HRA assists attorneys, agencies, and environmental and engineering firms with determining which entities should contribute to cleanup costs for contaminated sites. Our historical research into corporate ownership and succession, land ownership, methods and volumes of production, and sources of possible contamination plays a key role in identifying potentially responsible parties (PRPs).

Using corporate records, industry trade journals, title searches, aerial photographs, and archived and published production records, we trace the historical use of a site such as a uranium mine or a manufacturing plant, often in conjunction with the environmental restoration of the site and its surrounding area. We then produce well-researched reports, complete with graphics and maps, that are used to identify contributors to contamination and to bring additional parties into cost allocations.

HRA has conducted historical investigations of contaminated sites in Montana, Idaho, Washington, Utah, Texas, Alaska, Missouri, Kansas, Virginia, New York, and New Jersey.

Topics of research include:

• Subsurface and surface ownership
• Corporate ownership changes
• Operational and production history of mines, mills, and factories
• History of production methods
• Government role in wartime industry