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Charles A. Menzie, Ph.D.

Principal Scientist & Practice Director

EcoSciences

Professional Profile


Dr. Menzie's primary area of expertise is the environmental fate and effects of physical, biological, and chemical stressors on terrestrial and aquatic systems. Over the past two decades, most of this work has focused on chemicals. Dr. Menzie has worked at more than 100 hazardous waste sites, including many high-profile Superfund Sites. He has also been involved in approximately a dozen NRDA-related cases. Dr. Menzie has extensive experience with state and federal regulatory agencies. Most of this experience involves working within CERCLA and state hazardous site programs. He has provided oversight and management of hazardous waste sites affected by a broad range of contaminants, including solvents (TEC, PCE, TCA, and others), persistent chlorinated compounds such as PCBs, hydrocarbons, cyanides, and metals. Employing his deep understanding of risk-based studies and remediation, Dr. Menzie has directed the development of work plans, the implementation of remedial investigations, and the selection of remedial measures, on behalf of individual potentially responsible parties (PRPs), as well as PRP groups. Dr. Menzie has worked in all EPA Regions, including the Midwest and South (Regions 4, 5, and 6), the Northeast and East Coast (Regions 1, 2, and 3), and the West (Regions 8, 9, and 10). He has extensive litigation experience and has provided steady and compelling advice and guidance in many controversial and contentious situations.

Dr. Menzie is recognized as one of the leaders in the field of risk assessment and was awarded the Risk Practitioner Award by the Society for Risk Analysis. He has served on the Council of SRA and the Board of SETAC, the two major professional organizations in this field. Dr. Menzie has led numerous peer reviews for industry and for government. He has taken the lead in developing guidance documents for industry and government and has focused on methods that are workable and acceptable to a broad range of parties. He has developed and applied a formal causal-analysis methodology for assessing causation in cases of environmental impairment and contributions of chemical contamination. He was one of the committee members to draft the ASTM Standard for risk-based corrective action (RBCA) for chemical release sites and extended that standard to ecological considerations. In addition to his work on chemical risk-related matters, Dr. Menzie has developed and applied methods for identifying third parties who have contributed to contamination in aquatic and terrestrial environments. These projects have involved meshing historical information with transport-and-fate analyses, risk considerations (remediation drivers), and forensic analyses. Dr. Menzie’s expertise in chemical transport and fate includes organochlorine compounds (e.g., PCBs, dioxins, many pesticides), PAHs, benzene and other light aromatic hydrocarbons, chlorinated volatile compounds (e.g., TCE and PCE), phthalate esters, petroleum hydrocarbons, metals (e.g., arsenic, cadmium, lead, vanadium, nickel, and zinc), and cyanide compounds. He has also provided expert advice on historical use and disposal of asbestos products and historical assessments of asbestos in fill.

  • Ph.D., Biology, City University of New York, 1978
  • M.A., Biology, City College of New York, 1974
  • B.S., Biology, Manhattan College, 1971

    • OSHA Certified Eight-Hour HAZWOPER Annual Refresher Training in Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response, updated annually
    • OSHA Certified 40-Hours of Training in Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response

    • Adjunct Professor, University of Maryland at Baltimore County

    • Patent Application: SediMite: A Low-Impact Technology For Remediating Contaminated Sediments, patent pending.