When choosing the right environmental testing services, it is crucial that you control several factors to reduce costs and come to results as fast as possible, without compromising quality. Here are some of the most important things to consider to ensure you choose the right environmental testing provider.
Know what to test
Having an environmental testing provider that knows exactly what to test enables you to cost-efficiently and effectively arrive at useful data to inform your business decision. The first phase of an environmental testing project involves in-person viewing of the site to find out the environmental conditions. An environmental testing provider should combine this data with controlled REC and historical REC to arrive at the testing activities that should happen in the first phase.
Some of the most common tests include physical visits to note the conditions of the site such as vegetation, chemical residue, the existence of storage tanks for harmful substances, and other potentially hazardous issues. Risk evaluation by neighboring properties is also important. Interviews with people having knowledge of the history of the site are an important step.
Avoiding over-testing
Some of the most common non-scope items in the first phase can include record review searches and visual inspections of lead in drinking water, lead-based paint, asbestos-containing materials, radon, meld , wetlands, mercury poisoning, endangered species, debris flow, vapor intrusion, and earthquake hazard. However, it is important to know whether other tests are necessary.
Planning and researching
A good environmental testing agencyshould do proper planning. Your potential environmental testing provider should present you with a good plan for approaching the first phase. In the plan, there should be accurate cost estimates associated with each planning and research activity.
E.g., the research and planning may be a small document for a site that has never been utilized and which is located in a rural area. By contrast, the brief document may describe prolonged research, followed by a plan if the site is under consideration for development. This means that you should ensure a testing service provider can provide the right level of research and planning that is required for your site.
Know the site area and history
You should know the site area and history when selecting the right environmental tests to characterize your property properly. Therefore, in most cases, you’ll want to choose a service provider with success in the local area of your site.
They will know more about the history of the site and have a clear understanding of the context surrounding what they get on preliminary inspections. For this matter, they’ll also know to test for hazardous substances such as asbestos that may not show up in the REC but they know to likely exist.
In addition to the site knowledge of the locals, environmental testing servicescompanies with local experience has experience navigating historical data and departments within the relevant municipality, state and town. This will save a lot of money in travel by not using a company from a different state.