Areas of Expertise

Experience with research and problem-solving assignments in several technical areas.

Environmental Damage Assessment and Recovery Planning

  • Experience conducting environmental injury and damage assessments to characterize the injuries caused by conflict, industrial accidents, and natural disasters using decision support analysis tools such as net environmental benefits analysis (NEBA), comparative risk assessment (CRA), and remedy alternatives analysis (RAA) to advise companies and governments on recovery strategies to restore damaged aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.

  • Examples of client assignments include:
  • Review and recommendations to the Ukraine Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment for improving seven damage assessment methodologies relevant to quantifying injuries to natural resources caused by the war, estimating the liabilities, and planning for restoration.
  • Preparation of a land de-mining prioritization scheme for the Ukraine Ministry of Economy that ranked the dangers posed by mined lands to different use categories based on a series of environmental, economic, and social criteria and then prioritized commitments of limited resources to removal of land mines and UXO and return of lands to safe and productive use.
  • Environmental cost/benefit analyses for Brazil’s federal prosecutors addressing different environmental restoration strategies responding to mine tailing wastes released to the Rio Doce watershed after the collapse of the Samarco dam in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.
  • Preparation of a fate and transport model describing the migration of perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs) from non-specific sources in the northern hemisphere to the Canadian Arctic, including development of a 5-tier Arctic food chain bioaccumulation model to predict PFCA levels at different ecological trophic levels.

Ecological Risk Assessment

  • Experience conducting ecological risk assessments (ERA), from screening-level to complex multi-pathway wildlife exposure assessments. Expertise includes reviewing and analyzing aquatic toxicity, chemical source identification, deriving risk-based cleanup goals, ecological effects, environmental fate, food chain/web transfers of contaminants, and uptake of volatile and semi-volatile chemicals, metals, and persistent organic compounds.
  • Examples of client assignments include:
  • Marine surveys and ERA to determine the extent of physical damage and risk to coral reef communities allegedly caused by thermoelectric power plant construction activities in Punta Catalina, Dominican Republic. Coral habitat assessment work included underwater sonar surveys to identify impacts and recommend mitigation options to offset the projected loss of coral habitat.
  • Assessment of the potential impacts caused by two oil-burning electricity generating stations in St Thomas and St Croix, US Virgin Islands, on marine and terrestrial wildlife, including threatened and endangered species and coral reefs in the adjacent harbor and shipping lanes.
  • ERA and assessment of the potential for environmental injuries during the planned construction of a luxury hotel and resort on lands formerly used as an oil storage depot in Curacao.
  • Technical guidance and state-of-the-science reviews for an energy company describing methods for conducting environmental assessments of petroleum and other substances' releases into aquatic and terrestrial tropical ecosystems.
  • ERA supporting implementation and residual risk analyses of sediment remediation alternatives for urban waterways and post/harbors in several US states and other countries relative to baseline or pre-contamination conditions using historical data, spatial and remote sensing tools, and environmental sampling results with emphasis on evaluating the risk-cost-benefits of different remedy options.
  • Periodic reviews/revisions to health and ecological risk assessments use the results of sediment, soil, and aquatic biota sampling to confirm the progress of different remediation activities relative to cleanup goals prescribed by the state of Michigan and US EPA for sediments and floodplain land in the Tittabawassee and Saginaw Rivers watersheds and Saginaw Bay.
  • Derivation of sediment, soil, and surface water cleanup goals for a wide range of organic and inorganic substances protective of valued ecological receptors, food webs, and human health (if applicable to subsistence and game hunting and fishing).
  • Seasonal monitoring of sediments and benthic organisms and fishes for recovery of aquatic biota following dredging work and installation of both an armored and thin-layer cap completed in 2013 to isolate chromium-contaminated sediments situated offshore from a former plating facility located at the confluence of the tidal-influenced Lower Hackensack River and Newark Bay, NJ.
  • Development of a landscape-level ecological risk assessment strategy supporting remediation of the U.S. Department of Defense Naval Petroleum Reserves in Southern California.

