When you start digging around in the past, you’re never quite sure where it will lead. And that was certainly true for Grossman & Associates. They started out using new technology to help archeologists and end up working with hazardous materials at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund sites.
In 1976, the Division of Dams for the State of New Jersey requested Rutgers University direct the archaeological investigation of future dam locations. Two years later, Grossman was picked to direct the government’s first major work stoppage due to the unexpected discovery of critical archaeological discoveries in the path of ongoing $100 million construction.
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The firm dealt with federal emergencies until 1989 when it was selected by the EPA and Army to plan and direct the first archaeological hazmat teams. This work lasted until 1997, most of which dealt with nuclear problems and was classified.
And that was a first. Officially it was the Hazmat Archaeology Superfund team and contended with materials such as cadmium, arsenic, unexploded ordnance, PCBs, organic toxins and high levels of radioactivity.
The all-weather team was capable of total real-time 3D data control and concurrent on-site decontamination and chemical conservation of excavated artifacts.
That means they were the first tactical deployment of ground-penetrating radar to map a buried city, the first 3D laser and infrared computer transit, and the first single-camera 3D Rolleimetric photogrammetry.
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They developed intense marine and terrestrial geophysical survey to target prehistoric and historic archaeological sites. They developed target-specific historic-GIS to tie historic 18th and 19th century maps to the satellites for targeted definition and discovery. They deployed fully integrated, real-time, quantified 3D x, y, z data control and artifact database systems; deployed the first generation of true-color terrestrial lidar; and deployed in sub-freezing conditions.
The team’s biggest win came as part of the first major archaeological definition and documentation of a highly contaminated-Cadmium-laced Superfund remediation site. That site was at the Civil War-era site of West Point Foundry, in Cold Spring, N.Y., on the Hudson River, opposite West Point Academy.
The team’s biggest challenge was deploying advanced applied technology strategies to safely and expeditiously address complex Superfund and federal work stoppages.
