01
Rebound after the first wet season
Metals stored in sediment and waste remobilize with high flows. A dry-season pass can reverse within months.
How the design catches it
Criteria require campaigns across both seasons.
Latin American remediation
- Mining
- Oil & gas
- Environmental teams
- Closure teams
Evidence that remediation delivers.
Independent monitoring of water, soil and ecological recovery. Build on existing studies with evidence your team can use for closure, regulatory and lender review.
KEA measures recovery against agreed criteria, independently of the remediation works.
KEA · Recovery recordIllustrative
Reach R-03 vs. 6 reference sites- Water & sedimentPartial
- Soil & groundwaterMeets criterion
- Channel & riparianRecovering
- Aquatic lifeBelow criterion
Technology verification
Verification for the treatment in place.
Select a technology to see what KEA measures.
- 01
Covers and capping
What we verifyInfiltration through the cover, cover integrity, and seepage chemistry beneath and downgradient.
- 02
Permeable reactive barriers
What we verifyGroundwater chemistry upgradient and downgradient of the barrier, reactive media performance over time and bypass around it.
- 03
Constructed wetlands and passive treatment
What we verifyInflow and outflow loads, alkalinity generation, metal retention and performance in wet and dry seasons.
- 04
In-situ stabilization
What we verifyLeachability and mobility before and after treatment, and long-term geochemical stability.
- 05
Bioremediation and landfarming
What we verifyHydrocarbon fraction decay, moisture and nutrient conditions, and end-point confirmation sampling.
- 06
Excavation and dredging
What we verifyConfirmation sampling at the limits, residual contamination and resuspension downstream during works.
- 07
Monitored natural attenuation
What we verifyThree lines of evidence: declining trends, geochemical indicators of degradation and a stable or shrinking plume.
- 08
Revegetation and channel works
What we verifyPlant survival, native cover, bank stability and channel form against the design and reference reaches.
Frameworks
Local requirements. A traceable record.
Explore the instruments and quality benchmarks relevant to each country.
BRBrazilPRAD and TAC
Degraded-area recovery plans and conduct adjustment agreements define what must be restored. Federal water classes and soil and groundwater guiding values set the benchmarks.
Instrument
- Decree 97.632/1989
- Law 7.347/1985
Quality benchmarks
- CONAMA 357/2005
- CONAMA 420/2009
PEPeruClosure and abandonment plans
Mine closure plans backed by financial guarantees, and hydrocarbon abandonment plans, commit operators to physical, chemical and biological stability.
Instrument
- Law 28090, amended by Law 31347
- DS 039-2014-EM
Quality benchmarks
- Water ECA, DS 004-2017-MINAM
- Soil ECA, DS 011-2017-MINAM
- Contaminated sites, DS 012-2017-MINAM
CLChileSMA programs and mine closure
Compliance programs and reparation plans before the Superintendency of the Environment, and closure plans, set goals and indicators that must be reported.
Instrument
- Law 20.417, SMA arts. 42–43
- Law 20.551
Quality benchmarks
- Basin and lake secondary quality norms, where they exist
ARArgentinaEnvironmental recomposition
Whoever causes environmental damage is strictly liable for restoring the prior state, or for compensation where that is not technically feasible. Provinces and courts can set the terms.
Instrument
- Law 25.675, art. 28
Quality benchmarks
- Decree 831/93, Annex II guide levels (Law 24.051)
- provincial rules
Also structured for lender and industry review
- IFC Performance Standards 1, 3 and 6
- WBG EHS Guidelines for mining and onshore oil and gas (2007)
- Equator Principles (EP4)
- ICMM Integrated Mine Closure, 3rd ed. (2025)
- Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management
References are general and not legal advice. The competent authority decides whether an obligation has been met.
The method
Recovery, measured across four lines of evidence.
Track water, soil, habitat and aquatic life against their own criteria. Explore an illustrative recovery record below.
01
Site model first.
Sources, release mechanisms, pathways and receptors are mapped before sampling. The model decides where to sample and what to measure.
02
Reference, not assumption.
