GRB Environmental Services, Inc. (GRB) has been performing environmental assessments over the past 20 years. We have worked on over 800 contaminated sites that have impacted ecological and natural resources. GRB personnel have performed hundreds of field surveys and data collection activities for the sole purpose of assessing environmental impacts to natural resources from man’s activities for the past 29 years. This work has been carried out for the United States Environmental Protection Agency, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, United States Army Corps of Engineers, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, New York State Department of Transportation, New York City Department of Sanitation, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Survey techniques have followed NYSDEC’s, USEPA’s, and USACOE’s protocols.
The focus and complexity of an environmental assessment or EIS depends on the purpose and nature of the project and specific regulatory requirements. GRB understands that a properly designed and conducted environmental study can support a favorable regulatory decision for a project. GRB has prepared numerous environmental studies for public and private sector clients. These studies vary with each project and may include the following:
· Site/environmental characterization and project description
· Physical resource inventory
· Biological resource inventory
· Water resources
· Traffic and noise evaluations
· Air quality impacts
· Short and long term impact assessment
· Identification and discussion of mitigative measures
Our team of ecological risk assessors, ecologists, and biologists are experience in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Ecological Risk Assessment is a process that evaluates the likelihood that adverse ecological effects may occur or are occurring as a result of exposure to one or more stressors in response to human activities. Ecological risk assessments systematically evaluate and organize data, information, assumptions, and uncertainties in order to help understand and predict the relationships between stressors (e.g., man’s activities) and ecological effects in a way that is useful for environmental decision making.
Having an understanding of the fundamental requirements of a natural ecosystem in terms of primary and secondary production and the various levels at which an ecosystem may be affected, enables the planning of large scale projects that minimize potential ecological impacts. Our ecological risk assessors, ecologists, and biologists understand the concepts of food chains and webs, bio-accumulation, bio-concentration and bio-magnification. Utilizing various tools, expertise, and knowledge of habitat types, ecosystems can be quantified and factors (including potential toxicants) can be analyzed to document potential impacts on their dynamic stability. From the preceding knowledge, GRB develops approaches to eco-toxicity testing and ecological monitoring.
Human activities can affect the dynamic balance of ecosystems in two ways, 1) pollution and 2) physical disturbance. Ecosystems become unbalanced through pollutant (toxicant) effects. When pollution or disturbance of ecosystems occurs, instability occurs resulting in an unsustainable system. This results from the selective action of toxicants, affecting different species in different ways, or to different extents, or at different concentrations. The problem in ecological terms becomes one of considering complex exposure conditions and their effect on a system.
Hence, the aim of an Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) is to estimate the probability of adverse effects from identified human derived environmental stressors. Traditionally, an ERA has been used to investigate the effects of the release of particular chemical pollutants (toxicants) into the receiving environment. However, the Ecological Risk Assessment is now applied more broadly to assess the relative impact potential of multiple threats against measured and/or predicted impacts on environmental values and can be utilized in natural resource management.
The systematic steps for performing an Ecological Risk Assessment (as applied to an identified stressor) are schematically shown below. It is important to emphasize the iterative nature of risk assessment in that results are updated periodically based on inclusion of new data and/or monitoring information. Further, risk-reduction strategies can be developed from improved understanding of both the risks posed by specific stressors and the processes contributing to them. In this context the Ecological Risk Assessment plays an important role in best-practice natural resource management based on adaptive management principles. The principal technical limitation to wider use of risk assessment in ecological policy is to better define societal values and preferences in credible ways.
To help overcome this limitation, our experts work on establishing four specific needs in bridging the gap between ecological risks and natural resource management: (1) develop procedures to define ecological health; (2) improve ways to use expert opinion; (3) develop methodologies to measure public values, preferences, and priorities; and (4) develop or improve ways to present decision consequences to the public in a decision-neutral manner.
Our staff understands the essential concepts of ecological risk assessment and how it is carried out from problem formulation to risk characterization. Our experience and knowledge includes knowing how ecological systems may respond to stressors, the problems of exposure measurement, and the difference between assessment and measurement endpoints.
