Ecologia well placed after winning major contract

Ecologia, the environmental consultancy and contractor based at Kent Science Park, near Sittingbourne, has successfully secured a major drilling contract close to the former nuclear research facility at Harwell in Oxfordshire.

After beating a number of the country’s largest environmental companies, the team at Ecologia is getting ready to start drilling work on eight deep monitoring wells at three locations close to the former nuclear site.

The contract is part of a programme of work being carried out by Research Site Restoration Ltd (RSRL) on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) to deal with chemical contamination of groundwater.

Giacomo Maini, Managing Director of Ecologia, said: “We are obviously delighted to have been awarded the contract and we are confident that it will be the first of many with RSRL.

“Despite the economic slowdown, 2009 was a better year for us than 2008 and contracts such as the one at Harwell, as well as the work of our recently opened offices in Northern Ireland, suggest 2010 will see further sales growth for Ecologia.”

James Speck, Site Director at Kent Science Park, said: “Ecologia’s ongoing success is something all of Kent can be proud of. Their innovative approach and techniques they have developed are increasingly being recognised by major businesses and environmentally-focused organisations. The Harwell contract is a great job to start 2010 with.”

The plans for the decommissioning of the RSRL site at Harwell are scheduled to finish in 2064. The objectives are to make radioactive waste passively safe, transferring it off site if necessary, decommission redundant nuclear facilities and remediate contaminated land and groundwater. Once redundant buildings have been demolished the ultimate aim is to delicense the site.

The Harwell site is being cleaned up in two phases, Between 2008 and 2031 radioactive wastes will be made safe and redundant facilities decommissioned. Phase two, between 2032 and 2064, the remainder of the site will be restored to make clean land and buildings available for development.