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Remediation of Buried Chemical Warfare Materiel (2012)

Chapter: Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2012. Remediation of Buried Chemical Warfare Materiel. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13419.
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Appendix A

Biographical Sketches of Committee Members

Richard J. Ayen (Chair), now retired, was director of technology for Waste Management, Inc. Dr. Ayen managed all aspects of Waste Management’s Clemson Technical Center, including treatability studies and technology demonstrations for the treatment of hazardous and radioactive waste. His experience includes 20 years at Stauffer Chemical Company, where he was manager of the Process Development Department at Stauffer’s Eastern Research Center. He received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois. Dr. Ayen has published extensively in his fields of interest. Dr. Ayen was a member of the National Research Council Committee on Review and Evaluation of Alternative Technologies for Demilitarization of Assembled Chemical Weapons (I and II) and several committees dedicated to non-stockpile initiatives. Dr. Ayen currently also chairs the Committee on Chemical Demilitarization.

Douglas M. Medville (Vice Chair) retired from MITRE as program leader for chemical materiel disposal and remediation. He has led many analyses of risk, process engineering, transportation, and alternative disposal technologies and has briefed the public and senior military officials on the results. Mr. Medville was responsible for evaluating the reliability and performance of the demilitarization machines used by the Army to disassemble stockpile chemical munitions and wrote several test plans and protocols for alternative chemical munitions disposal technologies. He also led the evaluation of the operational performance of the Army’s chemical weapons disposal facility on Johnson Atoll and directed an assessment of the risks, public perceptions, environmental aspects, and logistics of transporting recovered non-stockpile chemical warfare materiel to candidate storage and disposal destinations. Before that, he worked at Franklin Institute Research Laboratories and General Electric. In recent years, he has participated as a committee member in nine National Research Council studies concerning the Army’s non-stockpile and Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives programs. Mr. Medville earned a B.S. in industrial engineering and an M.S. in operations research from New York University.

Dwight A. Beranek is a retired senior vice president of Michael Baker Jr., Inc., a professional engineering and consulting service for public-sector and private-sector clients worldwide. Previously, he served as deputy director for military programs in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, where he was responsible for executive management of its worldwide military programs mission. He is a registered professional engineer and a certified floodplain manager. He served on the National Research Council Committee on Bureau of Reclamation Dam Security and on the Federal Highway Administration–American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Blue Ribbon Panel on Bridge and Tunnel Security. Mr. Beranek received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University, an M.S in business administration from Boston University, and an M.P.A. from American University.

Edward L. Cussler (NAE) is the Distinguished Institute Professor and professor of chemical engineering at the University of Minnesota. After 13 years of teaching at Carnegie-Mellon University, he joined the University of Minnesota in 1980. Dr. Cussler conducts research on thin films, centering on membranes, with applications in water purification, and corrosion control; and on small-scale energy, with a goal of making individual farms energy self-sufficient. He has written over 220 articles and five books, including Diffusion: Mass Transfer in Fluid Systems; Bioseparations; and Chemical Product Design. He holds a Ph.D. and an M.S. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a B.E. from Yale University, all in chemical engineering. Dr. Cussler has received the Colburn and Lewis Awards from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, which he served as director, vice president, and president. He received the Separations Science Award from the American Chemical Society, the Merryfield Design Award from the American Society of Engineering

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2012. Remediation of Buried Chemical Warfare Materiel. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13419.
×

Education, and honorary doctorates from the University of Lund and the University of Nancy. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Gilbert F. Decker, retired executive vice president of Walt Disney Imagineering, served as assistant secretary of the Army for research, development, and acquisition from 1994 to 1997. When he was assistant secretary of the Army, two of his main responsibilities were research and development for the chemical demilitarization program. Mr. Decker received his B.S. in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 1958 and served as an armor lieutenant and army aviator until 1964. His active-duty assignments included helicopter pilot, battalion supply officer and company commander in Korea, and test, evaluation, and control officer for the 11th Air Assault Division. He received an M.S. in operations research from Stanford University in 1966. From 1966 to 1994, Mr. Decker worked as a systems and design engineer, engineering project manager, director of marketing, president, or chief executive officer for several companies engaged in electronics systems for defense applications; advanced computing, communications, and information systems; and high-temperature materials and control systems for the aerospace and pollution-control industries. The companies included ESL, Inc; TRW, Inc; Penn Central Federal Systems Company; and Acurex Corporation.

