CSS employee owners supported the deployment and operation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) air quality monitoring trailer (WEAVE COM – Western Enhanced Air quality VEhicle for COmmunity Monitoring) in California’s San Joaquin Valley in during late fall and early winter of 2024.  Elevated particulate matter (PM2.5) is frequently found throughout the valley during the wintertime when thermal inversions trap pollution. Instruments on the trailer measure criteria air pollutants, other airborne contaminants and the chemical composition of particulate matter.  The mobile lab allows scientists to collect atmospheric data to fill in gaps between existing fixed air quality monitoring stations to help identify sources and types of atmospheric PM2.5. CSS staff helped set up the trailer at the deployment site, conducted daily quality control checks on multiple instruments, and supported instrument operations throughout the deployment. 

Trailer has instruments on top for monitoring air quality
WEAVE COM air quality monitoring trailer. 
View over a valley with a fog settled between the mountains
View overlooking San Joaquin Valley during a thermal inversion episode.

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Installing Environmental Monitoring Stations

Our field crews installed/updated two environmental monitoring stations in remote locations in the Pacific Northwest. Multiple types of sensors were installed including air and soil temperature, precipitation, soil moisture and soil redox potential. These stations provide data for designing and evaluating soil remediation projects for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development. Installing…

Entrance to an abandoned mine in a hillside

Assessing Contamination in Abandoned Mines

CSS supports the Environmental Protection Agency with assessing contamination within abandoned mines. There are thousands of abandoned mines throughout the western United States. Many of these mines are leaching heavy metals into nearby streams or have contaminated soils causing vegetation die off.   CSS employee owners conduct field work to assess the extent of this contamination.…

Quality Assurance Audit Reports 

Since 1985 we’ve supported the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and have provided more than 1,600 quality assurance audit reports that the client has used to assess the quality of toxicology studies they sponsor.    Over the last year our employee owners reviewed several studies involving per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) compounds, or “forever chemicals”,…