Risk Analysis Team
Updated:October 14, 2009 17:05
RISK ANALYSIS TEAM MEMBERS
The Aleutian Island Risk Assessment (AIRA) Risk Analysis Team consists of the following members (click here for contact information):
Environmental Resources Management (ERM)
April Brehm : Ms. April Brehm is an environmental planner based in ERM's Anchorage, Alaska office with 7 years experience. She has worked on a variety of impact assessment, regulatory, and planning documents for industry, and rural, urban, and tribal communities throughout Alaska. Her experience also covers stakeholder engagement, comment analysis, and hazard mitigation planning.
Edward M. Buchak, P.H. : Mr. Edward Buchak has civil engineering degrees from MIT and the University of Pennsylvania. His experience since 1972 has been in developing and applying hydrodynamic and water quality models to rivers, lakes, reservoirs, estuaries, and coastal waterbodies. He is the co-developer of the primary version of CE-QUAL-W2, the Corps’ hydrodynamic and water quality model for reservoirs and of GEMSS®, a public domain 3-D hydrodynamic and water quality model. Mr. Buchak contributes expertise in problem definition, project management, data examination, modeling, and presentations to clients, stakeholders, and the general public. He has worked extensively for oil and gas, electric utility, manufacturing, and mining industries, as well as for public agencies. Ed has overseen hindcast and forecast modeling of the transport, fate, and aquatic injury estimates for major oil spills. He manages ERM’s Surfacewater Modeling Group.
Dr. Jack Colonell : The development of action plans for prevention or mitigation of environmental damage due to industrial accidents such as oil spills requires the synthesis of knowledge from several scientific and engineering disciplines. Dr. Colonell has supervised, and participated in, the preparation of numerous assessments of potential environmental risk due to petroleum-related industrial accidents in Alaska and elsewhere. Additionally, he has designed and conducted environmental baseline studies in virtually all marine environments of Alaska for the purpose of ensuring that minimal impacts result from offshore operations related to resource development projects. For all of these efforts Dr. Colonell coordinated the input of marine and terrestrial biologists, hydrocarbon chemists, physical oceanographers and coastal engineers to produce plans for prevention or mitigation of potentially harmful environmental effects of offshore development and transportation operations.
Kevin Kinsella : Kevin is a Chartered Physicist and Head of ERM's Risk & Safety team in the UK. He has more than 20 years experience of performing quantitative risk assessments for oil and gas installations (upstream and downstream) including detailed marine risk assessments. Over the last three years he has been Project Director and technical lead for several marine risk assessments including a ship collision risk assessment for a new offshore platform in the Straights of Hormuz, a marine risk assessment for Adria LNG in Croatia and a marine risk assessment for shipping in the vicinity of two UK LNG terminals. This work has involved identifying ship collision hazards, assessing their likelihood and consequences, making recommendations for risk reduction measures and working with Port Authorities to implement such measures. Prior to joining ERM, Kevin was Head of AEA Technology's Risk & Safety team for 10 years and before that worked for 6 years for British Gas in their Major Hazards Assessment Division.
Venkat S. Kolluru : Dr. Venkat Kolluru completed his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Ocean Engineering from the University of Rhode Island and is the technical director for the SMG. His experience since 1991 has been in the development and application of 1-D, 2-D, and 3-D hydrodynamic models for water quality, sediment transport, toxic fate, and oil and chemical spill impacts, integrating SMG’s modeling activities within the Generalized Environmental Modeling System for Surfacewaters (GEMSS®) framework. He is the author of the state-of-the-art surface/subsurface oil spill model, COSIM, and has been involved with many major oil spills including the Exxon Valdez, Amoco Cadiz, Buzzards Bay, and many others. Mr. Kolluru has also performed predictive studies for subsurface LNG releases and advanced chlorine discharge modeling.
Rob Steer : Mr. Rob Steer is a Principal Consultant in the specialist risk assessment team within ERM based in Manchester. He has a BSc honors degree in Geography and a Masters in Process Safety and Loss Prevention. Mr. Steer has over 18 years Health, Safety, Environment and Risk Management Consultancy experience on a range of projects in the Marine, Oil and Gas, Drilling, Contracting, Chemical, Power and Nuclear business sectors. He has extensive experience conducting Risk Assessments, Hazard Identification Studies, Fire, Explosion and Dispersion assessments, Escape, Evacuation and Rescue Assessments (EERA), Emergency Systems Survivability Assessments (ESSA) and preparing HSE/Safety Case documents for on and offshore installations. Recent projects have included: oil spill risk assessments, Bowtie assessments, preparation of HSE Cases, Quantitative Risk Assessments (QRA) and development and implementation of Process Safety Management (PSM) systems. Mr. Steer has lectured on the MSc course run by the University of Sheffield (UK), on the application of the Major Accident Hazard “Bowtie” method. For the AIRA Phase A project, he will evaluate accident scenarios and causality, as well as assessment of risk reduction options.