Clair F. Gill received a B.S. from the U.S. Military Academy and an M.S. in geotechnical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He retired as the chief of staff and deputy director of the Office of Facilities Engineering and Operations of the Smithsonian Institution. In that capacity, he oversaw all facilities maintenance, operations, security, capital construction, and revitalization of the institution’s museums and research facilities in Washington, D.C., and at several other locations in the United States and abroad. Immediately before that, he served with the Department of Energy, where he established and led the Office of Engineering and Construction Management. Mr. Gill retired from the U.S. Army in 1999, when he last served as the Army’s budget director. Throughout his military career, Mr. Gill was involved directly in various major construction projects, including military school facilities, a hotel complex, two flood-control systems, and reconstruction of a medical center. He was involved in the operational concept, the environmental-impact statement, and the design and startup of construction of nearly one-fourth of a billion dollars of facilities to enable the Army to consolidate three branch schools at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

Derek Guest is an independent consultant, providing support to small businesses and community organizations in addressing environmental, public-health, and sustainability issues. He retired from Eastman Kodak Company after work- ing for more than 20 years in health, safety, environment, and sustainability. His most recent position was director of science and technology policy; he was responsible for identifying and addressing emerging environmental regulations and performance standards worldwide to support the company’s manufacturing operations and businesses. He received his Ph.D. in biochemical toxicology in the United Kingdom before moving to the United States to complete postdoctoral training in toxicology at the Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology. He recently served on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry National Conversation on Public Health and Chemical Exposures (the Serving Communities Work Group) and is on the Board of Directors of the Rochester-based Center for Environmental Information, which works to address regional environmental issues, such as watershed protection and community health. Dr. Guest is a full member of the Society of Toxicology.

Todd A. Kimmell is principal investigator in the Environmental Science Division of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory. He is an environmental scientist and policy analyst with more than 30 years of experience in solid-waste and hazardous-waste management, permitting and regulatory compliance, cleanup programs, environmental programs policy development, and emergency management and homeland security. He has supported the Army’s chemical and conventional munitions management programs and has contributed to the Army’s Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment Program and Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program. Mr. Kimmell also has a strong technical background in analytical and physical–chemical test method development and analytical quality assurance and control. He has served the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Homeland Security Research Center on environmental test methods for chemical, biological, and radiological assessment for emergency response. Mr. Kimmell has also supported a number of environmental permitting programs at Army chemical weapons storage sites and at open burning–open detonation sites. He graduated from George Washington University with an M.S. in environmental science.

JoAnn Slama Lighty is professor in and chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering and adjunct professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Utah. She received her B.S. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Utah. She is currently involved in research on the formation of fine particulate matter from combustion and gasification systems, including soot formation and oxidation, and chemical looping technologies for effective carbon capture. Dr. Lighty is active in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, of which she was recently selected as a fellow, and the Combustion Institute. She is the author of over 50 peer-reviewed publications and has given

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2012. Remediation of Buried Chemical Warfare Materiel. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13419.
×

over 125 conference presentations. In 2004, she was honored with the Society of Women Engineers Distinguished Engineering Educator Award. Dr. Lighty has served previously on the National Research Council Committee on Technologies for Cleanup of Mixed Wastes in the DOE Weapons Complex.

James P. Pastorick is president of UXO Pro, Inc., a technical consulting firm in Alexandria, Virginia, that specializes in providing technical support to state regulators in munitions and explosives of concern (MEC) project planning, management, and quality control, including chemical warfare material MEC. Since retiring from the U.S. Navy as a diving officer and explosive ordnance disposal technician, he has worked for over 20 years in managing MEC investigation and removal projects. He is certified by the American Society for Quality as a manager of quality and organizational excellence (CMQ/OE). Mr. Pastorick has served on several National Research Council committees: the Committee to Review Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives Program Detonation Devices, the Committee on Review and Evaluation of International Technologies for the Destruction of Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel, the Committee on Review and Assessment of the Army Non-Stockpile Chemical Demilitarization Program: Pine Bluff, the Committee for Review and Assessment of the Army Non-Stockpile Chemical Demilitarization Program: Workplace Monitoring, and the Committee for the Review and Evaluation of the Army Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Disposal Program.

Jean D. Reed is a consultant and Distinguished Research Fellow of the National Defense University’s Center for Technology and National Security Policy, where he focuses on chemical–biological defense and the integration of research and development and national security policy. He is also a senior fellow of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. He received a B.S. and an M.S. in physics from the University of Oklahoma and a master’s of military art and science from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He did postgraduate studies in physics at Georgtown University. He is a graduate of the Army War College and the National War College and was a chief of staff Army fellow at the Army’s Strategic Studies Institute. Appointed to the Senior Executive Service in December 2005, Mr. Reed served as deputy assistant to the secretary of defense (DATSD; Chemical Biological Defense–Chemical Demilitarization) in the Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Nuclear and Chemical and Biological Matters until April 2010. He exercised overall oversight, coordination, and integration of all aspects of the Department of Defense chemical and biological medical and nonmedical defense program, which totaled about $1.5 billion a year, and of the program for destruction of the U.S. stockpile of lethal chemical agents and munitions, which also totaled about $1.5 billion a year. Before assuming his position as DATSD, Mr. Reed served for 15 years as a professional staff member of the Committee on the Armed Services in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he had principal staff responsiblility for oversight of the Department of the Navy research and development program, defensewide science and technology, and selected programs of other military services and defense agencies, including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; the Defense Threat Reduction Agency; joint experimentation, test, and evaluation; and chemical demilitarization and chemical–biological defense.

