EJQ4 - Spring 2025 - Journal - Page 28
CONTAMINATED SITE INVESTIGATORS and remediation professionals
aren’t necessarily arti昀椀cial intelligence (AI) experts or even AI enthusiasts. But writing and reviewing environmental site assessment reports,
advising and executing remediations on brown昀椀eld sites across Canada is
a part of the job—and the advent of AI presents exciting opportunities to
transform how we approach data-intensive tasks.
As environmental engineers we are excited to explore and recognize the
potential of using AI to streamline the preparation of reports that follow established templates and are repetitive in nature. As a result, we’re
pleased to share our team’s experience in developing and implementing
an AI-assisted solution to support the preparation of Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) reports, highlighting the resources required, challenges faced, and lessons learned along the way.
Overview of ESAs
A Phase 1 ESA is primarily a desktop background review of a property to
determine if there are potential contaminating activities from current or
historical uses, based on observations and documentation. Its purpose
is to identify areas of potential environmental concern and assess
E N V I RON M E N T J OURN A L QUA RT E RLY RE PORT • S PRI N G 2 0 2 5 • P AGE 2 8
