The purpose of the Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CEC) Steering Committee, formed by the Board of Directors in October 2019, is to provide a forum for ASTSWMO representatives to discuss Federal and State and Territorial (State) regulatory, policy, and technical developments, and to recommend research projects and training activities for ASTSWMO Subcommittees, Focus Groups, and Task Forces to execute regarding CECs. The Committee defines CECs to include any physical, chemical, biological, or radiological substance or matter in any environmental media that may pose a risk to human and/or ecological health, is under regulated, and the presence, frequency of occurrence or source of which is not well understood, routinely monitored, and/or may lack analytical methods.
Tracie White (CO)
Ms. Tracie White, P.E. is the Director of the Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division. She has over 20 years of experience working in the field of environmental remediation and protection. Ms. White has dedicated much of her career to the State of Colorado, previously managing the Department’s Remediation Program and Federal Facilities Remediation and Restoration Unit. She has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Colorado.
Chair
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Kasey Kathan (VT)
Kasey Kathan works in the Sites Management Section (SMS) of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). She joined the DEC in 2013, as a regulator within the Solid Waste Management Program with a focus on closed and active landfills, including evaluation of contaminants of emerging concern within our waste streams and their impact on landfill leachate. In her current role, she is involved with the management of CERCLA sites, and other contaminated site remediation work. She holds degrees from Mount Holyoke College and Northern Arizona University in geology. Kasey became involved with ASTSWMO in early 2020 on the Solid Waste Disposal and Conversion Task Force and then joined the Contaminants of Emerging Concern Steering Committee later that same year. Kasey currently serves as vice-chair of the CEC committee and liaison to the Materials Management Subcommittee for CEC work. She is also the mother to two exuberant boys, and stays busy gardening, hiking and building tree forts.
Vice-Chair/Materials Management
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Amy Brittian (OK)
Amy Brittain is the Risk Management & Groundwater Program Manager of the Land Protection Division of the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality. In this position she coordinates groundwater and risk decision making across the division, including RCRA Corrective Action, Superfund, Federal Facilities, Formerly Used Defense Sites, EPCRA, and voluntary cleanup. Amy currently serves as a representative to the DEQ Information Technology Work Group, the State Geographic Information Council Data Sharing Workgroup, and DEQ Geographic Information System (GIS) Subcommittee. Amy is a graduate of the State of Oklahoma’s Certified Public Manager program (2016). Amy earned a B.S. in Geology from Virginia Tech (1999) and a M.S. in Geology from Oklahoma State University (2001). She currently serves as a member of ASTSWMO’s Contaminates of Emerging Concern Steering Committee and serves as ASTSWMO’s Vice President.
Board Liason
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Brent Everett (UT)
Brent is the Director of the Utah Division of Environmental Response and Remediation, in the Utah Department of Environmental Quality (UDEQ). He has been with the agency for over 33 years, beginning his career as a state project manager working in the Superfund Program. In 1993, Brent was promoted to Remedial Projects Section Manager in the CERCLA Branch. As such he helped develop the state’s Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP) and served as the first Brownfields coordinator for Utah DEQ. Brent was promoted to CERCLA Branch Manager in 2003, overseeing all Superfund, VCP/BF, and emergency response sites and activities in the division. In December 2009, Brent was appointed Director of the Division of Environmental Response and Remediation, which in addition to CERCLA/Superfund, VCP/Brownfields, and Emergency Response, also includes the Underground Storage Tank Branch programs (PST Trust Fund management, LUST cleanups, and UST compliance). In 2021, Above Ground Petroleum Storage Tanks were added to the division’s regulatory purview. His ASTSWMO involvement includes serving on the Remedial Action Focus Group (formerly the State Superfund Focus Group), followed by serving as the Region 8 states’ Board of Directors representative (2017-2019), association Vice-president (2019-2020), President (2020-2021) and Past President (2021-2022).
CERCLA & Brownfields Subcommittee Liaison
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Matthew Jones (NH)
Matt Jones is the Oil Compliance and Enforcement Subsection Chief within the Oil Remediation and Compliance Bureau of NHDES. He has been with the NHDES for 20 years with a main focus on underground and aboveground storage tanks. Matt has also served as a member of the ASTSWMO Release Prevention (RP) Task Force, RP Task Force Chair, and Tanks Subcommittee Chair, and is currently a member of the Contaminants of Emerging Concern Steering Committee. He has a BS in Environmental Science and minor in Chemistry from Lyndon State College, now known as Northern Vermont University.
Tanks Subcommittee Liaison
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Jillian Hunt (MO)
ASTSWMO member since 2018, I joined the CEC Steering Committee in September 2021 and became the liaison to the HW subcommittee in April 2022. I am practicing to become a professional engineer in Missouri. I am a graduate from University of Missouri Science and Technology College of Engineering with a MS certificate in geoenvironmental engineering and BS in environmental engineering. My interest in environmental engineering is to be resourceful when addressing human health and the environment, historical practices handling wastes, developing remediation technologies, and notable findings of specific wastes. My volunteer time focuses on conservation and preservation of the environment. You may contact me by telephone at 573-751-6796, or by e-mail at jillian.hunt@dnr.mo.gov, or connect with me on LinkedIn.
