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Professional Associates

Environmental Assessment
Gerald Lieberman, Ph.D.
Jean Nichols, Ph.D.
Arthur Wolfson, Ph.D.

Hazardous Material & Waste Management
Babette Lithgow, R.E.A.
Jean Nichols, Ph.D.

Engineering Geology
Jeffrey Johnson, Ph.D.
Richard McCarthy, M.S.

Data Analysis & Numerical Modeling
Janice Callahan, Ph.D.
Arthur Carpenter, M.S.
Fernando Marván, Ph.D.
Hany Elwany, Ph.D.
Jerome Wanetick, B.A.

Environmental Education & Public Involvement
Gerald Lieberman, Ph.D.
Roy McDonald, Ph.D.

Literature Reviews & Critiques
Reinhard Flick, Ph.D.
Richard McCarthy, M.S.
Arthur Wolfson, Ph.D.

Marine Surveys
EcoSystems Management Associates, Inc.,
a subsidiary of Coastal Environments

William Boyd, M.S., Senior Development Engineer – Mr. Boyd earned an M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1989 from San Diego State University, and a B.S. in Physics and a B.S. in Oceanography in 1979 from Humboldt State University. He has extensive experience designing and developing data acquisition systems for use in underwater applications and designing and developing oceanographic instrumentation. He has supervised the deployment and maintenance of large, multiple-array, coastal oceanographic field experiments. He is a certified SCUBA diver with over 18 years of experience and hundreds of logged dives.

Janice Callahan, Ph.D., Statistician – Dr. Callahan earned a B.S. in Applied Mathematics & Engineering Physics in 1963 from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in Mathematical Statistics in 1969 from Johns Hopkins University. Over the course of her career of more than 30 years, Dr. Callahan has performed statistical data analysis and numerical modeling for a wide variety of high-technology businesses including environmental services, medical and pharmaceutical firms, engineering companies, and defense contractors. She develops statistical designs, methods, protocols, models, and analysis plans; performs data entry, calculations, manipulations, samplings, interpretations, verifications and validations, and analyses; and prepares studies, plans, and statistical reports.

Arthur L. Carpenter, M.S., Statistician and Data Analyst – Mr. Carpenter holds an M.S. degree in mathematics from the Colorado School of Mines, and has completed post graduate studies in environmental statistics at the University of Texas at Dallas. He has a strong background in survey and experiment design, database design and management, and in univariate and multivariate statistical techniques. His computing background includes FORTRAN, BASIC, SAS, PRODAS, REXX, EXEC2, BMDP and SPSS; with experience on IBM, DEC, DG, IBM-PC and Tektronix systems; using OS (MVS), VM (CMS), MS DOS and CPM. He has over 16 years of experience in data processing and statistical analysis. He has provided experimental design and analytical support for many field effluent discharge studies and laboratory toxicity. He has analyzed the effects of thermal effluents on marine communities, designed experiments and analyses for determining the effects of dissolved solids on freshwater fish populations, and created data collection and analytical programs for air quality studies throughout California. Mr. Carpenter has maintained complex hardware and software systems for major environmental studies. For example, he established the database, coordinated the analytical efforts of 11 subcontractors, and provided training in SAS, CMS, and REXX for 50 system users. He has also designed and established data entry, retrieval, and analysis systems. He currently provides repository services for an environmental database consisting of nearly 300 megabytes subdivided into 12 task areas, 135 data bases, and nearly 2,200 individual data sets.

James Elliott, B.S., Biologist – Mr. Elliott’s training is in biology with emphasis on ecology and marine invertebrate taxonomy. He has more than 29 years of experience involving virtually all aspects of nearshore marine biological and water quality studies. He is an experienced diving scientist having collected data on and samples of invertebrates (hard bottom and soft bottom areas), kelp, algae, marine plants, and fish; and served as the Diving Supervisor for Ogden Environmental from its inception in 1984 through 1996. His experience includes conduct of projects to monitor effects of thermal and sewage discharges, study impacts of construction and presence of pipelines and other underwater structures, evaluate potential sediment and water contamination, and study populations potentially affected by sand movement in the shallow subtidal.