Reference sites are matched on geology, altitude, flow regime and catchment. In mineralized Andean basins, natural arsenic and metal levels can exceed national standards, so the record separates background from impact.
03
Before and after, impact and control.
A before-after, control-impact (BACI) design separates the effect of the works from season, hydrology and upstream activity.
04
Equivalence, not absence of difference.
“No significant difference” from a small sample proves little. Where the data allow, KEA tests whether the site falls within an agreed margin of reference and reports the statistical power behind each conclusion.
05
Criteria and triggers agreed up front.
Thresholds, consecutive-campaign rules and early-warning triggers for corrective action are proposed before monitoring begins.
06
Validated before it counts.
KEA is not a laboratory. Its scientists validate every laboratory and field result against blanks, duplicates, spikes, holding times and reporting limits, and flag its usability before it enters the record.
When the evidence is insufficient, the record says so and asks for more.
Fast to respond, quick to rebound.
Dissolved zinc · µg/L · log scale
- Impacted reach, downstream
- Reference P10–P90, 6 sites
- Applicable standard (illustrative)
- Wet-season campaign
- Works
- 1Works: sediment resuspension
- 2First-flush rebound
Latest campaign · 202596µg/LPartial
Criterion
At or below the reference P90 in 3 consecutive campaigns, wet and dry
3/3
Parameters
Field: pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, ORP, turbidity. Laboratory: TSS, sulfate, alkalinity, hardness; dissolved (0.45 µm filtered) and total metals such as Zn, Cu, Cd, As and Pb; TPH, BTEX and PAHs where hydrocarbons are involved. Sediment: metals normalized to grain size and organic carbon.
Methods
Paired upstream–downstream stations every wet and dry season, with event sampling after high flows. Continuous sondes for pH, conductivity and turbidity at key stations. Field blanks and duplicates in every campaign.
Illustrative
Where recovery claims fail
Stronger evidence under review.
Account for seasonal change, natural background and data quality from the outset.
03
A reference that shares the impact
Upstream activity, roads or artisanal mining can degrade control sites and make the impacted reach look recovered.
How the design catches it
Reference sites screened every campaign and replaced when compromised.
05
eDNA read as abundance
eDNA confirms presence, can carry DNA from upstream and depends on the reference library. It does not count populations.
How the design catches it
eDNA as a complement to standardized field sampling.
02
One good season read as recovery
Low flows dilute or concentrate. A single favorable result says more about hydrology than about the works.
How the design catches it
Consecutive-campaign rules, set before monitoring.
04
Detection limits above the criterion
A “not detected” result proves nothing if the method cannot see the threshold.
How the design catches it
Reporting limits checked against every criterion before sampling.
06
Natural background read as contamination
Mineralized geology can keep arsenic or copper above national standards before any operation existed.
How the design catches it
Background characterized from comparable unaffected sites.
Where you start
Ordered, planned or inherited.
Turn existing commitments into a clear monitoring program, with indicators, reference sites and reporting milestones.
After an incident
Ordered remediation
A spill, a tailings release or an unpermitted intervention. A regulator, prosecutor, court or settlement defines what must be restored and how it will be judged.
KEA delivers
- Terms set by
- Authority, court or settlement
- KEA delivers
- Conceptual site model: sources, pathways, receptors
- Obligation-to-indicator matrix
- Reference sites where no baseline exists
- Reports on the authority’s calendar
By design
Planned restoration & closure
River diversions, realigned channels, pipeline rights-of-way, and mine closure or hydrocarbon abandonment plans commit the operation to restoring what it disturbed.
KEA delivers
- Terms set by
- Approved plan, permit or license
- KEA delivers
- Baseline across wet and dry seasons before works
- Before-and-after data for every works phase
- Evidence against closure criteria and guarantee milestones
Inherited
Legacy liabilities
Historic sites, acquired assets and long-running monitoring obligations where the original data is incomplete, inconsistent or held by someone else.
KEA delivers
- Terms set by
- Existing commitments and their reviewers
- KEA delivers
- Data review: methods, detection limits, laboratories, chain of custody
- Natural background separated from the impact
- A record that continues instead of restarting
When the data doesn’t show recovery, the record says so.
