2012 Workshop Materials

Background information

About the Spokane River Regional Toxics Task Force

Department of Ecology, “Spokane River PCB Source Assessment, 2003-2007”

Workshop Agenda, Tuesday, June 5th
7:00 am to 8:00 am: Check-in
8:20 am to 10:20 am: Overview of the existing data and PCB evaluations
10:20 am to 10:40 am: Break
10:40 am to 12:20 pm: Presentations on City of Spokane, Kaiser Aluminum, and Spokane County
12:20 pm to 1:00 pm: Lunch provided
1:00 pm to 3:00 pm: TMDL planning work in other watersheds
3:00 pm to 3:20 pm: Break
3:20 pm to 5:00 pm: Brainstorming and Q & A Session with the day’s speakers

Wednesday, June 6th
7:30 am to 8:00 am: Check-in
8:00 am to 8:30 am: Brief recap of Day 1 and overview of Day 2
8:20 am to 10:20 am: Presentations on Aerial Deposition
10:20 am to 10:40 am: Break
10:40 am to 12:20 pm: Presentations on Contributions of PCBs in Stormwater
12:20 pm to 1:00 pm: Lunch provided
1:00 pm to 3:00 pm: Monitoring, sampling, lab analysis, and data interpretation
3:00 pm to 3:20 pm: Break
3:20 pm to 4:45 pm: Brainstorming and Q & A Session with the day’s speakers
4:45 pm to 5:00 pm: Future SRRTTF Direction and Workshop Wrap-up

Speaker Biographies and Workshop Presentations

Don Martin
Environmental Protection Agency
Workshop Moderator
Don is a Senior Natural Resource Advisor with EPA Region 10’s Office of Water and Watersheds. He has been based in EPA’s Coeur d’Alene Field Office for five years and has been with EPA for 27 years. His focus is facilitating watershed restoration and protection efforts among local watershed groups, as well as, local, state, tribal and federal governments. Don is an aquatic ecologist by training with a Bachelors Degree in zoology and Masters Degree in biology, both from Humboldt State University.

Bruce Hope, Ph.D.
CH2M Hill

Bruce has been a principal technologist with CH2M HILL in Portland, Oregon since 2011, where he works on projects involving ecological risk assessment, environmental toxicology, persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) chemicals, chemical transport and fate and bioaccumulation modeling, development of air and water quality standards, criteria, or guidelines, sediment management and remediation, regulatory-science policy strategies. From 1995 to 2011, he was a senior environmental toxicologist with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), where he was instrumental in identifying persistent pollutants in Oregon’s municipal effluents, developing ambient benchmark concentrations for air toxics, completing the Umatilla chemical weapons incinerator post-trail burn risk assessment, and preparing guidance for human and ecological risk assessments. Prior to joining DEQ, he was a consultant in the private sector managing human health and ecological risk assessment projects for commercial and government clients throughout the U.S. and Pacific Rim. In 2000-01, he was a AAAS risk policy fellow in Washington DC, working on food safety, microbial risk assessment, and bioterrorism issues. He has served on the North American Board of Directors for SETAC, and is on the editorial boards of Human and Ecological Risk Assessment and Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. He has also been on several U.S. EPA national advisory and review panels addressing cumulative risk, wildlife, ecological and probabilistic risk assessment issues, and environmental modeling, as well as on two National Research Council committees: one evaluating EPA’s human health risk assessment practices and the other examining pesticide impacts to endangered species. He holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in biology from the University of Southern California and a B.A. degree from the University of California (Santa Barbara).

Air Deposition as a Source of Polychlorniated Biphenyls to the Spokane River Watershed

Dale Norton
Manager, Toxics Studies Unit, Environmental Assessment Program, Washington State Department of Ecology
Mr. Norton manages the Toxics Studies Unit within the Department of Ecology’s Environmental Assessment Program. The Environmental Assessment Program is Ecology’s primary scientific research and monitoring division. In this capacity Mr. Norton is responsible for overseeing a wide variety of monitoring programs for toxic chemicals which includes such statewide activities as freshwater fish tissue monitoring, trend monitoring for persistent, bioaccumulative., and emerging contaminants, Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) studies for toxic pollutants, surface water pesticide monitoring and the Puget Sound Toxics Loading Analysis. Mr. Norton received his B.S. Degree in Marine Resources from Huxley College of Environmental Studies, Western Washington University in 1980. In the last 30 years at the Department of Ecology he has served as lead scientist on a wide variety of environmental research and monitoring programs. Much of this work has focused on fate, transport, and bioaccumulation of toxic contaminants in marine and freshwater aquatic systems.

