Friday, November 28, 2014

About Me

If you have reached this website you were probably directed here because you were interested in what I have to say about pipelines. While many of these posts will be on that topic, my background is not specifically in pipeline technology and so most posts will not dwell on the topic. Like any new blog I will have to earn your trust and one of the ways of doing that it to tell you a bit about myself.

As my blog names suggests, I am a resident of the Township of Langley, living in the community of Walnut Grove. I have a very selfish reason for being interested in the Trans-Mountain pipeline in that my home is less than 50 m from the current Trans-Mountain right-of-way/pipeline. When I moved into my current neighbourhood, I was fully aware of the proximity of the Trans-Mountain pipeline and was comfortable with its presence. This is of particular note because in my professional life I am a Registered Professional Chemist and a Registered Professional Biologist and have been appointed to the Roster of Approved Professionals by the BC Ministry of Environment’s Director of Waste Management as a Standards Assessment Specialist (Contaminated Sites Approved Professional).

My area of expertise is the investigation and remediation of petroleum hydrocarbon contamination and the assessment of hydrocarbon contamination on human and ecological health. In my work, I have developed expertise in addressing the requirements of the British Columbia Environmental Management Act and its associated Contaminated Sites and Hazardous Waste Regulations for industrial and municipal clients. In my 15 years of practice I have coordinated multi‑stage environmental investigations; developed and implemented remediation plans; coordinated human health and ecological risk assessments and sediment quality/toxicity evaluations; and prepared reports for submission to the Ministry of Environment (remediation completion reports; human health and ecological risk assessments; remedial action plans; preliminary and detailed site investigations; and permit compliance reporting). In addition to provincial regulations, I have developed remediation plans to address the requirements of federal and local legislation and regulations from the Fisheries Act to local and municipal bylaws and have prepared reports for federal, provincial and municipal regulators. 

In my professional capacity I serve as a technical specialist in areas including: industrial chemistry; sources, fate and transport, and bidegradation of chemical contaminants; effects of contaminants on natural systems; and ecosystem restoration. My graduate research was in the fields of Chemistry and Environmental Science and involved improving the availability of high-quality multidisciplinary scientific data for use in environmental decision-making. This included developing standardised protocols to evaluate multidisciplinary data including specialised protocols for organic trace data, toxicological experiments and biological responses to organic contaminants. Coincidentally, one of my original research cases used to develop our methodology was an examination of the field of climate change. As such I have been reading the literature on climate change since the early 1990s and I have some pretty strong opinions on that topic as well.

I’m sorry if the above sounds a bit like bragging, but what I am trying to establish is that in the field of hydrocarbon spills and clean-up I am not a novice. My aim is to inform readers and supply useful information to assist in conducting a reasonable discussion on the transportation and use of petroleum hydrocarbons. I acknowledge that I will not always be the expert (or even right) but will endeavour to make corrections when my errors are pointed out and provide links to those who know more than I do on a topic.

No comments:

Post a Comment