Sediment Investigation, Remediation, & Restoration

  • Experience planning and implementing investigations of biota, sediments, soils, and surface waters supporting health and ecological risk assessments used to inform remediation and restoration feasibility studies and environmental cleanup goals for a wide range of persistent chemicals (e.g., DDT, dioxins, flame retardants, PCBs, and perfluorinated compounds) and metals (e.g., cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, and selenium). This work typically involves periodic monitoring, determining environmental baseline conditions, and supervision of bathymetric analyses, hydrodynamic studies, chemical fingerprinting, and forensic investigations of past and current industrial and non-point sources that inform conceptual site models describing potential environmental migration pathways for chemical bioaccumulation, environmental damages, and food consumption advisories.
  • Examples of client assignments include:
  • Sediment and surface water investigations and preparation of a conceptual site model describing environmental migration and accumulation of DDT and metabolites in agricultural soils and southern Lake Ontario sediments.
  • Environmental sampling, bathymetric surveys, hydrodynamic studies, and preparation of inventories of past and current industrial and CSO discharges of DDT, dioxins, PCBs and other substances in the Lower Passaic River, lower Hackensack River, and Newark Bay (US-New Jersey), Tittabawassee and Saginaw Rivers and Saginaw Bay (US-Michigan), Porto Torres (northern Sardinia, Italy), Portland Harbor and Lower Willamette River (US-Oregon), Inner San Diego Harbor (US-California), Baltimore Harbor (US-Maryland), Augusta Bay (Siracusa, Sicily), Venice Lagoon (Italy), Leca River (Portugal), and the Paramatta River and Homebush Bay (Australia).
  • Review of sediment chemistry, bathymetric analyses, and conceptual designs for dredging and upland disposal supporting federal navigation channel maintenance and improvement works at the Searsport Terminal in Searsport, Maine, for the Maine Dept. of Transportation.
  • Collaboration with US Army Corps scientists to revise US federal guidance documents - CWA Section 404 Inland Testing Manual and MPRSA Section 103 Ocean Testing Manual (aka the Green Book) - to reflect current science and technologies for sampling, testing, and analysis of water, sediment, and aquatic biota to define environmental criteria for disposal of dredged materials.

Oil & Chemical Spill Impact Mitigation and Risk Assessment

  • Experience providing assessments of actual or theoretical releases of crude oil and other hydrocarbons into the marine environment, supporting planning and permitting of offshore oil and gas exploration activities, crude and refined product loading/unloading terminals, and assessments of the consequences of production discharges, pipeline accidents, and vessel collisions. Work often supports facility emergency plans, health and environment risk surveys, and the preparation of spill response plans.
  • Examples of client assignments include:
  • Critical review of facility emergency plans and supporting risk surveys at a larger crude oil terminal in the Middle East and recommendations to improve international best practices supporting anticipated increases in loading/unloading capacities at the terminal.
  • Assistance to the technical team preparing an oil spill consequence analysis for offshore oil exploration in western Greenland under Work Package 5 in the Integrated Oil Spill Response Actions and Environmental Effects (GRACE) Project funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 program. Member of the science review panel convened by the Norske Oil & Gas Association to examine the ERA- Acute oil spill risk assessment model proposed to replace prior marine assessment methods for offshore oil exploration and production activities in the North Sea.
  • Three-year study of baseline environmental and ecological conditions in the northern Gulf of Mexico before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill involving collaboration with a co-leader from Rice University and experts from 25 US Gulf Coast universities with expertise in different aspects of the Gulf Coast’s aquatic ecosystem.
  • Two-year study to develop an online knowledge-sharing tool supporting an oil spill response decision-support framework using environmental benefits analysis to predict the environmental consequences of oil spills and oil spill response technologies at different times of year and ice conditions in the Arctic environment.
  • Preparation of a state-of-science review of oil spill impact and spill response technologies applicable to managing oil and gas exploration and development in tropical environments to identify critical data gaps that, if filled, could improve knowledge relevant to spill response and mitigation planning.

Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services Assessments

  • Experience advising on nature-based, ecologically sustainable business practices that optimize biodiversity and achieve net positive conservation outcomes consistent with international best practices and international finance performance standards. This work typically includes ecological surveys to establish baseline conditions, identify positive and potentially negative biodiversity sensitivities associated with products and operations, and integrate practices that support corporate sustainability goals.
  • Examples of client assignments include:
  • Development of a biodiversity screening tool for an energy company to integrate environmental protection activities that would also preserve or enhance biodiversity when decommissioning land-based and offshore assets at operational end-of-life. The work relied heavily on GIS-based spatial data describing indigenous species, charismatic and threatened or endangered species, different habitat types, and designated critical ecological areas.
  • Ballast water and biofouling surveys for invasive species supporting the safe transit of ‘floatel’ vessels from Norway to Mozambique and subsequent assessments of the health and ecological consequences of construction work associated with planning an LNG terminal on the remote northern coast.
  • Alien invasive species surveys and biosecurity risk assessment consistent with the International Ballast Water Convention guidelines and International Maritime Organization (IMO) rules for the POLAR PIONEER offshore oil exploration rig in Seattle Harbor upon its return from the Arctic-Chukchi Sea and before departure for Norway.
  • Assistance with preparing an environmental benefits analysis comparing the ecological and economic consequences of different removal options associated with the decommissioning of drill cutting piles beneath Brae Area oil production platforms in the central North Sea.

Wenning Environmental LLC

Environmental Impact & Risk Assessment
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