Delbert J. Eatough, Ph.D.

 

Frank A. Chambers (1885-1951) was a founder of the Smoke Prevention Association of America, a forerunner of the Air & Waste Management Association, and was instrumental in building the foundation for A&WMA. His pioneering ideas for smoke control were employed by many cities across the United States. The Frank A. Chambers Excellence in Air Pollution Control Award is presented annually by the Association for outstanding achievement in the science and art of air pollution control. It requires technical accomplishments considered to be major contributions, the merits of which have been widely recognized by persons in the field. The coverage is intentionally broad, since it recognizes achievement in any line of technical endeavor in air pollution control, from pure research to applied science.

A&WMA presents the 2010 Frank A. Chambers Excellence in Air Pollution Control Award to Delbert J. Eatough, Ph.D., for his research contributions in the areas of fine particulate measurement, characterization, and source apportionment.

Dr. Eatough is a Professor, Emeritus in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Brigham Young University (BYU). He received a bachelor’s of science degree in chemistry with a minor in physics in 1964 and a Ph.D. degree in chemistry in 1967, both from BYU.

When Dr. Eatough became involved in air pollution research in the 1970s, most of the emphasis was on directly-emitted particles. While it was known that gases such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides could change to particles, little was known about how these transformations occurred and the long distances over which these secondary particles could travel. Pollution control emphasized building tall stacks to disperse primary pollutants near the source, while ignoring the regional aspects. Dr. Eatough was among the first to demonstrate the consequences of physical and chemical changes in pollutants between source and receptor. As part of these studies, Dr. Eatough recognized discrepancies between aerosol sampling methods that reflected the transient nature of the particles. While many substances are stable and remain in solid form, other compounds, such as ammonium nitrate and many semi-volatile organic compounds, transition between gas and particle phases. This transition depends on many variables, including temperature, humidity, and vapor pressure. Dr. Eatough developed several different devices that could quantify how much was gained or lost during these transitions. These developments not only allow for a better understanding of particles that are actually in the air, and not just caught by the sampler, but they also provide indications of the chemical composition and formation mechanisms.

Dr. Eatough’s techniques for measuring semi-volatile fine particulate components and mass have been used to characterize the composition of fine particles in urban (e.g., Salt Lake City, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Seattle, Los Angeles Basin, Bakersfield, and Fresno) and rural (e.g., Canyonlands, Grand Canyon, Shenandoah, South Africa, and Asia) environments. The availability of the methodology and the characterization of aerosols in widely disparate environments add to the emerging picture of secondary organic aerosol formation and its potential adverse effects on health, visibility, and climate. Dr Eatough’s current work focuses on the development of semi-continuous measurements of fine particulate mass and composition, including marker species for source apportionment applications.

Dr. Eatough’s work in atmospheric processes, source apportionment, and measurement technology has helped decision-makers understand which sources and pollutants should be controlled to gain the greatest benefit on adverse effects. This has made significant, and often pioneering, contributions toward the chemical understanding needed to make decisions related to fine particulate air pollution control.

Dr. Eatough is a past Chair of A&WMA’s Technical Council and a past Vice President to the Board of Directors. He has served as an organizing chair for several A&WMA Specialty Conferences, Technical Program Chair for four A&WMA Annual Conferences, and is a member of the Journal’s Editorial Review Board. In addition to his service to A&WMA, Dr. Eatough is a member of the American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) and serves as a member of the editorial board for Aerosol Science and Technology. He has received a number of past awards, including the 1980 Calorimetry Conference First Sunner Memorial Award, 1986 Brigham Young University Maeser Research and Creative Arts Award, and 1993 American Chemical Society Utah Award in Chemistry. He is currently serving as a science advisor to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a member of the Atmospheric Aerosol Measurement Methods Committee, a subcommittee of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee.

Lester B. Lave, Ph.D.

 

Richard Beatty Mellon (1858-1933), in the desire to benefit mankind, along with his brother Andrew William Mellon, established the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research in 1913. Mellon showed great interest in the abatement of urban smoke and air pollution and led in instituting and sustaining the first modern investigations looking to ways and means for controlling the atmospheric pollution. The Richard Beatty Mellon Environmental Stewardship Award honors an individual whose civic contributions, whether administrative, legislative, or judicial, have aided substantially in the mission and objectives of the Association.

A&WMA presents the 2010 Richard Beatty Mellon Environmental Stewardship Award to Lester B. Lave, Ph.D., the Harry B. and James H. Higgins Professor of Economics and Finance, and Professor of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University.

