard Guide E2790, serves on the ASTM E50 Executive Committee, and has co-authored key legal and technical publications. The session descriptions follow.

ASTM Standards for Brownfields Redevelopment (Roundtable Discussion)

For over 125 years, ASTM International has been a global leader in developing consensus standards for various industries. While many environmental professionals are familiar with E1527 Standard Practice for Environmental Site Assessments, the ASTM Committee E50 on Environmental Assessment, Risk Management, and Corrective Action has jurisdiction over 120 standards.

This session will highlight the dozens of ASTM standards that directly apply to brownfield redevelopment and provide guidance to help multidisciplinary teams confidently navigate environmental assessments, cleanup, and reuse.

Mike will co-present with Adaapta CEO Danielle Getsinger to discuss the depth and breadth of ASTM standards and how they can be leveraged to accelerate brownfields projects.

Date: Wednesday, August 6, 2025

Time: 10:30 – 11:30 AM

View Session Details

The Continuing Evolution of Continuing Obligations (Panel Presentation)

Continuing obligations (CO) often arise from recognized environmental conditions found during due diligence. COs can involve adhering to “appropriate care” safeguards during and after cleanup activities, complying with institutional controls after redevelopment ends, among many other things. Under CERCLA and similar state laws, COs outline the steps brownfield purchasers need to take to manage contamination left behind, which in turn gives liability protection and otherwise manages risks.

This panel will explore how COs are evolving in response to practical experience, emerging contaminants, and new guidance—highlighting real-world implementation challenges and the role of tools like EPA’s Common Element Guidance and ASTM Guide E2790 (currently under revision).

Mike will be joined by experts including Craig Boehr, Esq. (Senior Attorney, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), Meaghan A. Colligan, Esq. (Partner, Holland & Knight), and Tim J. McGahey, CHMM, LEED-AP (Senior Vice President, Environmental Due Diligence, AKT Peerless) to share legal insights, technical perspectives, and examples from the field. Together, they’ll offer a multidimensional view into how continuing obligations are evolving and what it means for brownfield stakeholders.

Date: Thursday, August 7, 2025

Time: 3:15 – 4:15 PM

View Session Details

Monitoring Land Use for Safe Redevelopment Join the Conversation at Brownfields 2025

If you’re attending Brownfields 2025, we hope to see you at the panels where Mike will share his insights alongside leaders from EPA, ASTM, and other organizations. Terradex will not be exhibiting this year, but our team will be on site and would love to meet you.

Interested in connecting? You can reach out directly to Mike at m.sowinski@terradex.com or Terradex President & CEO Peter Biffar at p.biffar@terradex.com.

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Trust But Verify: DigClean Tracks Institutional Controls Across Property Transactions

Terradex — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 16:55:47 +0000

Terradex’s DigClean map focuses on Tacoma, Washington. Spill sites with associated institutional controls (ICs) are blue, and the underlying parcels encumbered by ICs are green. However, when a recent sale or change occurs on a property, the parcel is highlighted in red to flag the change in ownership. Flagging and then alerting the new owner help assure the IC’s integrity.State environmental agencies have the challenging task of managing large portfolios of contaminated sites, including remediated properties with institutional controls (ICs). ICs limit future uses at properties where residual contamination, such as invisible soil or groundwater pollution, remains in place even after a final cleanup has occurred. Proper management and enforcement of ICs protect both the environment and surrounding communities.

State environmental agencies find themselves responsible for assuring IC compliance at hundreds or even thousands of ICs at hundreds of thousands of individually owned properties. A key process for executing an IC compliance strategy involves tracking property ownership changes.

While Terradex DigClean was initially developed as a best practice approach for excavation monitoring, a growing use case for DigClean’s technology is tracking and mapping property transfers at IC sites and sending notices to new property owners about existing property restrictions. This newer DigClean functionality provides an important tool that many state agencies increasingly rely on.