Hany Elwany, Ph.D., Engineer, Oceanographer and Hydrologist – Dr. Elwany received a B.S. degree in Engineering from Alexandria University in 1971. In 1977, he completed his Ph.D. at the University of Dundee, United Kingdom. He obtained an additional B.S. degree in Mathematics and Statistics at Alexandria University in 1980. Dr. Elwany has extensive experience with nearshore oceanography, coastal processes, coastal engineering, and estuarine dynamics. He was the principal investigator for the physical oceanographic program of one of the largest environmental studies ever conducted on the U S west coast (at San Onofre). He has conducted in-depth studies of Nile Delta erosion, particularly since the construction of the Aswan Dam. His experience also includes projects involving optimization, numerical modeling, structural dynamic analysis, design of offshore structures, and data analyses, simulation, and dynamic modeling of ocean and coastal conditions. As an educator, both at Liverpool and Alexandria Universities, he taught courses in dynamics, statistics, numerical analysis, computer applications, and maritime engineering.

Yusef H. Fadlallah, Ph.D., Marine Ecologist – Dr. Fadlallah is a Marine Ecologist specializing in conducting marine environmental impact assessment studies and managing research projects. He earned his Ph.D. in Biology in 1981 from the University of California, Santa Cruz; a M.Sc., in Marine Sciences in 1975 from American University of Beirut, Lebanon; and a B.Sc. in Biology from American University of Beirut, Lebanon. He continued his postdoctoral studies during 1981 and 1982 in Ecology and Organismic Biology at the University of Delaware. As a research scientist-project manager at the Research Institute, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, Dr. Fadlallah conducted environmental studies of nearshore coral reef systems, seagrass communities, mangroves, and benthos of the western Arabian Gulf including assessment of the impacts of coastal and offshore development. He also participated in a research program to examine the reproductive ecology of reef corals and echinoderms in the western Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea. Dr. Fadlallah actively participated in the Saudi Arabian effort to contain and mitigate the 1991 Gulf War Oil Spill. He was a member of the Saudi Arabian Scientific Committee, the focal point for scientific and technical matters relating to the Gulf Oil Spill and Kuwaiti well fires and a scientific comber of the Interagency Shoreline Assessment Team for the MEPA Shoreline Cleanup Plan.

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Reinhard Flick, Ph.D., Oceanographer – Dr. Flick has more than 17 years of experience conducting nearshore processes and coastal studies. He completed his Ph.D. at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) in 1978. He has experience in harbor and jetty design and has worked on the Rio Ameca River diversion and stabilization project. Dr. Flick has investigated nearshore sediment transport in southern California and he has managed the beach profile surveys at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). He is currently managing a wave data collection and evaluation program for the State of California. Dr. Flick’s professional career includes academic research, administration, lecturing, consulting and public service in oceanography, and nearshore processes.

Douglas R. Gibson, B.S., Biologist – Mr. Gibson is a biologist with a special interest in lagoons, estuaries, and riparian/terrestrial woodlands. He focuses on the areas of monitoring, restoration, mitigation, ecological preservation, assessment, environmental management and education. Since 1996, he has been Executive Director of the San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy, working closely with agencies, local government and members of the public, in addition to biological and hydrological monitoring of the lagoon.

Robert Guza, Ph.D., Oceanographer – Dr. Guza is an authority on wave dynamics and interactions. He is experienced in both theoretical and experimental approaches to a problem and has managed large projects relating current and wave measurements to coastal transport mechanisms. His knowledge of wave types (i.e., edge waves, internal waves, wind waves, swell and storm surges) has proven to be invaluable to the study of coastal problems regarding beach formation and modification, siltation, and sediment transport. Recently, he has been overseeing the model studies and wave measurements needed to determine any attenuating or steering effects that a nearshore kelp reef may exert on a wave field. This study involves separating energy attenuation or directional changes due to the kelp bed from the spatial variations in wave energy due to wave shoaling, refraction, and diffraction over actual topography.

Myrl C. Hendershott, Ph.D., Oceanographer – Dr. Hendershott received his Ph.D. degree from Harvard University in 1965 and joined the faculty of Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1966. His research interests include ocean tides, internal waves, coastal circulation, and the effects of random topography and coastal shape on waves and circulation. He has worked extensively in the Gulf of California and was a co-principal investigator on the Santa Barbara Channel–Santa Maria Basin Study from 1989-2005. He is presently Professor of Oceanography at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Tareah J. Hendricks, Ph.D., Physicist – Dr. Hendricks received a Ph.D. degree from the University of California, San Diego, in 1967 for research into high-energy, elementary particle physics. After receiving his degree, he carried out experimental studies of mass transfer in reverse osmosis from 1967 to 1970 in the Applied Mechanics and Engineering Sciences Department (AMES) at the University of California, San Diego. In 1970, he joined the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP) to conduct studies of the transport, dispersion, and fates of treated municipal wastewater constituents discharged into southern California coastal waters from submarine ocean outfalls. From 1974 to 1993, he directed studies by the project of coastal ocean currents, initial dilution, wastewater transport and dispersion, and the transport and fates of particles. Recently, he carried out the initial dilution and transport modeling studies for the extension of the Point Loma (San Diego) ocean outfall. The purpose of the extension was to isolate kelp beds lying inshore from the Point Loma outfall from intrusions of the discharged wastewater.

