Area of Interest (AOI)
Long-Term Remediation Management and
Optimization
Exit Strategy Development and Evaluation
Remedial or corrective actions are means to an end – a site that is clean or suitable for its ultimate use. The sometimes long and arduous path to this end is not clearly defined for many sites. In fact, often little thought is given to what must be done once extraction or containment system construction is complete and operations begin. The project delivery team (PDT) needs to develop a logical approach or “exit strategy” to reaching closure or completion.
The exit strategy represents a formalized long-range process for taking the site from its current state to closure or to its best long-term use. The strategy represents a plan to actively manage the site and make decisions at various points to best tailor the remediation and monitoring efforts. The strategy is best developed with regard to stakeholder and regulatory agency concerns, resource constraints, and technical realities, and includes well-defined means to measure progress and a desired timeline.
A well-written exit strategy contains:
- a statement of the remediation goals, a description of the future site land use,
- a decision tree, flow chart, or defined sequence of remedial activities,
- a clearly established process to evaluate performance measures relative to decision parameters,
- provisions for periodic re-evaluation of the project goals and technologies, and
- a means to verify clean up following cessation of active remediation.
Periodic reviews of overall site performance should include an evaluation of the exit strategy.
Resources:
Tools:
Example Exit Strategy (to be developed) |