DigClean Provides an Implementation Tool for UECA, Environmental Covenant Compliance

Although various types of ICs exist, the most common type involves the use of environmental covenants at individual properties. The Uniform Environmental Covenant Act (UECA), drafted in 2003, provides the legal framework to ensure that environmental covenants describe property-specific limitations (e.g., excavation limits, water use limits, residential/school limits, etc.), are officially recorded in land records, remain legally valid as property is bought and sold (“run with the land”), and, importantly, grant enforcement rights to the state environmental agency. The benefits of UECA legislation led to its adoption by dozens of states. Even non-UECA states rely on similar legislation or strategies to ensure that environmental covenants and similar ICs run with the land and can be enforced by state environmental agencies.

The legal framework, while important, needs a corresponding state agency-led compliance assurance process. Agencies find it crucial to confirm that new owners remain aware of environmental covenants. Lack of awareness makes failure significantly more likely. Also, property transfers can often lead to land use changes or new construction, which can also put the property use restriction at risk. Finally, as a practical matter, agencies need to know who to contact with relevant correspondence. Because of this, state agencies need to keep track of hundreds or thousands of environmental covenants conveyed across thousands of complex property changes. This can be particularly challenging for state environmental agencies because their core competency covers environmental compliance, not property transfer management.

With input from state agencies, Terradex’s DigClean was further developed to follow an environmental covenant from owner to owner, even as a parcel is subdivided or its identification numbers change. In fact, during informal discussions, key UECA stakeholders acknowledged that Terradex stewardship technology complements UECA and strengthens the effectiveness and impact of environmental covenants.

The DigClean Approach for Tracking Property Ownership

DigClean uses county property records, state property tax records, and geographic data to determine a parcel’s address, its boundaries and shape, and the current owner. DigClean monitors these records for changes, such as new ownership, a newly assigned parcel number, or if the parcel is split. DigClean then automatically generates a letter about the relevant environmental covenants for new property owners of encumbered parcels.

When a parcel has a minor change in ownership, such as a transfer to a different person within a trust or an owner’s name correction, DigClean can determine that the owner has effectively remained the same and does not generate a new notice. If a parcel is merged or separated, and its identification numbers change, DigClean notes the changes and maintains a current list of parcels and their corresponding numbers.

Common Transactions Involving Environmental Covenant Properties

The figure below represents three hypothetical yet typical property transactions involving a property where a covenant was recorded to ensure the integrity of an engineered control (an asphalt “cap”). In this example, Acme Plating recorded an environmental covenant. Over time, numerous property transactions made identifying the current owner and the associated parcel difficult.

The first transaction (1) demonstrates the situation where an Assessor Parcel Number (APN) changes. A change in APN can confusingly suggest a change in ownership while also making future property searches more convoluted. Here, even though the APN changed, DigClean would nonetheless recognize a non-change in ownership, and, in turn, the state agency (via DigClean) would not send a notice to the owner. Even with the change in APN, based on the actual boundaries and ownership records for the property, DigClean would continue to identify the property as owned by Acme Plating until, in the second transaction (2), the ownership does change. In this instance, DigClean would detect the change, and the state agency (via DigClean) would send a notice to the new owner informing them of the covenant. In the third transaction (3), the parcel is subdivided to support development by separating the portion of the parcel with an engineered control from the part not impacted by the engineering control. In this case, the agency would send a letter to both owners.

The property shaded in green had an institutional control recorded to protect the asphalt cap engineering control. DigClean tracks the parcel across ownership changes, APN changes, and splits to the parcel.

A Closer Look at the DigClean Process

Terradex uses automation as much as possible to directly access multiple county-based property, tax, and geographical information system (GIS) records. This process often combines and synthesizes government data with third-party commercial property data (which varies in freshness depending on various factors) to provide the most up-to-date ownership information possible to ensure compliance with IC obligations. The figure below overviews the process.

DigClean’s technical workflow connects multiple property and tax data repositories to a state’s IC registry to maintain a current ownership inventory of encumbered parcels. It sends mail notifications to new owners of properties encumbered with an IC.

As one of its primary ownership transfer detection methods, DigClean reviews property tax data, which identifies ownership and other info, and associated property boundary GIS data, which are often maintained by completely different arms of the local agencies. Using a reliable indicator, such as the APN, to “join” these datasets, DigClean builds a comprehensive geospatial parcel database (see above figure), constructed and evaluated monthly, to identify ownership or other significant changes. These changes trigger sending a letter to a new property owner on behalf of the agency.

