EKI Celebrates World Environment Day (Story Map, 2 June 2025)

In celebration of World Environment Day 2025, EKI created an interactive Story Map web page that highlights EKI’s commitment to making a positive impact by solving environmental, water resources, and engineering challenges via the story of a contaminated site cleanup in Emeryville, CA. 

This former industrial Site is approximately 1.75 acres in the heart of Emeryville, CA and is owned by the Successor Agency to the City of Emeryville Redevelopment Agency (Agency).  EKI is assisting the Agency with remediation, reuse, and redevelopment of this property for the City’s corporation yard under oversight by the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC).  

Significant historical industrial land uses at the Site included a calculating machine manufacturing facility (1920s to the mid-1960s) and a valve manufacturing facility (mid-1960s to 1990s).  EKI geospatially placed historical aerials and fire insurance maps and overlaid chemical, lithological, and geophysical data to guide remedial investigations and to develop a complex conceptual site model (CSM).  Based on the CSM, EKI developed a remedial action plan, which underwent substantial public participation via DTSC’s and California Environmental Quality Act’s (CEQA’s) community engagement process.  One component of the DTSC-approved remedy included excavation of contaminated soil and backfill with clean import fill. 

EKI’s World Environment Day 2025 Story Map web page tells the Site’s history and soil excavation story through the combination of static imagery, interactive maps, and dashboard generated statistical charts that are easy to access and navigate by the community, regulators, and client.  Fostered public engagement promotes better community understanding of the positive impact of Site remediation and facilitates community buy-in during ongoing Site remediation.  The curated maps and dashboard used for this public-facing Story Map stem from geospatial analysis and visualization and data management & integration work conducted on ESRI and EQuIS platforms/systems in conjunction with EKI’s Environmental Services for the Site.

Outcome

This collaboration between the Agency and EKI showcases the nimbleness of geospatial analysis and visualization tools; powerful compilation of diverse geospatial data to build complex CSMs that can be manipulated to approachable and relatable Story Maps that foster community outreach and support.