Laura Tesch : Ms. Laura Tesch serves as a Program Director for ERM, with over 20 years experience leading complex environmental, health, and safety projects. Ms. Tesch has extensive project management experience within strategic advice and risk management programs including site assessment, risk assessment and management, and impact assessments. She has managed projects with complex issues, including developing sample design approaches, addressing key contaminants of concern (e.g., metals, petroleum chemicals, chlorinated solvents, and PCBs), sustainability and climate change, marine and freshwater habitats, as well as tribal and non-tribal stakeholder engagement. As Project Manager for the Aleutian Islands Phase A Risk Assessment, Ms. Tesch will serve as overall project manager of the Risk Analysis Team to ensure the objectives of the Phase A risk assessment are met within the scope and budget established for the project.
Helen Vaughan : Ms. Helen Vaughan is a Senior Consultant within ERM’s marine projects team, based in Oxford, England, where she specializes in marine ecology and environmental impact assessment. Prior to joining ERM 3 years ago, Ms. Vaughan worked as an environmental specialist for Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL). Her role involved provision of environmental advice and practical assistance during oil spill incidents and environmental monitoring. She also contributed to a range of prevention and preparedness services including oil spill contingency planning, training, response capability auditing and development of technical guidance documents for the spill response community. At ERM, she continues to use her oil spill expertise to contribute to oil spill impact assessments, oil spill consequence analysis and contingency plans. Ms. Vaughan will be working on the oil spill consequence analysis component of the Aleutian Islands Risk Assessment Study.
Daniel Yamashiro : Daniel Yamashiro is a Senior Consultant with Environmental Resources Management. He has been consulting industry and government in the United States, Europe, and South America in oil spill assessment and cleanup for 26 years. He has been involved with evaluating oil spill risk and cleanup approaches in Alaska and has developed procedures and algorithms that integrate risk management processes with oil spill modeling to identify potential receptors and prioritize mitigation alternatives and the cost of implementation.
Tim Fowler : Dr. Tim Fowler is a Principal Consultant based in London. He is an environmental and marine risk specialist and has worked in DNV for over 15 years. He has held key roles in many high profile marine risk projects, including the Prince William Sound Risk Assessment, the Safety of Shipping in Coastal Waters projects (SAFECO I and SAFECO II) and many smaller marine risk projects around the world (e.g. Australia, Turkey, UK, US, Denmark and Belgium). In 1994, Dr. Fowler presented to Lord Donaldson’s enquiry (informal session) into marine safety in UK waters and in 2008 he presented to the U.S. National Academy of Science Committee on how to design an effective risk reduction strategy for the Aleutian Islands.
David Pertuz : Lieutenant Commander David Pertuz (USCG Retired) is a DNV Senior Consultant based in Houston, Texas. Assigned to the Environmental and Operational Risk section, LCDR Pertuz has conducted Waterway Suitability Assessments (WSA), Emergency Response Plans, Emergency Response Plan exercises, ship traffic assessments and Quantitative and Qualitative HSE Risk Assessments. Prior to joining DNV, LCDR Pertuz served 15 years as a United States Coast Guard Marine Safety Officer, his assignments included duties as Merchant Marine License and Document examiner, Commercial Vessel Inspector, Marine Casualty Investigator, Port Operations and Waterways Management Officer, Marine Environmental Prevention and Response Officer and Port Safety and Security Officer.
Cheryl Stahl : Cheryl Stahl leads the environmental section of Det Norske Veritas in North America. She has a broad background in environmental testing, compliance, waste issues, auditing, risk-based due diligence, and risk quantification. Her specialty is environmental risk estimation for complex systems and identification of mitigation measures that are both effective and cost-beneficial. She has led multifaceted environmental/operational risk assessments for oil spills in sensitive environments, including the North Slope, Copper River, and Valdez. She has developed reproducible methods to evaluate options for alternative fuel distribution and use worked with government agencies concerning waste disposal options for a persistent pathogen. In addition, she has helped companies develop internal processes to assure environmental risks are identified and mitigated as appropriate as part of everyday business.