In addition to tracking the property changes, as shown in the figure above, Terradex also tracks the additions and changes to the environmental covenants held by the state. The state routinely adds, modifies, and deletes sites that apply environmental covenants as part of the remedy. Through the DigClean process, for example, Terradex maintains a listing of environmental covenants and their associated current parcel information on any encumbered parcel for the state agency.

DigClean Helps Washington Manage Complex Portfolios of Environmental Covenants

Like most state environmental agencies, the Washington Department of Ecology (ECY) manages an extensive portfolio of contaminated sites. Although Washington has adopted UECA and maintains a public-facing inventory of properties with environmental covenants, managing the process under the state’s Model Toxics Control Act is complicated and resource-intensive, according to Mary Monahan, the statewide UECA coordinator for ECY’s Toxics Cleanup Program (Central Regional Office). Limited resources, along with a wave of retirements and new staff arrivals, have exacerbated this challenge, creating a knowledge gap in environmental covenant management at the agency. Monahan explained that while the agency strives to create a more efficient approach that harmonizes community protection and developer needs, it remains an ongoing and evolving effort.

As noted above, owners and even parcel identifiers change while the original covenants stay the same (and lack maps), making it difficult for state agencies to track and inform new property owners and other stakeholders of potential risks at these properties. To help address these challenges, Terradex works with Monahan and other ECY regulators to mold DigClean’s capabilities to meet the agency’s specific needs, managing 660 spill sites that contain about 900 covenants that encumber approximately 1,400 parcels. Terradex generates about five letters each month to notify new property owners of environmental covenants affecting their property.

Continuous Innovation with Terradex Customers

The Washington Department of Ecology is an innovative organization that, like many other Terradex customers, aims to inform its citizens about residual environmental risks. To this end, ECY collaborated with Terradex to create a state-wide parcel tracking and notification system for impacted citizens.

Our partnership with ECY demonstrates Terradex’s commitment to protecting stakeholders at potential risk, including new property owners. With ECY having enacted UECA, it also exemplifies how UECA and DigClean work together in a “Trust But Verify” model: UECA instills the “Trust” while DigClean, powered by Terradex technology and expertise, provides the “Verify.”

Terradex is actively collaborating with other states, applying this model, and we invite others to join us in this endeavor.

In Memoriam

Jeff Newschwander, who passed away June 2, 2023, collaborated with Mike Sowinski of Terradex to realize an approach to maintain the enforceability of environmental covenants. We worked together on an Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council team to establish a practice of Long Term Contaminant Management Using Institutional Controls. Our community of practitioners for long-term stewardship has always been tight and small. Losing Jeff was felt by all. Jeff navigated administrative challenges to bring forward the first deployment of this innovation. We miss Jeff, and along with Mary Monahan at ECY and her colleagues, we continue to honor his legacy. At Terradex, we extend condolences to Jeff’s family, heightened by his untimely departure from us all.

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Environmental Agencies Share Best Practices and Technology Solutions for Risk Communication

Terradex — Tue, 06 Dec 2022 00:47:27 +0000

There are hundreds of thousands of brownfield sites throughout the United States. Proactively monitoring activity on those properties is the best way to promote long-term land stewardship, a point featured in the Terradex webinar “State Agency Risk Communication Strategies for Protecting Remedies and Communities”.

Changes in property ownership, environmental contamination, and a lack of knowledge and clear communication about potential risks are all challenges to safe, long-term land stewardship. Terradex DigClean provides an efficient solution to all these challenges, allowing state regulators to effectively monitor who owns what parcel of land and what activity is being done there. As an automated monitoring and advisory service, DigClean allows state environmental agencies to track hundreds of contaminated sites and notify impacted parties about potential risks, like the dangers associated with excavation.

