Landfills - Sanitation Expert Witnesses: 7

Dr. James J. Connors is a Professional Hydrologist, certified by the American Institute of Hydrology, and a licensed Professional Geoscientist in several states. He has more than 38 years' experience working on projects and legal cases involving groundwater, surface water, stormwater runoff, and environmental contamination. His career includes extensive bodies of work as an award-winning academic, a private-sector consultant, and a testifying and consulting expert witness. Dr. Connors has performed hundreds of environmental and hydrological consulting projects across the U.S.; taught university-level hydrology and hydrogeology; and has been designated as an expert witness in more than 50 legal cases in 12 states and New Zealand (in both state and federal courts). 

Areas of Expertise

View Dr. James J. Connors' Consulting Profile.

The experts at Minnich and Scotto, Inc. are Meteorologists – each with 40+ years' experience in providing a wide range of ambient air-related and meteorological services to attorneys, local communities, industry, and government.  

Litigation Support - Established in 1996, their business has evolved over the years based on changing client needs – originally providing predominantly high-end, “boutique” consulting services to industry and government (such as real-time, emission-rate measurements of airborne toxins from hazardous waste sites and other large area sources), and today offering a variety of technical services to environmental attorneys in support of toxic tort cases, including reconstructive analyses to assess past exposure to hazardous air pollutants (HAP) and other air toxins.

Minnich and Scotto's unique skill set – owing to a high level of proficiency in diverse disciplines such as ambient air monitoring, air dispersion modeling, CERCLA (Superfund) and Clean Air Act regulations, forensic meteorology, and environmental quality assurance – has often led to development of winning legal strategies for our attorney clients which otherwise might not have been envisioned. They have extensive knowledge in the following areas:

Regulatory:

• CERCLA and Clean Air Act Compliance

Quality Assurance: 

• DQO Process Compliance
• Monitoring / Sampling Plan Assessment

Timothy R. Minnich, President, MS, QEP, is a Meteorologist and Atmospheric Scientist with over 40 years experience in the design and management of a wide range of ambient air and meteorological investigations under CERCLA and the Clean Air Act. He is a recognized technical expert on high-profile legal cases, with assignments involving forensic meteorology and reconstruction of inhalation scenarios in relation to community exposure to hazardous air pollutants (HAP). 

Mr. Minnich is accomplished in presenting conclusions and opinions derived from analysis of complex technical data in a well-reasoned and easily understood manner. He is a skilled technical writer and proven manager in a highly specialized arena. He is a nationally recognized expert in the application of optical remote sensing (ORS) for hazardous waste site remediation. He has designed and managed more than 25 ORS field investigations and air dispersion model validation studies since the promulgation of U.S.EPA (EPA) Method TO-16 for open-path FTIR (Fourier-transform infrared) spectroscopy in 1988. 

Mr. Minnich was an instructor for several half-day continuing education courses on calculating emission rates from ground-level sources.

Robert L. Scotto is a Meteorologist with over 40 years of experience in the design, management, and execution of a variety of air quality investigations. He is a specialist in Clean Air Act permitting, and is an expert in a broad range of CERCLA-related QA/QC issues. 

Mr. Scotto is a highly skilled air dispersion modeler and has extensive experience in customization and validation of AERMOD – USEPA’s most recent guideline air dispersion model. In addition to having co-founded Minnich and Scotto, he has held significant positions with other organizations, including vice president of ETG Services and zone-wide QA manager for NUS Corporation, USEPA's Field Investigation Team (FIT) contractor. In this latter capacity, Mr. Scotto was responsible for QA program implementation in all four USEPA Zone I FIT offices (Regions 1 through 4). The total value of that contract was $300 million.

Mark O. Barnett, PhD, PE, BCEE has over 30 years of national and international Environmental Engineering and Science experience in industry, government, and academia ranging from water supply and sanitation in rural communities to nuclear waste disposal. He is currently a Professor of Environmental Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Auburn University.

Litigation Support - Dr. Barnett has served as an environmental expert witness-expert consultant on cases in administrative, federal, and state courts ranging from permit applications to toxic tort lawsuits. He has written expert reports, filed affidavits, been deposed, and given testimony. Further, he has extensive litigation experience from his service as an administrative judge with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Writing samples, transcripts, and references are available upon request.

Areas of Expertise:

Background Experience - Dr. Barnett is a licensed professional engineer and a board-certified member of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists. His technical research focuses on the chemical processes controlling water quality and contaminant behavior in natural and engineered systems. He has been a principal or co-principal investigator on seventeen grants totaling over $12 million, and he has published over fifty peer-reviewed journal articles, several book chapters, and a book that collectively have received over three-thousand citations.

Dr. Barnett has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Tennessee and a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the University of North Carolina. He has taught fundamental and applied courses in environmental and aquatic chemistry; water and wastewater treatment; environmental engineering principles and design; and sustainable design and development.

Dr. Tringale provides environmental consulting and expert witness services to a diverse group of public and private sector clients throughout the United States both directly and through legal counsel. His experience includes contaminated soil and groundwater issues; Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) remedial investigations and feasibility studies; cost estimating and allocation; soil and groundwater remediation and redevelopment; and third-party review and strategic consulting. As a testifying expert and litigation consultant, Dr. Tringale has given testimony at trial in state and federal courts. His opinions have related to compliance with the National Contingency Plan, identification of contaminant sources, assessment of magnitude and extent of contamination, evaluation of remediation programs, review and development of remedial cost estimates, and allocation of cost and responsibility.

Dr. Tringale has been providing litigation support services to the legal industry for over 25 years. He is available to attorneys for Plaintiff and Defense. Dr. Tringale has been retained more than 25 times and has provided expert testimony in support of counsel for cases involving:

• National Contingency Plan Compliance
• Identification of Contaminant Sources
• Magnitude and Extent of Contamination
• Remedial Cost Estimates
• Allocation of Cost and Responsibility

View Philip Tringale's Consulting Profile.

For over 45 years, Chuck Dutill, P.E., D.F.E. has been performing Hydrology and Environmental Engineering nationwide. He has focused on wastewater, stormwater, flooding, sewers, septic systems, groundwater, drainage, runoff, hydrology, hydraulics, backups, drinking water, and air quality. 

Litigation Support - Mr. Dutill has spent approximately 30% of his professional time providing expert witness services for over 45 years. Approximately 40 to 45% of his expert witness services have been for defendants and about 55 to 60% for plaintiffs. He has issued 200 to 205 expert reports, been deposed approximately 45 to 50 times, and testified in federal and state court (including jury and non-jury trials) approximately 40 to 45 times. 

Forensic cases have occurred in approximately 40 states. As indicated in feedback from attorneys on expert witness cases, some of his strengths include understandable guidance, responsiveness, timeliness, communication, effective report writing, strong testimony (including on cross), efficiency, organization, and assistance with framing case issues. 

Expertise:

CV Available Upon Request View Mr. Dutill's Consulting Profile.

Dr. Shaun Anthony Crawford, CIH, has a diverse 30+ year background in environmental health, safety and industrial hygiene consulting and litigation support, spanning government, industry, academics, residential and non-profit sectors.  He holds a MSPH in Environmental Engineering / Industrial Hygiene and a Doctorate in Environmental Health Sciences with a specialization in industrial hygiene, both from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. 

Dr. Crawford has held academic positions in Environmental Management, Urban Environmental Studies, and Environmental Health at three universities. He has a very successful business and litigation track record and is available for both plaintiff and defense representation.

For additional information, please consult Dr. Crawford's resume.