Our Business

There are thousands of environmental consulting firms in existence, so why choose us? We fill an environmental consulting gap -- to place people and wildlife above profit at a price you can afford. Our focus is on the protection of the environmental interests of under-privileged communities, non-profits, and green entities, institutions, & agencies. Moreover, unlike large consulting firms with hefty start-up costs and overhead, we are able to adapt the size of our    effort to the size of your problem and your budget, because there is no staff overhead to maintain. 

Instead, using a pool of like-minded, talented, experienced scientists from all over the U.S. working out of their homes, project staff grows to meet your needs:  no more and no less. And there is no bait-and-switch substitution of less experienced staff. All members are experienced, and they only accept the projects to which they can devote their full attention. That's the Waterwise Consulting difference.

Problem-Solving Approach

Our approach combines our technical expertise with pragmatism to solve    your problem in a comprehensive and efficient manner with minimum cost based on scientifically valid and legally defensible results documented in clear, concise, well-organized, and well- referenced presentations and reports.   The steps we follow ensure success: 

-- Determine your ultimate goals and objectives and the scope of services required to achieve them within your budget

-- Translate your goals and objectives   into technical questions to be answered by the services to be rendered

-- Translate your technical question(s) into scientific hypotheses to be tested using state-of-the-science concepts, principles, and practices

-- Develop and apply the appropriate conceptual, statistical, & mathematical models to analyze, integrate, and syn- thesize  existing data, so that you know what they know and more 

-- Establish the appropriate statistical power of laboratory and field studies to test scientific hypotheses or quantify model parameters at the specified tolerances of accuracy, precision, and confidence level

--Select procedures and methods with  the greatest likelihood of success and acceptance in administrative and judicial proceedings following standard quality assurance, quality control, and chain-of-custody procedures codified in a Quality Assurance Plan (QAP)

-- Prepare a work plan that defines the conceptual, methodological, statistical, and logistical bases for project design and the tasks required to understand   and solve the problem with appropriate field, lab, data management and quality assurance/control plans and procedures  

-- Conduct the required monitoring,    special studies, research and modeling within a mass balance framework per   the approved QAP with sensitivity and uncertainty analysis to understand and solve the problem with the accuracy, precision, and reliability specified in the work plan

-- Analyze, integrate, and synthesize      the monitoring, special studies, and modeling results to test hypotheses and translate the results back into answers   to the questions originally posed

-- Summarize key findings, conclusions, and recommendations in a manner that is appropriate to the target audience(s)

-- Prepare well-referenced presentations and reports that communicate all of the  above in a form that is clear, concise, comprehensive, definitive, and legally     and scientifically defensible

-- Document models and explain any project-specific deviations from SOPs required by adaptive project work plan implementation    

-- Work with environmental lawyers to develop key lines of research, argument,  and questioning to translate project results into a winning legal strategy

-- Coordinate and facilitate project implementation with kick-off, midcourse correction, and close-out meetings and communicate the status of project tasks and budgets biweekly via e-mail letter reports and quarterly status reports with project invoices.

This is the Waterwise Consulting difference.

WORK SAMPLES

Technical Analysis Supporting a Request for Modification/Variance from STA-2 Mercury Startup Criteria by Larry Fink

http://www.law.miami.edu/library/everglades/reports/2002/01/Everglades_Cons_Report/Appendices/App4A-7.pdf

Evaluation of the Effect of Surface Water, Pore Water and Sediment Quality on the Everglades Mercury Cycle by Larry Fink

http://my.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/pg_grp_sfwmd_sfer/portlet_prevreport/ecr2003/appendices/app2b-5.pdf

The Effect Of Dry Down and Natural Fires On Mercury Methylation In The Florida Everglades by David P. Krabbenhoft and Larry E. Fink

http://www.cprm.gov.br/pgagem/Manuscripts/krabbenhoftd.htm

South Florida Restoration Science Forum: Is Mercury the Achilles Heel of the Restoration Effort by Larry Fink

http://sofia.usgs.gov/sfrsf/rooms/mercury/achilles_heel/

Monitoring and Mass Budget for Mercury in the Everglades Nutrient Removal Project by C.J. Miles and L.E. Fink

http://www.springerlink.com/content/a459eug6hltth754/

Chapter 7: The Everglades Mercury Problem. The Everglades Interim Report. SFWMD, West Palm Beach, FL. January 1999 by Larry Fink, Darren Rumbold and Peter Rawlik

http://my.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/pg_grp_sfwmd_sfer/portlet_prevreport/interimrpt_98/chpt7.pdf

