Paul Turnham, P.E.

Mr. Turnham trained as a civil and environmental engineer and is licensed as a professional engineer. He has more than 15 years experience working in the fields of quantitative human health risk assessment, site characterization and environmental fate and transport. He specializes in the development and application of site and case-specific approaches to risk and exposure assessment for regulatory and litigation purposes.

He has provided risk and exposure assessments involving consumer products and for industrial and residential sites including Superfund, RCRA, and state oversight cleanup sites and for air emissions sources such as hazardous waste-burning cement kiln, coal-fired power plants and coke oven batteries. Mr. Turnham has evaluated health risks associated with human exposures to environmental media and indoor air and dust. The agents of concern included chlorinated solvents, petroleum compounds, heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins, and asbestos. He has evaluated exposure and risks from vapor intrusion at residential, commercial and industrial properties; this included the development of a vapor intrusion sampling and analysis plan for a residential portion of a Superfund site. He has also designed and implemented site investigations and remedial actions at sites subject to state regulations, RCRA and voluntary cleanup programs. He has worked on litigation projects involving claims of personal injury (both site and product related), medical monitoring, property damage and public nuisance.

Mr. Turnham is experienced in supporting due diligence activities for property transfer. His work in this arena has included assessment of physical and operational aspects of manufacturing sites across various industrial sectors and states. He has also conducted facility level audits for compliance with federal and state environmental and health and safety regulations.

Turnham P. Field investigation and risk assessment for the vapor intrusion pathway. Presented at the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency meeting of the Motorola 52nd Street Superfund Site Community Advisory Group. Phoenix, AZ, 2005.

Turnham P, Anderson EL, Turim J. Dermal absorption of PCBs in non-aqueous carriers. Presented at the Society of Risk Analysis 23rd Annual Meeting. Baltimore, MD, 2003.

Turim J, Turnham P, Griffin J. Computing asbestos risk using life tables. Presented at the Society of Risk Analysis 23rd Annual Meeting. Baltimore, MD, 2003.

Patrick DR, Turnham P. Multipathway risk assessment of a cement kiln combusting hazardous waste. Presented at the 94th Annual Conference and Exhibition, Air & Waste Management Association, Orlando, FL, June 2001.

• Project Director, Sciences International, Inc., 2003–2006
• Project Manager, Sciences International, Inc., 1999–2003
• Senior Associate, Sciences International, Inc., 1997–1999
• Associate, Sciences International, Inc., 1995–1997
• Analyst, Sciences International, Inc., 1994–1995
• Engineer III, EG&G Washington Analytical Services Center, 1992–1994
• Civil Engineer, J.E.M. Van Der Beek Associates (UK), 1988–1990
  

Provided risk assessment related support to a PRP group at a large Superfund site in New England where dioxin-contaminated sediment is the primary risk driver. Provided comments on USEPA’s draft baseline risk assessment that resulted EPA revising some portions of the document. Developed a site-specific share allocation model using site data, risk assessment and environmental forensics.

Directed a human health risk assessment to support a voluntary cleanup action at an aircraft-manufacturing site in Maryland. The assessments, performed by tax parcel, evaluated risks to current and hypothetical future residents, recreational users, workers and site visitors arising from potential exposures to substance in soil, groundwater, surface water, sediments and indoor air. Managed all aspects of the project including data analysis, development spreadsheet algorithms and creation of innovative techniques to efficiently compute the risks on a point-by-point basis and, using GIS software, to display the results.

Developed a risk assessment work plan for assessment of vapor intrusion into residences at Superfund site in Arizona. The plan was reviewed and approved by the Arizona DEQ and EPA Region 9. Separately evaluated indoor air risk assessment for a commercial site in Arizona. The work that was performed for the Arizona DEQ, involved integration of indoor air data, modeled indoor air concentrations from vapor intrusion and ambient outdoor air data.

Performed a re-assessment of baseline human health risks for litigation for a Superfund site in Pennsylvania where PCBs were the main contaminants of concern. Notable was the re-assessment of dermal exposure to PCBs in oil, which was disseminated at the 2003 annual meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis.

Evaluated potential exposures to coke oven emissions and evaluated EPA’s assessments of risk associated with emissions from U.S. coke oven batteries. Assisted in the development of a presentation and report on the results of the study to the OAQPS. Assisted in the development of a revised methodology for dispersion modeling for coke oven batteries. Later presented this methodology to the OAQPS along with case studies. The agency subsequently adopted the methodology in its risk assessment for rulemaking under the Clean Air Act’s residual risk program. He later managed the application of the air dispersion methodology for coke oven batteries sites. Also reviewed the risk assessments performed by EPA's Office of Air Quality, Planning and Standards (OAQPS), which were based on that methodology.

Conducted a multi-pathway/multimedia risk assessment for cement kiln burning hazardous waste in 1997/98. Developed spreadsheet-based algorithms which modeled the fate and transport of over one hundred chemicals including dioxins and mercury emitted from this site into the following direct and indirect exposure pathways: inhalation, ingestion and dermal absorption of soil and surface water, ingestion of homegrown fruits and vegetables and animal products. The work included selection and application of fate and transport models to estimate chemical runoff into surface water bodies, uptake into fruits and vegetables, and bio-transfer into animal products. Risks were estimated for residents including the mother’s milk pathway (for dioxins), subsistence farmers, recreational anglers, hunters and swimmers. The risk assessment was submitted to USEPA and the state and was subject to public comment. USEPA Region 3 and the state of Pennsylvania subsequently endorsed the risk assessment. Led subsequent work on this project including a quantitative assessment of threshold effect risks for dioxins using the margin of incremental exposure approach and assistance in developing a risk-based protocol by which to measure future compliance.

• Society for Risk Analysis, 2003–present (member)