11/6/17
Retiring Biosolids Coordinators
Thanks for your leadership! 

2017 saw the retirement of three expert biosolids coordinators from our region and one from U. S. EPA.

Last winter, Mike Rainey left the NH Department of Environmental Services (DES) after ~30 years, most spent in an active role in the residuals management section.  Mike was there in the late 1990s, when public controversy disrupted biosolids programs, and he helped usher in several iterations of state regulations, including the latest, 2016 version. Ray Gordon has moved into the biosolids coordinator role at DES. Mike's biosolids knowledge and laboratory experience made him an excellent candidate when NEBRA needed help working on PFAS concerns, and Mike has been contracted by NEBRA for the past half-year.

In summer, Ernie Kelley formally retired from the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), where he had served two decades as biosolids coordinator and, in the past year, on emerging contaminants.  Ernie has been a national leader amongst state biosolids coordinators, especially in the 1990s and 2000s, when there were annual coordinators’ meetings and a more active nationwide list-serv.  He is continuing part-time work with DEC at this time, to help complete the stakeholder review of biosolids management and regulation in Vermont and to assist current biosolids coordinator Eamon Twohig with biosolids regulation revisions expected in 2018.

And, in November, Marc Hébert retired from the Quebec environment ministry, after 2+ decades as the leading expert and advocate for biosolids recycling in la belle Province.  As Ned Beecher of NEBRA noted at the recent residuals conference, regarding Marc’s long service, he has been amazingly prolific in instigating and completing research projects aimed at addressing some of the most critical questions in biosolids management (e.g. do PDBEs and metals get into milk via the biosolids - forage - cow pathway?), resulting in numerous government guidance documents and published papers in peer-reviewed journals (e.g. “Long-term response of forest plantation productivity and soils to a single application of municipal biosolids”).  He spearheaded the development of Quebec’s unique and highly-effective odor classification system for biosolids and other land-applied residuals, and, as a member of the biosolids task group for the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME), he helped advance biosolids policy and standards for the whole nation.  Marc plans to continue work in the field as a consultant.

And at the federal level, Rick Stevens, a key figure in U. S. EPA’s biosolids efforts, retired from the EPA Office of Water / Science & Technology at the end of August.  Rick led the biennial reviews of potential contaminants of concern required by 40 CFR Part 503 and developed the BCRAM and other risk assessment tools. 

“Thank you, each of you, for your excellent work.  You will be missed.”