Dr. Lave received a bachelor’s of arts degree from Reed College and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He has appointments in the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Institute of Technology, and H. John Heinz II College; was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences; is a past president of the Society for Risk Analysis, and received their Distinguished Achievement Award; and has acted as a consultant to many organizations and government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Dr. Lave is the founder and director of Carnegie Mellon’s Green Design Institute, which has conducted research on sustainability, life cycle analysis, alternative automobile fuels, and related topics for 15 years. Along with Granger Morgan, he founded the Carnegie Mellon electricity Industry Center, the largest engineering-business center focused on the electricity industry.

Dr. Lave chaired the Energy Efficiency/Conservation Panel of the National Academy of Sciences study on American’s Energy Future (report released in December 2009) and currently chairs a National Academy of Sciences committee on biofuels. He has chaired and has served on many committees of the National Academy of Sciences, American Medical Association, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the author of more than 500 peer-reviewed scientific publications and author or editor of more than two dozen books.

In 1970, with his student coauthor, Eugene Seskin, Dr. Lave published the paper, “Air Pollution and Human Health,” in Science. The paper presented the first large-scale study to link ambient levels of air pollution with premature death in 100 U.S. metropolitan areas. The study found that ambient levels of suspended particulate matter and sulfates were associated with excess deaths at air pollution levels that were generally assumed to be safe. The study helped make the case for stringent regulation of air pollutants at the federal and state level. The study was controversial in that critics argued that it showed a statistical association, not causation.

Lave and Seskin embarked on an investigation of factors that were hypothesized to be the causal factors and found that the relationship was generally robust to the introduction of data on smoking, home heating fuels, and other variables. They also examined the association between daily levels of air quality and daily mortality and hospitalization rates. They presented the research in a series of journal articles and in the book, Air Pollution and Human Health (1977). This work led to a comparison of the fuels and technologies for generating electricity in order to find the fuel-technology combination that was best for public health. It also led to studies of other air and water pollutants, national energy policy, and environmental policies.

With Chris Hendrickson and Scott Matthews, Dr. Lave developed a software tool for conducting life cycle analysis quickly and at low cost. The software, available free at www.eiolca.net, has become the standard tool for getting a first approximation of the life cycle materials, fuel, and energy use of a product or service together with the pollution and greenhouse gas discharges over the life cycle. Life cycle environmental and energy implications of alternative product designs and fuels have been a principal focus of recent research. For example, a life cycle analysis of the first major battery powered vehicle in the United States found that the vehicle is bad for environment: A vehicle powered by a 500 Kg lead-acid battery would put between 4 and 60 times as much lead in the environment, per vehicle-mile, as a comparable size vehicle using leaded gasoline.

In addition, in a series of studies of recycling municipal solid waste, used nylon carpets, and automobiles, Dr. Lave and colleagues found that a hastily assembled recycling system is likely to cost more materials and energy and be worse for environmental quality than sending the discarded products to a landfill. For recycling to satisfy environmental goals, the products much be designed to be recycled and the collection cost must be low. Dr. Lave currently has a grant from the National Energy Technology Laboratory to study customer response to changing electricity prices.

Kenneth P. Stubbs, QEP

 

S. Smith Griswold (1909-1971) served as chief air pollution control officer for the Los Angeles Air Pollution Control District between 1954 and 1965. In 1965, he became chief of the Abatement Branch of the Division of Air Pollution Control in the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and later served as associate director for abatement and control before leaving in 1967 to work as a consultant. As President of the Association in 1962, he focused international attention on air pollution control officials' activities, problems, and achievements. The S. Smith Griswold Outstanding Air Pollution Control Official Award is presented by the Association for outstanding accomplishments in the prevention and control of air pollution. The recipient must be or have been a government agency staff member whose contributions to the prevention and control of air pollution have been widely recognized.

A&WMA presents the 2010 S. Smith Griswold Outstanding Air Pollution Control Official Award to Kenneth P. Stubbs, QEP, senior air quality specialist in the Policy and Planning Department of the Greater Vancouver regional government (Metro Vancouver), British Columbia, Canada.

Stubbs joined Metro Vancouver as an ambient air analyst in 1990, after 15 years as an air quality consultant working with regional, provincial, national, and international clients. In 1995, he was appointed administrator of the Air Monitoring and Assessment Division, responsible for all aspects of ambient air quality monitoring, source emission testing, air quality modeling, and effluent discharge monitoring within the Greater Vancouver region. In 2005, he assumed his current post.

