Course Description

This course was designed for LSRPs and other environmental professionals who are seeking an introduction to environmental forensics methods with an emphasis on real world applications. The course is structured around environmental media, including groundwater, storm water, sediment, and soil. Course instructors will provide an overview of both introductory methods and options for more complex statistical analyses. Case studies will illustrate best practices for exploring data and developing lines of evidence that support arguments for source apportionment, cost allocation, and site-specific background screening levels in both regulatory and litigation contexts.

Attendees will learn how to tailor sampling designs to provide information that is amenable to environmental forensics, and will develop a greater understanding of the types of data evaluation methods that are commonly used, along with their strengths and limitations. Working knowledge of environmental chemistry and introductory statistics is desirable but not a pre-requisite.

Featured Topics

• Source profiling of metals and petroleum hydrocarbons in groundwater
• Chlorinated/brominated/fluorinated compounds and isotopes
• Accounting for temporal variation
• Mixing and unmixing analysis and tools
• Chemical fingerprinting PAHs in sediment
• Redox state and bacterial activity
• Multicriteria decision analysis
• Perfluoroalkyl compound profiles – ratios, isomers, and more
• Bivariate plots, probability plots, principal components analysis

Instructors

Graham Ansell, Ph.D., is a Senior Managing Scientist with a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and more than 20 years of combined experience in pharmaceutical research and litigation support and consulting. He has provided chemical and technical support for multiple CERCLA environmental litigation cases involving lead, uranium, PCbs, PAHs, pesticides, dioxin/furans. He has extensive experience evaluating environmental forensics evidence for perfluoroalkyl compounds in the context of fate and transport investigations, allocation, and analytical chemistry method development.

Andrew Nicholson, Ph.D., is a Senior Science Advisor and geochemist with 25 years of experience assessing the environmental impacts and chemical fate at industrial facilities and mining sites. Dr. Nicholson has conducted analyses of source and mobility of petroleum hydrocarbons, metals, PCBs, and other chemicals in sediment, soil, and groundwater. His diverse, interdisciplinary experience includes predicting future water quality for the permitting of mines, fingerprinting petroleum hydrocarbons in the environment for litigation, and achieving regulatory approval of monitored natural attenuation as a remedy for metals and organic compounds in groundwater. He has authored numerous articles and book chapters, including the chapter on groundwater chemistry in the most recent edition of Groundwater and Wells, the standard reference for the water well industry.

Dreas Nielsen, M.S., is a Senior Science Advisor, with 34 years of experience specializing in quantitative analysis of environmental data. His scientific expertise is principally in the areas of sediment contamination, chemical bioaccumulation, biological effects of contaminants, and chemical transport and fate. Mr. Nielsen’s site-specific experience with environmental forensics covers a broad range of contaminants, media, transport pathways, and exposures. Throughout this diverse range of conditions, he has collected, analyzed, modeled, and presented data to support cost allocation, NRDA, ecological and human health risk assessments, and remedial investigations and feasibility studies.

Registration Fee Includes

Continental breakfast, buffet lunch, course material, continuing education certificate & free parking.

Continuing Education Credits