Caroline B. Tuit, Ph.D.
Principal
Dr. Tuit is an environmental chemist with more than 20 years of experience evaluating the sources, fate, and transport of chemicals in the environment, determining the reliability and usability of sampling procedures and analytical data, characterizing consumer products and industrial waste streams, and navigating environmental and product regulatory compliance. At Gradient, Dr. Tuit provides technical leadership on both environmental forensics projects for source identification, cost allocation, and insurance recovery, and environmental data quality and usability projects. She is experienced in designing sampling and quality assurance plans and interpreting environmental and characterization data, and has provided testimony on the data quality and usability of PFAS, PCB, and petroleum hydrocarbon data for decision-making and cost allocation. In addition, she has worked on projects evaluating PAHs, dioxin/furans, chlorinated solvents, and trace metals, among other contaminants, in environmental matrices. Before joining Gradient, she was a Hess postdoctoral fellow in the geosciences department of Princeton University, where she studied trace metal bioavailability and toxicity. Prior to that, she received a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the MIT/WHOI Joint Program, where she authored a thesis on the marine biogeochemistry of molybdenum.
AFFF Allocation: Provided expert testimony regarding the usability of PFAS forensics methods for source allocation.
Drinking Water Contaminant Methodology: Evaluated the historical analytical chemistry testing practices for 1,2,3-trichloropropane (1,2,3-TCP) in drinking water.
Historical Analytical Methods: Evaluated historical analytical method development for organic fluorine and PFAS in a wide variety of matrices with a focus on improvements in method selectivity and sensitivity overtime.
Petroleum Hydrocarbon Fingerprinting: Prepared expert report and testimony regarding the source of hydrocarbon releases to a municipal sewer system using advanced GC/FID and GC/MS fingerprinting techniques.
PFAS Site Investigation: Developed a customized sampling and analysis plan for PFAS testing at a municipal solid waste incinerator, including implementation and validation PFAS stack gas testing.
PFAS Regulatory Support: Conducted a regulatory vulnerability assessment for a chemical manufacturer with regards to rapidly evolving federal, state, and international regulations and assisted with reporting compliance.
Environmental Forensic Investigation: Identified the source of a chlorinated solvent (Freon) and BTEX groundwater plume adjacent to a former refinery site during an environmental forensic investigation of historical and compound specific stable isotope analyses.
Superfund Site Forensics: Developed PAH source model for sediments in an urban waterway with extensive historical contamination from petroleum, tar, and urban runoff to support an equitable and scientifically justified cost allocation.
Tuit, C. 2021. “PFAS Sampling, Analysis, and Data Usability.” American Public Power Association Webinar, July 27.
Noble, AE; Tuit, CB; Maney, JP; Wait, AD. 2020. “A review of marine water sampling methods for trace metals.” Environ. Forensics 21(3-4):267-290.
Tuit, CB; Wait, AD. 2020. “A review of marine sediment sampling methods.” Environ. Forensics 21(3-4):291-309.
Wait, AD; Tuit, CB; Maney, JP. 2020. “Forensic sampling practices for oil spills in the marine environment.” Environ. Forensics 21(3-4):310-318.