Stubbs has served as the Metro Vancouver representative on many regional, provincial, and federal air quality committees and task forces. He has been a long-standing champion of the National Air Pollution Surveillance (NAPS) network, a collaboration of federal, provincial, and municipal air quality monitoring agencies. In 2001, Stubbs was asked to serve on a committee to oversee the development and implementation of the world’s first health risk-based air quality index (AQHI), and served as chair of the Monitoring and Data Analysis Working Group, which developed the scientific basis for the air quality monitoring parameters used in the AQHI formulation today. In addition, Stubbs was heavily involved with the Federal Provincial Joint Action Implementation Coordinating Committee, a group of air quality leaders who coordinated the implementation of the Canada-wide standards for fine particulate matter and ozone.

In 2001, the Canadian Association for Laboratory Accreditation (CALA) requested that Stubbs become the first national assessor of air quality-related chemical analysis quality assurance and record keeping procedures. Still the only CALA Air Quality Assessor in Canada, Stubbs periodically travels across the country assessing laboratories and monitoring stations against CALA and ISO 17025 standards. Working with CALA and NAPS, Stubbs has devoted great effort to bring quality assurance and standardization practices to air quality networks across Canada.

Since the early 1990s, Stubbs has been heavily involved with efforts to measure and improve visual air quality in Canada. As chair of the 1993 A&WMA International Specialty Conference, “Protecting Visibility in Western Canada,” Stubbs initiated discussions about the management of visibility in British Columbia. Since then, he has managed the integration of visibility monitoring into the Lower Fraser Valley Air Quality Monitoring Network. In partnership with the provincial government, Stubbs currently co-chairs the British Columbia Visibility Coordinating Committee, a multi-agency working group poised to pilot the first visibility index in Canada.

Stubbs earned a bachelor’s of science degree with honors and master’s of arts degree in geography/climatology from the University of Victoria. He became a qualified environmental professional (QEP) in 1993 and since that time has served in various leadership capacities with the Institute of Professional Environmental Practice. He has been actively involved with A&WMA for more than 20 years, serving in leadership positions at the Chapter, Section, and International levels. He was awarded A&WMA Fellowship in 1996, received A&WMA Honorary Membership in 2005, and is currently serving as Co- Chair for the 15th International Union of Air Pollution Prevention and Environmental Protection Associations’ (IUAPPA) World Clean Air Congress to be held in Vancouver in September.

Mark J. Rood, Ph.D.

 

Lyman A. Ripperton (1921-1978) spent his career as a practitioner in education and research for air pollution control. He left the Los Angeles County Air Pollution Control District in 1958 to assume a teaching and research position in the Department of Environmental Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There, he initiated an air pollution education program that developed into one of the foremost of its kind in the United States. The Lyman A. Ripperton Environmental Educator Award is presented to an individual who has inspired students to achieve excellence in their professional and social endeavors. It recognizes the ability that only a few educators possess: to teach with rigor, humor, humility, and pride. Recipients of this award are educators we would have chosen as our teachers if we had a choice. They are known by the accomplishments of their students.

A&WMA presents the 2010 Lyman A. Ripperton Environmental Educator Award to Mark J. Rood, Ph.D., the Ivan Racheff Professor of Environmental Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois.

Dr. Rood received a bachelor’s of science degree in environmental engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology. He then worked as an air quality engineer for Pacific Environmental Services Inc. in Elmhurst, IL, before completing his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in environmental engineering at University of Washington.

Dr. Rood specializes in the use of physical and chemical principles to characterize the optical and chemical properties of ambient aerosols related to opacity, visibility, and climate change. These techniques use extractive- and remote-based sampling techniques. He also pioneers the development of effective methods and materials to separate hazardous materials from gas streams and the separation and recovery of organic vapors/gases from gas streams for reuse. Dr. Rood was coordinator of the Environmental Engineering and Science (EES) Program at the University of Illinois for six years. EES is consistently ranked among the top environmental and civil engineering programs in the United States.

Dr. Rood has taught environmental engineering courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level. He has been recognized for his teaching abilities by inclusion in the “List of Teachers Ranked Excellent by Their Students” four times and for his commitment to advising by receiving the “College of Engineering Excellent Advisor Award” four times at the University of Illinois. His advisees have been acknowledged with at least 20 A&WMA Annual Conference poster/paper awards and at least five A&WMA scholarships. His advisees were also awarded the Smolokowski Award from the American Carbon Society, the Richard A. Glenn Best Paper Award from the American Chemical Society, and two thesis awards through the Association of Environmental Engineering & Science Professors (AEESP). He has advised 22 Ph.D. and 42 master’s graduate students that have resulted in 82 peer-reviewed journal publications, eight book chapters, 110 conference proceedings, two patents, and one ASTM International Standard Test Method. His advisees have been placed at academic institutions, government agencies, and in the private sector; and 11 of his Ph.D. advisees have themselves become professors in the United States Taiwan, Canada, China, and Turkey. He is very proud of his advisees’ national and international achievements.