Jeffrey Johnson, Ph.D., Engineering Geologist/Applied Seismologist – Dr. Johnson received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Geology in 1969 and 1971, and a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1975. Major and minor fields of study included soil mechanics, earthquake engineering, and engineering geology. Dr. Johnson has been involved in the environmental, goeseismic, geotechnical and political aspects of siting, design and retrofit of major facilities and lifelines in highly seismic and environmentally sensitive regions of the world. Projects have included dams and hydroelectric projects in southern California and South America, liquefied natural gas facilities in California, Alaska and Iran; nuclear power plants in the United States, major lifeline facilities including 500 kV transmission lines and oil pipeline projects in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas; major computer facilities in California and Washington; offshore oil drilling platforms in California and Alaska; the Los Angeles Metro Rail Project; residential housing developments in California; and repair of landslides in California. During the last 25+ years, Dr. Johnson has been a consultant to the Army Corps of Engineers, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District, California Division of Mines and Geology, the California Public Utilities Commission, the California Coastal Commission, the Southern California Gas Company, Pacific Gas and Electric, the cities of Monterey Park and San Diego, numerous development companies and geotechnical firms, large real estate investment firms and insurance companies. Expert testimony regarding environmental issues, regional neotectonic models and seismic design parameters and distress to engineered structures due to regional subsidence, landslides, differential settlement and coseismic damage due to the 1994 Northridge earthquake has been given before the California State Energy Commission, the California Public Utilities Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, civil courts, and arbitrators. Dr. Johnson has conducted detailed studies of the 1971 San Fernando; 1972 Managua, Nicaragua; 1979 Imperial Valley; 1987 Whittier; and the 1994 Northridge earthquakes. Dr. Johnson was appointed to the California Seismic Safety Commission by Governor Pete Wilson in 1994.

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Dennis C. Lees, Ph.C., Ecologist and Environmental Scientist – Mr. Lees has over 30 years of national and international experience in the study and evaluation of nearshore and intertidal benthic systems ranging from California and Alaska to Micronesia and the Arabian Gulf. He has participated in a variety of field, analytical, and reporting activities as a principal investigator or project manager. He has predicted and assessed impacts for a wide spectrum of industrial development activities on coastal marine habitats around the world. He has considerable experience in evaluation of impacts from anthropogenic activities, e.g., port-related construction activities; sediment contamination in ports and from wastewater treatment facilities; discharge of heated effluents; construction and operation of petrochemical, and power, desalination and wastewater treatment facilities; oil and ore spills and related clean-up and treatment activities; and oil-and-gas and mining exploration and development. Many of these programs have involved studies of sediment contamination and toxicity and as well as resource assessments (e.g., eelgrass and kelp). Particular areas of emphasis in recent years include bioturbation effects in contaminated sediments and infaunal succession following severe disturbances.

Gerald A. Lieberman, Ph.D., Ecologist – Dr. Lieberman has been involved in environmental studies, science and environmental education, and organization management for over 21 years. He has designed, directed and implemented numerous education programs, project evaluations and organizational development plans for large-scale scientific and environmental programs in several regions of the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Dr. Lieberman has conducted studies for many government agencies and international organizations including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Minnesota Environmental Quality Board, South Carolina Department of Wildlife and Parks, and Tennessee Department of Conservation, United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Costa Rica Ministry of Education, and Caribbean Conservation Association.

John E. List, Ph.D., Environmental Engineer – Dr. List received bachelor degrees in civil engineering and mathematics, and in 1965 was graduated from the California Institute of Technology with a Ph.D. in Applied Mechanics. He has over 25 years of experience in hydraulics engineering and fluid mechanics research and practice and has prepared reports and papers in the following areas: geothermal flows, river control modeling, power plant cooling waster systems, brine and wastewater diffusers, dredge spoil disposal, river dispersion, solar heat storage systems, reservoir destratification and mixing, well-testing and failure, pulsation control and water hammer, pipeline failure, ground water mass balance, ocean current and temperature analysis, buoyant jets and plumes, laser-Doppler flow measurement, spreading of heavy gases and liquids, sedimentation tank design, particle coagulation and growth, acoustic resonance in piping systems, gas transfer at liquid/gas interfaces, and flow visualization by laser-induced fluorescence.