Chapter 7: The Everglades Mercury Problem. The Everglades Consolidated Report. SFWMD, West Palm Beach, FL. January 2000 by Larry Fink and Peter Rawlik

http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/pg_grp_sfwmd_sfer/portlet_prevreport/ecr2000/chap07.pdf

Evaluation of the Effect of Surface Water, Pore Water and Sediment Quality on the Everglades Mercury Cycle by Larry Fink

http://my.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/pg_grp_sfwmd_sfer/portlet_prevreport/ecr2003/appendices/app2b-5.pdf



Public Comments on the Draft Report on the Statewide Mercury Total Maximum Daily Load for the State of Florida by Larry E. Fink, M.S., Owner and Principal, Waterwise Consulting (TM), LLC

PDF LINK

Public Comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone XL Pipeline by Larry E. Fink, M.S., Owner and Principal, Waterwise Consulting (TM), LLC

PDF LINK 

Public Comments on the Draft Project Implementation Plan and Environmental Impact Statement for the Tentatively Selected Plan for the Central Everglades Project Plan by Larry E. Fink, M.S., Owner and Principal, Waterwise Consulting (TM), LLC

PDF LINK TO LETTER

PDF LINK TO ATTACHMENT I

PDF LINK TO ATTACHMENT II

PDF LINK TO ATTACHMENT III

PDF LINK TO ATTACHMENT IV

PDF LINK TO ATTACHMENT V

Who We Are

Owner and Principal: Larry E. Fink

Mr. Fink has 30+ years of experience in   applied environmental aquatic chemistry    and toxicology for federal, state, and local agencies and private consulting. After obtaining a B.S. in Chemistry and an M.S.  in Environmental Health Sciences, both     from University of Michigan-Ann Arbor,     Mr. Fink began his career with the Michigan DNR by taking on Dow Chemical Company over contamination of the environment at its headquarters with dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD). This led USEPA to conduct the National Dioxin Study, which, among other things, concluded that Agent Orange manufacture, and not the trace chemistries of fire, was the most likely source of the contamination. The efforts to clean up this Superfund site continue to this day:

http://www.trwnews.net/ 

At USEPA's Great Lakes National Program Office, he provided technical consultations to the International Joint Commission's Toxic Substances Committee, co-authored revisions to the hazardous substance       annex of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, and contributed to the Great Lakes portions of the Water Quality Act Amendments of 1987. He was co-author of the Lake Michigan Toxic Pollutant Control/Reduction Strategy, for which he was awarded the USEPA Region 5 Regional Administrator’s Bronze Medal for Commendable Service in 1987. 

At SAIC, Inc., in McClean, VA, Mr. Fink co-authored a combined NEPA-RCRA-SARA Remedial Investigation Plan for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's mercury contamination problem for the DOE. In 1992 he-coauthored a book, Regulating Toxic Substances in Surface Waters, available at:

http://www.amazon.com/Regulating-Toxic-Substances-Surface-Water/dp/0873714989/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

From 1996-2000 as an employee of the South Florida Water Management District, he was the Inter-Agency Coordinator for the multi-agency South Florida Mercury Science Program, which spent more than $40M to understand and solve the Everglades mercury problem.

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/labs/mercury/index.htm 

He has developed and challenged state water quality standards, peer reviewed EPA Water Quality Criteria & Modeling Technical Guidance Documents, and developed mathematical models of persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic pollutants in the Great Lakes, streams, reservoirs, natural and treatment wetlands, and wastewater treatment plants. 

His innovations include the design of an automated internal reactor sampler for failure-mode air emissions monitoring, the co-development and literature validation    of the equilbrium partitioning approach to  derivation of sediment quality criteria as    an alternative to sediment toxicity and  bioaccumulation bioassays, and a high- volume, ultra-trace mercury pore water sampler to evaluate methylmercury first-  flush effects in start-up constructed wetlands. 

More recently he received certification as   a qualified construction site inspector for the NPDES stormwater permit program administered by the State of Florida. 

Born and raised in the Great Lakes Basin and after more than 30 years working at the cutting edge of water quality and quantity policy and regulation, the restoration and protection of the nation's waters are in his blood.

Affiliated Staff

William Roth, M.S., Ph.D.

-- biochemistry

-- toxicology

-- pharmacodynamic/kinetic modeling

Public Comment on Proposed Changes to Florida's Human Health Water Quality Criteria in Fresh and Salt Waters               by Larry Fink

PDF LINK