Sector: Energy / Environmental Remediation / Superfund / Infrastructure Design / Portfolio Risk Management
🛢️ The Challenge
At a legacy Superfund site managed by BP, groundwater contamination was migrating downstream from a capped source zone. The site sat upstream of extensive wetlands — ecologically sensitive and hydrologically vulnerable.
This wasn’t a theoretical risk. It was a high-priority site requiring:
- Elaborate modeling and visualization
- In-depth design and scenario testing
- Real-time decision support
- Operational implementation and long-term management
💡 The MAGNET Solution
BP deployed MAGNET4WATER to guide the entire process — from initial analysis to full-scale implementation and ongoing operation.
MAGNET enabled:
- Real-time water modeling — simulating flow paths, gradients, and contaminant migration
- Real-time analysis — assessing risk zones, receptor exposure, and treatment effectiveness
- Real-time design — testing trench geometries, hydraulic structures, and flow-through treatment options
- Real-time scenario planning — evaluating seasonal recharge, storm events, and long-term climate variability
The result: a strategically placed trench system that:
- Intercepts contaminated groundwater
- Treats it in situ
- Releases clean water downstream through a controlled hydraulic structure
- Preserves wetland hydrology and ecological function
This system was not just designed — it was built, commissioned, and remains in operation today, with MAGNET continuing to support adaptive management and performance optimization.
🧠 From One Site to Global Strategy
This project demonstrated how real-time, interactive design, simulation, visualization, and analysis can drive effective groundwater remediation — not just locally, but globally.
BP operates hundreds of legacy and active sites around the world. Investigating each site from scratch is costly, slow, and inefficient.
MAGNET enables a portfolio-wide, risk-based strategy:
- Screening-level assessments to identify high-risk sites
- Prioritization based on receptor exposure, aquifer vulnerability, and contaminant mobility
- Targeted modeling and cleanup only where needed
- Standardized workflows and scalable intelligence
- Significant reductions in investigation time, cost, and environmental footprint
With live-linked big data and integrated LiDAR, MAGNET allows BP to extend and multiply this success globally — transforming environmental management from reactive to proactive.
💬 Expert Testimony
“MAGNET4WATER and IGW approach facilitates both comprehensive and collaboration to solve the toughest remediation challenges of large Superfund sites. The use of big data in fast, interactive methods is far superior to the batch application approach to the current ‘best practices’ of consultants and regulators…”
— John Pantano, Ph.D., Internal and External Technical Advisor for BP, ARCO, and ARAMCO
“MAGNET is truly in a class of its own for making real-time simulations of complex hydrogeological problems.”
— Steve Wesley, PE, LHG, Senior Environmental Engineer / Project Manager
— David Weymann, PE, CPSS, URS Corporation, Portland, Oregon
🌍 The Bigger Picture
This project isn’t just a win for one site — it’s a template for global energy leaders.
MAGNET enables:
- Real-time remediation design and implementation
- Portfolio-wide modeling and visualization
- Transparent, defensible decision-making
- Cost-effective compliance and stewardship
- Protection of ecosystems, communities, and corporate reputation
Whether it’s a Superfund site in North America, a refinery in the Middle East, or a legacy asset in South America — MAGNET delivers decision-grade intelligence at multiple scales.
This is remediation reimagined. This is MAGNET4WATER.