Excavation is often the greatest risk to brownfield sites

Several state agencies discussed how they’ve utilized DigClean. Here are several top takeaways about the benefits of using this technology solution:

Effective enforcement tool that pays for itself. The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) started using DigClean in 2019. MDE issued three notices of violation (NOV) three years later, with penalties totaling $31,500, its first NOVs since 1999.
Efficiently leverages staff and resources. DigClean automatically monitors for changes in land ownership. In Washington state, DigClean also monitors environmental covenants tied to specific properties. Terradex then flags property sales and sends new owners a letter that mentions the environmental covenant. That makes it easy for the Washington Department of Ecology to communicate with landowners about land use requirements.
Provides important land use information to landowners. Environmental covenants aren’t always communicated to new property owners, which is why Terradex is such a powerful tool.. Owners need to understand what covenants are on their property to know what use restrictions are in place.
Helps contractors and owners avoid compliance violations and hefty fees. When MDE received a DigClean advisory about a shade structure installation at a daycare chain, Richelle Hanson (MDE) immediately saw a red flag because there shouldn’t even be a daycare on that property. MDE conducted an immediate site inspection and found that an excavator had already dug multiple holes to put in the shade structure. Additionally, there were three other schools on the property that violated commercial/industrial use restrictions. MDE contacted the property owner and issued penalties. Those penalties would have been much higher if MDE hadn’t detected the shade structure and immediately acted on that information.
Supports government public safety and environmental health efforts. The Hawaii Department of Health uses DigClean to address sites with environmental hazard management plans and hazardous munitions via the one-call system. The goal is for excavators to be aware of the hazards presented by different types of sites and to use that information to evaluate the impact of excavation before digging into the ground.
Supports environmental justice priorities. One of the reasons that Washington uses Terradex is to keep government officials aware of what’s happening in their communities, said Mary Jo Monahan (Washington Department of Ecology). That knowledge enables them to focus on and address environmental justice issues.

Conclusion

Technology solutions like DigClean have played a significant role in long-term stewardship and risk communication to all interested parties, including communities, on or near contaminated sites. The application has utility for state (and federal) agencies beyond the uses we originally envisioned; things like PFAS and environmental justice were not yet on the radar at DigClean’s inception. We now see states using the technology to address the next generation of stewardship challenges. This innovation is paving the way for replication in other states, as well as federal agencies with overlapping oversight responsibilities for these same lands and geographies.

The success of DigClean in protecting remedies and people is gratifying; we hope that Terradex technologies can bring the needed efficiencies to any state and federal government agency charged with land stewardship and community protection in perpetuity.

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Terradex, Spaceknow Webinar Highlights Satellite Analytics For Monitoring Change Detection At Contaminated Sites

Terradex — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 20:53:42 +0000

Owners of contaminated sites must comply with land use restrictions and institutional controls on their property and consistently monitor their sites for any breaches or prohibited uses. Adhering to these restrictions is key to preventing accidental exposure to contaminated soil or groundwater. The goal is to keep the remedy intact and ensure that people and the environment are protected.

Knowing what rules apply to your land and how to comply with them is why Terradex exists, company vice president Mike Sowinski told the audience during a recent webinar, “Using Satellite Imagery Analytics for Change Detection at Contaminated Sites.”

Teaming up with SpaceKnow’s Ann Murgai and Jan Havlicek for the discussion, Mike highlighted how this innovative approach to land stewardship—using satellite technology—will make compliance with legal land use requirements easier.

There are currently thousands of contaminated sites across the country with institutional and engineering controls, such as prohibiting excavation of impacted soil and forbidding the construction of schools or daycares. Using its LandWatch solution, Terradex continuously collects land activity information from thousands of data sources (like permits and licenses). Change detection using satellite (or drone) imagery analytics adds a powerful additional approach for assessing and comparing site conditions from one period to the next using aerial imagery and analytics tools.

Terradex’s contaminated site stewardship reports combine Terradex’s conventional data monitoring approach with change detection analysis using satellite or drone images. These reports, for example, analyze one year of land activity married with one year of change detection analysis for a comprehensive look to determine if any land activities have occurred that could compromise institutional controls.

