John C. Petura, P.E., DEE, QEP,LSRP*               Principal/President
Mr. Petura has a B.S. degree in chemical engineering and an M.S. degree in environmental engineering; is a registered professional engineer in nine states and a Diplomate Environmental Engineer (Hazardous Waste Management) certified by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers (AAEE); is a Qualified Environmental Professional certified by the Institute of Professional Environmental Practice (IPEP); and has over 39 years of engineering and management experience, primarily in environmental engineering. Mr. Petura founded Applied Environmental Management, Inc. (AEM) in 1988 and continues as a principal and its president.

Mr. Petura began his career in petroleum refinery engineering at the Gulf Oil Corp. Philadelphia refinery (1968-1973). He gained practical engineering experience in chemical, process, and environmental engineering while earning his master’s degree from Drexel University. He accepted a consulting position in industrial waste treatment with Calgon Corp. in 1973, which greatly expanded his breath of exposure to industrial waste treatment practices across a wide breadth of American industry. During the mid-1970s, he was part of the Calgon Carbon Adsorption Service that successively commercialized carbon adsorption as a viable unit operation for industrial wastewater and surface water treatment.

Soon after joining the national consulting firm of Roy F. Weston, Inc. in 1978, Mr. Petura was selected as the firm’s first project manager in the fledgling hazardous waste management practice. This practice area became a major contributor to the nearly 8-fold growth in company revenues during his tenure with the firm. The Chemical Waste Management division of Waste Management, Inc., for example, became a major client due in large part to Mr. Petura’s efforts. By the time he departed to form AEM, his expertise and practice in environmental engineering had reached across the country and industrial spectrum from automotive and aerospace parts manufacture to specialty organic pesticides, pharmaceuticals formulation, and semi-conductor fabrication. Evolving from an initial emphasis on water pollution control in the early 1970s, by the mid-1980s, Mr. Petura’s primary work focused on characterization and remediation of sites with all manner of contaminated environmental media.

From this diverse background, AEM was created and established itself in the marketplace, primarily serving as the lead environmental engineering consultant on teams of firms with the complementary disciplines (e.g., hydrogeologists, toxicologists) needed to investigate and remediate contaminated sites.

Mr. Petura has extensive experience in concept and process design and waste treatment systems operation for industrial wastewater and contaminated ground water; in the application of physical, chemical, and biological processes for soil or contaminated water treatment; and bench and pilot scale treatability studies in conjunction with remedial investigation and feasibility studies. He has represented clients in technical negotiations with regulatory agency representatives for more than three decades. He has directed and managed projects with professionalism and integrity, such that clients trust his professional judgment, as exhibited by client relationships extending more than 18 years. On occasion, he has been asked to provide expert testimony.

An example project illustrates his professional qualifications and experience. Since 1990, Mr. Petura has been providing senior oversight consultation and engineering services to a client to characterize and remediate hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] contamination in environmental media (soils, sediments, groundwater, building surfaces) at 40 individual sites. In conjunction with other technical team members, he has worked on complex environmental issues involving: analytical method development for speciation of chromium; QA conformance and usability of laboratory data; cleanup standards development based on risk assessment; assessment of Cr(VI) impacts on ecological resources; evaluation of technologies for remediation of Cr(VI) contamination in soils and groundwater; and development, implementation, and evaluation of bench-scale tests and full-scale field pilot tests of candidate soil treatment technologies. In the course of this ongoing work, Mr. Petura has co-authored numerous peer-reviewed papers, and has been the principal author of several patent applications for soil remediation processes. Throughout this program, Mr. Petura has served as the senior technical reviewer and editor for a major portion of the reports and regulatory-required documentation prepared by the team, and has played a major role in the engineering aspects of alternatives evaluations, cost estimating and engineering design implementation.

Apart from his corporate and client responsibilities, Mr. Petura has been an active protagonist of continuing professional development and professional credentialing as: (a) a member of the AAEE Hazardous Waste Management Subcommittee (1988-1994), chair (1992-1994), and the AAEE Recertification Committee (1996-1999), chair (1997-1999); (b) a member of the AAEE exploratory committee (1993) to ascertain if environmental engineering is a distinct and different engineering discipline from chemical engineering or civil engineering, with the findings being applied as the framework of the Environmental Engineering professional engineering examination by the National Council of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors; ß(c) a trustee (1997-present), vice president (1998-1999), president (2000), and secretary (2001-present) of IPEP; (d) a director (1997-present), treasurer (2000), vice president (2001), and president (2002-2003) of the Council of Engineering and Scientific Specialty Boards (CESB); (e) a member of the CESB Certification Task Force (2005), (f) a member of the CESB Accreditations Guidelines Revision Committee (2006); and (g) a peer reviewer for the National Science Foundation, Journal of Environmental Quality, Environmental Science and Technology, and Soil and Sediment Contamination: An International Journal.

A complete resume can be provided upon request.

 

*Registered Professional Engineer in DE,IL,MD,NJ,NY,OH,PA,WV; DEE – Diplomate (board certified) Environmental Engineer (Hazardous Waste Management and Water/Wastewater Treatment) certified by American Academy of Environmental Engineers; QEP - Qualified Environmental Professional certified by Institute of Professional Environmental Practice; LSRP-Licensed Site Remediation Professional by New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

 

Additional Profiles

Mark K. Hammaker, P.E., BCEE, QEP, Principal/Vice-President