Environment (General) Consultants

Dr. Richard Troast, is the Principal for Troast Environmental Consulting (TEC).  Dr.Troast is a recognized toxicology expert in assessing the risks of lead and other hazardouus chemicals to children and adults. Dr. Troast has successfully represented clients in both State and Federal District Court and has been accepted as an expert under both Frye and Daubert standards. Dr. Troast retired as a senior scientist within the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER). In the EPA program Dr. Troast chaired both the Lead and Asbestos review programs which provided technical oversight to localities conducting cleanup actions.  He was the recipient of several EPA awards for outstanding contributions during his tenure with the Agency. . View Expert Witness Profile

TOXICULL Associates provides technical support to industries involving Chemical, Drug and Alcohol, and Environmental Toxicology issues. TOXICULL Associates provides the following consulting services:

• Therapeutic and Environmental Chemical Exposure Evaluations
• Site Inspections
• Health and Environmental Data Acquisition
• Fire- Assoicated Health Assessments
• Technical In-service Development

Dr. John P. Bederka, PhD, Director at TOXICULL, has over 30 years of experience as a Toxicologist with specialized knowledge of Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Neuropharmacology. Dr. Bederka served as Section Head of Toxicology and Therapeutic Drug Monitoring for the Abraham Lincoln School of Medicine at the University of Illinois Medical Center. His practice covers Occupational Exposure, Residential Exposure, Adverse Health Effects, and Chemical Substances of Abuse.

Dr. Bederka has written extensively on the subjects of chemical, drug and alcohol, and environmental toxicology. His consulting services were called upon for the Exxon Valdez oil spill and his recent work involves chemicals in Hydrofracking Fluids in Shale Gas extraction.

View Dr. Bederka's Expert Witness Profile.

Dr. Liz Bentley is one of the world's leading Weather Experts. Former Chief Instructor of Forecasting at the Met Office College, she is the ultimate Climate Change Forecaster.

Her training began in 1994 at the Met Office College, the United Kingdom's meteorological training institute. After forecasting for the Royal Air Force and managing a weather unit for the British Army, Dr. Bentley worked as the BBC Weather Centre Manager, where she was in charge of 30 Met Office employees and was responsible for managing the contract between the BBC and the Met Office to provide Weather Data, Weather Warnings, and Weather Presenters. Prior to RMetS, Dr. Bentley worked for the Ministry of Defence's environmental research programme where she became one of the UK's top Aviation Forecast Specialists.

Dr. Bentley is Head of Communications at the Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS), where she is responsible for brand awareness, corporate communication through media, promotional material, public engagement, and membership development. While at the RMetS she has produced numerous corporate publications, implemented intiatives to increase society membership and addressed many enquiries from the media and general public on weather and climate related issues. Dr. Bentley founded the public membership organisation theWeather Club, in 2010, to promote an appreciation and understanding of weather.

Areas of Expertise:

Climate Change

Weather Forecasting

Noise Prediction

Aviation Forecasting

Robin D. Franks, PG, CHMM, RSO has over 25 years of relevant industry experience as a professional Geoscientist / Geologist and Certified Hazardous Materials Manager. Ms. Franks has been the President, Founding Principal, and Managing Director of TGE Resources, Inc., for over 19 years. Her specialties include Real Property Assessment and Characterization, Clean-up, and Closure in the commercial, industrial, oil and gas, and healthcare industries.

Consulting Services Include:

• Real Property Assessment
• Industrial Compliance Auditing
• Oil and Gas Real Estate Clean-up
• Well Blow-out / Underground Storage Tank Project Management
• Redevelopment, Clean Closure Services
• Asbestos - Sick Building Management
• Lead-based Paint Management
• Industrial Hygiene / Indoor Environmental Quality - Mold / Fungus Assessment, Testing, and Remediation

Ms. Franks has been actively involved in more than 35 "merger/acquisition" projects encompassing over 750 sites nationwide. As senior Technical Advisor, she has been involved in thousands of real property investigations, many of which have involved remediation/closure projects within Texas and throughout the United States.