An A&WMA Fellow, Dr. Rood has been an active member of the Association since 1986. He currently serves as Chair of the Higher Education Division, Chair of the Faculty and Graduate Student Recruitment Committee, and member of the Scholarship Trustees Committee. He has also co-chaired at least eight Annual Conference technical sessions and helped develop the ever-popular joint A&WMA-AEESP “Meet & Greet” session—an annual breakfast seminar held during A&WMA’s Annual Conference for academicians to network about their educational experiences. Dr. Rood was also an Associate Editor of the Journal for 10 years.

In addition to his affiliation with A&WMA, Dr. Rood has contributed to the American Society of Civil Engineers as an Associate Editor and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Environmental Engineering, and received the Distinguished Recognition Award as Treasurer and Executive Board Member of AEESP. He recently received the Best Research & Development Team Award from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Energy Research and Development Center, as a result of collaborations with Byung J. Kim and Michael R. Kemme; and the Outstanding Cooperator’s Award from the Illinois State Geological Survey, as a result of collaborations with Massoud Rostam-Abadi. Dr. Rood is a member of the Environmental Engineering Committee of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board; was president of the Board of the Community Recycling Center in Champaign-Urbana; and was a member of Urbana Park District’s Advisory Committee in Illinois.

Anthony J. Buonicore, P.E., BCEE, QEP

 

Charles W. Gruber (1910-2001) was a pioneer in the field of air pollution control. His contributions to the field of air pollution control and the Association were numerous and significant. He joined the Association in 1938 and made important contributions during the transitional years from 1948 to 1952, when the Association was transformed from a relatively closed smoke-oriented organization to one that addressed in name, philosophy, and structure the broader dimensions of air pollution control. In 1950, he became the first president of the reorganized and renamed Association. During his term of office, he conceived of the present technical committee structure and guided its development through the early years. In 1980, the Association awarded Honorary Membership to Gruber for more than 40 years of leadership and continuing contributions to the organization. The Charles W. Gruber Association Leadership Award is presented to an individual who has provided outstanding service to the Association through leadership positions at both international and local levels and who has contributed toward the achievement of the mission and objectives of the Association. The recipient will have demonstrated sincere, constant, and unselfish efforts over the course of his or her membership toward the betterment of the Association.

A&WMA presents the 2010 Charles W. Gruber Association Leadership Award to Anthony J. Buonicore, P.E., BCEE, QEP, a Fellow Member and Past President of the Association.

Buonicore became a member of the Association in 1972, while studying chemical engineering at Manhattan College. After receiving his master’s degree with specialization in air pollution control equipment modeling, he was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Air Force and was stationed at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, where he pioneered the co-firing of pelletized refusederived fuel with coal in stoker boilers.

In 1974, recognizing the need for a committee to focus on energy and environmental interactions, he founded and served as the first Chair of Technical Committee 5.1, Energy-Environmental Interactions (later to become TT- 6). In 1976, he was appointed Chair of the Basic Science and Technology Division by then-Technical Council Chair, J. Deane Sensenbaugh. Buonicore subsequently served as Vice-Chair and Chair of the Technical Council. At this same time, while serving on the Planning Committee, he was instrumental in expanding the Association into waste management and for its eventual renaming from the Air Pollution Control Association to the Air & Waste Management Association.

In 1980, Buonicore founded his first of many companies, BCA Environmental Services, a consulting firm specializing in air pollution control and waste management. During this time, he was awarded a number of patents for air pollution control systems used in the pharmaceutical industry. He also started a manufacturing company, Chemrox, to design, build, and install these systems. BCA and Chemrox were sold in 1990 to Cilcorp. Later that same year, Buonicore founded Environmental Data Resources, an environmental information services business to support the data needs associated with commercial real estate transactions. The company was sold in 1999. He remained with the company until 2006, at which time he left to start an energy information services business to facilitate and support energy efficiency and sustainability in the commercial real estate market.

Buonicore has always been a strong advocate for the Association to develop and publish its own content. As a leader to move the Association in this direction, he served as Co-Editor (with Wayne Davis) of the First Edition (1992) of the Association’s immensely successful Air Pollution Engineering Manual. He was also a strong advocate for the certification of environmental professionals and was instrumental in the development of the Institute if Professional Environmental Practice and its qualified environmental professional (QEP) certification program.

