Rescan provides specialized services in ecological risk assessment (ERA) for mines and industrial developments. Ecological risk assessment is a rapidly evolving approach to evaluating the likelihood of adverse impacts to ecological resources which are exposed to environmental stressors. It provides vital information regarding the significance of potential ecological impacts relative to economic, social and legal considerations.

Rescan’s ecotoxicologists, aquatic ecologists, terrestrial ecologists, environmental chemists, and engineers have extensive experience conducting ERAs in BC, Canada and internationally. Our services include:

• ERA for mines as part of development planning, water quality permitting, environmental management of operations, and mine closure/reclamation
• Preliminary and detailed ERA at industrial sites to develop risk-based standards and to obtain regulatory approvals
• Risk-based sediment quality assessment and management
• Design and evaluation of toxicity testing programs

Our supporting expertise includes:

• Design, implementation and interpretation of field studies
• Development of models to forecast contaminant fate, transport and bioaccumulation
• Toxicity assessment for heavy metals, anions, coagulants/flocculants, organochlorines and petroleum hydrocarbons
• Deterministic and probabilistic risk characterization
• Modeling to link risk estimates to population-level responses
• Environmental decision analysis

At Rescan we realize the importance of tailoring the scope of an ecological risk assessment to client needs. We employ a phased approach which includes problem formulation to identify stressors of concern, followed by screening level ERA, and, if necessary, more detailed assessment methods. Communication with regulatory agencies is initiated early in the process to ensure that the assessment approach will adequately address agency concerns.