| |
|
|
| |
|
|
 |
| |
Fred Burnside
, Managing Member |
 |
|
Fred Burnside’s extensive experience ranges from field-level environmental investigations to the highest level of decision-making related to environmental enforcement in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Mr. Burnside is a former national director of the criminal enforcement arm of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He advised EPA leadership on hundreds of environmental enforcement cases nationwide and supervised federal agents, scientists and attorneys at 40 locations across the country. He was Special Agent in Charge of two of the 10 EPA regions (Denver and Atlanta) and served at EPA national headquarters in Washington, DC. A wetlands biologist, Mr. Burnside worked as special agent with the criminal program during his 23-year EPA career.
|
Due to the depth of his experience, Mr. Burnside can provide guidance to corporate officers, defense and corporate counsel regarding:
- How the agency will view a violation or fact pattern
- Evaluating and preparing for adverse regulatory inspections
- Compliance problems and evaluation of compliance programs
- Corporate responses to subpoenas, information requests and search warrants
- Conducting root-cause or internal investigations
- Whether a violation will be pursued as a criminal or civil action
- What agency decision-makers to approach to present your case
- How an enforcement action will likely proceed
- How to maximize the client’s position in adverse circumstances
Mr. Burnside is a regular lecturer for the American Bar Association and serves on its Environmental Enforcement and Crimes Committee. He has written extensively on environmental crimes enforcement and the U. S. EPA environmental crimes program.
Education
Master of Science in Zoology, University of Arkansas 1981
Bachelor of Science in Education, Biology Major, Henderson State University 1977
OSHA Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) certification
|
top page
|
|
Brendan J. O’Brien , Managing Member |
 |
|
Brendan J. O’Brien worked as a federal agent for 26 years. He has broad experience responding to hundreds of environmental events, incidents and adverse inspections involving companies of every size. He is an expert in environmental violations and marine pollution incidents. He served as a Special Agent for the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency and was head of the Connecticut field office of the EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division.
Mr. O’Brien testified frequently at trials and before federal grand juries and also served for many years on the faculty of the EPA’s Special Agent National Academy, located at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia. |
Before joining the EPA, Mr. O’Brien spent 12 years as a United States Postal Inspector in New York City and Boston, Massachusetts. He served as the northeast region inspector-attorney on the staff of the regional chief postal inspector in New York City and he assisted in planning and managing regional and national fraud investigation programs.
Since retiring from the EPA, Mr. O’Brien has conducted environmental investigations on behalf of corporate clients throughout the United States and in British Columbia, India, Brazil and the Bahamas.
He can work with corporate and outside counsel to provide guidance on:
- Maritime pollution incidents
- Adverse regulatory inspections and can evaluate such inspections
- Compliance problems, evaluation of compliance programs
- Corporate responses to subpoenas and search warrants
- Conducting root-cause or internal investigations
- How a case will likely proceed at the federal and state level
Education/certifications
- BA Boston College
- J.D., Suffolk University Law School
- OSHA Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER)
- Standard Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC): Certified for unescorted access to secure areas, of maritime facilities and vessels regulated by the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002.
|
|
top page
Donna A. Stephenson
, Member
|
 |
|
Donna Stephenson is an expert in Clean Water Act matters, wastewater treatment, wet weather regulations and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).
During her 20-year U. S. Environmental Protection Agency career, Ms. Stephenson worked at the EPA National Enforcement Investigation Center, the nation’s premier, internationally accredited environmental forensics laboratory which conducts complex civil and criminal enforcement investigations and applied research in support of environmental enforcement. As a professional civil engineer at NEIC, Ms. Stephenson led teams of engineers and scientists on inspections of large, complex industrial facilities to
|
| evaluate compliance with environmental laws. She provided technical support for many hundreds of investigations and provided litigation support to civil and criminal cases on the local, state and federal levels. She routinely provided oversight for evidence collection, including environmental samples and documenting site conditions, preparing reports of findings and testifying as both a fact and expert witness in judicial proceedings.
Ms. Stephenson is widely recognized as an expert in wastewater sampling and data interpretation. She has helped train inspectors, law enforcement personnel, scientists and lawyers at the national and international levels.