Throughout his career, Buonicore has freely contributed his technical expertise with frequent training, publications, and presentations at Association Annual and Specialty Conferences. His training courses on air pollution control equipment for gases and particulates and hazardous waste incineration in the 1970s and the 1980s were popular and always well attended. His technical papers on these same subjects contributed significantly to the advancement of the state-of-the-art. In recognition of his accomplishments, Buonicore was asked by McGraw Hill to develop and be the first Editor (1984) of the new Waste Management Section in the 6th Edition of Perry’s Chemical Engineers’ Handbook.

Buonicore has served in virtually every leadership position within the Association, including as a member of the Board of Directors of the New England States Section (1987– 1992); Chair, Technical Council Division (1976–1981); Vice Chair (1981–1984) and Chair (1984–1987), Technical Council; member, International Board of Directors (1989–1992); and Vice-President (1991–1992), First Vice-President (1993–1994), and President (1994–1995) of the Association.

Buonicore continues to serve the Association in various capacities, including contributing a regular column in EM Magazine; serving as a member of the Association’s Centennial Committee; and as a Board-appointed member of a special committee to identify innovative ways the Association can improve the Annual Conference. In 2008, he served on a committee to evaluate and improve the Association’s information technology services to better serve the membership. He was also appointed by the Board in 2009 to be a member of the Executive Director Search Committee and is now working with the Association’s new Executive Director to enhance and improve delivery of the Association’s information to members around the world. Buonicore currently serves as Chair and CEO of Buonicore Partners, LLC, publishers of Building Energy Performance News.

Waste Management Branch of the City of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

 

The Waste Management Award, established by A&WMA in 1989, is awarded for outstanding technological achievement in the science and art of waste management; outstanding achievement in the management, prevention, and regulation of wastes leading to minimizing the impact of waste in the environment; or distinguished achievement as an educator in the field of waste management.

A&WMA presents the 2010 Waste Management Award to the Waste Management Branch of the City of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

The City of Edmonton’s waste management system has evolved from one that was largely focused on landfilling waste, to today’s highly integrated, sustainable system that is focused on landfill diversion through waste reduction, reuse, recycling, composting, and resource recovery.

The system is embodied in Edmonton’s 30-year waste management strategic plan that balances social, economic, environmental technical, and governance considerations. It was developed with extensive public input through which residents articulated a desire for an environmentally sound, yet convenient and affordable waste management system. Edmontonians have demonstrated a strong and consistent environmental ethic in their exceptional participation rates in voluntary waste reduction practices. Their active support of the system is integral to its overall success.

An important component of the system is the Edmonton Waste Management Centre, home to more than 20 modern processing and disposal facilities. The 200-hectare site includes leading-edge facilities built by the City of Edmonton, as well as private facilities built in partnership with the city.

One of these facilities is a new integrated processing and transfer facility that includes transfer operations, preprocessing operations, and the production of refusederived fuel for a waste-to-biofuels facility that will be operational by the end of 2011. Enerkem Inc. will develop and operate the biofuels facility. The facility will convert the city’s nonrecyclable and noncompostable waste into biofuel (methanol and ethanol). It will be the first commercial facility to produce ethanol from mixed municipal waste, producing 36 million liters of ethanol per year from100,000 tons of refuse-derived fuel. Alberta’s Innovates—Energy and Environment Solutions program has provided a grant of $20 million (Canadian dollars) to the city to help develop the biofuels facility and an advanced research facility.

Through recycling and composting, Edmonton is currently able to divert close to 60% of residential waste from landfill. With the addition of the biofuels facility, the diversion rate is expected to reach 90% by 2013. Other achievements of the City of Edmonton’s Waste Management Branch include:

• High voluntary participation in recycling and reduction:
• 89% participation in single family blue bag recycling
• 29% participation in backyard composting
• Extensive public education programming, including school programs that reach 15,000 students each year
• Volunteer programs that engage 350 volunteers each year as Master Composter/Recycler Volunteers and Reuse volunteers
• Garbage collection for 325,000 households with fewer than three complaints per 100,000 stops
• A three-prong recycling program—blue bags for single family homes, blue bins at apartments, and community depots—that collected 52,000 tons of recyclables in 2009
• 12 community Big Bin Events, where residents can bring oversize materials too large for regular collection
• Three Eco Stations for household hazardous waste and other waste, which attracted 183,359 visits in 2009
• 60% residential waste diversion from landfill

Innovative facilities and processes at the Edmonton Waste Management Centre include:

• North America’s largest composting facility, where the city’s residential organics are converted to compost
• A modern recycling facility that processes close to 50,000 tons of recyclables each year
• An e-waste facility (owned by private sector partner Global Electric Electronic Processors) that processed 12,000 tons of electronic and electrical waste in 2009
• An integrated processing and transfer facility for residential and commercial waste
• A construction and demolition waste recycling operation
• A landfill gas-to-electricity system that captured 146,000 tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent in 2009
• A research and development facility.

