Environmental Perspectives ― A Brief Overview of Selected Topics

This short, readable book is intended as a big-picture introduction/overview for environmental students and lay-people involved with environmental issues. Every freshman in college intending to study environmental science should read it. It begins with a historical perspective on waste and environmental control. Basic instruction on some important fundamentals faced by environmental professionals every day, such as sampling, analysis, data visualization, risk assessment and forensic chemistry are provided in the following chapter. Important regulatory fundamentals, such as the National Contingency Plan, which is the U.S. regulatory framework for addressing hazardous waste is also defined. The book concludes with pertinent and provocative considerations on the future of environmental management, such as alternative approaches (technical impracticability), the “not-in-my-backyard syndrome,” and the safety of chemicals in consumer products. The book contains many useful facts about waste production rates, energy use and recycling rates—all referenced to allow substantiation and provide a springboard for further research.

Neil S. Shifrin consults on a wide range of environmental engineering topics, including water quality, contaminant fate and transport, hazardous waste site cleanups and environmental response cost liability/allocation. His experience extends back to the nation's first Superfund projects, such as Love Canal and includes many complex contamination problems, such as PCBs in major receiving waters, dioxins in the Great Lakes, TCE in large aquifers beneath major cities, and CSO pollution of Boston Harbor. Dr. Shifrin has extensive experience with dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL), site investigation, remedy concepts, monitoring programs, property redevelopment, historical waste practices, cost allocation, manufactured gas plants, PBT chemicals, solvents and biological processes. Dr. Shifrin’s areas of expertise also include: Remedy negotiations Historical waste practices Insurance claims Environmental measurements Project strategy. He has a chemical engineering B.S. from the University of Pennsylvania and an environmental engineering Ph.D. from MIT. Dr. Shifrin has consulted on virtually every kind of environmental issue for both government and industry.