Our Environmental Services team have added to their award collection with three wins at this year's Australasian Land and Groundwater Association's Annual Industry Excellence Awards.

The team won Best Remedial Project over $1 million for our Barangaroo remediation project. They also took out the award for Innovation that Advanced the Practice of Contaminated Site Remediation for our world-first SourceZone® PFAS treatment technology. They rounded out the successful day with the third award was for Best Contaminated Land and Groundwater Photo, for our photo of the Kendall Bay remediation north zone.

Best Remedial Project: Barangaroo remediation

The Barangaroo project was one of Australia's largest remediation projects. From the start this was not like a traditional remediation project and required innovative thinking to tackle a number of challenges. Our solutions included the construction of a new type of odour control enclosure, designed to improve safety for workers as well as an approach to material removal that reduced the volume to be excavated and mitigated the need to purchase new clean fill for the project. Read more about the project here. 

According to the judging panel, these solutions led to industry-changing technology and safety-enhanced processes that will change the delivery of remediation projects in this country (Pictured above: A view of the odour control enclosures (OCE) at Barangaroo). 

The scale of this project is truly awesome. It was great to hear about the different approaches to mapping the contamination. The regulatory result is impressive," the judges stated when awarding the prize.

Innovation that Advanced the Practice of Contaminated Site Remediation: SourceZone® PFAS treatment technology

Our recently patented SourceZone® PFAS treatment technology took out the prize for Innovation that Advanced the Practice of Contaminated Site Remediation.

SourceZone® is a first-of-its kind, low-emissions, patented technology for removing PFAS contamination from soil. SourceZone® was developed by Ventia - in conjunction with CleanEarth Technologies, Canada - after years of laboratory research and full-scale trials.

PFAS - per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances - are a group of synthetically produced chemicals used in industrial applications and household products from the 1950s. Firefighting foams containing high levels of PFAS have been used extensively worldwide at airports, fire-training facilities and defence bases. Many PFAS do not degrade in the environment and are linked to health effects in humans.

With enviable sustainability credentials, SourceZone has been proven as a cost-effective treatment technology that successfully removes up to 99% of PFAS from a range of soil concentrations and types, including sands and clays.

SourceZone offers a step-change in the removal of PFAS from soil and paves the way for full-scale remediation projects at PFAS contaminated sites around the world.

Best Contaminated Land and Groundwater Photo: Kendall Bay remediation

Finally, the team was jointly awarded Best Contaminated Land and Groundwater Photo with client Jemena for our photo of the Kendall Bay remediation north zone. The Kendall Bay remediation first kicked off in 2019 and involves the remediation of legacy coal tar contamination left by a former gasworks (image below).

^{Pictured: Kendall Bay award winning photo taken by Allan Garland, Senior Environmental Engineer - Ventia.}