Due Diligence & Construction Environmental Support for a Data Center Redevelopment in Parallel with Remediation Activities

The client planned to redevelop a former chemical manufacturing site as a data center while soil and groundwater remediation was under way. Historical impacts included chlorinated compounds, metals, and buried slag that the authorities required to be removed. The project involved the former owner, the former tenant responsible for the contamination, and the data center developer, so environmental liabilities and remediation responsibilities had to be clearly coordinated. In parallel, the authorities required the investigation of approximately 6 km of public streets along the proposed energy-connection corridor because of historical potentially contaminating activities. The environmental work therefore had to protect the construction schedule while meeting contaminated-land, waste-management, and administrative requirements.

MediTerra acted as the client's local environmental partner by:
- completing Phase I environmental due diligence and targeted investigations for the development site and the energy-connection corridor;
- supporting the technical basis for an agreement among the client, the former owner, the historical polluter, and the authorities, under which the client managed the remediation within an agreed financial framework;
- supervising soil and groundwater remediation and the removal of buried slag;
- sampling and classifying excavated materials as trenching and construction progressed, and managing hazardous and non-hazardous waste;
- assessing residual soil conditions through a human-health risk assessment, with direct contact with metals identified as the principal exposure pathway;
- adapting the construction design to the risk-assessment findings to minimize the excavation of impacted soil and reduce associated costs; and
- managing the applicable administrative requirements under ENAC-accredited ISO 17020 procedures and local regulatory accreditation.

 A data center developer and its engineering advisor delivering a brownfield redevelopment in the Barcelona area. 

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