Program Overview
Who Will Benefit from Attending
Attorneys, environmental consultants, land use planners and other agency officials, Tribal leaders, water system operators, and potentially responsible parties
Why You will Benefit from Attending
California has taken an aggressive approach to regulating per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), the "forever chemicals" that have become the subject of hundreds of lawsuits throughout the nation.
The California State Water Resources Control Board-mandated investigations of PFAS sources continue, with data from the initial round of investigations now available to the public. PFAS data from subsequent rounds of investigations, targeting sectors including wastewater treatment and petroleum, will likely be available in the near future, building the potential for cost recovery and toxic tort litigation. The development of Environmental Screening Levels by the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board brings new guidance, and challenges, for responsible parties remediating PFAS contamination within California.
Further, responsible parties, property owners, and developers in California and beyond must also grapple with uncertainty surrounding legislation to designate PFAS as hazardous substances under the CERCLA statute and the implications of this designation for due diligence and site cleanup requirements. Additionally, California's unique Proposition 65 Duty to Warn requirements for PFAS have not yet resulted in a wave of litigation, but as water purveyors are required to report concentrations of PFAS in drinking water supplies to customers it is almost certain that litigation to offset cleanup costs will follow.
Meanwhile, the development of PFAS-free replacement products, including fluorine-free alternatives to PFAS-containing fire-fighting foams, continues on a national and global scale, but the efficacy and reliability of such substitutes has not yet been fully vetted.
Register soon for this cutting-edge virtual conference on PFAS Contamination and Regulation in California. To keep everyone safe, it will be an interactive Zoom broadcast with a virtual reception for less formal conversation about PFAS issues among the participants.
~ Jeffrey Dintzer, Esq. of Alston & Bird and
Lydia Dorrance, Ph.D. of Geosyntec Consultants, Inc., Program Co-Chairs
What You Will Learn
- Chemistry, occurrence and toxicity of PFAS
- PFAS fate and transport, source forensics, and treatment
- Fluorine free foams as alternatives to PFAS for fighting fires
- Drinking water treatment options
- Federal regulatory developments relating to PFAS contamination
- California's PFAS Phased Investigation Plan
- Prop 65 notification requirements
- Potential Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) standards
- Regulatory investigations into potential Clean Water Act violations
- CERCLA designations, and NRD claims as potential game changers
- Practical tips for approaching PFAS cases
- PFAS considerations in future business transactions
- Insurance options and issues unique to PFAS substances
What Participants Have Said About Similar Programs
- The conference was excellent, one of the few with a balance of plaintiff's and defense counsel participate, plus veteran technical experts deeply involved in PFAS issues.
- Great conference!
Agenda Day 1
9:00 am
Pacific Standard Time | Introduction & Overview
Jeffrey Dintzer, Esq.
, Program Co-Chair
Alston & Bird / Los Angeles, CA
Lydia Dorrance, Ph.D.
, Program Co-Chair, Senior Scientist
Geosyntec Consultants, Inc. / Oakland, CA
9:15 am
Federal Regulatory Developments for PFAS Contamination
EPA: Safe Drinking Water Act enforcement; Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule; Health Advisories; groundwater contamination recommendations; the push to regulate PFOA-based chemicals as a group; litigation and other developments
Matthew Wickersham, Esq.
Alston & Bird / Los Angeles, CA
The interplay between EPA and the Department of Defense; implications of the interagency dispute over listing specific compounds as a hazardous substance
Brian L. Zagon, Esq.
Van Ness Feldman / Lafayette, CA
10:30 am
Break
10:45 am
California's Regulatory Response
California's PFAS Phased Investigation Plan: Summary of publicly available results from first round of investigations; other administrative developments including establishment of Environmental Screening Levels (ESLs)
Andria Ventura
, Toxics Program Manager
Clean Water Action Inc / Oakland, CA
Prop 65 notification requirements and status of potential Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) standards
Maureen F. Gorsen, Esq.
Alston & Bird / Sacramento, CA
Status report on regulatory investigations into potential violations involving a range of facilities from airports to refineries to wastewater treatment plants and including stormwater runoff management systems
Wendy Linck
, Senior Engineering Geologist
State Water Resources Control Board / Sacramento, CA
12:15 pm
Lunch Break
1:30 pm
Update on the Chemistry: Occurrence and Toxicity of PFAS
Sources, unique characteristics of PFAS compounds, and recent developments
David S. Lipson, Ph.D., P.G.
