ASTSWMO Mid-Year Meeting

Speakers
ASTSWMO Mid-Year Meeting
April 25-26, 2012
Montgomery, AL
Click on the speaker’s name to jump to their biography.
Brian Allen
Bill Bider
Russell Deppe
Jamie Foster
Gilberto “Tito” Irizarry
Paul Lemieux
Ed Poolos
Chuck Schwer
Brent Watson
Mark Williams
Biographies
Brian Allen
Brian Allen is the Chief of Emergency Response at Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Mr. Allen
has served within the department’s Emergency Response Section for 21 years and has served as Chief of
the section for the past six years. Mr. Allen’s duties include overall management of the department’s
emergency response operations, including coordination during disaster operations. These
responsibilities include management of the department’s 24-hour emergency notification line and the
department’s response efforts (State On-Scene Coordinators) to all-hazards events state-wide. During
the Joplin Tornado response, Mr. Allen served as the department’s forward primary point of contact to
coordinate and facilitate the department’s efforts to best support local response and recovery
operations with all responding agencies.
Bill Bider
Bill Bider has been the director of the Kansas Bureau of Waste Management since 1993. He is
responsible for all state regulatory and outreach programs related to the management of solid and
hazardous wastes. Prior to this position, he was the Corporate Manager of Environmental Protection at
Trans World Airlines for eight years. Mr. Bider received a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Bethany
College in Lindsborg, Kansas, and a Masters in Environmental Health Science from the University of
Kansas.
Russell Deppe
Russell Deppe is the waste enforcement manager in the central office of the Virginia Department of
Environmental Quality in Richmond, VA. Prior to working for the DEQ, Mr. Deppe earned his Juris
Doctorate from Vermont Law School, where he focused on environmental law. While at Vermont Law
School, he worked as the law clerk for the division of enforcement at the Virginia DEQ, as a legal intern

for the City of Newport News, VA, City Attorney’s Office, and as a research intern for the environmental
conservation group Lynnhaven River Now in Virginia Beach, VA. He earned his bachelor’s degree from
the University of Virginia, where he majored in history and minored in environmental science. He is
currently on ASTSWMO Hazardous Waste Subcommittee’s Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Task
Force.
Jamie Foster
Jamie Foster began his environmental career in 2004 and has served in the Land Division while
managing sites in accordance with Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and
Liability Act (CERCLA) and Defense Site Memorandum of Agreement-Formerly Used Defense Site
(DSMOA-FUDS) programs. Since 2004, Mr. Foster has been the Project Manager of the Former Camp
Sibert and is responsible for the Alabama Formerly Used Defense Site Management Action Plan (FUDS
MAP).
Mr. Foster has been an active focus group member with ASTSWMO for the past five years. During this
time, he has served as a Site Evaluation Focus Group Member and currently serves as a Removal Action
Focus Group Member. Mr. Foster has recently joined the Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council
(ITRC) and now serves as a member of the ITRC Munitions Response Team.
Mr. Foster received a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of South
Alabama in 2004 and a Master of Business Administration from Troy University in 2011.
Gilberto “Tito” Irizarry
Tito Irizarry joined the U.S. EPA Headquarters’ Office of Emergency Management (OEM) as the Director
of the Program Operations and Coordination Division (POCD) in July 2005. As a part of the Office of
Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER), the Office of Emergency Management is responsible for
the implementation of the Oil Pollution Prevention Program under the Clean Water Act (CWA); oversight
of the National Emergency Response and Removal programs under Superfund and the Oil Pollution Act
(OPA); and oversight of National Chemical Emergency Preparedness and Prevention programs. OEM
also plays a major role in leading Agency efforts related to Homeland Security and Emergency
Preparedness.
As the Director of POCD, Mr. Irizarry is responsible for coordination and oversight of OEM operational
programs that include: staffing and management of the HQ Emergency Operations Center (EOC),
Regional Coordination of Emergency Response and Removal Program, the National Incident
Coordination Team (NICT), and the Response Committee of the National Response Team (NRT).
Prior to joining Headquarters, Mr. Irizarry served for seven years as the Federal On-Scene Coordinator
(OSC) in EPA Region 1 (Boston, MA). As an OSC, he was involved in providing oversight and coordinating
response actions in numerous hazardous waste and oil pollution sites that posed an immediate, critical
or widespread threat to public health or welfare or the environment. Before joining the U.S. EPA in
1998, he worked as a civilian Project Engineer in two different Department of Defense facilities. Mr.
Irizarry holds a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology in
Melbourne, Florida.

Paul Lemieux
Paul Lemieux is the Associate Division Director of the Decontamination and Consequence Management
Division of U.S. EPA’s National Homeland Security Research Center. He has a Bachelor of Science in
chemistry from Seattle University and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Utah. Mr.
Lemieux has been with the U.S. EPA’s Office of Research and Development for 22 years, studying the
formation and control of pollutants from combustion and incineration systems, and he most recently
has been working on issues related to management of residues resulting from cleanup after chemical,
biological, and radiological attacks and after agricultural emergency responses.
Ed Poolos
Ed Poolos has been the Manager of the North Alabama Field Office for the Alabama Department of
Environmental Management (ADEM) since 2005. He manages staff responsible for field activities and
inspections dealing with UST, Air, Solid Waste, Water Quality, Industrial and Municipal Waste Water,
Construction Stormwater, and Environmental Emergency Response. Mr. Poolos has been with ADEM for
20 years working in both the Water and Field Operation Divisions. During the BP oil spill response, he
was the Deputy State Coordinating Official and the State On-Scene Coordinator for the State of
Alabama. Mr. Poolos is a graduate of the University of Alabama.
Chuck Schwer
Chuck Schwer is the Section Chief of Vermont DEC’s Hazardous Site Cleanup Program and the Manager
of Vermont’s Petroleum Cleanup Fund. He has worked for VT DEC for 25 years. He holds a Master of
Science from the University of Vermont; Bachelor of Science from St. Lawrence University.
Brent Watson
Brent Watson graduated from Auburn University in Montgomery in 1998 with a Bachelor of Science in
environmental science. He began his career at ADEM in 1998 where he has worked in various areas of
the Department, including aquatic assessment within the Department’s Field Operations Division and
permitting, compliance, and enforcement activities within the Department’s Air Division. Mr. Watson is
currently the Chief of the Enforcement and Remediation Section in ADEM’s Solid Waste Branch, where
he oversees solid waste and scrap tire compliance and enforcement activities, as well as solid waste and
scrap tire remediation programs.
Mark Williams
Mark Williams is a native Mississippian, originally from Gautier, Mississippi (pronounced “Go-shay”). He
holds a Bachelor of Science in engineering from Mississippi State University. Mr. Williams is a registered
Professional Engineer with the State of Mississippi, a Board Certified Environmental Engineer with
specialty certification in solid waste management from the American Academy of Environmental
Engineers, and has specialty certification in municipal solid waste management from the Solid Waste
Association of North America. He currently serves on the Board of Keep Mississippi Beautiful, as an
advisor to the Board of the Mississippi Recycling Coalition, is a past Board member of the Southeast
Recycling Development Council, and past officer of the Mississippi Chapter of the Solid Waste
Association of North America (SWANA). Mr. Williams currently directs the State’s solid waste
management and recycling policy, planning, and grant programs at the Department of Environmental
Quality. He has worked in the solid waste management and recycling programs at MDEQ for almost 25
years.