Nicole Ott

Former Fertilizer Manufacturing Facility, Residential Yards Removal Action, Guánica, Puerto Rico With client and outside counsel, negotiated an administrative settlement agreement and order on consent with EPA Region 2 for a removal action addressing PCB-impacted soil in offsite properties.  Serving as project manager responsible for staffing, team coordination, client communications, and EPA correspondence.  With Engineer of Record, delineated excavation extents and developed key work plan elements.  Project planning involved consideration of several unique constraints, including inclement weather, community outreach, neighborhood impacts from previous natural disasters, paucity of municipal data including land ownership and utility infrastructure maps, potential presence of endangered flora and fauna, sourcing of materials and labor on-island, and identification of suitable landfill space.  The successfully completed removal work included soil sampling, soil excavation and backfilling (of soil meeting chemical and physical suitability requirements), property restoration, dust monitoring for community protection, and material transport/disposal.  The project also included a stormwater source control assessment and scoping of future work elements.

Terminal 117 Sediment and Upland Area Non-Time-Critical Removal Action, Seattle, Washington Wrote construction quality assurance and water quality monitoring plans during remedial design of a soil and sediment removal to address PCBs at a CERCLA early action area. Also negotiated with the regulatory agency to achieve a reduced confirmation data set by demonstrating background conditions for arsenic and co-location of dioxin/furan exceedances with PCB exceedances.

Superfund Cleanup and NRDA Allocation, Portland, Oregon Serving as principal in charge and leading expert team to develop technical reports for allocation within a sediment site involving in excess of 100 participating and nonparticipating parties.  As lead expert on more than 10 reports, working closely with counsel, developed historically relevant opinions for 1940s to 1970s era steel mill, examining several other, often overlooked source areas, including streets, sewers, upstream parties, and lesser-known industries.  Managing a team of 20+ experts and several support staff to produce expert reports and reply documents over an overlapping deliverable schedule within three phases each for six river segments.  Contributed to several expert reports in addition to those prepared as lead author.

Tasks to generate client deliverables include writing and reviewing expert team’s reports and developing mass loading estimates and release score methodology in collaboration with technical staff and counsel.  Reviewed and responded to opinions advanced by averse party experts, under a tight time frame, involving rapid synthesis of petitions submitted by other parties.  Deliverable preparation also included collaboration with industry expert, extensive photographic research, forensic evaluations for PCBs and dioxins/furans, and topographic and chemical examination of fill materials.

Early supporting tasks during sitewide RI/FS and pre-design investigation stages included development of sampling strategy and technical review with an eye toward the client’s perspective of work products produced by common consultants. These products include data compilation, chemistry interpolation, sediment deposition evaluations, cost estimates, and historical summaries. Compiled and synthesized relevant information to respond to disclosure questionnaires and supplemental information requests and to generate comments on allocation team-generated deliverables. Evaluated trustees’ NRD proposal relative to sediment chemistry, sources, and operational history to prepare response documents, cross-checking trustee calculations and responding to incorrect assumptions, with more than 50 percent reduction in damages allocated to client. Communicated findings to end client and attorneys and participated in multiple collaborative teams with counsel.

Lower Duwamish Waterway Predesign Studies, Seattle, Washington Interviewed waterway users to identify highly trafficked areas of the site and berthing areas. Compiled lines of evidence for natural recovery designations in surface sediments. Evaluated changes in sediment chemistry to support natural recovery evaluations in order to revise prior feasibility study designations with new data. Updates to recovery category designations were considered with respect to new information gathered after the feasibility study. Also evaluated changes in sediment chemistry to support natural recovery evaluations. Communicated findings to client and directly to EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Various CERCLA Site Support Worked on various Integral teams writing nature and extent text, developing cost estimates, managing field sampling preparation, and overseeing map and data table production. Work has involved communication among members of multiple teams and contractors as well as completion of quality assurance steps for deliverables. Sites include Berry’s Creek (New Jersey), San Jacinto River Waste Pits (Texas), Passaic River (New Jersey), and Frenchtown Mills (Montana).

Former Wood Treating Site, Remedial Action Optimization, Springfield, Missouri Managed technical team developing work plans to collect data related to pump-and-treat remedy optimization and offsite migration from a former creosote wood treating facility. Three work plans were under development simultaneously to respond to stakeholder and neighboring property concerns and to address source control. Managed data collection and resident communications related to vapor intrusion, lawn soils, and stormwater basin water levels. Under a related scope, provided contract project management services to the client for contractor work products, required reporting to the state agency, internal team meeting planning and reporting, and agency/stakeholder meeting planning.

Source Control, Portland, Oregon Provided project management and technical support related to source control activities and allocation of natural resource damage costs. Assessed source control of a potentially erodible riverbank through historical map review, sampling, chemical nature and extent analysis, and forensics. Evaluated key shoreline features and developed maps relevant to understanding fill events, shoreline accretion over time, and submersible land property ownership.

MTCA Evaluations at Neighboring, Downgradient Properties, Woodinville and Port Angeles, Washington For two separate clients, evaluated impacts to downgradient properties defined as a part of an MTCA site. For one property, served as Principal in Charge overseeing collection of soil and groundwater samples to define the downgradient extent of a petroleum plume. Developed sampling plans and data reports for attorney and client team.  On the second property, communicated with MTCA customer’s consultant to convey progress to client and advised client on next steps.