In 2010, a new advanced energy research facility will open at the center, construction will begin on the biofuels facility, and a paper and glass recycling facility to produce consumer products will be built by Greys Recycling Inc. in partnership with the city.

Honorary Membership in A&WMA is conferred upon persons who have attained eminence in some field related to the mission and objectives of the Association or who have rendered valuable service to the Association. Honorary membership in 2010 is awarded to Paula McLemore, QEP, and William A. Spratlin, P.E., QEP

Honorary Membership
Paula McLemore

 

Paula McLemore is a senior consultant for Environmental Resources Management (ERM) in the company’s Performance and Assurance Practice, where she promotes cultural transformation through intervention programs that generate rapid improvement in environment, health, and safety (EH&S) performance.

McLemore has more than 30 years of experience in government and industry. She began her career in 1979 as director of air pollution control for the City of Granite City, IL. In 1981, she moved to the private sector. Over the next 20 years, she held several different management positions in the EH&S arena for Albemarle Corp. and its predecessor, Ethyl Corp., where she was the recipient of the Floyd D. Gottwald Award of Excellence and the Albemarle Performance Excellence Award.

In 2002, McLemore joined DX Service Co. as vice president of environmental affairs. In 2003, she became vice president of EH&S and regulatory affairs with responsibilities for EH&S, security, training, and quality assurance programs. In 2007, McLemore joined Philip Services Co. (PSC) as vice president of EH&S, where she was responsible for the direction of EH&S programs throughout the company.

Throughout her career, McLemore has been active in a number of trade and professional associations, including the American Chemistry Council, the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturer’s Association, the Chlorine Institute, and the Texas Chemical Council, where she served two terms on the Board of Directors. McLemore was a charter member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Institute for Pollution Prevention, where she chaired the Implementation Council. She is a member of the Water Environment Federation and National Association of Environmental Professionals, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Texas Association of Environmental Professionals, where she is currently vice chair.

Over her more than 30 years as a member of A&WMA, McLemore has served in numerous leadership positions, including Member, Board of Directors, St. Louis Section; Chair, Gulf Coast Chapter; Chair, Southwest Section; Vice Chair, Basic Technology Division, Technical Council; Member, A&WMA Board of Directors; and Vice President and President of A&WMA. During her tenure as Association President, McLemore worked to strengthen and expand the Canadian and Mexican Sections and served as a member of the National Advisory Committee to the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation established under NAFTA. She facilitated the establishment of the Northern Mexico and Brazilian Sections and helped promote the use of A&WMA’s Environmental Resource Guides for air quality education programs in Mexico.

McLemore was instrumental in the transformation of the Air Pollution Control Association to the Air & Waste Management Association. She served as Co-Chair of a Specialty Conference on Air Modeling. She has also held leadership roles on numerous committees, chaired sessions at the Annual Conference, and been a speaker at a number of domestic and international Association-sponsored events. She facilitated a series of air quality teachertraining programs in the United States (Houston), which reached over 300 teachers and 30,000 students. McLemore also chaired the Centennial Committee for the Association’s Centennial celebration in 2007.

McLemore holds a bachelor’s of science degree in resource conservation and ecology and a master’s of science degree in geology, hydrology, and thermal and environmental engineering from Southern Illinois University. She is a qualified environmental professional (QEP) and an A&WMA Fellow.

Honorary Membership
William A. Spratlin

 

William A. Spratlin is a native of Arkansas and received both bachelor’s of science and master’s of science degrees in civil engineering from the University of Arkansas. Spratlin began his career with the Arkansas Pollution Control Commission in 1968 as an environmental engineer supervisor.

In 1970, he continued his environmental career at the National Air Pollution Administration in Kansas City, which was one of the agencies that became part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in December 1970. At EPA, he served in several managerial positions in the air program and as deputy director of the Superfund program in EPA Region 7. In the latter position, he served as the agency lead for the Times Beach Superfund site investigation from 1982 to 1985. In 1985, Spratlin was appointed director of the Air, RCRA, and Toxics Division, where he served until 2006. In 2006, Spratlin was appointed director of the Water, Wetlands, and Pesticides Division.

At EPA, Spratlin has received several awards, including the EPA Gold Medal for Exceptional Service and the Pride in Public Service Award for Professional Excellence from the Greater Kansas City Federal Executive Board. In both 1995 and 2006, he was recognized by the President of the United States as a Meritorious Executive for sustained superior accomplishment in the management of government programs.