, Principal Hydrogeologist
HRS Water Consultants, Inc. / Lakewood, CO
Looking Beyond PFOA And PFOS: Toxicity and Regulation of Short Chain PFAS and Fluorotelomers
Linda C. Hall, Ph.D.
, Senior Associate Toxicologist
GSI Environmental / Oakland, CA
3:15 pm
Break
3:30 pm
Chemistry (cont'd): PFAS Fate and Transport, Source Forensics, and Treatment
Fate and transport in complex environmental matrices and systems
Jennifer Field, Ph.D., PG
, Professor of Environmental and Molecular Biology
Oregon State University / Corvallis, OR
Considerations for fingerprinting PFAS sources; treatment/remediation advances
Rula A. Deeb, Ph.D.
, Senior Principal
Geosyntec Consultants / Oakland, CA
5:00 pm
Adjourn Day 1
Friday, February 12, 2021
9:00 am
PFAS and Hazardous Materials Cleanup Laws: PFAS in CWA Discharge Permits and Citizen Suit Risks, CERCLA designations, and NRD and Third-Party Claims as Potential Game Changers
How they may affect the universe of wastewater and stormwater permittees; potentially responsible parties, investigation and the remediation processes; and NRD Trustees filing claims
Sarah Peterman Bell, Esq.
Farella Braun + Martel / San Francisco, CA
Brandon Steets, P.E.
, Senior Principal Engineer
Geosyntec Consultants / Santa Barbara, CA
Ryan Stifter
, Director, Economics & Complex Analytics
Roux Associates / Oakland, CA
10:45 am
Break
11:00 am
Preparing for Litigation: Practical Tips for Approaching PFAS Cases
Update on the Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) Multi-District Litigation: Nature of the consolidated cases; key issues to be resolved
Jeff B. Kray, Esq.
Marten Law / Seattle, WA
A technical expert's perspective: Thoughts on PFAS litigation
Avram Frankel, P.E.
, Principal
Integral Consulting Inc / San Francisco, CA
12:15 pm
Lunch Break
1:30 pm
The Public Health End Game: Contamination Avoidance and Remediation Case Studies
Fluorine Free Foams as alternatives to PFAS for fighting fires: What is available, their effectiveness, and environmental side effects
Graham Peaslee, Ph.D.
, Professor
University of Notre Dame / Notre Dame, IN
Drinking water treatment options: Specific examples of the different types of technologies used to treat PFAS and their effectiveness
Kelsey Hakes
, Sales & Business Development Engineer
AqueoUS Vets / Newport Beach, CA
2:45 pm
Break
3:00 pm
Moving onto Future Transactions: PFAS Due Diligence
The law: Environmental due diligence and continuing (Due Care) obligations
Edward B. Witte, Esq.
Godfrey & Kahn / Milwaukee, WI
PFAS research and testing strategies due diligence processes
Taryn McKnight
Eurofins Environment Testing America / Sacramento, CA
PFAS issues in transactions and related insurance issues
Kimberly Bick, Esq.
Bick Law / Newport Beach, CA
4:30 pm
Evaluations & Adjourn
Faculty Bios
Jeffrey Dintzer,
Program Co-Chair, is a partner at Alston & Bird. He defends large toxic tort cases and class action litigation involving hundreds of plaintiffs, serves as trial counsel in cases involving environmental claims, and manages private cost recovery litigation.
Lydia Dorrance, Ph.D.,
Program Co-Chair, is a Senior Scientist at Geosyntec Consultants, Inc. She specializes in investigation of source, timing and contribution of pollution releases and providing scientific support for environmental litigation.
Sarah Peterman Bell
is a partner at Farella Braun + Martel. She focuses on environmental and natural resources litigation in the areas of environmental enforcement actions, cost recovery, citizen suits, water quality, complex toxic tort, and product liability matters.
Kimberly Bick,
Bick Law, worked as an environmental compliance and Superfund remediation engineer before becoming a lawyer. She focuses on environmental litigation, regulatory compliance, enforcement, and corporate transactional work involving environmental issues.
Rula A. Deeb, Ph.D.,
is a Senior Principal at Geosyntec Consultants focusing on emerging contaminants. She is an internationally recognized expert on sources, occurrence, fate and transport, and behavior of contaminants, including PFAS, 1,4-dioxane, methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), perchlorate, N- Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), and pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs).