Change detection analysis can cover a variety of conditions, ranging from very small-scale items, such as erosion rills or cracks in pavement, to vegetative health changes and patterns, to new construction or alterations, to large-scale development or encroachment patterns. The use or combination of high resolution, low resolution, and even infrared imagery provides for this type of flexibility.

Terradex leverages change detection and its conventional land activity monitoring data to help customers ensure that they comply with legal land use requirements, including institutional controls.

“It’s a compelling and efficient approach when these things are married together.”

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Situational Awareness: Connecting Environmental, Social, Governance (esg) Performance To Long-Term Stewardship

Terradex — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 16:53:06 +0000

On a recent sales call to a prospective client, the client was focused on one of the use-case slides in our presentation. “Your Terradex platform would bring situational awareness to our business.” As an environmental director for the corporation, he felt a strong responsibility to be aware of any community activity in the vicinity of their sites. He loved the slide.

Our prospect spoke further, explaining why situational awareness is important to their company. “We need to engage early in the land development process to ensure we understand community sentiment and remain an engaged, active, and responsive participant. When we actively participate, we are better situated to meet our Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) goals, satisfy our ISO 14001 requirements, and address emerging environmental justice obligations. At the same time, we continue to meet our traditional needs, such as sharing our interests in the project planning process, or maintaining compliance and preserving institutional controls.“

What is Situational Awareness? Situational awareness is a new term in Terradex’s stewardship lexicon. Situational awareness is being aware of your surroundings. Organizations that practice situational awareness are fully engaged in identifying and anticipating actions and activities that could impact their organization. Situational awareness also helps companies measure and achieve important ESG goals. If a company fails to proactively ensure the safety of its facilities, land portfolios, and adjacent communities, it jeopardizes not only its compliance status, but it also gives rise to “reputational risk,” as the entity may be viewed as an irresponsible corporate actor at a time where ESG performance is being scrutinized by consumers, shareholders, and investors alike. This risk is real, and has a host of negative consequences for companies that do not integrate ESG performance into their day-to-day business operations and risk management strategies.

Terradex CEO Peter Biffar recounted the traditional view of situational awareness in Germany serving BASF. Growing up in Germany, Peter recalled the old days when the plant boss lived in the community, and knew the mayor (Bürgermeister). The “boss” tracked and participated in all current and future developments that might impact the plant. This direct communication served as old-fashioned traditional “situational awareness.”

The Need for Communication, Proactive Participation: The modern-day workforce is generally decentralized, and the view of the “plant boss” is nostalgic. This is a realm that BASF and other distributed corporations find themselves in. Still, the value of anticipating change and proactively participating has never been more important and has grown even more strategic through the need to satisfy ESG obligations for the reasons described above. Corporate obligations now go beyond compliance.

While Terradex’s service to BASF was not framed by situational awareness, it provided the basis for the slide of the prospect’s focus. Terradex provides LandWatch monitoring services to BASF around the perimeter of their facilities and pipeline in Germany. If BASF does not detect prospective changes, it may affect current and future operations, and damage its reputation, and impact the company’s bottom line.

How Do We Apply LandWatch? The client’s goal is to detect and track land development activities in close proximity and at the facility itself to be aware of any potential onsite risks or negative impacts to surrounding communities. Land development occurs across a life cycle sequenced by distinct land activities: selling a property, leading to a purchase confirmation, which might then trigger search for an architect, which might trigger a planning review, ultimately a building permit and finally construction activities. If the development could pose an adverse impact either on the community or the facility, the corporation would choose to communicate (aka, the boss talking to the Bürgermeister). Absent that arrangement, LandWatch can be utilized to facilitate critical communication of potential risks. A client’s discretion enables directing risk communication to either the governing agency or to the individual project proponent.

The Terradex LandWatch process monitors for all of these activities, and groups any activities that might impact facilities into projects. A monthly project report is sent to the client providing a status update on their portfolio of facilities and associated nearby projects. Typically, the client, informed of the goings on, then takes any necessary action from there. Our prospective client observed the business process presented on the slide, and envisioned how the process encompassed broader situational awareness.