Ms. Franks is a professional lecturer who delivers presentations and instruction throughout the United States.

View Dr. Franks' Expert Witness Profile.

TCE Consulting Engineers Limited (TCE) is one of India's leading Engineering Consulting Organizations. TCE offers a wide range of multi-disciplinary services in project engineering across several sectors. The firm has completed more than 4500 assignments, including the engineering of several power plants with total installed capacity of over 41,000MW, several large urban water supply and waste water projects, as well as those for smaller towns, facilities inside battery limits and offsite facilities for several chemical and industrial plants.

TCE has highly qualified and experienced professionals on its rolls. Design offices are located in several cities in India - Mumbai, Bangalore, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune and Jamshedpur, and a branch office in the USA and South Africa.

TCE has successfully carried out several assignments overseas — in South East Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia Pacific, Australia and the Americas.

TCE has done projects funded by:

• World Bank
• Asian Development Bank
• United Nations Development Programme
• Japan Bank for International Cooperation
• United Nations Industrial Development Organization
• World Health Organization
• United States Agency for International Development

Services Include:

• Environmental Impact Assessment
• Environmental Survey & Consultations
• Environmental Data Analysis & GIS mapping
• Environmental Sampling, Monitoring & Pollution Analysis (Air, Water & Soil)
• Environmental Clearance & Liaison with Statutory Authorities
• Industrial Site Visits and Identification of Suitable Waste Disposal Sites & Methodologies

John Booth, the Principal Consultant and Practice Director of Sylvanus Arboricultural Consultants Ltd., is a Chartered Aboricuturalist and Chartered Environmentalist and one of the UK’s most widely qualified Arboricultural Consultants. He has over 25 years experience in both the private and public sectors and has written numerous articles and papers for respected publications including the International Journal of Urban Forestry for which he is also a referee.

Mr. Booth and Sylvanus Ltd. are regularly instructed by both developers and Local Planning Authorities (LPA’s) who are keen to ensure a satisfactory outcome from the planning process, (i.e. an appropriate balance between tree retention and realizing a site's development potential). All such work is carried out in accordance with the guiding principles of British Standard 5837 ‘Trees in Relation to Construction – Recommendations.’

Mr. Booth is a Bond Solon/Cardiff University trained Expert Witness and a member of the Expert Witness Institute. He has many years experience in both courtroom and planning enquiries.

Services Include:

Tree Inspection & Survey - Single Tree, Large Population, Mortgage Lending, Safety and Subsidence Issues

Tree Preservation Orders (TPO's) and Conservation Areas - Detailed Specifications for Tree Work Applications for Trees with Statutory Protection

Trees and Development - Tree Surveys for Submission with Planning Applications
Tree Constraints Plans (TCP’s)
Tree Protection Plans (TPP’s)
Arboricultural Impact Assessments (AIA)
Arboricultural Method Statements (AMS)

Ted W. Simon, PhD, DABT, is an award winning Environmental Toxicologist and Scientist. His expertise is in toxicology, risk assessment, mathematical modeling, statistics, neuroscience, and environmental / ecological health issues.

Dr. Simon has over 10 years of experience as a toxicologist employed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He served as EPA’s senior toxicologist in the waste management division working on risk and soil cleanup.

Teaching Experience - Since 2001, Dr. Simon has served as an Instructor / Adjunct Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Science, College of Public Health, at the University of Georgia.

Public Speaker - Well published, including the author of a textbook on toxicology and environmental risk assessment, Dr. Simon has extensive national and international public speaking experience. Since 1996, he has been delivering seminars and lectures to universities and national institutes on many subjects within his area of expertise. In 2016, he delivered a lectures on “Bayesian Methods for Application of Uncertainty Factors,” to the Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, and “Quantitative Prediction of Phenotypic Change from High Throughput Assay Results,” to the EPA's Workshop on In Vitro to In Vivo Extrapolation, Research Triangle Park, NC.

