Dogus Meric (Illinois) will present "A Few Simple Forensics Methods Helped PRPs to Pay No More than Their Equitable Share of Clean-up Costs" during a Midwestern States Environmental Consultants Association (MSECA) Webinar from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. EST, March 22, 2018.

Dogus will discuss the use of environmental forensics to reduce Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) liabilities. People that register to the webinar through the following link will get a free registration: http://mseca.org/2018-03_-_Geosyntec.php.

As an environmental engineer, Dogus is primarily involved in sediment and upland cleanup projects with a focus on remedial investigations, feasibility studies, remedial designs, litigation and allocation support services, forensics investigation and fingerprinting analysis, chemical fate and transport modeling, sediment transport modeling, surface water quality modeling, and innovative field solutions. He has more than nine years of experience in the design and evaluation of cost-effective in situ sediment remediation methods, and in the characterization and modeling of contaminated rivers, lakes, and estuaries. Dogus is responsible for analyzing and providing innovative solutions to client's complex environmental problems; developing client, case and site-specific strategies hand-in-hand with internal and external legal counsel to provide effective litigation and allocation support; and performing hands-on remedial design in complex systems.

The webinar is organized by the Midwestern States Environmental Consultants Association (MSECA). MSECA was established to advance the field of environmental consulting by improving the professional competence of their members through education and dissemination of information related to technical developments, regulations, training, and codes, all pertaining to environmental protection. Collectively they represent hundreds of professional consultants along with vendors and suppliers to the environmental consulting community.

Session Description

This presentation will provide an overview of applications, benefits, and limitations of few simple yet well-established and scientifically defensible forensic methods that can reveal trends and additional information hidden in the existing field data; these methods include:

1. Fingerprint analysis (chromatography signatures; stable isotopes; co-contaminants; mass ratios) – to identify and/or distinguish sources and origins of constituents of concern;
2. Statistical methods (principal component analysis; polytopic vector analysis; advanced pattern recognition methods) – to find a perspective that tells the most information about the spatial and temporal relationships in the field data;
3. Geochronology (radioisotope analysis; chemical horizons) – to identify the age of contamination; and
4. Hindcast model simulations (contaminant fate and transport modeling) – to recreate and simulate historical conditions, discharges from different sources, and evaluate the contribution and spatial extent of contamination in different reaches of the system.

By using these tools in harmony along with the Site historical information (i.e., aerial images, insurance maps, historical practice documents), a more informed and nuanced understanding of many contaminated sites have been provided. Recent case studies will be presented where these forensic methods have been used to reduce a PRP's financial liability through various mechanisms including generating multiple lines of evidence to support legal strategies, identifying previously undistinguishable sources of contamination, and investigating the validity of claims provided by other parties.

More Information

Learn more and register at: http://mseca.org/2018-03_-_Geosyntec.php.
Learn more about MSECA: http://mseca.org/About_Us.php.
For consultation regarding forensics methods, contact Dogus Meric at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Learn more about Dogus at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dogusmeric/