Beyond Traditional Risk Management – ESG and EJ: Our prospective client holds a comprehensive view of situational awareness, expanding beyond land development to monitor and protect any new occupancies or activities, while tracking community sentiment for concern around the facility. Broadly, the prospect envisioned LandWatch as an ESG intelligence platform that could be used to implement smart and effective community engagement. Initiating this engagement could also logically extend to satisfying ISO 14001 requirements as well as addressing emerging environmental justice considerations and concerns.

LandWatch for ESG. This initial blog post on situational awareness plants some seeds for future discussion. How can ESG communication be optimized? Where is the intersection between environmental justice and monitoring of proximate land uses? At Terradex we sense the opportunity to extend the LandWatch model to not only corporations that have hazardous materials triggering community engagement, but to any portfolio-based corporation looking to measure and bolster their ESG performance. Terradex has the opportunity to efficiently bring situational awareness to the corporation, allowing them to effectively participate in the community perhaps as deftly as the company boss of days gone by.

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Terradex At 20: Keeping The Startup Feeling In Pursuit Of Long-Term Stewardship

Terradex — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 16:12:06 +0000

Can Terradex still be a startup after 20 years? That is the question we ask ourselves as we reflect on this milestone. A startup is a fast, bumpy, innovative ride to converge on the model, market, revenue, and profit, and is very much the norm in Silicon Valley. Although Terradex is in the business of the perpetual, it remains adorned by the spirit of the startup. So, our answer is yes, and here are three reasons why we keep this startup feeling

First, the force of Terradex’s mission has never dissipated. The force of the mission is engrained in the startup. Terradex has targeted an essential need: enabling land stewardship through web technologies to protect the public and the environment. We seek to protect the public, community member, or worker, who might unknowingly come in contact with contaminated residuals. While protecting the public, we also serve our customers by protecting their cleanup remedies. The Terradex mission is a “win-win” for everyone.

Second, we get to work in the playground of innovation. In Silicon Valley many amazing tools are being assembled for monitoring land use and activity. Today’s technology, previously unimaginable, now includes satellite constellations, drone capture images, and artificial intelligence, all of which are routinely applied to detect land and structure changes. This tech revolution has enabled the development and deployment of our product offerings. Terradex adapts these new technologies for land stewardship. Satellites can remote sense and apply artificial intelligence. We can then utilize satellites to show a customer new structures on their remote land or a disturbance that might damage an ecosystem or a protective liner acting as a barrier to contain residual contamination. At Terradex, we get to adapt the technology and integrate it into our solutions like LandWatch.

Third, we get to pursue emerging markets to protect vulnerable land. Startups often surprise by creating and then fulfilling a market that is not apparent or by replacing an old paradigm with the new. Our current market is defined by specific areas of interest: land that is contaminated and vulnerable to public use and land that is sensitive, such as a habitat area, and vulnerable to development. In the coming years, land such as forests used for carbon sequestration will be similarly vulnerable to uncontrolled land uses. We further anticipate that efforts tied to climate mitigation and sustainable development will result in a new generation of lands that must be protected. As an experienced startup, we are poised to pursue these new markets as they emerge.

Even as a startup, in our first 20 years Terradex has made an impact. There are two main areas of our impact: 1) building the playbook of land stewardship that has become the industry standard and 2) the resulting impact as our stewardship technologies successfully protect public health and cleanup remedies.

When Terradex started, the industry’s focus was on conducting cleanups and not post-cleanup obligations. We discovered that because most remedies fall short of a complete cleanup, they create an obligation for long-term stewardship. At Terradex, we saw the need to fashion industry and governmental practice to fulfill this obligation. Over the last 20 years, we have been part of establishing a modern long-term stewardship framework, which included:

supporting EPA in its development of guidance for advanced methods for long-term stewardship,

leading ASTM standard development for Continuing Obligations that serve as long-term stewardship best practices,

developing data standards for long-term stewardship with ECOS, and

training over 6,000 practitioners via ITRC’s stewardship training, while

establishing Terradex’s data methodology now protected in a U.S. patent.