Litigation Support - Dr. Simon has over 15 years of experience offering expert witness services to counsel representing both plaintiff and defendant. He has been retained over 20 times since 2000 for cases involving environmental risk, drug and alcohol cases, DUI, accidental poisoning, and intellectual property. Dr. Simon has particular expertise in dioxin-like chemicals and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). His services include consulting, reports, deposition, and trial testimony when necessary.

Areas of Expertise:

Dioxins PCBs Drugs Alcohol Poisoning DUI / DWI Water Contamination Soil Contamination Environmental Risk Assessment

Environmental Toxicology Carcinogenicity Food Contamination Pesticides Fracking Lead Marijuana Polychlorinated Biphenyls Intellectual Property

Sean Wilson, MS, PG, CEG, has over 25 years of experience in performing Geologic and Geotechnical Forensic Engineering investigations. Mr. Wilson currently serves as a Senior Professional Geologist at Shannon & Wilson, Inc. He holds a professional engineering geologist license in California and a professional geologist license in Utah. Mr. Wilson has broad experience in numerous industries. He has completed or project managed over a 1,000 forensic evaluations of distressed properties in California, Utah and Oregon for insurance carriers. For the construction industry, Mr. Wilson's work in residential/commercial/public works development projects include trench and drilling exploration, down-hole logging, geotechnical laboratory testing, slope stability analysis, fault trench logging, foundation and keyway observations, fill control, mass grading monitoring. He has also provided planning and environmental impact reports for several cities and counties throughout California. Litigation Support - Mr. Wilson provides consultation services to attorneys, judges, arbitrators, insurance companies, and others in the evaluation and remediation of soil related distress to structures, earth movement, seismicity, and other matters related to adverse soil, geologic, or hydrologic conditions. His services are available to counsel representing both Plaintiff and Defendant. Areas of Expertise:

• Forensic Investigations
• Damage Causation Evaluations
• Geologic and Geotechnical Investigations
• Landslide Investigations and Mitigation
• Geologic Hazard Assessments
• Environmental Impact Report (EIR) Preparation
• Environmental Planning
• Observation and Monitoring of Engineered Grading and Construction Projects

View Sean Wilson's Expert Witness Profile.

Joseph H. Guth, PhD, CIH, has in-depth expertise in many fields of Toxic and Hazard Assessment, as well as a very broad background in both academia and industry. A Chemist and Biochemist, he is the President and Principal expert of Scientific and Forensic Services, Inc.

Background Experience - Having a broad range of in-depth experience in numerous fields of science, Dr. Guth has owned and operated several testing and R&D laboratories over a 50 year period, including nationally-known Interscience Research Inc. In basic and applied research, university teaching and finally as Laboratory Director, his scientific expertise was developed first-hand in the many specialties that his laboratories were called upon to perform.

Litigation Support - Dr. Guth has offered his independent expertise in 100s of civil and criminal cases since 1979. He has also been a consultant and peer reviewer for EPA and NIOSH. He currently specializes in Toxic Torts and related matters both inside and outside of the workplace. He has numerous regular nationwide clients in the legal profession and the insurance industry.

Attorneys throughout the U.S. have found Dr. Guth's ability to examine, test and evaluate their cases and the evidence to be invaluable. If desired he can provide multifaceted support for many kinds of cases. Examples of his broad expertise also involve such issues as Standards of Industry, state-of-the-art, duty-to-warn, warning labeling and applicable governmental regulations.

Services - Consulting, retrospective hazardous exposure assessments, site inspections and sampling, some testing and examination services, reports, research & development, and court testimony.