Jennifer Field, Ph.D., PG,
is a Professor of Environmental and Molecular Biology at Oregon State University. She was a pioneer in the area of fluorochemical occurrence and behavior with a focus on groundwater contaminated by fire-fighting foams, municipal wastewater treatment systems, and in municipal landfill leachates. Her current research concentrates on the use of large-volume injections with liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry for the analysis of aqueous environmental samples.
Avram Frankel, P.E.
is a Principal at Integral Consulting Inc. He has spent a large portion of his career addressing emerging contaminants of the past and present including hexavalent chromium, perchlorate, 1,4-dioxane, PFAS, and 1,2,3-trichloropropane (1,2,3-TCP). He currently serves as a technical expert in many groundwater contamination and water treatment matters focused on the mitigation of regulated chemicals in drinking water.
Maureen F. Gorsen
is a partner at Alston & Bird. She is the former Director of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), where she directed regulation of waste, soil, and water cleanups under CERCLA, the RCRA and brownfields laws. She spearheaded the California Green Chemistry Initiative and resulting laws governing chemicals under the California Safer Consumer Products rules and other states' products programs and federal TSCA reform.
Kelsey Hakes
is the Sales & Business Development Engineer for Southern California at AqueoUS Vets. Her knowledge base includes municipal and industrial water systems, GAC and ion exchange media, process control engineering and application metallurgy.
Linda C. Hall, Ph.D.
is a Senior Associate Toxicologist at GSI Environmental. She is currently a task co-lead for the Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council (ITRC) PFAS team.
Jeff B. Kray
is a partner at Marten Law focusing on environmental litigation. He represents businesses and local government on issues including emerging contaminants (including PFAS) in water supplies and cost recovery.
Wendy Linck
is a Senior Engineering Geologist at the California State Water Resources Control Board. She is part of a leadership team at the State Water Board regarding the state-wide investigation of PFAS.
David S. Lipson, Ph.D., P.G.,
is a Principal Hydrogeologist at HRS Water Consultants, Inc. He specializes in groundwater and surface-water hydrology, groundwater-surface water interactions, water quality, fate and transport of contaminants, groundwater remediation, and geochemistry.
Taryn McKnight
is the PFAS Practice Leader for Eurofins Environment Testing America. She has extensive experience with a wide variety of complex regulatory programs such as Department of Defense, Vapor Intrusion and emerging contaminants.
Graham Peaslee, Ph.D.,
is a Professor of Experimental Nuclear Physics at the University of Notre Dame. His research interests lie at the interface between any nuclear or atomic physics measurement method and materials that impact society. This includes measurements to determine the presence of occurrence of PFAS in the environment.
Brandon Steets, P.E.,
is a Senior Principal Engineer at Geosyntec Consultants and a subject matter expert on Clean Water Act waste discharge permits and stormwater regulations, treatment, and pollutant source forensics. He recently supported the SWRCB on their 2018 amendment to the IGP, development of statewide drywell standards, and development of a groundwater-surface water interaction model to set new instream flow criteria.
Ryan Stifter
is Director of Economics & Complex Analytics at Roux Associates. He leads quantitative economic research and analysis into issues arising in litigation, insurance claims, environmental regulation and enforcement, natural resource management, and business decisions affected by contingent liabilities.
Andria Ventura
is Toxics Program Manager at Clean Water Action Inc. She staffs the TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load), drinking water contaminants, and chemical policy programs. She also has been a stakeholder involved with the development of the Green Chemistry program, the state Division of Drinking Water's Direct Potable Reuse Advisory Group, and various county pharmaceutical waste policy initiatives.
Matthew Wickersham
is a partner at Alston & Bird. He advises clients on regulatory programs related to environmental warning labels, underground storage tanks, environmental disclosure laws, brownfield laws, water rights, and land-use regulations.
Edward B. Witte
is a shareholder in the Environmental Strategies Practice Group at Godfrey & Kahn. He has particular experience in counseling clients and writing and presenting at seminars concerning the emerging contaminants PFAS (including PFOA and PFOS.)
Brian L. Zagon
is a partner at Van Ness Feldman. He assists clients in the environmental counseling, environmental litigation and insurance coverage arenas and has experience resolving multi-party cases brought under CERCLA, RCRA, the California Health and Safety Code, and the California Water Code.
Continuing Education Credits
Live credits: Law Seminars International is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider. This program qualifies for 12.0 California MCLE credits. It also qualifies for 11.75 ABCEP environmental professional and 11.75 AICP planner credits. Upon request, we will help you apply for CLE credits in other states and other types of credits.
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