Leachate, Drainage, and Seeps

Leachate is any liquid that in passing through matter, extracts solutes, suspended solids or any other component of the material through which it has passed. Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of surface and sub-surface water from an area. A seep is a moist or wet place where water, usually groundwater, reaches the earth’s surface from an underground aquifer.

Moving surface and groundwater “pick up” and transport chemical contaminants and relocate them. Usually where you don’t want them, and usually where it’s extra expensive to recover them.

These avenues of water passage through the earth can allow for the transfer of contaminates to other bodies of water and other soils. Leachate can easily obtain heavy metals, pesticides or herbicides that are trapped in the soil and transfer them to streams or groundwater supplies. These contaminates then pollute the water and make it unsafe to drink or use. Drainage water can pick up particulates and even solids and transport them from a property to ponds, streams, lakes and rivers.

These bodies of water can then be contaminated and again unusable until cleaned up. Seeps that have been contaminated by leachate or drainage and or another source and bring the contaminates back to the surface and spread out as well. Any body of water can transport contamination. These avenues to reach those waters allow for the transport of contamination and should be monitored thoroughly.

Groundwater Integrity Testing (all parameters)

In addition to drinking water testing, Federated Environmental offers groundwater testing for all of the same parameters tested for in drinking waters. In order to make a determination whether contamination exists on a property, or to determine is a property has been successfully remediated, it is necessary to test the groundwater for the known contamination. Groundwater samples can be taken from drinking water wells, monitoring wells, springs, pits, ponds, lagoons, and leachate or seeps areas. Federated Environmental offers these specific testing services as needed.

Many states differ in their regulation of groundwater contamination. The variation in regulations is usually associated with kind of contamination, kind of property, and location of property. Many states simply approach each contamination case and make judgments based on a risk assessment of the property’s condition, which includes the above factors among others. Federated Environmental has extensive experience in performing such risk-based assessments, and negotiating with regulatory agencies to determine the most cost-effective and expedient means to manage groundwater contamination problems. In some areas of the United States, significant groundwater contamination exists for many square miles (e.g., Phoenix, Arizona, Los Angeles, California, and others). Federated Environmental can develop and execute a specialized groundwater testing plan that will determine the identity, and thus the source, of contamination.