Babette Lithgow, R.E.A., Environmental Geologist – Ms. Lithgow is a project manager with over 15 years of experience in environmental and marine geology including site assessment and management of soil and groundwater remediation programs for both public agencies and industrial clientele. She prepares environmental compliance assessments including hazardous waste management, minimization, recycling and storm water permitting plans, and also manages environmental assessments for real estate transactions. Ms. Lithgow also has experience in environmental oceanography researching the impact of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) on the nearshore marine environment. In addition, she worked as a geologist in the geotechnical field, and as a museum scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), Deep Sea Drilling project. She has also taught earth science and chemistry to middle and high school students.

Fernando Marván, Ph.D., Oceanographer – Dr. Marván is an oceanographer with substantial knowledge regarding the numerical modeling of estuarine processes. He has also been involved with the numerical modeling of watershed management. His areas of specialization are cohesive sediment dynamics, hydrodynamic numerical modeling, advection diffusion modeling, and watershed management.

John C. McCain, Ph.D., Oceanographer – Dr. McCain received his Ph.D. in Zoology in 1964 from George Washington University. His extensive postdoctoral studies have been in Oceanography at Oregon State University and Environmental Health with specialty in Environmental Management at the University of Hawaii. He has over 31 years of experience consulting and researching biostatistics, marine ecology, pollution biology, environmental management, taxonomy and ecology of benthos, particularly Amphipoda. He has taught general biology, biostatistics, computer applications, population dynamics, marine ecology, invertebrate zoology, SCUBA diving, and environmental biology at colleges and universities in the United States and Saudi Arabia.

Richard McCarthy, M.S., Engineering Geologist/Petroleum Geologist, Project Manager – Mr. McCarthy has more than 26 years of experience in geohazard identification and mitigation, permitting review, and regulatory compliance. Mr. McCarthy has extensive experience on cost-effective methods to mitigate geologic hazards while minimizing environmental impacts. He has been responsible for the review of major offshore oil facilities, power plants, shoreline protective works, hotels, beach nourishment projects, seismic hazard analysis, and others. In addition, Mr. McCarthy has experience as a petroleum geologist and has worked on numerous nuclear power plant sites. His ability to translate technical information to a usable format for decision makers has allowed him to work on projects throughout the United States, the Caribbean, and Asia. He specializes in the selection, organization, and management of technical teams formed to cost-effectively give clients a quality product. Mr. McCarthy is a California registered geologist, certified engineering geologist, and a certified petroleum geologist with the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Roy McDonald, Ph.D., Environmental Strategist – Dr. McDonald serves diverse private and public clients, focusing upon project and program management, and CEQA, NEPA, and FERC regulatory compliance strategies. Dr. McDonald is an expert on National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) procedures, processes, and compliance strategies. He is a skilled negotiator and facilitator.

Jean A. Nichols, Ph.D., Biological Oceanographer – Dr. Nichols has more than 26 years of experience in aquatic environmental analysis, including water-quality, and environmental permitting and planning. Projects were funded by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Navy, EPRI, California Water Quality Control Board, and private industry. She is a Registered Environmental Assessor in the State of California.

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Mikhail Ogawa, P.E., Civil Engineer – Mr. Ogawa has more than 10 years of working experience with public agencies including the Cities of Del Mar, San Marcos, Oceanside, Dana Point, Carlsbad, and the Counties of San Diego and Santa Barbara. He understands the necessity of keeping public agency projects on schedule and within budget. Mr. Ogawa has worked on projects ranging in complexity from the development and implementation of several NPDES/Stormwater/Urban Runoff Management Programs, to development of a sediment management plan for a large reservoir. He has experience in environmental review, permitting, and engineering design. He also has site development experience including utility review, development of grading plans and facility layout. Additionally, Mr. Ogawa has performed development review services, including discretionary review, conditioning, and plan checking for private developments, commercial, industrial, single family residences, and municipal capital improvement projects. His diverse experience coupled with his focus in Water Quality gives him the big picture perspective on jurisdictions and what it takes to meet program requirements.