Hazardous Waste Subcommittee Liaison
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Sonja Favors (AL)
Sonja B. Favors, P.E., is the Chief of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) Industrial Hazardous Waste Branch. She has 25 years of experience in the environmental management of industrial and governmental facilities associated with regulatory affairs. Ms. Favors has served as a combustion and sediments expert and an Environmental Justice coordinator as well for the Department. In her current role Ms. Favors oversees the Department’s RCRA, CERCLA permitting, compliance and enforcement programs as well as Brownfields Redevelopment. She continues to serve as an Environmental Justice coordinator for the Department, attending community activities, environmental conferences and workshops, along with other speaking opportunities to facilitate Departmental public participation. Ms. Favors has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Tuskegee University, and an M.B.A. from Auburn University Montgomery. She is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) and a Certified Public Manager (CPM) in the State of Alabama.
Hazardous Waste Subcommittee Liaison
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Teresa Booeshaghi (FL)
Ms. Booeshaghi is the Assistant Director for the Division of Waste Management at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. She has been with the agency for 21 years. In her current role she works with District Offices throughout the state to ensure consistent and uniform adherence and application of waste management regulations. She provides oversight to the Division’s Permitting and Compliance Assistance Program, including promotion of waste management practices that minimize waste generation, encourage recycling and reuse, prevent discharges of chemical and petroleum products contained in storage tank systems, and ensure adequate and timely cleanup of the environment. She previously served as the Waste Cleanup Program Administrator where she was responsible for a number of cleanup programs, including the Drycleaning Solvent Cleanup and Superfund Programs, Federal Facilities, Brownfields and Voluntary Cleanup Tax Credit programs.
Federal Facilities Subcommittee Liaison
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Ray Holberger (SC)
Ray Holberger is DHEC’s Environmental Risk Specialist. He supports DHEC staff on the planning, management, and implementation of environmental risk assessment and mitigation projects with his knowledge of toxicology, environmental exposure assessment and environmental standard development. Ray has almost 20 years of experience conducting field investigations and risk assessments and writing technical reports in a variety of jurisdictions South Carolina, Massachusetts, and as a private sector Risk Assessor in Victoria, British Columbia. He also served as Environmental Project Manager on a number of complicated, high-profile cleanup projects in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Ray has a BS in Environmental Science from McGill University in Montreal and is currently more than halfway through a masters degree in Environmental Health Science at the University of South Carolina.
Member
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Ann Kron (MT)
Ann Kron is a hydrogeologist currently working as a hazardous waste TSDF permitter at the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. Ann has over 25 years’ experience working with hazardous waste generation, permitting, and remediation. Ann’s positions have provided her with extensive knowledge in remediation of both historical and new contaminant releases at a wide variety of TSDF facilities. Ann also has a passion for change management and effective cross-program communication, with a focus on positive stakeholder and inter-agency relationships for the efficient management of environmental regulations and contaminated media. Outside of work, you can find Ann skiing or hiking in the mountains of Montana or spending time visiting her native state of Minnesota.
Member
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Justin Meredith (TN)
Justin Meredith is an Environmental Fellow at the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Division of Remediation (TDEC-DoR). Justin performs a wide variety of scientific reviews and technical services for DoR and other Divisions in TDEC. Prior to working at TDEC, Justin worked in the private sector for Environmental Chemical Corporation. Justin is the Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council (ITRC) point of contact (POC) for Tennessee, the Tennessee representative on the EPA Federal-State Toxicology Risk Analysis Committee (FSTRAC), and a member of the Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials (ASTSWMO) Chemicals of Emerging Concern (CEC) steering committee. Justin’s undergraduate degree is in Environmental Geosciences and Justin’s graduate degree is in Epidemiology.
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Tom Higgins (MN)
Tom joined the MPCA in 2003 as a hydrologist in the Petroleum Remediation and Petroleum Brownfield Program areas. Since 2015, Tom has served in a number of MPCA leadership positions including as the Superfund Program Coordinator, Superfund Supervisor, Program Manager of the MPCA’s Petroleum Remediation program and, most recently, as Program Manager of the MPCA Superfund program. During Tom’s career he’s provided technical review, oversight, and leadership on a number of petroleum and hazardous substance investigations, clean-ups, and policy development initiatives. Tom has also been an active participant on several Interstate Technology & Regulatory Council (ITRC) teams and was a member of ITRC’s Board of Advisors from 2010-2019 serving as ITRC Training Program Coordinator and as ITRC Co-Chair. Tom has a Bachelors of Science in Environmental Sciences from Minnesota State University, Mankato and a Masters of Science degree in Environmental Chemistry from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.
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