H2A Environmental, Ltd

H₂A Environmental, Ltd. (H₂A), was founded in 2000 with a dedication to the premise that innovation and experience combined with sound technical knowledge would yield exceptional success for our many clients. Throughout our history, H₂A has repeatedly shown both the desire and the ability to develop cutting edge tools and knowledge in critical skills such as detailed site characterization, risk assessment, and remediation.

H₂A’s founders continue to lead the company with a dedication to these goals, and our technically adept staff has accepted the challenge to continually innovate on behalf of our clients to find better, faster, more cost-effective solutions to their environmental liabilities.

H₂A has grown to conduct operations throughout the Mid-Continent US without a recordable incident since 2000. We now operate a fleet of mobile remediation systems designed to provide leading edge mobile remediation, pilot testing, and technical impracticability demonstrations throughout our operational area. In addition H₂A’s remediation engineers and geologists have designed, specified, procured, installed and operated numerous fixed-base remediation systems. Our goal is to continually raise the performance bar for ourselves as well as our competitors – to continually innovate and grow in knowledge, expertise, and proprietary systems (both hardware and software).

H₂A is a certified woman-owned and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (WBE/DBE/HUB) based in Texas with additional offices in New Mexico and Illinois. Kay Hawthorne, H₂A’s founder and Chief Executive, has implemented technologically advanced environmental solutions for government and private industry clients since 1986, including multiple Superfund and major military projects at both the federal and state level. Under her leadership, H₂A has become an Industry Leader in Risk-based remediation, High Vacuum Remediation, Risk Assessment Services and Software, and Data Management IT Solutions.

Advanced Data Acquisition

In addition to basic site characterization activities that are common in the environmental industry, development of modern conceptual site models (CSMs) demands rigorous data collection methods to obtain certain critical site parameters.  H₂A’s scientists and field staff possess the knowledge and experience to efficiently, accurately, and precisely collect advanced site characterization data to maximize reliability of the CSM.  The corresponding improvements to CSM quality and resolution improve risk evaluation and ultimately, remedy success.

H₂AWK

Based on our experience performing LNAPL transmissivity testing, developing the ASTM standard for estimation of LNAPL transmissivity, and remediation optimization, H₂A scientists recognized a need for a field portable, intrinsically safe, multi-phase flow meter capable of meeting the accuracy and precision requirements of the ASTM standard.  As a result, we developed thepatent pending H₂A hydrocarbon and water knockout (H₂AWK) precision flow meter, capable of operating via suction pumping, vacuum extraction, or pressurized air systems.  Testing with the H₂AWK yields more reliable leading, progress, and lagging remediation metrics by improving the accuracy of:

• Short term NAPL recovery rate measurements during LNAPL transmissivity baildown, slug, and manual skimming testing;
• Short term NAPL/water ratios and production rates during LNAPL transmissivity ratio testing; and
• Instantaneous LNAPL/water ratios and production rates to manage and optimize active remediation systems and calculate ongoing LNAPL transmissivity values to generate rate transient and expected ultimate recovery decline curves on an individual well or plume-wide basis.

LNAPL Transmissivity Testing

LNAPL transmissivity is a powerful metric for LNAPL hydraulic recoverability.  H₂A was involved in the development of ASTM standard E2856-11 for estimation of LNAPL transmissivity.  We continue to develop improved methods and equipment to measure LNAPL transmissivity, and to understand and evaluate inherent variability, scale issues, and trend significance over time, at the individual well and plume-wide scales.  Field testing for LNAPL transmissivity can be highly complex, particularly in fluctuating groundwater or preferential pathway environments.  H₂A’s scientists and field personnel possess the theoretical knowledge and practical experience to ensure successful testing under a wide variety of complicating field conditions.  LNAPL transmissivity test methodologies that H₂A has successfully implemented include:

• Baildown/slug testing
• Manual skimming testing
• Ratio testing
• Recovery data analysis from skimming, vacuum-enhanced skimming, total fluids pumping, and multi-phase extraction remediation systems
• Tracer testing

Pilot Testing

H₂A’s scientists, engineers, and remediation technicians possess many years of experience designing, procuring, permitting, installing, operating, maintaining, optimizing, and evaluating progress to closure of multiple remediation technologies on behalf of clients ranging from consulting engineering firms to government agencies and responsible parties.  In addition, H₂A owns and operates a fleet of portable, self-contained, pilot testing and mobile remediation systems.  Consequently, we intimately understand the need for reliable and detailed operational, hydraulic, pneumatic, and other critical system parameters to maximize operational uptime and remediation effectiveness, thereby minimizing time to closure.

Pilot testing provides critical remediation technology selection and design data, but is often performed without an understanding of the comprehensive data and CSM elements that can be determined by a properly designed and implemented pilot test.  H₂A’s experience and expertise in all facets of the remediation process, as well as our custom designed pilot testing and remediation system fleet operational experience, allow us to maximize the quality and comprehensiveness of pilot testing performance and data collection.  In many cases our proprietary technologies and testing expertise provide critical data not often developed.  Pilot testing technologies H₂A can provide include:

H₂A’s pilot testing systems are capable of testing multiple hydraulic and pneumatic remediation technologies, and are particularly beneficial in remote or restricted locations since they are completely self-contained.  Typical tests include step tests and/or sustainable production tests of soil vapor extraction, multi-phase extraction, air sparging, NAPL skimming, and total fluids pumping, as well as other technologies.

Each test is designed to yield comprehensive hydraulic and pneumatic design parameters for recoverability of contaminants of concern from all phases for a given hydrogeologic setting.  Our ability to adapt testing protocols to conditions observed in the field, coupled with the expertise necessary to capture precisely accurate test data, result in consistently successful and comprehensive pilot tests.