GRB’s approach to ecological risk assessment focuses on:
The focus and complexity of an environmental assessment or EIS depends on the purpose and nature of the project and specific regulatory requirements. GRB understands that a properly designed and conducted environmental study can support a favorable regulatory decision for a project. GRB has prepared numerous environmental studies for public and private sector clients. These studies vary with each project and may include the following:
· Site/environmental characterization and project description
· Physical resource inventory
· Biological resource inventory
· Water resources
· Traffic and noise evaluations
· Air quality impacts
· Short and long term impact assessment
· Identification and discussion of mitigative measures
Our team of ecological risk assessors, ecologists, and biologists are experience in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Ecological Risk Assessment is a process that evaluates the likelihood that adverse ecological effects may occur or are occurring as a result of exposure to one or more stressors in response to human activities. Ecological risk assessments systematically evaluate and organize data, information, assumptions, and uncertainties in order to help understand and predict the relationships between stressors (e.g., man’s activities) and ecological effects in a way that is useful for environmental decision making.
Having an understanding of the fundamental requirements of a natural ecosystem in terms of primary and secondary production and the various levels at which an ecosystem may be affected, enables the planning of large scale projects that minimize potential ecological impacts. Our ecological risk assessors, ecologists, and biologists understand the concepts of food chains and webs, bio-accumulation, bio-concentration and bio-magnification. Utilizing various tools, expertise, and knowledge of habitat types, ecosystems can be quantified and factors (including potential toxicants) can be analyzed to document potential impacts on their dynamic stability. From the preceding knowledge, GRB develops approaches to eco-toxicity testing and ecological monitoring.
Human activities can affect the dynamic balance of ecosystems in two ways, 1) pollution and 2) physical disturbance. Ecosystems become unbalanced through pollutant (toxicant) effects. When pollution or disturbance of ecosystems occurs, instability occurs resulting in an unsustainable system. This results from the selective action of toxicants, affecting different species in different ways, or to different extents, or at different concentrations. The problem in ecological terms becomes one of considering complex exposure conditions and their effect on a system.
Hence, the aim of an Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) is to estimate the probability of adverse effects from identified human derived environmental stressors. Traditionally, an ERA has been used to investigate the effects of the release of particular chemical pollutants (toxicants) into the receiving environment. However, the Ecological Risk Assessment is now applied more broadly to assess the relative impact potential of multiple threats against measured and/or predicted impacts on environmental values and can be utilized in natural resource management.
The systematic steps for performing an Ecological Risk Assessment (as applied to an identified stressor) are schematically shown below. It is important to emphasize the iterative nature of risk assessment in that results are updated periodically based on inclusion of new data and/or monitoring information. Further, risk-reduction strategies can be developed from improved understanding of both the risks posed by specific stressors and the processes contributing to them. In this context the Ecological Risk Assessment plays an important role in best-practice natural resource management based on adaptive management principles. The principal technical limitation to wider use of risk assessment in ecological policy is to better define societal values and preferences in credible ways.
To help overcome this limitation, our experts work on establishing four specific needs in bridging the gap between ecological risks and natural resource management: (1) develop procedures to define ecological health; (2) improve ways to use expert opinion; (3) develop methodologies to measure public values, preferences, and priorities; and (4) develop or improve ways to present decision consequences to the public in a decision-neutral manner.
Our staff understands the essential concepts of ecological risk assessment and how it is carried out from problem formulation to risk characterization. Our experience and knowledge includes knowing how ecological systems may respond to stressors, the problems of exposure measurement, and the difference between assessment and measurement endpoints.
GRB’s approach to ecological risk assessment focuses on:
- Effects that typically go beyond one species and may consider population, community, or ecosystem impacts.
- That stressors can be both physical (e.g., habitat modification) and chemical in nature.
- The process requires selection of practical measurement endpoints (e.g., mortality of fish) that can reasonably be measured within finite time and budget constraints and yet relate to the selected assessment endpoint (e.g., decline of a fish population).
- Ecological Risk Assessments
- Threatened and Endangered Species Surveys and Habitat Evaluations
- Wildlife Hazard Assessments
- Natural Resource Damage Assessments
- Ecological and biological monitoring and sampling.
- Environmental Assessments
- Environmental Impact Statements