We treasure the impact Terradex’s team has made on our clients and the tens of thousands we protect. It amazes even us that we send nearly 10,000 alerts a month to people moving into a new home, working to repair a sewer line, or installing a new water well. These simple, actionable messages keep people safe and protect our customers’ cleanup remedies from damage. We look back at many of our notable accomplishments with pride. We have successfully:

prevented a well from penetrating an aquitard, thereby protecting drinking water supply,

alerted a developer about encountering an area of buried ordinance,

protected homeowners by preventing an inadvertent vapor intrusion pathway installed by a utility contractor, and

supported compliance by alerting our client to a tenant’s activities in breach of an engineered control.

In the past 20 years, Terradex has set a path now encompassed by our three product solutions, LandWatch, DigClean, and WhatsDown. We introduce these solutions on the new Terradex web site emulating the protectiveness we seek to provide in vulnerable settings.

Thank You! We didn’t achieve Terradex’s impact alone. Building Terradex’s stewardship solutions has taken a village, including the Terradex team, our customer partners, and our colleagues in professional organizations. At 20 years young,Terradex has been an impactful and innovative startup and we proudly celebrate that accomplishment with you.

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Digclean Is Protecting Excavators Across Delaware From Buried Chemicals

Terradex — Sat, 22 Nov 2014 08:03:21 +0000

Excavations are a common event around contaminated sites as each flash of light signifies. This map shows flashes for each excavations around contaminated sites in New Castle County, Delaware. Try adjusting the map, the date may be adjusted on the slider, and the coverage area adjusted by the zoom control.

You are watching about 3,500 excavation clearances resulting in over 1,000 advisories automatically sent to excavators by Terradex’s DigClean service. Terradex’s client since 2012 is Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection (DNREC). A one minute video overviews how the excavation clearance system can not only protect buried pipelines, but also convey health and safety information to workers about to dig.

Construction excavations threaten remedies, breach institutional controls, create circumstances where contaminated soils are mismanaged, and introduce health hazards to construction workers. The value of DigClean is to bring tangible information to excavators so that they can make timely, smart decisions to control these threats. Avoiding chemical contamination in the field is manageable once DigClean transmits an advisory.

The advisory provides links to general soil management plans, but can also provide a link to a site-specific soil management plan. There are also links to NIOSH Pocket Guide and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) Toxic Substances Portal for chemical specific hazard information. The NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards is intended as a source of general industrial hygiene information for workers, employers, and occupational health professionals, while ATSDR provide guidance to non-work related public exposure scenarios. For a spill containing benzene, the respective chemical links in the advisory would include:a NIOSH benzene link and a ATSDR benzene link. An excavator makes an obligatory 811 telephone call to provide 48-hours advance notice of an excavation. The excavator provides the location, description, timing as well as contact information. The excavator’s provided contact information may be a phone, fax or email address. The excavation center upon receiving the incoming notice from the excavator will only forward those excavation notices to Terradex that are near contaminated sites (as mentioned below, the locations of the sites were provided in setup of the program). Terradex provides an additional geographic screening after receiving the incoming notice. For the sites within 50 feet of a contaminated site, an excavation advisory is transmitted to the excavator. The advisory is sent via email, SMS text or fax depending on the contact information originally provided. The excavator is directed to followup with DNREC when there are questions. At the beginning of the DigClean in Delaware, the excavation clearance center was provided with a GIS map prepared by DNREC with the boundaries of contaminated sites. If a extent of contamination was not known, the parcel boundary around the contaminated location is used instead. As DigClean operates, DNREC uses DigClean’s web management console to view the advisories transmitted, and those excavations where based on a distance evaluation an advisory was not transmitted. DNREC can choose to override the distance screening, and send an advisory.

Terradex developed an analysis of California excavations near sites with institutional or engineering controls. The California analysis revealed a correlation between urbanization, the area of the impacted site and the frequency of excavation. This analysis in Delaware complements the California analysis by visually presenting the DigClean service as it expands within Delaware. The DigClean service is also provided to Idaho, West Virginia and California.

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Long Term Stewardship At Vapor Intrusion Sites – Looking At The End Game

Terradex — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 08:09:21 +0000

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Mobile web tool for excavators in delaware helps plan for subsurface chemical hazards

Terradex — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 08:11:58 +0000

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