Description
Failure to comply with land use restrictions often comes with hefty fees. But many of these compliance violations can be avoided with proper site monitoring and clear communication about requirements and expectations with property owners and contractors.
Terradex DigClean’s automated monitoring and advisory service enables state regulators to monitor hundreds of contaminated sites efficiently and effectively. Our state agency client uses the DigClean system to advise owners and contractors of potential health and safety concerns and to make them aware of land use requirements. Real-time monitoring also allows them to provide compliance advice before a violation occurs.
For example, soon after using DigClean, the agency received an advisory about a shade structure installation being planned at an institutional control (IC) site by a daycare chain. The official who reviewed the advisory immediately saw a red flag. A closure document on record specified that this property could only be used for commercial or industrial purposes, which did not include daycare. It also required the property owner to notify the agency at least 60 days before performing any subsurface excavation or disturbing existing paved areas.
Because of the DigClean alert system, agency officials immediately inspected the site. They found that an excavator had already dug multiple holes to put in the shade structure without providing the 60-day notice. The agency issued monetary penalties to the landowner.
This scenario demonstrates the many benefits of DigClean for the state agency, property owner, and the public. The agency detected the violation early, which prevented harmful exposure. The early detection also triggered smaller fines than those that would have otherwise accrued. Most importantly, the agency’s DigClean-assisted compliance assurance resulted in the landowner complying with the land use restrictions.
DigClean Discovered Childcare Use Allowing Agency to Protect Children and Staff
DigClean sent the agency an advisory affecting an IC site, alerting them to an excavation event associated with a childcare center. The text above is the work description Terradex collected from the excavator’s notice to the One-Call Center.
In response to a DigClean advisory, the agency conducted an immediate site inspection of the childcare property. It discovered that the excavator drilled multiple 5×5-foot diameter 28-inch-deep holes for the foundations of shade structure supports, and advised the involved parties of steps to remedy the breach.