Neil S. Shifrin, Ph.D.
PRACTICE AREAS & EXPERTISE
- Contaminant Fate & Transport
- Remedy Negotiations
- Historical Waste Practices
- Cost Allocation
- Insurance Claims
- Environmental Measurements
- Project Strategy
SUMMARY
Dr. 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. With his broad and lengthy experience, Dr. Shifrin offers insightful interpretation of environmental conditions and big- picture strategies for achieving balanced solutions. 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 the major cities, and CSO pollution of Boston Harbor. Dr. Shifrin has extensive experience with DNAPL, site investigation, remedy concepts, monitoring programs, property redevelopment, historical waste practices, cost allocation, manufactured gas plants, PBT chemicals, solvents, and biological processes.
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Environmental/Civil Engineering, MIT
B.S., Chemical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania
Licensed Site Professional in Massachusetts
REPRESENTATIVE PROJECTS
VOCs in Groundwater, New Hampshire: Using groundwater modeling, developed and negotiated a groundwater remedy using pump and treat and monitored natural attenuation, including remedy effectiveness monitoring design.
Cost Allocation/NCP Consistency, New York: Between two MGP owners, proposed a cost allocation based on NCP consistency and the production relationship to contamination.
Chemical Manufacturer Cost Allocation, Michigan: Developed environmental response cost allocation at a site formerly used successively for petroleum refining, custom (Toll) chemical manufacturing, and solvent recycling.
MGP Insurance Claims, Nationwide: Waste management standards of care from 1850s to 1975 at manufactured gas plants (MGPs) for recovery of environmental response costs by numerous utilities.
M&A Due Diligence: Evaluation of data from 45 natural gas field sites to determine environmental cleanup liabilities and costs due to PCB, Hg, and Cr.
PCBs in Sediments: Renegotiated cleanup levels on the basis of exposure, risk, data statistics, and sampling at several Superfund sites.
Arsenic from Glass Manufacturer, Illinois: Release mass balance and waste management standard of care.
Superfund Reform: Evaluated cost impact of using more realistic risk assessment assumptions.
Cost Allocation, New Jersey: Developed technical factors model to allocate $18 million in study costs among 158 PRPs.
Selected Publications
Shifrin, NS. 2005. "Pollution management in the twentieth century." J. Environ. Eng. 131:676-691.
Shifrin, NS; Toole, AP. 1998. "Historical perspective on PCBs." Environ. Eng. Sci. 3:247-257.
Shifrin, NS; Beck, BD; Gauthier, TD; Chapnick, SD; Goodman, G. 1996. "Chemistry, toxicology, and human health risk of cyanide compounds in soil at former manufactured gas plant sites." Regulatory Toxicol. Pharmacol. 23:106-116.
Bowers, TS; Shifrin, NS; Murphy, BL. 1996. "A statistical approach to meeting soil cleanup goals." Environ. Sci. Technol. 30:1437-1444.
Swallow, KC; Shifrin, NS; Doherty, P. 1988. "Hazardous organic compound analysis: Lost data and misinformation for decisionmakers." Environ. Sci. Technol. 22(2):136-142.