William C. O’Reilly, Ph.D., Oceanographer – Dr. O’Reilly received a Ph.D. and an M.S. in Oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), and a B.S. in Environmental Engineering and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Michigan. He has over 11 years of experience studying coastal waves. He developed a very successful and informative refraction-diffraction program utilizing directional wave information to model surface gravity waves in the Southern California Bight.

James Peeler, P.G., Marine Geologist – Mr. Peeler has eight years of experience in site assessment, site maintenance, regulatory compliance, fieldwork oversight, and project management. He has conducted site assessments involving groundwater, surface water, stormwater, soil, and soil vapor sampling. Additionally, Mr. Peeler has conducted aquifer testing; GPS site surveying; geologic mapping, and drilling activities including hollow- stem, geoprobe, air, mud, and sonic. His report writing experience includes multiple Phase I and II reports, surface and groundwater monitoring reports, RI and FS reports, and site conceptual models. His regulatory compliance experience includes site audits, SPCC plans, H & S plans, HMBPs, and mine reclamation plans.

Stephen Schroeter, Ph.D., Ecologist – Dr. Schroeter received a B.S. in Zoology, and an M.S. in Zoology with a minor in Statistics at Brigham Young University. At the University of California, Santa Barbara, he received a Ph.D. in Ecology with a minor in Mathematical Biology in 1978. His graduate research consisted of demographic studies of marine plants and animals and experimental studies of the effects of competition and predation on marine communities. After receiving his Ph.D., he held positions as a postdoctoral research associate, Hancock Fellow, and Research Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Southern California. While at USC, he and two colleagues were responsible for a large research program for the California Coastal Commission (CCC) that examined the potential impacts of an open coast nuclear power plant. He studied population dynamics and competitive interactions among three species of sea urchins on Catalina Island and on the effects of different guilds of predators on sea urchin populations in Nova Scotia. He also conducted long-term studies of tropical rain forest trees in northern Queensland, Australia. He also was responsible for the statistical design and analysis of a field experiment that examined the effects of herbivory, competition, and resource limitation on the distribution of chaparral shrubs in southern California. In 1987, with Dr. John Dixon, he founded Ecometrics, a firm devoted to bringing ecological theory and techniques to bear on the practical problems of environmental impact assessment.

Jerome R. Wanetick, B.A., Programmer/Analyst – Mr. Wanetick’s expertise is with oceanographic data acquisition systems, Unix and MS-DOS systems programming, and computer graphics and display. He has been the Systems Manager/Administrator and Chief Scientific Programmer for the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) for the past 10 years, working on many projects involving the acquisition, analysis, and display of oceanographic data collected both in the nearshore and shelf regions. Recently, he designed a Unix-based automated data acquisition system program funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to measure the wave field in the surf zone off the coast of North Carolina. He is also the Data Manager for a 5-year, $5-million Mineral Management Service study of the coastal circulation in the Santa Barbara Channel. He has a strong facility with FORTRAN, C, and Assembly computer languages and with the Unix, Macintosh, and MS-DOS operating systems. At CCS, Mr. Wanetick has managed the growth of the computer facility from a mainframe and a few IBM PCs to one with over 50 microcomputers, 15 Unix workstation/computer servers, and a TCP/IPBEthernet network. Mr. Wanetick previously served as a Staff Research Associate with CCS and The Institute of Marine Resources at SIO, where he helped develop hardware for the Coastal Data Information Program and the California Storm and Tidal Wave Study (both funded by the Army Corps of Engineers), managed the San Onofre Beach Study (funded by So. Cal. Edison) and managed the San Diego Beach Profile Program (funded by the California Dept. of Boating and Waterways).

Arthur Wolfson, Ph.D., Marine Ecologist – Dr. Wolfson is a marine ecologist with wide-ranging international experience. He has studied environmental impacts from coastal power generation and wastewater disposal; developed biofouling control procedures; investigated offshore oil platform ecology; surveyed coral reef communities; documented biological baseline conditions; monitored recreational and commercial uses of the ocean; and, evaluated restoration plans and mitigation measures for coastal lagoons and bays. His experience with coastal energy development includes field studies at Ilo, Peru and Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. Dr. Wolfson is a founding Partner of International Biological Consultants, an Associate of the Sea World Research Institute, and has held consulting appointments with Argonne National Laboratories and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He holds a 200-foot dive certification and has had SCUBA diving experience on the east and west coasts of the United States and in the Gulf of Alaska, Gulf of California, Hawaiian Islands, Micronesia, Caribbean Islands, Red Sea, and Persian Gulf.

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