Why KEA
Independent evidence. Integrated with your team.
Strengthen existing monitoring with scientific interpretation, traceability and control over who can access the results.
Independent of the works
No earthworks and no engineering contract. Our only deliverable is the evidence.
Scientists in the loop
A designated senior scientist makes the calls data alone can’t: whether a reach recovered or had a good season, and whether an exceedance reflects the works, background or another source.
Traceable by design
Each result links to its sample, chain of custody, laboratory, method and date, so reviewers can follow it back to the field.
Your data, your control
The operation owns the record and decides who sees it: authority, court-appointed expert, lender or community.
The field network
Already in the watersheds where the work is.
Hydrologists, hydrogeologists, geochemists, aquatic ecologists and soil scientists, with local providers for sampling, eDNA, drone and sensor data, and laboratories selected for each method, at the site and along the affected watershed.
The network started in Latin America, where many mining and oil and gas operations sit inside highly biodiverse watersheds and remediation is watched by regulators, courts and the communities downstream.
- Hydrology
- Hydrogeology
- Geochemistry
- Aquatic ecology
- Soil science
- eDNA
- Drone & remote sensing
How we work together
From existing studies to closure evidence.
Join at any stage. Agree the scope and build on the work already in place.
- 01Before works
Scoping
Review the order, permit or plan, the existing data and the reporting calendar. Build the site model and agree indicators, reference sites, scope and investment.
Deliverables- Conceptual site model
- Obligation-to-indicator matrix
- Recovery criteria and triggers
- 02Before each phase
Baseline
Measure impacted and reference sites across wet and dry seasons, so every works phase has a before.
Deliverables- Sampling and analysis plan
- Reference and statistical design
- 03Every campaign
Recovery monitoring
Field and remote campaigns after each phase, with triggers checked every time and results reported on the authority’s schedule.
Deliverables- Validated campaign data
- Regulator-ready reports
- 04When criteria hold
Sign-off
Assemble the evidence that every line met its criterion across the required campaigns.
Deliverables- Sign-off dossier
Do you do the remediation works?
No. KEA does not design, build or operate remediation; engineering and earthworks contractors do. That separation is what makes the record independent.
Do you replace the regulator, auditor or court-appointed expert?
No. KEA produces evidence and technical support, and the competent authority decides whether an obligation has been met. Auditors and experts can review the full record. This is not legal advice.
Are you a laboratory?
No. Analyses are run by laboratories selected for each method. KEA’s scientist teams design the sampling, validate every result, integrate the lines of evidence and interpret what they show.
Can you verify a specific remediation technology?
Yes. KEA designs performance verification for covers, reactive barriers, passive treatment, stabilization, bioremediation, excavation, natural attenuation and revegetation, and reports whether each met its design objective.
The damage happened years ago and nobody took a baseline. Can you still help?
Yes. Reference sites with comparable geology and hydrology stand in for the missing baseline, historical data is used where its quality allows, and the record states what can and cannot be concluded.
A result exceeds the criterion. What happens?
The record says so. It checks whether the exceedance reflects the works, natural background, season, an upstream source or the analysis itself, and the agreed trigger sets the next step: a confirmation campaign, a source investigation or corrective works by the responsible team.
Can you work with our current consultants and data?
Yes. KEA reviews existing data for methods, detection limits and chain of custody, keeps what holds up and documents what doesn’t, so the record continues instead of restarting.
Do you work on hydrocarbon spills?
Yes. Monitoring covers TPH fractions, BTEX and PAHs in soil, groundwater, surface water and sediment, plus the recovery of habitat and aquatic life. The cleanup itself is done by specialized contractors.
Can the record support releasing a financial guarantee?
It can provide the evidence the authority reviews. Whether and when a guarantee is released remains the authority’s decision.
KEA provides evidence and technical support. It is not a laboratory, regulator, auditor or certification body, and this page is not legal advice. Charts are illustrative.
Show that the restoration held.
For the regulator, the court, the lender and the community downstream. Tell us about the obligation and we’ll scope the evidence it needs.
Discuss a project