Beginning in 2012, WET contracted with a law firm to provide investigative services and expert witness testimony for civil actions being brought against several large concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in the western US. Preliminary work involved evaluating existing environmental sample data and historical records and designing and implementing large-scale soil and groundwater investigations at the facilities. The data collected during WET’s soil and groundwater investigations were validated in accordance with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Contract Laboratory Program (CLP) National Functional Guidelines for Superfund Inorganic Review, and they have been and continue to be utilized by several other experts in the cases.
WETs current work on this project includes providing expert testimony regarding the potential sources, extent, magnitude, and fate and transport of soil and groundwater impacts resulting from facility operations, as well as developing conceptual designs for and estimating costs of several remediation options.