Specialties
Geology-Focused Conceptual Site Models to Optimize Groundwater Remediation; Groundwater Basin Characterization for Sustainable Groundwater Management; ESS-Based Conceptual Site Models to Guide PFAS Remedial Investigations; RCRA RI/FS and CERCLA-Regulated Groundwater Projects; Support for Environmental Forensics Studies with Improved Definition of Contaminant Migration Pathways
Practice Areas
Contaminated Site Assessment and Cleanup; Environmental Management; Water and Natural Resources; Water Management; Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering; Waste Management
Education
MS, Geology, University of California at Davis; BS, Geology, University of the Pacific
Registration
California Professional Geologist, PG 4337; Environmental Management Systems, ISO 14001 Certified
Client Service
Commercial, municipal, and federal clients turn to Rick for his wide-ranging experience as a project and program manager, including helping develop site-cleanup strategies and working as a liaison with local, state, and federal agencies. His projects include Phase I and Phase II investigations, RCRA remedial investigations/feasibility studies (RI/FS), support for CERCLA-regulated sites, and Part B permits for solid-waste and liquid-hazardous-waste landfills. Notably, he has led projects that redefine groundwater basin stratigraphy to improve groundwater management programs. Rick’s long-term work in the Los Angeles West Coast Basin originally focused on an RI/FS for a mile-long chlorinated volatile-organic-compound plume and resulted in redefining the hydrostratigraphy of the groundwater basin and helping design the extension of the Dominguez Gap Seawater Intrusion Barrier.
To advance the practice of groundwater characterization, remediation optimization, and groundwater basin management, Rick developed the Environmental Sequence Stratigraphy (ESS) technology. This approach is used to produce robust geologic models, and, ultimately, supports conceptual site models that more accurately represent the heterogenous conditions underlying most groundwater contaminated sites. ESS has been established as a best practice for environmental site management by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and is considered a best practice for PFAS RIs by the United States Air Force and Navy. Because ESS is a geology-focused approach that improves the definition of groundwater flow and contaminant migration pathways, it is applicable to all contaminants and constituents of concern. In addition, Rick has worked with contaminant hydrogeology experts such as Beth Parker of the University of Guelph and Jessi Meyer of the University of Iowa to apply technical best practices (such as a geology-based graphic borehole log) to site management.
Contact Rick at rick.cramer@geosyntec.com.