Areas of Expertise:

• CHEMISTRY - Analytical, Environmental, Inorganic, Metallurgical, Organic, Polymer, Biochemistry, Forensic, Atmospheric and Compressed Gases, Nuclear Chemistry, Food and Pharmaceutical Analysis; Water Testing, Industrial Process Troubleshooting
• INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE - Comprehensive Practice, OSHA Compliance, Toxicology, Carcinogen Exposure, Hazardous Exposure Risk Assessment, Exposure Modeling, Asbestos Issues, Lead Poisoning Issues, Pesticide Poisoning, Solvent Exposure, Indoor Air Quality Evaluation, Microbiology, Mold, Physical Stressors, Radiation Exposures, Safety Assessment, Material Safety Data Sheet Development
• MATERIAL SCIENCE - Properties and Strength of Various Materials, such as Metals, Plastics and Other Polymers, Glass, Textiles, Masonry, Construction Materials; Failure Mechanisms of Materials, Product Designs and Safety
• OTHER FIELDS - Labeling and Duty to Warn Issues, Quality Assurance Program Evaluations, Environmental Impact, Industry Standards, State-of-the-Art Issues, Governmental Regulatory Issues, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Requirements, U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission Issues, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Issues

Norman Dotti, PE, PP, INCE has worked as a consulting Acoustical Engineer for over 40 years. While the majority of his work is in the NJ-NY-CT-PA-MD area, he has done work throughout the United States and internationally.

As a practicing Acoustical Engineer since 1971, Mr. Dotti has direct experience with Sound and Vibration Measurement, Analysis, Control, and Engineering Project Management. He has worked with clients from industry, all levels of government, associations, military, as well as private individuals, and community groups. He is currently serving as a Governor-appointed member of the NJ State Noise Control Council.

Mr. Dotti has developed courses for and taught at the U.S. Department of Labor's OSHA Training Institute, Des Plaines, IL, for over ten years. His Advanced Noise Control course has been presented to hundreds of OSHA industrial hygienists and safety compliance officers, military personnel, Coast Guard and Postal Service employees, and labor and industry representatives.

Consulting Services:

• Environmental sound and vibration measurements
• Assessment and design of new projects, including shopping centers, manufacturing facilities, and residential developments
• Acoustical modeling (computer models of proposed projects)
• Authentication and enhancement of voice recordings (analog and digital)
• Training courses in sound and vibration measurement and control
• Transportation sound; aircraft, rail and marine, with an emphasis on helicopters
• Review of proposed projects for governing bodies (e.g., consultant to review boards)
• Works with experts in other fields on large engineering and architectural projects to integrate sound and vibration controls

View Norman Dotti's Expert Witness Profile.

Dr. Dennis Stainken has over 30 years of Industrial and Government experience managing Pollution Control and Hazardous Waste Projects. His experience includes assignments in engineering, analytical and toxicology sciences for regulatory compliance, product registration, risk assessment, technology development.

Dr. Stainken is a national expert in Environmental Toxicology & Ecological Research on the transport, fate and effect of pollutants, and in quality assurance in government and industry.

Areas of Expertise:

Health Effects Toxicology Chemical Exposure Health Issues/Physiology/Chemistry Water & Waste Water Ecological Services Contamination & Remediation Analytical Chemistry

Natural Resource Damage Assessments Property Assessments Hazardous Waste Water Quality Risk Assessment Wetlands Industrial Services Gasoline & Oil Issues

Thomas R. Piazza, CCM, President and CEO of Murray and Trettel, Incorporated, brings to the company more than 35 years of experience in the field of Meteorology with more than 20 years in positions of management. He joined Murray and Trettel in 1975 after four years of experience as a Weather Officer in the U.S. Air Force.

In 1987, Mr. Piazza was named President of the Operational Forecast Division, in 1991, Executive Vice President of the Company and in 2001, President and CEO. In addition to his administrative responsibilities as President, he is a Certified Consulting Meteorologist holding Certificate #661.

Dr. David L. Mitchell is an authority on the Numerical Modeling of Geophysical and Atmospheric Data with a Doctorate in Meteorology from Purdue University. Dr. Mitchell has over 28 years of technical modeling experience in industry and consulting.

Dr. Mitchell is a Court Qualified Expert in Air Modeling and Forensic Meteorology. His business experience includes various research, project management and technical consulting positions with Conoco, Getty Oil Company, Texaco, Tenneco, British Petroleum, Leviathan Gas Pipeline LLP and IBM Corporation.