Spokane River PCB Source Assessment

Beth Schmoyer
Seattle Public Utilities
Beth Schmoyer is a senior engineer for Seattle Public Utilities (SPU). For the past eight years, she’s been leading the City’s source control programs for the Lower Duwamish and East Waterway Superfund sites. Beth also plans and develops regional stormwater retrofit projects for SPU.

PCB Source Tracing Lower Duwamish Waterway

Arianne Fernandez
Washington State Department of Ecology
Arianne Fernandez received her B.S. in Evolution and Ecology from the University of California, Davis followed by a Masters in Environmental Science from the University of Idaho. She has worked in various areas of research including neurotoxicology of metals, genetic modification, marine larval retention, and contaminant transport by salmonids from spawning to end of life. She currently works for the Washington State Department of Ecology as a Hazardous Waste inspector under the Urban Waters Initiative. The main focus of her work involves contaminant fate and transport as well as source tracking and elimination of PCB, PBDE, dioxin/furan, and select metals in the Spokane River watershed.

Spokane River Urban Waters Progress

Bud Leber
Kaiser Aluminum
Bud is the Environmental Manager for Kaiser Aluminum’s Trentwood Works located in Spokane Valley. Bud holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Idaho. Bud has been with Kaiser Aluminum for over 36 years and has held environmental positions at facilities in West Virginia and Louisiana as well as at the corporate level in California and Ohio prior to coming to Spokane in 1988 as Environmental Manager for Kaiser’s Primary Aluminum Business Unit. In 2001 he received The Aluminum Association’s Marlan Boultinghouse Service Award for his environmental leadership within the industry. In addition, he was recognized by EPA for his contribution in developing the first industry/EPA voluntary partnership for greenhouse gas emission reductions for the primary aluminum sector. From 1995 to 2001 he served as the chairman of the London based International Aluminium Institute’s Environmental Committee. Bud has been the Environmental Manager at Trentwood since 2005.

Source Identification Work: Kaiser Aluminum Trentwood

Lynn Marie Schmidt
City of Spokane
Lynn Marie Schmidt is an Environmental Analyst with the City of Spokane Wastewater Management Department, where she coordinates compliance activities under the Municipal Stormwater NPDES Permit. She is involved with the City’s PCB Adaptive Management Plan for identifying PCB sources in the stormsewer system. Prior to joining the City, Lynn worked as a hydraulic engineer for both public and private entities gaining experience in the water resources field including surface water and groundwater quality, hydraulic design, and environmental remediation. She holds an M.S. in Environmental Engineering and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Washington State University and is a registered Civil Engineer.

Raylene Gennett
City of Spokane
Raylene Gennett is the Stormwater District Supervisor at the City of Spokane Wastewater Management Department with 17 years of experience. She oversees stormwater issues regarding UIC, CSO and MS4 systems and performs training in various areas of the department. Raylene also acts as the Safety Coordinator for the Sewer Maintenance Division and holds certifications in WWCPA I, AWWA Water Utility Management Institute Advanced Management and Leadership, NASCO TV Certification, Stormwater BMP Inspection and Maintenance, Practical Sustainability, and is a Special Police Officer.

An Adaptive Management Plan for PCBs in Stormwater and Sediments

Dawn Sanders
City of Portland
Dawn is the technical program manager for the City’s Portland Harbor Superfund Program and has worked on Portland Harbor issues for the last 14 years. She developed the City’s source control program in the Superfund area and an interagency agreement with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to jointly control contaminant sources to the City’s conveyance systems under their respective authorities. Dawn has provided expertise on upland and stormwater issues for the inwater Remedial Investigation developed by the Lower Willamette Group, the PRP group in Portland Harbor. She also works with City Bureau groups to develop new policies, programs, and regulatory authorities to assure that Portland Harbor issues are addressed appropriately and long-term controls are in place to prevent recontamination.

PCB Source Control: Lessons Learned from Portland Harbor

Eric Blischke
CDM Smith
Mr. Blischke has over 25 years of remediation experience on both a state and federal level and has focused on contaminated sediment sites for the past 15 years.  Since joining CDM in January 2012, Mr. Blischke has been heading up CDM Smith’s contaminated sediments program, serves as a technical resource for numerous CDM Smith sediment clean projects around the country and recently served as an instructor for an EPA led contaminated sediments workshop.  Prior to joining CDM Smith, Mr. Blischke served as remedial project manager for the Portland Harbor site. In this role, Mr. Blischke was responsible for all major technical elements of the sediment investigation including the implementation of the ecological risk assessment, the identification of ARAR and the development of preliminary remediation goals (PRGs).  Mr. Blischke also worked for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality for 11 years as a environmental policy analyst, source control coordinator for the Portland Harbor Site and state-wide Toxics Reduction Coordinator.
Presentation –  Blischke Other Watersheds Session

