Groundwater Remediation Cost Estimating for Kuwait City

Earth Tech partnered with an Australian consulting company, SMEC International Pty., Ltd., to provide fact-finding and expert advisory services to the Public Authority for Assessment of Compensation for Damages Resulting from Iraqi Aggression" (PAAC), an agency of the Kuwaiti government, in pursing compensatory damages against Iraq for groundwater contamination that resulted from the war in the early 1990s. SMEC retained Earth Tech to create defensible estimates of the costs for cleaning up groundwater contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons in two aquifers located in the interior deserts of Kuwait. The aquifers, which are the only source of fresh drinking water in the country, were contaminated when Kuwait's oil fields were set ablaze near the end of the war.

Kuwait's claim for compensation was brought before the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC). The Commission was created as a claims resolution facility that could make determinations on a large number of claims in a reasonable time. As such, the Commission operates more in an administrative manner than in a litigation format. The Commission’s claims processing procedures were prescribed by the Security Council and were further elaborated by the Governing Council in a number of its decisions, which have been implemented by the panels of Commissioners. The Commission resolves common issues and develops standard valuation methods during the panels’ review of the first installment of such claims. Once relevant legal and factual precedents have been established, the panels may apply them in their review of subsequent installments of claims, thus limiting their work to the verification and valuation of the claims and the calculation of any allowable compensation.

Earth Tech was responsible for valuation of the claim for cleanup of the contaminated groundwater. The project was a quick turnaround, with only 13 days available before deadlines imposed by the UNCC. Earth Tech's environmental cost experts used the Remedial Action Cost Engineering & Requirements (RACER) system, which is developed by Earth Tech, to produce estimates of construction costs and annual operation and maintenance costs for two groundwater treatment plants. Earth Tech worked closely with other consultants to jointly solve problems concerning design of the system for extracting and treating contaminated groundwater, and conveying the treated water to Kuwait City. The treatment plants include metals precipitation, coagulation/flocculation, clarification, air stripping, and carbon polishing to clean the water to a level suitable for drinking.

Our experts used Earth Tech's proprietary RACER-DS system to transform the cost estimates into discounted cash flow models. The more than $217 million in estimates, along with a 140 page report, were delivered on time. PAAC and its legal counsel successfully presented Earth Tech's estimates to the UNCC; Earth Tech provided support in defending the estimates and answering interrogatories from the UNCC commissioners and technical experts for the opposing side.