Introduction to Environmental Forensics

Environmental forensics is a relatively new specialty that seeks to answer questions about environmental contamination: (1) Whose contamination is it? (2) When did it occur? (3) How did it occur? (4) What are the consequences and extent of liability? This practical book outlines the advantages and disadvantages of various techniques that can be used to answer these questions and allocate responsibility.

Introduction to Environmental Forensics provides the first complete, scientific review of this emerging field and helps readers unravel the complexities of environmental pollution cases. It outlines techniques for identifying the source of a contaminant release, when the release occurred, and the extent of human exposure. Written by leading experts in environmental investigations, the text provides detailed information on chemical "fingerprinting" techniques applicable to ground water, soils, sediments, and air, plus an in-depth look at petroleum hydrocarbons.

Introduction to Environmental Forensics gives the environmental scientist, engineer, and attorney a complete toolbox for conducting forensic investigations. It demonstrates the range of scientific analyses that are available to answer questions of environmental liability and support a legal argument, and provides several examples and case studies to illustrate how these methods are applied. The book's multidisciplinary approach will also appeal to practitioners, including chemists, hydrogeologists, soil scientists, statisticians, and air modelers.

Practical approach which outlines various environmental forensic techniques
Multidisciplinary - will appeal to practitioners including chemists, hydrogeologists, soil scientists, statisticians and air modelers
Provides detailed information on chemical "fingerprinting" techniques applicable to ground water, soils, sediments and air, plus an in-depth look at petroleum hydrocarbons

Introduction to Environmental Forensics is the most complete text available that describes the scientific basis of this relatively new and exciting field. It provides the reader with techniques for identifying the source of a contaminant release, when the release occurred and the extent of human exposure. Prepared by leading international scientific experts this book provides detailed information on how chemical and isotope measurements, historical documents, aerial photogrammetry, contaminant modeling and statistical analysis can be combined to extract forensic information.

Introduction to Environmental Forensics includes chemical "fingerprinting" techniques applicable to ground water, soils, sediments and air - as well as a special in-depth look at scientific techniques for petroleum hydrocarbons, including gasoline additives such as alkyl leads, methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) and chlorinated solvents. This book contains necessary information for the practicing environmental forensics expert, ranging from basic statistical methods to state-of-the-art methods such as gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry and polytopic vector analysis. Numerous examples and case studies are provided to illustrate how these methods are actually applied and considerations are given for their appropriate use. Sources of potential bias and misapplication of these techniques are also shared with the reader.

Introduction to Environmental Forensics provides the environmental scientist, engineer and attorney with a complete toolbox for conducting forensic investigations. Because of the multidisciplinary approach, even experienced practitioners including chemists, hydrogeologists, soil scientists, statisticians and air modelers will find this information of value. Practicing environmental attorneys can benefit from this book by understanding the range of scientific analysis that is available to answer questions concerning environmental liability since often an argument can be supported by several independent techniques. Environmental Forensics also provides suggestions for critically reviewing forensic techniques relative to the original purpose for which the information was collected regardless of the contaminant or matrix.