Dr. Thomas J. Fikslin
Delaware River Basin Commission
Dr. Thomas J. Fikslin is the manager of the Modeling, Monitoring and Assessment Branch for the Delaware River Basin Commission. The branch is responsible for , development and application of hydrodynamic and water quality models, conducting and coordinating monitoring activities to support Commission water resource programs within the Basin, the development and updating of the Commission’s water quality standards, and the development and implementation of TMDLs for toxic and conventional pollutants. As the Director of the Estuary Toxics Management Program in the 1990s, he was responsible for the adoption of water quality criteria for toxic pollutants and the development of several TMDLs for toxic pollutants including volatile organics and whole effluent toxicity.
Prior to joining the Commission, Dr. Fikslin worked for the U.S. EPA Region II in the regional laboratory where he was the head of the Biology Section, and the regional office in the NPDES program. As the head of the Biology Section, he directed the whole effluent toxicity testing program for the region.
Dr. Fikslin has a Master’s Degree from the University of Delaware in Biological Sciences, and a Ph.D. from Rutgers University in Ecology and Evolution.

Implementing PCB TMDLs Through the Use of Pollutant Minimization Plans

TMDLs for PCBs for the Delaware River Estuary

Dr. Lisa Rodenburg
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Dr. Lisa Rodenburg (formerly Totten) is an environmental chemist with experience in tracking the sources and fate of PCBs and other organic contaminants in the environment. She has a BA in Chemistry from Wittenberg University in Springfield, OH and a PhD in Environmental Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University. Since joining Rutgers in 1998, Dr. Rodenburg has focused on atmospheric deposition of PCBs, PAHs, and pesticides and for more than 10 years has run the New Jersey Atmospheric Deposition Network, which was renamed the Delaware Atmospheric Deposition Network when the work turned to focus on the Delaware River. She served on the Expert Panel advising the DRBC on the effort to promulgate and implement a TMDL for PCBs in the tidal Delaware River. She has extensively collaborated with the DRBC, using their data on PCB concentrations in air, water, sediment, and discharger effluents to investigate the sources and fate of PCBs in the system, using factor analysis to apportion sources and look at processes such as dechlorination.

Stormwater PCBs: Tales from Two Urban Estuaries

Dave Hope
Pacific Rim Laboratories
David Hope has been active in the environmental laboratory business for thirty years and is a recognised expert in the analysis of trace organic pollutants. He is a founding partner and Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Rim Laboratories, an environmental lab specialising in the ultra-trace analysis of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) by HRMS. He oversees the lab operations, marketing and sales. Hope has been successful in developing a global market with clients in Asia, South America, Europe and the United States. Dave has presented papers on 209 congener PCB analysis at the International Dioxin Conference and has been invited to talk on both PCB analysis and PBDE analysis at Thermo Scientific’s International User Conferences. Recently, Dave has been working with clients and regulators in Washington State helping them understand the implications of regulating PCB concentrations in the low part per quadrillion range. Dave has taken active role in the Canadian lab industry and is the past President of the Canadian Council of Independent Laboratories.
PRL has two dual GC Thermo DFS HRMS offering analysis of PCDD/F, 209 congener PCB, PBDE (35 congener), OC Pesticides, PAH, NDMA (N-nitrosodimethylamine) and tributyltin. We are a beta test site for Thermo Instruments development of TargetQuan 3.0 software. Our data has been entered into evidence at the World Court in The Hague.

Analytical Methods for Analysis of PCB

Mike Milne
Brown and Caldwell
Mike Milne is a senior associate with Brown and Caldwell. Mike has 32 years of professional experience encompassing surface water, ground water, and sediment quality monitoring; pollutant source identification; source control; treatment; and NPDES and TMDL compliance. Mike has helped develop and implement monitoring programs for toxics, nutrients, pathogens, dissolved oxygen, sediment, and physical channel conditions. His experience includes high-volume sampling and pre-concentration to accurately measure PCBs, dioxins/furans, and metals. Mike recently helped the Puget Sound Stormwater Work Group develop monitoring recommendations for the next generation of western Washington municipal stormwater permits, and helped the Puyallup Tribe develop its long-term monitoring program for the Puyallup River watershed. Mike’s local experience includes the City of Spokane Stormwater Management Plan, the West Plains Stormwater Management Plan (Spokane County), and technical support for EPA’s oversight of the Bunker Hill RI/FS.

Dr. Andres Martinez
University of Iowa
Ph.D. Environmental Engineering The University of Iowa 06 – 10
M.S. Environmental Technology Imperial College, London 03 – 04
B.S. Biochemical Engineering Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile 91 – 97

Indiana Harbor to Ship Canal: Not Just a Tributary Source of PCBs into Lake Michigan

Post-Workshop Summary Report