Cheryl Halim Accredited by the New South Wales EPA as a Contaminated Land Site Auditor
Cheryl Halim, Ph.D. (Australia) has been accredited by the New South Wales Environmental Protection Authority (NSW EPA) as a Contaminated Land Site Auditor.
Cheryl Halim, Rachael Martin, and Kylie Lloyd Contributed to Asbestos Practice Guidance for Asian Development Bank
Cheryl Halim, Ph.D. (New South Wales, Australia), Rachael Martin, Ph.D. (New South Wales, Australia), and Kylie Lloyd, MPH, MA (Med Sci) (New South Wales, Australia) were instrumental the development of "Good Practice Guidance for the Management and Control of Asbestos: Protecting Workplaces and Communities from Asbestos Exposure Risks" published by the Asian Development Bank. Geosyntec provided core support for the project, during which time Cheryl, Rachael, and Kylie conducted research on asbestos legislation, health effects, economy, alternative and laboratory analysis, followed by preparing the Good Practice Guidance.
Cheryl Halim, PhD
Cheryl Halim is a Principal Environmental Engineer based in Australia with more than 20 years of experience focusing on environmental assessment and remediation, auditing, risk assessment, and asbestos assessment and mitigation.
Overview of Contaminated Site Assessment and Cleanup
Geosyntec practitioners rank among the world's top professionals in providing site assessment and remediation services at a wide range of impacted sites using innovative technologies and solutions that consistently advance the state of the practice. Through our use of innovative technologies and solutions, we provide our public and private sector clients with a wide array of services to address their toughest challenges. Our contaminated site practitioners guide our clients through a specialized remediation plan, consult on regulatory strategies, and develop a comprehensive cleanup approach. We can address numerous types of media, including contaminated soils, sediments, and groundwater. Advancing the State of the Practice Geosyntec's practitioners are pioneers in site assessment and remediation. Our senior practitioners have developed and authored guidance material and courses for local, state, and national agencies and associations on remediation techniques and technologies. Working with the Interstate Technical Regulatory Council, Geosyntec practitioners taught a training course on vapor intrusion, including mitigation options for the development of vapor-impacted brownfield sites. Geosyntec practitioners also wrote the guidance document on evaluating, optimizing, or ending post-closure care at impacted sites, including brownfield sites, and developed a patented approach for sub-slab vapor migration mitigation allowing residential, commercial, and industrial development on sites impacted by vapor intrusion. Our specialists routinely collaborate with prominent national researchers from academia and government agencies to provide innovative and defensible strategies for sites with contaminated sediments. For example, we collaborated with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to remediate chlorinated solvent-contaminated marsh sediments by applying a bioreactive mat system embedded with a dehalogenating microbial consortium, a technology Geosyntec helped develop. This project and partnership earned our client recognition as a finalist for the Service to America Medal awarded by the Partnership for Public Service. Through a collaborative research project with the University of Florida, Geosyntec professionals helped develop the FLUCL software package for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. This software is used to calculate exposure point concentration statistics in risk assessment and was the first of its kind to contain algorithms for censored datasets. FLUCL has received endorsements from several United States Environmental Protection Agency regions and the California Environmental Protection Agency. Geosyntec scientists also pioneered the use of genetic molecular tools to characterize microbes in environmental media and are engaged in applied research and development with top academic institutions around the world, including the University of Toronto, Cornell University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Overview of Waste Management Planning, Engineering & Design
Geosyntec is a recognized leader in waste containment facility permitting and design. From concept to implementation, we assist our clients in achieving efficient, safe, and secure containment of their regulated wastes that require land disposal. Our practitioners assist our clients in increasing commercial viability, achieving and maintaining compliance, and ensuring that short- and long-term needs are met for new and existing sites and projects. We are experienced in the permitting, design, and construction of expansions and closures of: Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills Hazardous waste landfills Coal combustion residual landfills Construction and demolition waste landfills Radiological and mixed waste landfills Tailings impoundments Mine waste rock piles and dumps Our waste containment practice specializes in addressing the most complex and challenging projects through our innovative technologies and designs. Our practitioners assist clients with permitting greenfield sites and existing site expansions, maximizing disposal capacity, and solving complex site challenges. Our practitioners also provide investigation, design, permitting, and construction oversight for on-site disposal facilities for cost-effective, safe on-site disposal of soils, sludges, and miscellaneous debris with a broad range of contaminants, including mercury, PCBs, and volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds.
Human Health & Ecological Risk Assessments
Commercial manufacturers, specialty chemical firms, and industry and legal-sector clients often face a complicated mix of constituents at their sites. They need to understand the implications of cumulative exposures across multiple pathways, often for multiple populations. In addition, they may be facing uncertainties associated with emerging constituents, which are often not yet well understood.
Due Diligence
The role of environmental due diligence during merger, divestiture, and acquisition (MD&A) activities has evolved significantly since the early years of conducting straightforward Phase I Environmental Site Assessments (ESAs) for the purpose of identifying potential environmental concerns. Today, transactional due diligence can encompass far beyond just the routine Phase I ESA, advancing to higher level deal optimization through evaluation of sustainable practices and environmental, social and governance (ESG) to not just mitigate, but optimize the environmental foot print of the transaction. What once may have required only a small team of environmental professionals, has now developed into a requirement to assemble a myriad of inter-disciplinary professionals; skilled not just in environmental matters, but in financial and business matters as well with an aim of seeking value creation in addition to risk mitigation. Our clients look to Geosyntec to become a strategic and sustainable business partner looking beyond just a response to regulatory requirements. We understand that our clients may be driven by varying degrees of capitalization and risk tolerance. Certain investments may be time-limited while other investments such as mergers may present a need for a longer term vision of risk mitigation. We specialize in translating environmental risk into financial terms used for sound business decisions, requiring sophisticated integration of technical, regulatory, practical, and financial drivers.