Spratlin has been a member of A&WMA and the Midwest Section for more than 25 years. He has been a frequent contributor to Chapter and Section meetings of the Association in Kansas City, St. Louis, and Iowa. In 1992, Spratlin served as the Technical Program Chair for the A&WMA Annual Conference in Kansas City. Spratlin was elected to the A&WMA Board of Directors in 1998. During his tenure on the Board, he served as Chair of the Finance Committee, Vice President, and President of the Association. He became an A&WMA Fellow in 2004.

Spratlin is a registered professional engineer, a qualified environmental professional, and a past member of the Board of Trustees for the Institute of Professional Environmental Practice (IPEP). As a member of the IPEP Board, he served as Chair of the Government Affairs Committee and a member of the Intern Committee. Spratlin is currently a member of the A&WMA Fellows Committee.

The Outstanding Young Professional Award was inaugurated in 2008 and recognizes an individual or individuals who are pursuing excellence in their careers and have made a valuable contribution to A&WMA by serving in a leadership position. To be eligible, a candidate must be a young professional working in the environmental profession. A young professional is defined by the Association as being 35 years of age or younger.

A&WMA commends the following individuals and awards them the 2010 Outstanding Young Professional Award:

Outstanding Young Professional Award
Steve Rybolt

 

Rybolt is an environmental manager with the Port of Seattle, Sea-Tac International Airport in Seattle, WA. He is responsible for integrating environmental and sustainability measures into capital, tenant, and concessions projects; ensuring environmental compliance; and developing a strategic plan and assessment tool to further the Port’s environmental goals. Prior to joining the Port of Seattle, he garnered experience as a regulator with local air agencies in Washington and has been in the environmental field for eight years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and economics and a master’s of science degree in resource management and environmental policy from Western Washington University’s Huxley College of the Environment.

Rybolt’s experience with A&WMA began in 2002, when as a student he participated in the Pacific Northwest International Section’s (PNWIS) first Environmental Challenge (EC) competition, which resulted in the formation of Western Washington University’s Huxley College A&WMA Student Chapter.

Rybolt has continued his involvement in A&WMA, focusing on the Environmental Challenge, students, and young professionals. He currently serves as Chair of the Young Professionals Advisory Council Vitality Committee, Chair of Education Council’s Standing Committee for Student Programs and Development, Chair of PNWIS Student Programs Committee, and Vice Chair of the Puget Sound Chapter. He was also involved in the planning for A&WMA’s 2008 Annual Conference & Exhibition in Portland, OR, as Chair of Student Programs, and instituted the first Environmental Challenge International (ECi) and many other student programs. In 2008, he was awarded PNWIS Young Professional of the Year.

Outstanding Young Professional Award
Brad Waldron, QEP, CHMM

 

Waldron is the vice president of Novel Geo-Environmental LLC (NGE), an environmental and geotechnical consulting firm based in Pittsburgh, PA. Through his eight years with NGE, Waldron has served private and public clients by providing and managing a wide range of environmental services, including permitting, compliance management, sustainability, site assessment, property redevelopment, and due diligence matters. His current position involves the running of NGE’s Pittsburgh office. Starting out as the company’s first full time employee in 2002, Waldron has played a key role in NGE’s success and has contributed to NGE being named one of Pittsburgh’s fastest growing companies in the environmental and energy sector for 2007, 2008, and 2009.

Before NGE, Waldron worked for several years at Petrol Rem Inc., as director of research and development, where he managed all of the technical aspects of the company’s bioremediation product line. During his time with Petrol Rem, Waldron was co-inventor of U.S. Patent 6,699,309 for “Use of beeswax to degrade hydrocarbons.” Prior to Petrol Rem, Waldron worked for GMS Technologies as a research microbiologist, conducting contract research and development work concerning the facilitated biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons.

Waldron earned a bachelor’s of science degree in environmental science from Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, VT, where he also served as a part-time employee for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, conducting GIS work and nonnative species management. He then earned a master’s of science degree in environmental management from Duquesne University. Waldron is a qualified environmental professional (QEP) and a certified hazardous materials manager (CHMM).

Waldron is active in several professional organizations, focusing his efforts on A&WMA and the Institute for Professional Environmental Practice (IPEP). Within A&WMA, he currently serves as Chair of the Allegheny Mountain Section, Vice Chair of A&WMA’s Young Professional’s Advisory Council, and member of the Bylaws & Governance Committee. He has worked to demonstrate the value of young members, and pushed to develop programs to better serve them. He has formerly served in multiple roles on A&WMA’s Education Council, was the Student Programs Coordinator for A&WMA’s 2007 Annual Conference & Exhibition, assisted in the development and judging in the 2007 ECi, and worked as the facilitator to A&WMA’s recent strategic planning efforts. Additionally, Waldron serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for IPEP, and functions as the liaison between IPEP and A&WMA.

