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Expert has more than 38 years of experience as a geologist. He is a certified hydrogeologist, professional forensic geologist, licensed well driller, and general engineering contractor. His most recent work includes forensic analysis of subsurface events, including pipe breaks, contaminant spills, oil and gas resource valuation estimates, and groundwater contamination. In addition, he has worked on a variety of producing and redeveloped oil field properties, EPA Superfund sites, military bases, agricultural and industrial properties. Since 1990, he has been a co-owner of an environmental-engineering consulting and contracting company, where he has performed more than 1,000 projects.

As a publicly elected community services district board member since 2002, he has evaluated numerous environmental challenges, solved sustainability problems, and worked with others as a team leader and member to develop agency policies. He has been involved with the public process of goal setting, data acquisition, development of work plans, and implementation of field projects. He has promoted and supported sustainable environmental practices within the agency, a certified green business that now offers residents electronic waste recycling, fluorescent bulbs, medicines, batteries, paper, and cardboard. To minimize local groundwater degradation, in 2009, 1 million fewer lbs of waste were processed by the agency than in 2006. In 2013, the agency won the Marin County Green Business of the Year award due to the successful recycling efforts and waste reduction shipped to the local landfills. For mentoring students, he is the AIPG Sponsor of the UC Davis Geology Student Section (since 2010) and Sonoma State University Geology Student Section (since 2016), SRTM University (India, since 2017), and UC Santa Cruz (since 2020).

Other areas of expertise: Cost Recovery for oil spills and gas leaks, assessment, and remediation of industrial spills.

Expert has applied his geology background to oil spills and gas leaks and assessment and remediation of soil and groundwater resources impacted by petroleum hydrocarbons, solvents, heavy metals, fungus, etc. He is involved with a variety of litigation support projects over the past 22 years. He has developed cost recovery methods using knowledge databases. He has worked in oil and gas fields as a petroleum geologist and for spill response, cleanup, and lease valuation. He has developed exposure pathways, geological conduits for contaminants and sensitive receptors studies, and risked-based environmental management methods to define site conceptual models for remedial actions and case closure. He uses bioremediation for groundwater cleanup, as well as chemical oxidization methods for in-situ cleanups.

He has performed dozens of peer reviews of environmental consultant and contractor invoices and cost recovery projects for insurance companies. He is a 4-time Senior Fulbright Scholar award winner, and he co-authored 4 books on oil spills and gas leaks, MTBE, Chromium VI, and acid mine drainage (AMD). He is an elected public official at a sewer plant and community services district associated with sewage, refuse, and recycling. He is a certified hydrogeologist and professional geologist in several states, including California and western states. He has worked for both plaintiffs as well as defendants. Many cases involve exposure of workers, children, or others to chemical hazards through vapor, water, or soil media. He works with interdisciplinary teams to answer complex exposure and groundwater and soil impact questions. He is an expert in industrial history investigation and forensic geologic sampling to obtain representative and reproducible samples that can accurately reflect subsurface conditions.

As a licensed engineering contractor (driller, builder, Haz-Mat removal, asbestos, etc.), he is also responsible for employee exposures and safety. Consequently, he has worked with cases related to employee safety issues.

He values environmental impairment of commercial and industrial properties for estate and insurance purposes and appraises oil and gas interests for value and environmental impacts. In addition, he has performed hundreds of Phase I Environmental Assessments projects for due diligence and the subsequent Phase II Subsurface Investigation for soil, soil vapor, and groundwater sampling.

Through an attorney, he reviewed a claim of $10+ million at an oil field to request reimbursement to the insurance company. After a lengthy review of several dozen sites at the oil field, a total of about $3 million was determined to be reasonable based on a variety of standardized criteria and factors. As a result, the settlement was favorable for the insurance company.

For an attorney, he reviewed an expert's geophysical requests for a scope of work and determined that it was completely unreasonable and not possible technically. Using the information, the attorneys negotiated a favorable settlement. Working with a defendant regarding a lawsuit to compel the tenant to perform stormwater monitoring and sampling, he was instrumental in developing the technical strategy to move the case toward settlement. He oversaw the stormwater sampling plan and prepared the reports for the parties. He worked for the plaintiff who purchased the property from a company that did not disclose fully the activities that may have occurred on the property. After a detailed review of the history of the site, he was involved with protecting the current landowner, and resolution of the litigation is ongoing, provided that the future financial liabilities of addressing the impacted soil should future use differ significantly from current use (excavation and disposal of impacted soil are expensive). He worked with a shopping center owner (and their attorney) on cost recovery for PCE impacted sewer leaks by the dry cleaning businesses on site since 1968. Case closure is pending over a series of assessment tasks (passive soil vapor studies, well installation, and remediation). Using the passive vapor study early in the project, the leak of PCE from damaged sewer lateral lines was found early on, saving considerable money for the landowner.