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Land Quality Management Ltd (LQM) is an independent specialist technical consultancy created to provide niche consultancy, contract research and bespoke training services to serve your needs. LQMs team of highly qualified and experienced scientists provide a specialist multi-disciplinary consultancy service to public and private sector clients.
We provide a comprehensive range of services including contaminated land assessment and management, training courses, peer review and expert witness. However, we are also increasingly involved in the areas of sustainable regeneration and thermogeology. Our particular strength is widely regarded as human health risk assessments. We specialise in carrying out difficult and out of the ordinary risk assessment projects and in providing third party peer reviews for regulators and client organisations in the UK and throughout Europe and the rest of the world.
The legal landscape surrounding land contamination has changed and is changing. LQM staff have been at the forefront of developing the technical tools to support legislation and in training today's contaminated land specialists.
While preventing new
pollution is preferable, UK
policy
and practice recognises that it is impossible to undo all
past damage. The use of risk-based approaches enables
scarce
resources to be
targeted to delivering worthwhile reductions in risk and thereby
contribute to wise environmental stewardship in the context of
sustainable development.
LQM have considerable experience of working under all the relevant legal regimes associated with land contamination, including Part 2A and the planning system. LQM carry out work for Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 projects.
LQM can help you procure, implement or review contaminated land services and develop bespoke solutions to your problems.
The legal landscape surrounding land contamination has changed and is changing. LQM staff have been at the forefront of developing the technical tools to support legislation and in training today's contaminated land specialists, ensuring our training courses are up-to-date and relevant to the current environment.
LQM are renowned for their comprehensive range of training courses covering many aspects of contaminated land management; from desk studies to remediation, from statistics to toxicology.
In addition, to our standard courses we also provide training delivery to a variety of other organisations and we can also provide you with a bespoke training programme designed to your requirements. We have taken our bespoke courses all round the UK, including Cambridge, Norfolk, Brighton, Llandrindod Wells and Elgin.
LQM have a long history of providing peer review services to local authorities, land owners and developers, who require confirmation of the quality and technical robustness of contaminated land assessment reports, remedial strategies and risk management verification documents etc.
The majority of our peer review work has been conducted as part of redevelopment or voluntary cleanup activities, but we also have experience of reviewing contaminated land assessments conducted under the Part 2A Contaminated Land Regime.
The time and cost of such reviews is entirely dependant on the amount and complexity of the documents. If you are interested in peer review services please contact us to discuss your requirements.
Our staff also have a long track record of working on research projects for central, regional and local government, EC, industry and NGOs. We combine practical know how with the capability to create new tools, knowledge and understanding.
Our research projects
have included a number of projects funded by the Scotland and Northern
Ireland Forum for Evironmental Reserach (SNIFFER)
including the development of both the 1st and 2nd versions of the
so-called "SNIFFER model" for human health risk assesssment (Project LQ01)
and a recent review of the human-health responsibilities of
environmental regulatory bodies in the UK (Project UKCC02).
In 2005, LQM were a key component of the team that developed
the Environemnt Agency/English Heritage guidance "Guidance on Assessing the Risk Posed
by Land Contamination and its Remediation on Archaeological
Resource Management".
More recently, we developed the professional guidance note published by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health on the use of bioacessibility data in contaminated land assessment.
Paul Nathanail has presented expert witness evidence in several high profile cases involving contaminated land investigation and remediation. By closely following the guidelines for expert witnesses he has been able to provide fair and frank evidence relating to the quality and appropriateness of contaminated land investigation and remediation works undertaken. These cases have involved both criminal prosecutions and planning appeals as well as common law dispute. He has also provided solicitors and lawyers with guidance on the technical component of cases where expert witness testimony was ultimately not required.
He is backed by our highly specialised team who frequently carry out rapid tasks sometimes in the middle of court or inquiry proceedings as the need arises.
LQM are well placed to provide these services as we regularly provide training to all parts of the contaminated land community (ie regulators, consltants and problem holders) and conduct large numbers of peer reviews of 3rd party reports as well as authoring or contributing to key technical guidance.
With increasing concern about climate change and sustainable development has come the realisation that the design, construction and regeneration of new and existing infrastructure and housing will have a large impact on future carbon emissions and resource consumption.
LQM staff have been involved from the beginning in efforts to measure and assess the sustainability of remedial technologies in both the UK and US. We are also actively promoting a number of techniques and technologies that may enhance the sustainability of regeneration and development projects while, potentially maintaining or minimising costs. These techniques include the integration of remedial or earthwork engineering design with the incorporation of sustainable concepts such as ground-source heat pump technology, green roofs, and sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS).
Sometimes remediation is carried out independently from other activities. This may be to deal with or prevent regulatory action eg under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 or to prepare land for later redevelopment. SuRF-UK have provided a useful definition of sustainable remediation: "remediation that eliminates and/or controls unacceptable risks in a safe and timely manner, and which maximises the overall environmental, social and economic benefits of the remediation work. We call this sustainable remediation"
LQM staff are members of SURF and have participated in SURF-UK and SURF-Asutralia meetings as well as international initiatives and fora to share experiences and establish a common terminology and understanding. We believe that simple, rapid and very low cost approaches to sustainable remediation appraisal can yield dividends in the majority of options appraisal cases.
There is increasing interest in harnessing geology and hydrogeology resources to facilitate the heating (and cooling) requirements of modern buildings and homes. Such technologies are commonly referred to as ground-source heat pump systems and are designed to harness the thermal mass of large volumes of soil, groundwater and/or rock. Heating is provided by extracting and concentrating thermal energy from the geology into the building. This system exploits the natural relatively-stable temperatures of near surface geology which is maintained by solar gain and geothermal heating from below. Cooling can be achieved by reversing the process; with the geology acting as a sink for excess heat.
Alternatively, geothermal systems directly exploit the elevated temperatures found at greater depths as a source of heat that can be used to heat buildings and homes.
A great deal of work has been conducted into both types of systems, both in the UK and world-wide, and a large number of ground-source heat pumps have already been installed with the UK. However, the prospect of "free" heat should not suggest that such systems do not require careful design and installation. LQM can offer services relating to the suitability of the various systems to the local geology.
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