2023 Year in Review: Charles Rich, CA Rich Consultants

What emerging trends will drive investment and development in 2024? Green remediation is a market trend for sustainable reuse of ‘brownfield’ sites. Development projects benefit from greener cleanups both economically and socially. Because excavation and off-site disposal of contaminated soil is a predominant remedial cleanup measure, CA Rich often reduces disposal volumes as regulated waste by emphasizing in-place testing and waste stream analysis to enable soil requiring disposal to be ‘recycled’ for beneficial reuse. Less disposal volume drops the costs for soil handling, trucking/disposal, and related fuel consumption, etc.

What was your greatest professional accomplishment or most notable project, deal, or transaction in 2023? This year, one of CA Rich’s more-impressive ‘greener’ cleanups was the Matinecock Court affordable housing project in Huntington, N.Y. Here, CA RICH, consultant to both the town and project developer, managed site soils impacted by former agricultural land use. Off-site disposal of soils only slightly exceeding cleanup criteria was not deemed prudent. Instead, the soil was excavated and reburied beneath perimeter berms and capped. Environmental management through engineering & institutional controls will eliminate any potential for human health exposure.