Prior to joining EPA, Ms. Stephenson was a civil engineer with the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. During her 11 years of Corps of Engineers experience, Ms. Stephenson worked in both the Hydraulics and Geotechnical Branches. She was responsible for the design of foundations for large civil structures, as well as flood control works.
Because of her background helping to investigate civil and criminal environmental violations, she can provide:
- Oversight and consultation for environmental sampling events to “mirror” government enforcement activities
- Guidance on federal and state enforcement actions related to the Clean Water Act
- A review of government sampling events, procedures, and results to ensure proper protocols were followed
- Snapshot assessments of environmental practices in place to ensure on-going compliance with regulations
Education and Professional Registration
- Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, Mississippi State University, 1982
- Professional Engineer, Mississippi, 1986 (Current)
- OSHA Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER)
|
|
top page
|
|
Felix Flechas, P.E., BCEE
, Member
|
 |
|
Felix Flechas is an expert in company environmental compliance strategies that take into account state and federal environmental regulations, and the principles of sound engineering practices. His regulatory expertise includes the regulation and enforcement of hazardous waste, superfund and toxic substance laws.
Mr. Flechas worked in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for 31 years and was among just a handful of national hazardous waste experts in the Agency and one of a few who was also a Superfund Remedial Project Manager (RPM). Because of his extensive knowledge, he testified as a government witness in federal court proceedings and inspected and evaluated the largest, most difficult hazardous waste sites involving complicated toxicology and environmental site conditions.
|
As the team leader for hazardous waste inspectors in EPA, Region 8, Mr. Flechas directed the Regional inspection team and personally evaluated industrial sites, including refineries, oil and gas production and treatment facilities, metal refiners, power plants, and waste disposal sites across the Region to determine their compliance with environmental laws, particularly the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). He has represented the United States government internationally and has trained officials in the most effective practices of managing hazardous wastes.
A registered Professional Engineer and Board-Certified Environmental Engineer through the American Academy of Environmental Engineers, Mr. Flechas helped the EPA develop policies and rules regarding regulatory compliance, risk assessment, site remediation, and worker health issues at waste disposal sites, hospitals, refineries, and power plants.
Mr. Flechas' decades of regulatory experience and work with enforcement personnel allows him to understand the relationships between scientific and technical issues and their intersection with regulatory and enforcement issues. He can provide guidance on:
- Federal and state enforcement actions related to RCRA, CERCLA and TSCA
- Whether the EPA or state enforcement response to a violation is likely to be administrative, civil or criminal
- Potential “waste exemptions” to RCRA
- Who to approach within the Agency to present your case
- How a civil or administrative case will likely proceed
Mr. Flechas teaches graduate-level engineering classes in environmental law at the University of Colorado and the University of Missouri Science and Technology and environmental engineering at the University of Colorado.
Education and Professional Registrations
- Bachelor of Science, Civil Engineering, Walla Walla University
- Master of Science, Water Resources/Sanitary Engineering, University of Colorado
|
top page
|
|
| |
|
 |
|
Mark Measer is an expert in domestic and international environmental investigation and enforcement. He works with clients to find and understand facts about potential environmental violations, identifies problems, and suggests solutions. Mr. Measer has 34 years of domestic and international enforcement experience to include 19 years as a Special Agent with the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Criminal Enforcement. He also served with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
He has successfully planned, conducted and supervised complex investigations of white collar criminal violations of environmental statutes giving him a broad range of experience in the decision making process involved in the investigation and prosecution of cases. |
Mr. Measer is a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency representative at the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) in Lyon, France. He worked with organizations including the International Maritime Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency and identified major environmental threats with global impacts.
In addition to his extensive investigative experience, Mr. Measer served as the Special Agent in Charge of the Denver (EPA Region 8) and Seattle (EPA Region 10) area offices where he supervised a staff of federal agents and routinely coordinated with federal and state prosecutors. He has supervised hundreds of environmental enforcement cases during his career. In addition, Mr. Measer was Associate Director for Policy and International Programs at EPA Headquarters where he helped develop national policy for the EPA Office of Criminal Enforcement.