The Fellow Grade of Membership was inaugurated in 1986 to recognize professional attainment and accomplishments related to the mission and objectives of A&WMA. A candidate for fellowship has a minimum of 15 years of experience in an area served by the Association and has been a member of the Association for at least 10 continuous years. Fellows are recognized for their professional accomplishments and service to the Association based on a process, product, or regulatory development; project leadership; managerial achievement; the education of specialists; peer-reviewed technical publications; patents; and research or theoretical developments.

A&WMA commends the following individuals and awards them the Fellow Grade of Membership in 2010:

Gary M. Bramble, P.E., CPEA

 

A member since 1993, Bramble has served the Association in many capacities. His introduction to the Association came during the 1980 Annual Conference & Exhibition in Montreal. Since then, he has twice served the Southwest Ohio Chapter as Chair, Vice-Chair, and Director. In this role, he initiated a series of “All-Ohio” Chapter meetings, featuring presentations by the Director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Enforcement Chief from EPA Region V. He has also served as Chair and Vice-Chair of the East Central Section. Most recently, Bramble represented A&WMA at the United Nations’ Conference of the Parties (COP-15) climate talks held in Copenhagen, and blogged from there to the A&WMA membership via the Association’s Web site.

Bramble has more than 30 years of environmental and energy experience, specializing in the U.S. Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) of 1990, compliance auditing, emission allowance trading programs, and permitting. As part of his master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Cincinnati, he was instructed in air pollution control equipment design by Professor Charles W. Gruber and performed landfill leachate studies at EPA’s Solid Waste Research Laboratory. He also has an MBA from the University of Dayton.

Bramble has worked for Ohio EPA in ambient monitoring programs; for the Mead Corporation in corporate energy, solid waste, groundwater, and CAAA programs; for several environmental consulting firms; and, most recently, as an environmental specialist for Dayton Power and Light, focused on the air quality challenges of the utility industry, including new issues associated with renewable energy.

James Pfeiffer, QEP

 

Pfeiffer has been a member of A&WMA since 1992, and has served the Association in many capacities. Initially, this took the form of organizing events for the Alaska Chapter, where he served as a director and in every officer position on the Board. With time, his efforts were channeled into the Pacific Northwest International Section (PNWIS) and to his aspirations to bridge the distance between Alaska and the other Chapters of the Pacific Northwest. In 2003, Pfeiffer received the Robert Stockman Distinguished Achievement Award, presented annually in recognition of an outstanding contribution to air quality management in the PNWIS region.

Service to the International Association began through participation in Technical Council Committees during annual meetings in the early 1990s, and progressed to involvement with the Section & Chapters Council in the late 1990s. In 2006, Pfeiffer was elected to the Association Board of Directors, representing industry. While on the Board, he served as a Vice President and Chair of the Finance Committee in 2007.

Pfeiffer has been a student of the U.S. Clean Air Act (CAA) since 1978, with his career focused on energy infrastructure and its impacts to the environment. Initially working as a fisheries biologist, Pfeiffer conducted studies at major power plants throughout the Ohio River Valley, where he was introduced to the challenges facing industry. He joined American Electric Power during a time of significant air pollution control technological and regulatory changes following the 1977 CAA Amendments. Working as the Environmental Supervising Engineer at an 1100-MW coal-fired power plant, Pfeiffer experienced first-hand fossil steam generating systems and particulate removal technology.

After moving to Alaska in 1992, Pfeiffer worked for Anchorage Municipal Light & Power’s (ML&P) Environmental Engineer and Compliance Office, where he participated in the development and full-scale testing of dry low nitrogen oxides systems for the Frame 7/Frame 9 combustion turbines. He represented the utility industry perspective through the Utility Air Regulatory Group, American Public Power Association, Northwest Public Power Association, and Alaska Rural Electric Cooperative.

Pfeiffer joined BP Exploration (Alaska; BPXA) in 2000, where he is currently responsible for air quality permitting and compliance for the Prudhoe Bay and Milne Point oil fields on the North Slope of Alaska. Additionally, he serves as a global air quality environmental authority for the BP Group. Greenhouse gas inventory and management have become a core activity since coming to BP. He represents BPXA through efforts with the Alaska Oil and Gas Association and the American Petroleum Institute.