Continuing Education PDH Evaluator Training
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
12:00 PM

Please Join Gene Florentino and Robert Garfield in this short course to learn basics and recent updates on the evaluator requirements for approval of continuing education in New York. This course serves as a refresher for current evaluators, as well as introductory training for new evaluators to be certified to approve CE courses on behalf of the NYSCPG Continuing Education Committee. The course is expected to be less than an hour, and allow time for questions and discussion. 

Attendees must keep their cameras on, microphones muted, and complete questions throughout the presentation. 

Title: Lessons Learned from PFAS Site Investigations & Development of Conceptual Site Models

Presented By:

The NYSCPG is excited to offer our new Quarterly Geo Insights webinar with the opportunity to earn 1 Professional Development Hour (PDH). Check out the Event Page on our website for future webinars in this series.

Member Registration: $20
Non-Member Registration:$40

Please note: This course has been given previously by the LIAPG and at Geology Days. If you attended this course previously and are in the same licensure period, you are only able to claim credit once.

Abstract: The occurrence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in environmental media is not at all an unexpected finding considering the widespread presence of these substances in consumer products, firefighting foams (AFFF), and commercial/industrial materials associated with manufacturing and services. While sources, pathways and receptors may vary from place to place, a ubiquitous presence in the environment is being realized across urban, commercial, industrial and residential land use areas where there are undoubtedly many sources of PFAS to the environment. This situation presents challenges in attribution of impacts to responsible parties, and in an evolving regulatory landscape with few comparative standards and guidance, assessing investigative results to determine what levels constitute the need for some remedial action. This presentation explores several case studies of site investigation for PFAS in environmental media including air, groundwater, surface water and sediment using various techniques to examine source to environmental pathways to receptors for development of conceptual site models that become the basis for determining the need for those remedial actions.

Chris Wenczel is a Director at Environmental Resources Management (ERM) and professional geologist in New York with over 38 years of experience investigating and remediating contaminated sites. Mr. Wenczel's academic degrees are a BS in Geology and an MS in Hydrogeology.

As an ERM PFAS subject matter expert, he has experience since 2017 developing site investigations, remedial actions providing strategic advice, regulatory interface/negotiations, supporting outside counsel, on- and off-site characterization, conceptual site model development, air dispersion modeling, soil leachability modeling, and turn-key design of stormwater/wastewater treatment and air pollution control systems to reduce continued PFAS environmental impact from manufacturing operations.

Mr. Wenczel is past-President of LIAPG (current Vice-President) and Vice-President of the New York State Council of Professional Geologists (NYSCPG).

Instructors
Tom Sale, Ph.D. (Colorado State University)
Dan Kelleher, P.G. (Midwest GeoSciences Group)

Register for this event on Midwest GeoSciences Group website

This 2-day course is co-hosted by the NYSCPG and Midwest GeoSciences Group. The content of this course is designed around the new textbook, Modern Contaminant Hydrology written by Tom Sale and Joseph Scalia (2024). The goal is to advance modern conceptual foundations for contaminant transport in natural subsurface settings in support of better use of finite cleanup resources.

The new textbook moves away from the conceptualization of a homogenous "aquifer", recognizes the capacities of aquifers to passively assimilate contaminants, and stylistically embraces inherent uncertainties. Central themes include:

• The paradigm of modern contaminant hydrology has dramatically evolved in the past few years, partly due to how we approach understanding sedimentary sequences in combination with relating secondary alterations from weathering to contaminant occurrence and migration.
• Subsurface complexities from heterogeneous strata include variability at different scales of transmissive and low permeability zones.
• Diffusion is a critical process governing storage and release of contaminants in low permeability zones.
• Transverse mixing of contaminants in plumes is typically a weak process.
• Blended water quality data from monitoring wells are generally rejected as a basis for studying transport processes.
• All plausible contaminant phases including gas, nonaqueous, aqueous, and sorbed are interdependent and must be recognized.
• Reactions including phase changes, sorption, and biogeochemical transformations need to be resolved to understand the behavior of source zones and plumes.
• Reactions can be distinctly different in transmissive and low k zones.
• The conventional wisdom of absolute characterization of heterogeneous subsurface settings is often functionally impossible and therefore conceptual models with measurable degrees of uncertainty must be embraced.