Mr. Measer can provide advice and guidance to defense and corporate counsel regarding:
- How the Agency will view a violation or fact pattern in both civil and criminal actions
- Whether the violation will be pursued as a criminal or civil action
- Who the decision makers are
- Who to approach within the Agency to present your case
- How a criminal case will likely proceed
- How to minimize the client’s risk and exposure to enforcement of environmental laws and regulations
Education
Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, University of New York at Oswego 1975
|
|
top page
|
|
Associates
Ronald L. Rutherford
, Associate
|
 |
|
Mr. Rutherford is an expert in Clean Air Act (CAA) compliance, enforcement and case settlement negotiations as a result of his tenure with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He served in the Denver office and the Office of Enforcement and Compliance (OECA) in Washington, D.C. for 23 years.
He was a credentialed inspector who lead on-site inspections of stationary sources in a multitude of industrial categories covered by the Clean Air Act. He has managed a staff comprised of engineers and lawyers who conducted inspections, developed enforcement cases, wrote enforcement guidance and documents, and negotiated settlements involving violations of such CAA programs as:
|
State Implementation Plan (SIP) requirements, New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), National Enforcement Standards or Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP), New Source Review/Prevention of Significant Deterioration Permitting (NSR/PSD), and Title V Operating Permit requirements. He has also been the lead technical member of enforcement teams, which successfully developed and settled numerous nationally significant CAA cases. He has been the principle technical expert and member of two international project teams, one in Russia and the other in India, advising these governments on how to improve and enhance their existing environmental enforcement programs through regulation and policy.
Mr. Rutherford has received several EPA and Department of Justice national environmental awards and was instrumental in the development of policies and guidance regarding the Agency’s interpretation of many enforcement-related provisions of the CAA such as the High Priority Violator Policy (HPV), Compliance Monitoring Strategy, National Stack Testing Guidance, and Compliance Assurance Monitoring Rule. He helped develop national workshops regarding EPA’s High Priority Violator Policy and NSR Permitting and Enforcement, and he continues to facilitate workshops regarding principles of enforcement, case development and settlement negotiations.
Mr. Rutherford’s decades of CAA regulatory uniquely qualifies him to provide guidance and analysis regarding:
- Federal and state enforcement related actions such as requests for information, notices of violation, administrative compliance and penalty orders.
- Relevant Agency guidance and policies related to an alleged violation.
- Whether the EPA or state enforcement response to an alleged violation is likely to be administrative, civil or criminal.
- Who to approach within the Agency to present your case.
- How a civil or administrative case will likely proceed.
- The mitigation potential of any proposed or pending penalties.
- The efficacy of the regulatory basis and or evidence of any alleged violations.
Education and Professional Registrations
- University of Colorado at Denver - B.A. Finance 1986
- Metropolitan State College of Denver - B.S. Meteorology 1976
|
top page
|
Senior Advisors
Barbara Wagner, Information Specialist
, Senior Advisor
|
 |
|
Barbara Wagner specializes in locating technical and regulatory information related to environmental enforcement from computer databases and other sources. She has 12 years of experience as a research librarian for the US Environmental Protection Agency. Prior to coming to NEIC, Ms. Wagner provided technical information services for the U. S. Department of Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Geological Survey.
From 2002 - 2011, Ms. Wagner served as the Library Manager for the U. S. EPA's National Enforcement Investigations Center (NEIC) located in Denver, Colorado. NEIC is the premier, internationally- accredited environmental forensics laboratory specializing in the investigation of criminal and civil violations of environmental laws.
|
At NEIC, she provided technical information support for scientists, engineers and special agents with the EPA's Office of Criminal Enforcement, Forensics and Training (OCEFT). This included locating expert witnesses, verifying their credentials, searching science and technology literature, and providing background information on companies and individual facilities. Her experience also includes regulatory and case-related research for agency attorneys and investigators in the U. S. EPA Office of Civil Enforcement.
Given her extensive experience, Barbara provides a full-range of technical information services for clients of the Burnside Environmental Group.
Education:
- B.A. in Biology, Minor in German, Heidelberg College
- M.S. in Library Science, Western Reserve University
- Certificate of Advanced Studies in Environmental Information, University of Denver
Professional Affiliations:
- Life Member of the Special Libraries Association (SLA)
- Member of the Association of Independent Information Professionals
- Colorado Council of Medical Librarians
- Colorado Association of Law Libraries
- National Association of Environmental Professionals
- Rocky Mountain Association of Environmental Professionals
|
top page
|
|
|
 |
