There are some areas of industrial, municipal, and agricultural properties, and waterbodies, including groundwaters, that contain significantly elevated concentrations of potentially hazardous and otherwise deleterious chemicals. Such chemicals pose real or potential threats to public health, surface and groundwater resources, the environment, and/or the interest of those who own or use properties in the areas under the influence of the chemicals. Many of these hazardous chemical sites are characterized as Superfund sites, brownfield areas, areas where mining activities took place, industrial waste spill/discharge areas, former landfills, etc. Dr. Lee has substantial background, expertise, and experience in evaluating potential impacts of such sites and of the redevelopment of such sites, on water quality and public health, which is summarized below.

Dr. Lee earned his BA degree in environmental health science at San Jose State University in 1955, Master of Science in Public Health degree from the University of North Carolina with emphasis on water quality investigation/management in 1957, and PhD degree in Environmental Engineering from Harvard University with minors in public health and aquatic chemistry in 1960. Over the past five decades Dr. Lee has been active professionally in university graduate-level education, research, and public and professional service, and as a private consultant, in the water quality–public health–environmental quality field. In his diverse professional career he has been involved in numerous capacities, in evaluating the efficacy, reliability, and adequacy of conventional, new, and emerging technologies for providing and assessing protection of public health and the environment, and has closely followed the professional literature on these issues. This has given him a unique perspective on the adequacy of hazardous chemical site investigation, remediation, monitoring, and maintenance measures for providing effective and reliable short-term and long-term protection of public health and the environment for as long as there are chemicals at a site that can cause adverse impacts to public health and the environment. As part of his professional outreach activities, Dr. Lee he has been active throughout his professional career in developing reports and professional papers on the findings of his university research and consulting work. Many of his and Dr. Jones-Lee’s more than 1,100 professional papers and reports on these activities are available as downloadable files from their website, www.gfredlee.com.

Numerous areas of Dr. Lee’s expansive expertise and experience come to bear on assessing the adequacy of investigation, remediation, and redevelopment of Superfund and other waste sites, including:

• More than $5-million in contract and grant research over the past 5 decades and publication of more than 1,100 professional papers and reports on his findings (including about 500 on topics directly related to hazardous and toxic waste sites), many of which are available on his website, www.gfredlee.com;
• Research on sources, fate, and management of PCBs since the mid-1960s;
• More than $1-million in research on leaching of pollutants from aquatic sediment;
• Research in the potential public health and environmental quality impacts of pesticides, including research on the transport of pesticides in groundwaters and surface waters;
• Research investigation of characteristics of landfill liners as containment systems for controlling pollutant transport;
• Evaluation of testing procedures (including TCLP) for evaluating release of pollutants from remediated wastes, including S/S treatment;
• Service as an advisor on water quality, and solid and hazardous waste management issues to numerous governmental agencies in the US and other countries, industry, and public groups;
• Development and appropriate implementation of water quality criteria/standards and drinking water maximum contaminant levels (MCL)s for the protection of aquatic life and human health;
• Assessment of potential water quality impacts of stormwater runoff and its control;
• Investigation of more than 80 landfills and capped waste pile containment systems (covers and liners) for controlling waste releases to the environment;
• Service as a member of the editorial boards for professional journals including Journal Remediation and Stormwater.

Dr. Lee has been involved for more than four decades in investigating and advising the pubic on potential water quality and public health impacts of specific hazardous chemical sites – evaluation, remediation, monitoring, and redevelopment – including USEPA NPL Superfund sites in the US, Canada, and other countries. Papers and reports discussing the findings of those investigations are available on their website, www.gfredlee.com.

Through his expertise and work investigating sites containing hazardous and otherwise deleterious chemicals (e.g., hazardous chemical sites, Superfund sites, landfills) Dr. Lee has developed a number of review papers and reports that discuss technical issues that should be evaluated, but are often not adequately addressed, in investigating and managing the threats that such chemicals pose to public health and the environment. One of the most comprehensive of these is his “Flawed Technology” review:

Lee, G. F., and Jones-Lee, A., “Flawed Technology of Subtitle D Landfilling of Municipal Solid Waste,” Report of G. Fred Lee & Associates, El Macero, CA, December (2004). Last updated Jan (2015).

That approximately 50-page review contains about 100 references to the technical literature and discusses many of the significant technical issues and challenges encountered in trying to assess and manage the threats to public health and environmental quality associated with landfilled wastes, including covered waste piles, for as long as the wastes are a threat.