This 2-day course provides opportunity to earn 16-Professional Development Hours (PDH) plus an optional 1.5 hour post-course online module.

The course also includes a free electronic version of the new textbook, Modern Contaminant Hydrology soon-to-be-announced through Dr. John Cherry's "Groundwater Project". This course preludes with pre-session online assessment for each participant in order to address your questions and topics during the course.

Dr. Tom Sale is internationally-recognized among the most expert authorities on LNAPL science. His research at the Center of Contaminant Hydrology at Colorado State University has created many technology breakthroughs creating a paradigm shift for LNAPL site management strategies.

Dr. Sale is an Associate Professor and Director of Center for Contaminant Hydrology, Civil and Environmental Engineering. He has authored numerous landmark papers and is the driving force behind patented technologies that have changed the direction of the LNAPL industry. He also contributes to LNAPL projects as a consultant and a regulation policy reviewer.

His research and consulting activities are dedicated to finding solutions for anthropogenic releases of contaminants to subsurface environments and their subsequent transport, fate, and management. Specific areas of interest are pragmatic expectations for Nonaqueous Phase Liquid (NAPL) remedies and passive strategies for management of NAPL releases. His collaborations have changed the LNAPL industry along with developments for remediation for both LNAPL and DNAPL.

His inventive mind and collaborative ability has enabled the Center for Contaminant Hydrology to conduct approximately $1.5 million /year in research and support 11 students. Current and recent research sponsors include ExxonMobil, Chevron, Suncor Energy, BP, Shell, CH2M, ARCADIS and the USDoD. He is dedicated to innovative solutions for groundwater contamination and development of groundwater resources.

Dr. Sale has bachelor degrees in Chemistry and Geology from Miami of Ohio (1980), a M.S. degree in Watershed Hydrology from the University of Arizona (1984), and a Ph.D. in Agricultural Engineering from Colorado State University (1998).

Dan Kelleher, PG, CIPM is a hydrogeologist dedicated to hydrogeological and geotechnical analysis of sedimentary sequences, aquifer testing, fractured rock hydrogeology, and predictive ground water modeling. Dan's business acumen promotes personal trust, integrity, and relentless QA/QC.

Dan leads specialized technical teams for challenging projects and facilitates educational courses and webinars for geologists, engineers and environmental scientists.

He and Tim Kemmis co-founded of Midwest GeoSciences Group to simply professionals to do better job of TAKING THE MYSTERY OUT OF THE SUBSURFACE (R), this course is part of the journey.

Register for this event on Midwest GeoSciences Group website

We invite you to join us for Geology Rocks; a networking and fundraising concert event to support the New York State Council of Professional Geologists. The 2025 concert represents our Fifth-annual music-themed fundraiser event, featuring music of the 80s and 90s.

The Venue
The concert will be held at The Coliseum, located at 15 South Broadway in White Plains, NY. Transportation to and from Long Island, the Capital Region, and the White Plains train station will be available.

Tickets
Tickets for this event are $150 and include food and beverages for the evening. Consider buying tickets for this fundraiser for friends, clients, or co-workers to support NYSCPG. 10 Ticket bundles are available for $1250, and companies that purchase 10 or more tickets will be posted on our Website and LinkedIn!

Come and meet friends, old and new, and  experience why this event has returned 4 years in a row!

Sponsorships

Sponsorship information can be found here or contact Greg Wyka (president@nyscpg.com) or John Nadeau (jnadeau@nyscpg.com) for more details.

All sponsors receive advertisements throughout the event, acknowledgement of sponsorship displayed on NYSCPG Website from date of sponsorship through conclusion of event, and LinkedIn shoutouts.