Dr. Mitchell has extensive knowledge of Forensic Meteorology and has published his research results on the numerical modeling of atmospheric stability and convection. Dr. Mitchell is an expert in the field of Air Pollution Meteorology with over 28 years of experience with the mathematical modeling of wave propagation in elastic media, atmospheric fluid dynamics and air dispersion modeling.

Dr. Mitchell is a specialist in Weather Event Re-Construction for litigation and has provided expert testimony for numerous cases related to severe weather events and the application of Force Majeure clauses. He has provided forensic meteorology support for civil and criminal investigations and insurance cases involving weather related accidents, the release of toxic pollutants into the air, air pollution and weather related personal injury and property damage.

He is a member of the Air and Waste Management Association, the American Meteorological Society and the National Association of Environmental Professionals. Dr. Mitchell is also an Associate Member of the American Bar Association with affiliation with the Litigation Division and is a Certified Professional Geoscientist and a Licensed Professional Geoscientist (#1330) in the State of Texas, Certified by the Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists.

Degrees

Ph.D., Atmospheric Science and Meteorology, Purdue University 1976

M.S., Physics, Purdue University 1974

B.S., Physics and Mathematics (Dean’s Distinguished List), Baylor University 1972

Dissertation: A Theoretical Investigation of Atmospheric Convective Modes as a Function of Rayleigh Number, Prandtl Number and Eddy Anisotropy; 1977, Meteor. Soc. Japan, Vol. 55, No. 4, 341 – 363.

Certification and Honors

Court Qualified Expert in Air Modeling and Forensic Meteorology

Certified Professional Geoscientist, Licensed Geoscientist – Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists

Associate of the Scientific Research Society of North America

Sigma Pi Sigma, National Physics Honors Society

Distinguished Expert, National Forensic Center

Tim Keane is recognized nationally and internationally as a Leading Expert on methods to Control, Mitigate and Assess the Risk for Legionella in building and industrial water systems. He has published articles and books on the subject and has co-written regulatory documents including the 2018 and the 2015 ASHRAE Standard titled: Legionellosis: Risk Management for Building Water Systems,  2005 Guidelines for Ornamental Fountains and the 2000 ASHE Advisory. Mr Keane has over 25 years experience in water system consulting and over 10 years experience in facility design, construction and operation. Legionella Risk Management, Inc. provides consulting services for Effective Engineering Solutions to Engineering System Pathogens including; outbreak investigation, root cause analysis, control and remediation of legionella from water systems in commercial buildings, healthcare and industrial facilities.   We provide Litigation Support in this area.

Philip T. Tringale, PhD, PE is a registered Professional Civil Engineer with over 25 years of Environmental Consulting experience. Dr. Tringale has served in senior technical and management positions throughout his thirty year professional career. With experience gained from a start-up consulting firm as well as from well-established engineering companies, he continues to focus his energies on leading technical projects and overseeing technical and geographic expansion activities.

Consulting Services Include:

• Site Assessment and Remediation Program Direction
• Mergers & Acquisitions Assistance
• Public Participation Programs
• Regulatory Agency Interaction
• Litigation Support for Litigation involving Source Identification, Nature and Extent of Contamination, Cost Allocation, and Compliance with the National Contingency Plan

As a registered professional engineer, Dr. Tringale has directed numerous site assessments and remediation programs involving soil and groundwater contaminated primarily by organic solvents, metals, and petroleum products. He has particular expertise in site characterization and in the use of in-situ testing to evaluate soil properties. Dr. Tringale has provided final design for remedial actions that involve excavation, containment, bioremediation, vacuum extraction, monitoring, and groundwater treatment.

Selected Projects:

• Historic Schlage Lock manufacturing complex in San Francisco which was rezoned mixed-use commercial and residential. Services included excavation of sumps and contaminated soils, and the design and installation of a soil vapor extraction system to remove volatile organic compounds
• Contra Costa Waste Service Landfill - provided monitoring, remedial planning, and design of landfill closure services for this Superfund Landfill site

View Dr. Tringale's Expert Witness Profile.