William R. Rhyne is a retired risk and safety analysis consultant to the nuclear, chemical, and transportation industries, He has over 30 years of experience associated with nuclear and chemical processing facilities and with the transportation of hazardous materials. From 1984 to 1987, he was the project manager and principal investigator for a probabilistic analysis of transporting obsolete chemical munitions. From 1997 to 2002, he was a member of the National Research Council Committees for the Review and Evaluation of Alternative Technologies for Demilitarization of Assembled Chemical Weapons I and II. More recently, he has served on committees examining chemical stockpile secondary waste issues. Dr. Rhyne is the author or a coauthor of numerous publications on nuclear and chemical safety and risk analysis and is the author of Hazardous Materials Transportation Risk Analysis: Quantitative Approaches for Truck and Train. He received a B.S. in nuclear engineering from the University of Tennessee and an M.S. and a D.Sc. in nuclear engineering from the University of Virginia.

Tiffany N. Thomas is an environmental consultant for Tetra Tech, Inc. She has extensive experience in designing and executing novel scientific research in atmospheric chemistry, environmental geochemistry, and materials science– crystal growth chemistry. She has multiple publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and presentations at various international academic conferences. For the last 5 years, she has worked for Tetra Tech on various projects, including multiple Department of Defense (DOD) sites contaminated by chemical materiel and explosives, geochemical modeling of metals releases from mining sites, and optimization of chlorinated-solvent treatment. She received her Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of California, Davis and her B.S. in environmental chemistry from Northern Arizona University. Dr. Thomas has worked with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Savannah River National Laboratory, the Department of Energy, DOD, and multiple state and local agencies.

William J. Walsh is an attorney in the Washington, D.C., office of Pepper Hamilton LLP. Before joining Pepper Hamilton, he was section chief in the Environmental Protection Agency Office of Enforcement. His legal experience includes environmental regulatory advice and advocacy and

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2012. Remediation of Buried Chemical Warfare Materiel. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13419.
×

defense of environmental-injury litigation involving a broad spectrum of issues pursuant to a variety of environmental statutes, including the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Toxic Substances Control Act. Mr. Walsh holds a J.D. from George Washington University Law School and a B.S. in physics from Manhattan College. He represents trade associations, including the Rubber Manufacturers Association and the American Dental Association, in rule-making and other public-policy advocacy. He has negotiated protective yet cost-effective remedies in pollution cases involving water, air, and hazardous waste and has advised technology developers and users on taking advantage of incentives for, and eliminating regulatory barriers to, the use of innovative environmental technologies. Mr. Walsh has also served on several National Research Council committees: the Committee on Review and Evaluation of International Technologies for the Destruction of Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel, the Committee on Review and Assessment of the Army Non-Stockpile Chemical Demilitarization Program: Pine Bluff, the Committee for Review and Assessment of the Army Non-Stockpile Chemical Demilitarization Program: Workplace Monitoring, the Committee for the Review and Evaluation of the Army Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Disposal Program, and the Committee on Ground Water Cleanup Alternatives.

Lawrence J. Washington, recently retired after working for the Dow Chemical Company for over 37 years, where he was corporate vice president for sustainability and environmental health and safety (EH&S). Among his many distinctions, Mr. Washington chaired the Corporate Environmental Advisory Council, the EH&S Management Board, and the Crisis Management Team. In his role as corporate vice president for EH&S, Human Resources, and Public Affairs, Mr. Washington led the creation of the Genesis Award Program for Excellence in People Development. His career included many roles in operations, including being leader of Dow’s Western Division and general manager and site leader of Michigan Operations. Mr. Washington earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Detroit.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2012. Remediation of Buried Chemical Warfare Materiel. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13419.
×
Page 101
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2012. Remediation of Buried Chemical Warfare Materiel. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13419.
×
Page 102
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2012. Remediation of Buried Chemical Warfare Materiel. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13419.
×
Page 103
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2012. Remediation of Buried Chemical Warfare Materiel. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13419.
×
Page 104
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As the result of disposal practices from the early to mid-twentieth century, approximately 250 sites in 40 states, the District of Columbia, and 3 territories are known or suspected to have buried chemical warfare materiel (CWM). Much of this CWM is likely to occur in the form of small finds that necessitate the continuation of the Army's capability to transport treatment systems to disposal locations for destruction. Of greatest concern for the future are sites in residential areas and large sites on legacy military installations.

The Army mission regarding the remediation of recovered chemical warfare materiel (RCWM) is turning into a program much larger than the existing munition and hazardous substance cleanup programs. The Army asked the Nation Research Council (NRC) to examine this evolving mission in part because this change is significant and becoming even more prominent as the stockpile destruction is nearing completion. One focus in this report is the current and future status of the Non-Stockpile Chemical Material Project (NSCMP), which now plays a central role in the remediation of recovered chemical warfare materiel and which reports to the Chemical Materials Agency.

Remediation of Buried Chemical Warfare Materiel also reviews current supporting technologies for cleanup of CWM sites and surveys organizations involved with remediation of suspected CWM disposal sites to determine current practices and coordination. In this report, potential deficiencies in operational areas based on the review of current supporting technologies for cleanup of CWM sites and develop options for targeted research and development efforts to mitigate potential problem areas are identified.

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